The Capitol

w7

Promo

MIYFF

Inspo

Making

I was initially drawn to this class because I had a keen interest in film festivals, particularly from the consumer side of the relationship, and I thought it would be fun to learn about the behind-the-scenes. I was right, of course; it was fun. What I didn’t anticipate was the sheer amount of work and time that would go into it – even with 20+ other people to share the load.

From the start, it was clear we had a lot of personal attributes under our belt that would make the process somewhat smoother. From organisational skills (shout out Abi) to great interpersonal skills (shout out… everyone, really) to genuine passion for film and the task at hand. All of these elements made working with people that much easier, because it was clear most of us had a genuine vested interest in how this would pan out. The ability to communicate with one another so freely – albeit most of which was done online – took a huge weight off of my shoulders. I knew that on days I was struggling with the workload or second guessing some decisions, I could call or write, and someone would lend an ear or opinion. Though I can’t speak for others, I feel as though the division of labour was weighted quite well. I know at times I felt like the programming team was putting in more hours than others, but the next day we would be relaxing while the design team was putting in the hard yards, and so on.

The only thing I wish I could change would be asking others directly to help watch some of the submissions. Life seemed to have gotten in the way for some of the programmers, as happens, and unfortunately this meant that more work was placed on the remaining few. Though I’m grateful to have already built and established a good working relationship with my fellow programmer, so it wasn’t all bad and we were able to pick up and move on. However, the result of this extra tonne of work meant slowing down some other elements of the operation, such as social media and designing the program and the schedule that would go with it. In saying that, it is a great example of how every arm of the festival relies on the success of others; if one falls flat, the others can’t continue.

But let’s not dwell on the negatives. A positive consequence of our teams make up was the amount of people we knew between us that would be able, and willing, to help us out along the road. Whether that be obviously – publicity connections, prize connections, sponsorship connections – or the less obvious. Each of us knew some way of contacting someone to help us out, and I think we have a lot of evidence to back that. It truly made the process more rewarding, as I felt like that made me believe we had a shot at success.

In saying all of that, we are still yet to see the actual outcome of all of our hard work. The unfortunate switch to online has felt like it has doubled our workload, and I feel super burnt out at this point. It felt more like a wall in the road rather than just a bump. Although we did discuss this as a possibility, I don’t think any of us expected it to become a reality. I’m proud of how myself and the group have handled it, and I do believe there are some positives to the switch that perhaps we couldn’t have had in a live setting – more accessibility for more people, more time to discuss the films, and so on. It’s not what we had hoped or planned for, but I am excited to see how we go taking on this even bigger task. You know what they say; when one door closes, a browser window opens.

This google drive full of other film festivals program booklets is A- INTIMIDATING! I mean, cmon. The design team must be work around the clock to produce those. And B- a great point of reference for what we should be aiming for, and I have no doubt we can achieve something just as beautiful.

There is a lot of crossover between the program’s in terms of design elements, however each have gone about it with a unique approach. What seems to be integral to each is simplicity, but not compromising on content. Each booklet involves the key elements that make up a film festival – the scheduling, the films, the team, the sponsors.

I particularly enjoyed MQFF’s approach to displaying the films, and I think this is an approach we could potentially mimic (depending how many films we end up screening). Their programme was separated in to groups based on generic or emotive themes. While our film festival will likely not have similar themes across the films, there is scope for us to find common ground and group them in such a way. Again, this will depend on the amount of shorts we program – it may not be possible if we do not have enough as I think it is important to include EVERY film in this way, if we were to do so.

In terms of sheer aesthetic, I really loved Fantastic Film Fests booklets. Their logo is so fun and quirky, and I think dedicating a whole page just to that adds a unique flavour while also acting as a way to break up the information for viewers. The rest of the booklet has quite simple design elements, such as the typography, which I think is important in making sure every page is clear to the public. I can imagine this also means that viewers can look at the program on any device and it read the exact same across the board.

As always, very useful inspiration here Cerise!

References:

Other Booklets

Firstly, I’m a fan of the name – phonetically it almost sounds like MIFF… hmm…

Secondly, this festival it inspiring in the sense that it gives a good framework for the things / elements / roles we should be looking out for and giving time to. First instance, the caterer spoke about the challenges they faced with such a big job. The programmers (like myself) spoke about the worry of not feeling like they had programmed correctly. This was particularly insightful for me as this is exactly what I am worried about. At this stage, we are just putting out our call for submissions, so who knows what calibre of films we will receive. However, regardless of what we end up choosing to screen, I truly hope we can do them justice and make the directors feel satisfied with having screened at MOFF.

MIYFF’s blog also gives great insight in to where we should be focussing our time more broadly. They spoke about not receiving any government grants. As unsurprising as this is, it’s a great bit of knowledge to find that we probably shouldn’t waste resources emailing them. Further, as mentioned in a previous reflection about NNIFF, it’s great to see that so many community organisations and programs are willing to get behind a student run, not-for-profit like the previous festivals. It definitely makes the thought of contacting these people wayyyy less daunting.

Also, props on everyone for getting through radio interviews. I think I will be doing that in the future and I am not the greatest public speaker so hopefully I don’t embarrass myself/the team…

References:

Melbourne International Youth Film Festival

What an AMAZING experience getting a behind the scenes look at The Capitol was. The (mostly) unlimited access to such a prestigious building was such a privilege, and something that will go down as one of the coolest experiences throughout my degree. Thank you Cerise, and thank you Darren!

Timing the tour at the beginning of MOFF’s production phase was perfect, because it gave me a sense of what our festival could be and where it could go – both physically and conceptually; it felt like a vision was being laid before us and all we had to do was reach for it. Beyond the visionary element, learning the intricacies of what it takes to screen something at a venue such as The Capitol was also incredibly valuable knowledge to impart the team with. We saw a running projector, but also the digital options. We saw just how big the venue is and could subsequently how many tickets we’d have to sell to get a full house (if that were to be our aim). We saw the beautiful foyers and lobby options for pre and post screening festivities. It was an incredible experience that I will not soon forget.

While the recce class would be hard to live down, I also thoroughly enjoyed Friday’s group viewing of the Screening Room video essay and the opinions/thoughts/discussion it provoked amongst the class. Something that came up then, and has a few times throughout the semester, was the idea of the death of the live audience to on demand streaming. While I do think there is something irreplaceable about being in a theatre attending a film festival, I find it interesting that people – myself included – are so ready to criticise and dismiss streaming platforms as not being up to scratch, however we continue to line the pockets of these companies, and have a damn good time doing it. Sure, different wants expose themselves at different times, but why is it that we are okay with the at home setting when watching old reruns, but not when we want to watch new release, or underground cinema? This thought is just a little seed in my mind that perhaps hasn’t been given enough time to grow, but I think there is definitely material for a philosophical study in there somewhere.

Well, the term manifesto certainly has a few ideas attached to it. All the same, what a truly interesting and informative read! Though we have already thought of the theme for our festival – and not to brag but it seems we have already ticked Cousins’ criteria to building a festival – it still is a confidence boost to know that we are on the right track, and building something that is unique in the the sea of others.

My favourite quote – and there were quite a few – was the urge to consider ourselves “storytellers and stylists” and to “challenge [ourselves] to do things differently”. Ultimately, we are storytellers. It is our job to create something new from what is being submitted. Sure, we aren’t (for the most part) created the films that will ultimately be screened, but it is our duty to do them justice and add to their essence rather than take away from it. The film festival is about the stories, not about us. Moreover, our whole ethos relies on us doing it differently. Films wouldn’t be underground/overlooked if other festivals had screened them or commended them. It is up to us to seek out the bold and the new and show it to the world.

And once again, Setting Up A Human Rights Festival has brought us golden advice, this time centred on how we can market ourselves and publicise why we are doing what we are doing, and how we plan on doing it well. I think this was a particularly timely word of advice, mainly because I don’t think many of us have done this kind of thing before. Talking about yourself is always daunting, but if we structure our information well – as the reading suggests – the job shouldn’t be as difficult as it may first appear.

References:

Kateřina Bartošová, Hana Kulhánková & Zuzana Raušová, “Knowing Yourself and Your Audience: Programming a Human Rights Film Festival” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival (Links to an external site.) , vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 27-46.

Mark Cousins, “Film Festival Form: A Manifesto (Links to an external site.)“, September 2012.

Unfortunately, I was absent from this class and missed the chance to work on a preliminary budget. In retrospect, this is something I would have really liked to be a part of as it is such an integral element to building a film festival, and my role as a programmer would be linked to obtaining funds. Alas, there is always next time.

Looking at last year’s film festival – NNIFF – I have chosen to reflect on Chloe’s role, who by the looks of it was working as a programmer as well. From the outset, they look like they’ve taken a similar strategy to what our team is planning on doing in terms of collating films and colour coding them on to a google spreadsheet. This definitely seems like the most straight forward approach – keep everything together, accessible for every team member, and easy to identify even if someone is just perusing.

A good point to take note of is Chloe and the NNIFF team’s choice to look for external public film festivals, and source potential material from there. We hadn’t planned on doing this – outside of sourcing more established director’s with feature films – however this seems like a great approach to take!

Having perused the rest of the roles from NNIFF, I believe there are some great take away that MOFF should consider. For instance, there is a great list of publications that have been contacted, which would take some of the pressure off of us contacting them. Ie, places like Triple R, Eventfinda, Film Ink all spoke about NNIFF, so what would stop them from publicising MOFF as a new festival as well?

Definitely a great source of inspo – I only wish I was able to attend the festival, it sounds like it was fantastic for all involved!

References:
New Normal International Film Festival

R1 W3

A Pleasurable Experience

MOFF

Finally, it has come time for us to knuckle down on our ideas and actually begin creating a film festival. Admittedly, I was hesitant about the actual doing part of this process/class, mainly because I thought it would be a “too many cooks” situation. Instead, in just one class, we managed to settle on a pretty great idea – our first and only pitched idea. I’m sure this may have been a fluke, though whatever the case I am grateful it worked out this way.

In the Bright Young Screens chapter titled Festival Programming (etc), the authors mention early in the importance of establishing the dramaturgy of the event, and how closely linked to the subject this is. This notion featured in the programming teams conception of MOFF – with Jacob mentioning a film he would like to have screened, and Henry mentioning the theme he would like to go with. It’s hard to distinguish which conversation took place first – very much a chicken or the egg scenario – but nevertheless, we are extremely fortunate that both ideas could coincide with each other seamlessly.

What proved to be slightly more difficult, however, was coming up with a concise yet to the point mission statement of what the Melbourne Overlooked Film Festival stands for. It’s easy to have conceptualised an idea, but communicating that to the public in just a few words is something that is difficult, in large part due to the sheer importance of it. The mission statement is a huge drawing card for many features of the festival, including submissions, sponsorships, venue hire; honing in on just a few words without coming across as insincere or tokenistic is a huge task. Admittedly, we are still working on the final public-facing version, so stay tuned!

Another takeaway from this week is the thought of what a film festival can be or do. Are we limited to screening films in a cinema, or can we explore what Cerise coined Cinema Plus? In Kirsten Stevens Australian Film Festivals (etc), they mention that “as audiences seek out more dynamic viewing experiences, the event programming structure of the festival stands to unsurp the role of traditional theatres” (p 198). Given the theme of our festival, this is extremely reassuring and encouraging. As a previous festival goer, I understand the cries for more. Why limit ourselves to seats and four walls, when the world is quite literally at our doorstep (COVID allowing)?

References:

“A Festival for Every Occasion: Niche Programming, Event Culture, and Vertically Integrated Film Festivals (Links to an external site.)” in Kirsten Stevens, Australian Film Festivals: Audience, Place, and Exhibition Culture, Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, 2016, pp. 171-199.

Participants of the Bright Young Screens Workshop, “Festival Programming and the Ways Young Festivals and Youth NGOs See it” in Michaela Pnacekova, Mirona Nicola & Melissa Pritchard (eds), Bright Young Screens: Developing Intercultural Dialogue and Non-Formal Education Through Youth Film Festivals, NISI MASA and FEST, Espinho, 2012, pp. 6-9.

(Side note #1 to begin with – very pleased with the AnniVARYsary pun, Cerise)
(Side note #2 – I WISH the Senses of Cinema site read in a more user friendly manner… or maybe my eyesight is just failing me.)

University classes is an interesting thing in the way tutors point you in the direction of information without always explicitly explaining why you are at that point. Now, writing this reflection, these articles point to the ways in which film festivals can succeed – beyond the scope of just screenings and A-list celebrities.

In Cerise Howard’s Local and/or General (etc), she made mention of Karlovy Vary’s Festival Daily paper that accompanies the festivities. While this is not a main feature of the festival, in the sense that it may not be the selling point for viewers, its interesting to see how much of an impact the inclusion of this has. Moreover, Cerise mentions the festival trailers and the fact that they have retained some of their charm, indicating that they are also a feature in themselves. While this point within the scale of the article may seem insignificant, it spoke volumes to me about the importance of establishing not only a tone of specific add ons, but of the add ons as a whole. There are few A-list festivals that pay this much attention to giving a daily run down and adding humour in to the promotion package, so Karlovy Vary should definitely serve as inspiration for the film festival we create.

Similarly, in Jessica Kian’s A Dirty Winner (etc), we can draw inspiration for our festival from the author’s longing for the “dirty”, interference-heavy festival screenings that they are most used to, and most enjoy. While this was not the main focus of the article, again it was the thing that I was most drawn to. Having experienced film festivals online and behind my computer screen, I can understand Kiang’s longing to be in amongst a crowd, laughing/crying/reacting with the people around you. Though Berlin’s move to online was completely out of their control, it is still something that we should pay attention to. At the moment, we have the luxury of being able to host a festival on site and in person (touch wood…). However, if we were to move to a hybrid or entirely online setting, how could we recreate the “dirty” moments that the author was referring to?

The question is open ended, and something worthy of a discussion with my peers because, like Kiang and so many others, I too find the act of sitting in a dark theatre with strangers *almost* irreplaceable.

References:

Cerise Howard, “Local and/or General… Of Time and Place at the 50th Karlovy Vary and 6th Odessa International Film Festival”, Senses of Cinema, no. 76 (Sep. 2015)

Jessica Kiang, “A Dirty Winner at a Lonely Berlin Film Festival (Links to an external site.)”, New York Times, March 5, 2021