Deeper Research into Film Festival Culture and Establishing a Festival (Post 1)

Deeper Research into Film Festival Culture and Establishing a Festival (Post 3)

Post 1
What are the key insights you’ve developed in this studio so far about the skill sets necessary to establish and operate a film festival – and how do they relate to skills you a) already possess and b) aspire to possess?

In Week 3’s studio class, we discussed in depth the roles and responsibilities that need to be undertaken when executing a film festival, analysing the reading of the week Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2. The open discussion we had as a class allowed for us to reflect on what we believe would be the best role suited to us, based on our skill sets. It was beneficial to break off into our own groups and discuss our own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to responsibilities we will undertake in our future film festival. We discussed the importance of time management, organisational skills and creativity, which will be vital in the process and production of our film festival. Reflecting back on the reading, I expressed to my fellow peers that I was interested in the production department of organising a film festival mentioned in Andrea Kuhn’s chapter “Who Is Organising It? Importance of Production and Team Members”. In particular venue scouting which involves the important responsibility of choosing a place that suites not only the capacity of our film festival but the overall aesthetic we want our festival to project. Although, after hearing more from my classmates and reflecting back on my own skill sets, the social media department appeared more suitable to me. Having experience in social media marketing from my previous job, I believe I would be beneficial in creating a strong social media presence that helps aid the exposure of the festival to a wider audience, as well as using social media marketing tools such as competitions that involves accounts sharing our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter page in order to win free tickets to our festival, further aiding our reach to the public eye.

Post 3
What were your key takeaways about establishing a film festival (ours and any others) – its mission, themes and name – when starting from scratch? From Week 5’s readings, reference Stevens’ “A Festival for Every Occasion: Niche Programming, Event Culture, and Vertically Integrated Film Festivals” and at least one chapter from the Bright Young Screens readings.

In week 5’s class, we established the overall theme of our festival; The Melbourne Overlooked Film Festival – MOFF! Which aims to showcase and celebrate marginalised filmmakers and their eccentric films at our all-inclusive film festival exhibited in the progressive City of Melbourne. When the idea was expressed by fellow class member Jacob, everybody in the class was easily convinced and ready to make this idea come to life. The aesthetic of the festival was one thing that appealed to me, I’m usually involved in projects that are colourful, light-hearted and non-political. However, was intrigued to undertake an aesthetic that illuminates grunge, urban vibes and exploitation cinema. We established the roles and responsibilities each of us were undertaking, we were divided into groups which included the production, artistic direction, design and social media departments. All of us were eager to discuss our vision for the festival and develop on top of each other’s ideas. The chapter in Bright Young Screens titled Festivals focused on disadvantaged groups (ethnic, sexual and other Minorities) resonates majorly to the theme of our festival, especially in the statement made during the beginning of the chapter ‘movies represent a powerful tool of making people familiar with the lives of others and force us to be aware of how diverse we are.’ Our festival’s mission is to showcase films that will open our audiences’ minds to new and challenging ideas that we hope will be accepted and celebrated. Furthermore, in another reading we were assigned “A Festival for Every Occasion: Niche Programming, Event Culture, and Vertically Integrated Film Festivals” outlines on page 184 film festivals prominence in the Australian urban exhibition landscape. In particular, how diverse Melbourne’s film festival landscape is stating “the film festival succeeds as an alternative mode of the sustained exhibition by combining perceptions of scarcity with a reality of abundance.”