Week 5 (Research for Outreach and Tour Coordination [Partner Schools])

10 Business Networking Tips: Growing your Professional Network

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/10-business-networking-tips-grow-your-professional-network.html

15 Ways to Make your Emails More Professional 

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7909-professional-email-tips.html

Tips for Event Outreach

https://movetoamend.org/tips-event-outreach

5 Tips for Planning a VIP Hospitality Event

http://promotion1.com/blog/top-5-tips-for-planning-a-vip-hospitality-event/


This week I met with Kevin on Friday to discuss his experience with coordinating the college tour with the partner school last year. He provided me with very helpful tips regarding email etiquette as well as pushed me to start contacting potential partner schools. I have narrowed down my choice in partner schools to American University, University of North Carolina Greensboro, University of South Carolina Columbia, and George Mason. I will still try to contact University of North Carolina School of Arts, Drexel University, and Champlain College incase they may be interested in networking. I have sent a preliminary email to the film/media program directors of my first choice partner schools. No responses yet.

During my meeting with Kevin, I also gave him the contact information for Dae Jin Hyun, the Film, Television, and Mulitmedia program director, of Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. My friend, Minji, also offered us the opportunity to contact some of her 'film student' friends via Skype.

Readings:

Since the first reading for this week said the page could not be found, I thought the "Event Budgets" article was extremely helpful (particularly regarding my position with the Film Kid Mixer and Partner Schools). One of the most vital tips offered in this reading was researching past financial reports for these events. I think reviewing this information will allow the Hospitality Department and myself to target unnecessary expenses while allowing us to use those funds towards a more profitable/productive outcome for our events. Since I am potentially only working with a $300 budget for the college tour, I need to utilize any past financial reports in order to organize a more successful tour budget.

Dirty Dozen: Partner Schools

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?
To establish relationships with other regional film schools and to generate an interest in Visions. 

2. Who is the customer?
The heads and students of the film programs within the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Western Carolina University, the University of South Carolina Columbia, George Mason University, Drexel University, and Champlain College. 

3. What are the deliverables of the project?
Our assembled team that will present during the college tour. We will pitch a brief introduction and basic information of Visions, screen a film block of previous Visions contenders, (maybe include) a brief overview of previous critical film studies essays accepted into Visions, and a Q&A with give aways. The give aways can include older Visions t-shirts and film-related goodies. 

4. What is the budget?
About $300 for travel and board, but it will have to sufficiently increase if we tour to a school further away (ex Drexel or Champlain). 

5. How long will it take?
Networking with potential partner schools will take quite sometime. I would like to have a selected film school who is interested in our college tour by early November so there is time permitted to properly coordinate and schedule the tour. The whole partner school college tour needs to be confirmed by late January and the actual tour will take place in the middle of March (Spring Break). 

6. What specific skills are needed?
Organizational skills, networking, timeliness, and being persuasive so I can get the potential partner schools interested and invested in participating with our college tour. Being creative, public speaking, being persuasive, and good presentation skills will also be needed to further convince the partner school to submit to Visions and possibly travel to Wilmington for the festival after our visit during the college tour.

7. What special resources are needed?
A list of schools that frequently submitted to Visions during past festivals, a list of schools that have previously participated as a partner school, and techniques or approaches that worked successfully to recruit previous partner schools. 

8. Who is working the project? What is each person's job?
I am working on this project under the supervision of Shannon Boller. My job is to network with another film school so we can build a relationship with them and promote Visions. I will also organize and coordination the college tour in the spring. 

9. What is the schedule?
Sept 29 - 2nd Partner School pitch and estimated budget
Sept 30-Oct 6 - Contact all Partner School candidates
Oct 12 - select final Partner School after I receive all responses
Oct 19 - contact the Partner School of choice and begin scheduling college tour
Oct 20-26 - Brainstorm college tour presentation and solidify a final budget for the trip

Nov 3 - Confirm the college tour date (sometime around Mar 5-13)

Nov 9 - Assemble a team for the college tour

10. What are the risks? (Small vs. large impact, likely vs. unlikely)

• Large impact, likely: Our partner school will not have any students travel to experience Visions
• Large impact, somewhat likely: There will not be as many submissions as we would hope from our partner school.
• Large impact, unlikely: Terrible weather conditions prevent students from the partner school to travel to Wilmington for Visions or vice-versa for us to travel to them for the college tour. 
• Small impact, likely: Our college tour presentation is cut short due to scheduling difficulties at the partner school. 
• Small impact, unlikely: Giveaways for the college tour presentation are forgotten. We can just buy small gifts or candy at a local shop nearby. 

11. How will you communicate with your team?
It is only me working on this project at the moment, but I've been communicating closely with Shannon B. I also am planning to meet with Kevin to discuss his experience with partner schools from last year. I have briefly spoken to Adrienne as well and she helped me tremendously by letting know what was expected of my first partner school presentation.

12. How will you determine if the project is successful?
I will determine if the project was successful if we manage to network with a respected film school that it further from our small regional circle. Networking and touring at the partner school is not enough to consider it a success. My goal is to have students from our partner school travel all the way to Wilmington to experience Visions personally, not just submitting their films. 

Week 4

After the great suggestions from my presentation last week, I continued my Partner School research and focused on film schools that are closer. From the class's suggestions, I decided to look at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Western Carolina University, and Coastal Carolina University more in depth.

I believe UNCG will be an excellent candidate because they have an impressive film program (at least what I can tell from their website). Although UNCG's program is a B.A. in Media Studies, they have a very strong emphasis on video productions while offering a specialized minor in Film and Television Studies.

I also think Western Carolina University is a very promising choice. Despite being a smaller program, Western Carolina offers an undergraduate degree in Film and Television Production. They focus in several areas related to film production, such as developing a story, film history and techniques, theatre, and hands-on production experience on a film set.

I do not think I will pursue Coastal Carolina University any further. They only offer a minor and it is of a very broad subject of New Media and Digital Culture, which includes film studies but does not promote intensive film production or critical studies. The program does not seem like it is worth networking with and I do not think they would submit Visions material.


I have emailed Kevin to schedule a meeting to discuss his experience organizing and networking with the partner school from last year. Hopefully we will confirm a date and time soon so I can move further with this project.

Week 3

Interview Reflection

I really enjoyed interviewing the Take21 Student Film Festival’s art director, James Schultz. He provided insightful information about the improvements he wishes to apply to this festival. It is for young filmmakers, ages 12-21, and he hopes the festival will soon be student-run as well. He was very interested with Visions and wants to learn more about how, as a student-run festival, manage and organize it. After our talk, he said he wishes to stay in contact with us at Visions and to perhaps build a partnership.

Progress Update

This week, I researched universities with film programs along the East coast. Since Visions partnered with the University of Florida, I was inspired to partner with another far-distant school. The only issue with the northern university is our limited budget. I am hoping we can raise more funds in order to make visiting Drexel University (PA) or Champlain College (VT) a possibility. However, the more reasonable potential partner schools I found are the University of South Carolina Columbia, University of North Carolina School of Arts, and George Mason University. The Virginia Commonwealth University is another option I would like to consider, but I believe we have partnered with the school before for another Visions. I will continue to build on my research and perhaps find a suitable partner school that is both (somewhat) distant, but within a reasonable budget.

Festival Research Assignment: Part #2

For my interview, I spoke to James Schultz, the Artistic Director for the Take21 Student Film Festival in Toronto, Ontario. This will be his second year in this position and he is very passionate to make Take21 a more unique and inspiring youth film festival.

G= interviewer (Grace)

J= interviewee (James Schultz)

G:        I've read your mission, and researched your website, but how would you personally describe the mission/goals of your festival?

J:         The thing is that it is an international festival so we interact with most of our filmmakers through the Internet. On the local level, we are really trying to encourage and foster film appreciation, understanding, and criticism. So that’s the angle we are trying to come at. Most youth festivals are about grabbing a cell phone and making your own ‘thing’. This [Take21 Film Festival] is more about talking about film and fostering that passion.

            Our jury program, which has been recently introduced, allows the youth to have more participation in the festival that is for young filmmakers. I would want to have more young filmmakers to take a larger role in the programming the festival.

G:        Now, can you describe your jury program more? Why did you introduce it?

J:         We made a major rebrand this year and a soft launching of the actual event. So the website you saw was actually not quite up to date, so we’ve changed the name of the festival and its direction. It was great in terms of the content of the films and its international aspect, but it didn’t really encage with the local community, which is the way a film festival really can be special or get any kind of growth. We also felt that the main audience was private school kids and did not represent the diversity of Toronto. So, we wanted to change that.

            The jury is made up of nine kids, half girls and half boys that are under [the age of] 21, which is also a requirement for our submissions. Some members of the jury are already enrolled at a University for film and some are still at high school, but this doesn’t make a difference in terms of their film studies knowledge. They can be from anywhere in Toronto and they just have fill out an application with general questions (such as what is a film that you love that everyone else hates?) that show an intelligence about film. Then, we have them come in and watch all of our submissions.

G:        Regularly, how many submissions does Take21 receive each year?

J:         We got almost 1,000 submissions. We don’t force the jury to sit through all of them. We try to treat them like V.I.P.s and we do this at the event as well. They are much better faces for the festival than we [adults] are. Our submissions coordinator, Andrea Kay, makes sure the film submissions are all eligible. She will put together a group of eligible films and the jury will decline any they think are not a good fit for the festival.

            Out of those 1,000 films, Andrea will narrow it down to 60 or 70 films for the long list. Then our jury will narrow that down to 21 films. So 21 is sort of the magic number for us, for branding reasons. We call the festival Take21, which is the new branding. The festival screens 21 films by filmmakers under [the age of] 21.

G:        What drew you to want to work at this festival?

J:         I’ve actually been to it a few times just as a viewer and I knew a lot of the people who were involved with it. And this was back when it was still the Toronto Student Film Festival. The film selections were fantastic but the presentation and branding was less than what is to be desired. I work in the film industry as my day job, so this is a passion project since no one gets paid. So, I wanted to see if I could bring something to the festival with my experience in the film industry. One of the first suggestions I offered was changing the name from Toronto Student Film Festival because it was not standing out among of the other film festivals in Toronto.

G:        Do organize your screenings into film blocks?

J:         We encourage the jury to pick their favorite 21 films, but we also have awards to give out, which are not really the purpose of the festival. We have a Best Animation, a Best Canadian, a Best International, a Jury’s Choice, and a Celebrity Filmmaker Choice award. In terms of programming, that is the only programming that we have. We are aware of the awards we have to hand out because sponsors have given us a package here and a package there. However, I would like to cut down on that [the importance of awards]. We only screen those 21 films. The jury also decides on the order in which the films will be screened because that is just an important. They usually screen a group of animations, then documentaries, and then a spectacular piece to conclude the festival.

G:        Does the jury decide on the awards or is there another judge?

J:         The jury decides on all of the awards except the Filmmaker’s Choice award. An invited guest (under the age of 40), who has professional experience in the film industry, decides on this award. This is a decision that is made in the moment after the screenings. There is also an Audience Choice award. It is a nice way to have the audience engage with the festival.

            The awards are quite substantial as well. Some are up to $500. That can make a big difference to somebody who is trying to make more film.

G:        How far in advance do you announce entry calls?

J:         We are registered at a number of websites. One is called Film Freeway and the other is called Withoutabox. By registering with those, you are listed in some categories. So filmmakers just go on there and submit to festivals that they are eligible for. Because we are registered on these websites, we are basically accepting submissions from almost right after the event [film festival] ends. We want to get as many as we can in. The more films we get, the better selection we will have. One reason why we get so many submissions, which is something that we are really proud of and something we cannot do anymore, is that we were not charging for submissions.

It was a great idea, but in the end they [the websites] are $1,500 a year and that’s the discounted price. So now we are going to charge $5 for each submission. This is good because it might make less work for Andrea [the submission coordinator]. It will separate filmmakers that are not as serious and shot a short film over lunch with some friends. For certain regions for where it might be more difficult to pay internationally, we might not make them pay. The fee is more to say, “Hey. Be serious. Don’t waste our time”.

             

G:        What community outreach do you do outside your festival season to keep your event on the public’s radar?

J:         We do a few things. That’s something where I think we could really improve. We do a lot social media, but for a local event I don’t know if that’s the only way to go. There’s so much noise on social media that it’s hard to break through. So I’m really interested in quality over quantity. Next year, I would like to be able to get into a few local arts papers. Toronto has a lot of them. I know it sounds old-fashion, but I want the public to read the traditional media and talk about it on social media.

G:        Do you give out swag bags to visiting filmmakers? Presenters? Guests? If so, what type of items do you include in those bags?

J:         Any filmmaker, celebrity guest, jury members, or sponsor that comes to the event get a swag bag that is filled with whatever award they won, their check, and also lots of little things from sponsors like a gift certificate. The gifts always change because we get new sponsors. And we will have T-shirts and things like that.

G:        Do you have a lot of local sponsors? If you do, how do you get them on board? Any advice for us?

J:         Almost all of our sponsors are local. We have a few national sponsors like the CBC and a documentary channel, but they were pretty distant and hard to get in touch with. But we have a lot of fun with local sponsors. There is this artisanal popcorn company in the city [Toronto] that provided fun popcorns (like jalapeño-flavored) for the event. And then we had the people who owned our location say, “You can’t bring those into the theater”. That was kind of a bummer. But that’s the kind of thing I like to do because it says, “We would like help in any way you can provide”. Eventually what I would like to do is get one of the big banks to sponsor us, which is not quite as hard as you would think. Bank’s get huge tax breaks for sponsoring artistic events. I would also like to get a relationship with a major sponsor that you don’t have to keep going back to them begging for money, but have an agreement to cover our basic costs each year. Whether it is a private or corporate sponsor.

G:        Do filmmakers pay registration to attend?

J:         Filmmakers are comped and all of the VIPS are comped as well. In terms of tickets, we do ‘pay what you can’ with a suggested price of $15 and we often get more than that. Packing the theater is our greatest priority, more than our outreach and sponsors. This year we had it at a university lecture hall. The Toronto Film Festival uses it. Next year, we are going to use a second-run theater from the 40s and 50s to get it that ‘cool’ factor that makes everyone come to us.

G:        What “perks” do your filmmakers enjoy at your festival? What else do you encourage them to do while they’re in town?

J:         We used to have a VIP area at the event that had cake and stuff. This past year, we had a dinner the night before for the filmmakers, the celebrity filmmaker, management, the committee, and some sponsors who could attend. It was great and way to get people back. Once you feel like you’re in a community, the guests feel more connected to others involved with the festival.

G:        Do a lot of people who have worked on the festival before return?

J:         Yes. It is great because they are the people you can trust and know their potential. What we are doing now is reaching out to our jury from the previous year and saying, “How do you want to help this year?” I think one of them is going to be our Student Director. That’s a way we are reaching within a group.

G:        Are there any ideas or advice that we haven’t thought to ask about?

J:         The main thing I learned the hard way is that it is much better to have a small group of people who really care and who are really good at what they do than a large group with people who are not passionate about the festival.

             

Week 2

This week I began looking into some potential partner schools along the east coast. So far in my little research, I found George Mason University, Drexel University, and Champlain College to be possible choices. They each have a strong film production program and would have an interest in submitting to Visions 6 or even attending.  

Regarding this week's readings, I found both the "Festival of Their Own" and "From Art House to Microcinema" articles very eye-opening. I did not know anything about the history of film festivals and Phil Hall's article provided a sufficient, yet detailed overview of how they evolved and developed. I found the Nomad VideoFilm Festival the most interesting example. The idea of a mobile film festival is extremely innovative and targeted an exclusive audience through its word of mouth marketing and screening experimental short films. After reading this article, I now know the variety of approaches when organizing a film festival including themes, marketing, venue, target audiences, and many other aspects. 

I have never heard of a microcinema before reading Alvin’s article. She did make a valid point that the ‘art house’ cinema is a disappearing venue due to online streaming videos and the loss of film theater financing. When I was studying abroad, there were multiple art house cinemas scattered around London that would only screen independent and foreign films. There were only two major theaters that would screen ‘blockbuster films’. I wish this was the case in America. Although there are art house cinemas in the U.S., I feel like they are only accessible in large cities and not in smaller areas. For instance, there has been a hand full of films, such as Zero Theorem (2013), that I’ve wished to see while in Wilmington, but the film is only screened in ‘selected’ theaters. I find that the accessibility to view independent and foreign films within Wilmington is extremely limited. It is in need of an art house cinema or microcinema.

Festival Research Assignment: Part 1

1. My interview is scheduled for Monday at 4:30 pm with James Schultz, the Artistic Director of the Take 21 Film Festival, via Skype.

2. Zack Russell, Gordon Steiner, and David Whyte, three senior students of Crescent High School, approached their teacher, Jamie MacRae, with the idea to start a student-run film festival to showcase youth talent. While working with professors, the film festival is mainly run by a student committee.

3. The Toronto Student Film Festival is run by youth for youth. Since its inception in 2006, the festival has received hundreds of submissions from almost every continent on the globe. The festival strives to promote and showcase the work that young filmmakers are creating around the world. Whether it is shot on a cell-phone or an HD camera.The top twenty-five films selected by the executive committee will be screened on May 23rd, 2014.

On the night of the screening, category winners will be awarded prizes ranging from cash to film programs to scholarships. Prizes of work experiences in the field are exceptional opportunities for young film makers to get a taste of the business from the inside.

4. Prizes include Best International, ARCHIVES Jewelry Award for Best Canadian, Jury's Choice Award, Best Animation, Best Cinematography, Best Toronto, Audience Choice Award, and Filmmaker's Choice Award. There are no modes, categories within a mode, niches, or genres. The only theme for the Take21 Film Festival is to celebrate youth and student filmmaking internationally and locally in Toronto, Ontario. 

5. The event takes place in Toronto, Ontario at the Innis townhall at the University of Toronto.

6. It's 2015 Festival took place on Friday April 17th at 6 pm to show the 21 official selections.

7. Filmmakers submit their films to TSFF using their online submission form and by sharing their film files with us via Withoutabox.com, Film Festival Life, Dropbox, Vimeo or any other file sharing services.

8. There is only one deadline. The deadline for the 2015 Festival was February 1st, 2015. 

9. No entry fee is required. 

10. Participants must be between the ages of 12 to 21. Films must be 6 minutes or less. All non-English language films must have English Subtitles. The use of original music or royalty-free music is mandatory. 

11. The entire festival is dedicated to students only. 

12. Take 21 Film Festival only accepts films submitted online using Withoutabox.com, Film Festival Life, Dropbox, Vimeo or any other file sharing services.

13. The submission guidelines do not specify what formats accept for exhibition/screening, but they do state that they accept films shot on a cell-phone or an HD camera.

14. 21 film were screened at the festival last year.

15. The website does not specify how long a typical shorts block takes at their event, but the festival is only held for one night to screen all 21 films.

16. The festival has 21 films screened for their one event. The website does not state whether theses screenings are divided into separate blocks. The only categorization the website uses to separate the films is a Short list and a Long list.

17. The website does not say whether or not people need to register to attend. It does state that a guest's admission is to pay what you can at the door.

18. The webpage does not specify whether the sponsors provided a grant or private donation.

2 private sponsors: Poile Family and Motek Sherman (local lawyer, investor, and film producer)

7 business sponsors: Balmoral Dental Arts, Toronto Popcorn Company, Que Audio, Buck Productions, Archives, Royal St. George's College, and Celtx. 

19. Sponsors are categorized into different levels:
            Bronze: $0-$500
            Silver: $500-1000
            Gold: $1000-1500
            Platinum: $1500+

20. The festival's webpage does not show any signs of having an indiegogo or kickstater.

21. The 2015 Festival opened with a pre-show presenting a music group called Art The Band and also an art exhibition of local student artists.

22. The incorporation of the pre-show is the only aspect in which the Take21 Film Festival has branched out from just sitting in a dark room in front of a screen.

23. The layout of the website is very easy to navigate. They have a general menu bar including "Home", "About", "2015 Festival", "Sponsorship", "Submission Guidelines", "Contact", and "Jury". A drop-down menu is included for the "About", "2015 Festival", "Sponsorship", and "Contact" main menus to incorporate more detailed topics.

24. There is not really any difficulties with the layout. It is very clear and precise.

25. The information is easy to find via the menu bar, but there are some specifics needed for this assignment were not clarified on their website.

26. The large logo as the head of the webpage has a simplistic, pleasing, and bold design. Its simplistic layout does lead away from unnecessary visual distractions. I also enjoyed how the finalists of the 2015 Festival has a screen-cap and link to the films' trailer on the websites homepage. The inclusion of the festival's Twitter feed and link to follow their Twitter page at the bottom/side of the page was interesting and showcased its great use of social media. They also included a link to their Facebook page.

27. The look of the website is very bland. It is only black and white, which makes the design boring and generic.

28. There should be more information and perhaps more specific drop-down menu topics. It was hard for me to find the location of the 2015 Festival. There were also no bios for the festival's executive committee or department members.

29. The page is not too busy and they do not need to worry about having less information.

30. I would incorporate a theme for the webpage whether it is coloring or content. I would also add more specific topics within the main menu bar and perhaps divid the more specific topics, such as "2015 Festival" to include location and a list of winners instead of only 'short' and 'long' films. If they did use indiegogo or kickstarter, I would of added a link to those pages.

31. I would keep the website's simplicity and directness if I were to redesign the website, but that would be the only feature. The site needs to be changed to make it more genuine and unique.