Research Assignment 1: Festival and Conference Management Styles (PART II)

1. How many entries did they get this year? For films make sure to ask them to distinguish between features and shorts.

We are mid-process right now, almost halfway and we have about 1800 entries. We anticipate over three thousand. 

2. How many films do they aim to screen each year? How many papers/presentations do they accept?

We screen about 280 films; we consolidate all our presentations.  We are expanding frames, so about 11 papers and presentations.

3. What is their pre-screening process?

We have a series of people who will pre-screen for round one, and they look for films in the ballpark for the program.  We have a standardized form of rating and comments.  Then for the second round, we only have about one or two people working on the same form. They look at the work more critically.  Then the narrowed down pieces go to the screening committee of about nine people who work every night to review the work.  The program director manages the whole project, looks at all the comments and feedback and makes sure to decide what to bring the final decision.  Most final decisions are the same as the committee. 

4. How many pre-screeners do they have each year?

About 50 people.

5. Who is typically chosen as a pre-screener?

We make sure that people are familiar with the festival, have attended at least 2 to 3 years, to screen at the first level.  They are expected to make a commitment to review at least 3 “cases” of 40 films each. 

6. How do they score entries? Do they use a scoring template/rubric? Are there scoring guidelines?

Scored by a definitely, yes, maybe, no, definitely not selection. Then there are comments.  Then a rating of 1-10 on originality and concept, technical quality and merit, artistic value and merit, compelling and engaging, and then another section of comments.  Then questions: what is what film trying to do? How well does it work? And a yes, no vote.

7. Do you have a jury after the pre-screening process has ended?

We being in three judges every year who sit and watch all of the competition screenings and also material that didn’t get programmed.

8. How far in advance do they send out their call for entries? How do entries typically roll in? Early? Late? In waves?

About a week before the first early deadline.

9. How many paid employees do they have each year? How many volunteers?

Three full time employees year round, 18 contract employees with varying degrees of responsibility and up to 100 volunteers. 

10. Do you use specific programming, trafficking, budgeting software? Do you like it?

We use filemaker pro-custom databases for screening tracking and filmmaker databases.  We use quickbooks for accounting and google spreadsheet for budgeting.  They work!

11. What community outreach do you do outside of your festival season to keep your event on the public's radar and/or to raise funds? (Workshops, mini-festivals, fundraiser dinners, etc.)

One of the primary areas that we spend time and energy on during events is rebuilding membership.  We have a touring program, so we will have a tour kick-off party that is open to the public.  We have a DVD series.  We have a partnership with the local college radio station.  We do movie nights and DVD release parties with the college as well.  A local dentist is also a major sponsor, and we work together with them.  We go in a few weeks before the festival and have a Q&A with the patients and the staff.  The touring program is also a big outreach branch because it goes around nationally and internationally. 

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

There will be a map or Ann Arbor, information for the filmmakers and about special events in the bag/folder.  There could also be discount for local businesses and buttons. 

13. Do presenter/filmmaker pay registration to attend?

Filmmakers who have a film being screened to not have to pay to attend, just as the presenters.

14. Are you able to provide presenters/filmmakers with funds to cover travel or lodging?

We try to offer housing for filmmakers; people in Ann Arbor volunteer to host filmmakers.  We plan their stay and they pay for the plane ticket. 

15. What "perks" do your filmmakers/scholars enjoy at your festival/conference? What else do you encourage them to do while they're in town? m(Free dinners, tours, exclusive activities…in Wilm, we'd try to take them to the beach, Screen Gems tour, etc.)

Last year it was a last minute mad dash to local restaurants, a local record store that gives us a discount, a comic book store, a greenroom.  We usually have a filmmaker happy hour, a filmmaker lounge at a downtown deli, restaurant or coffee shop.  There is a special filmmaker dinner hosted by a restaurant that has been there since 1963 (a big supporter of the festival).

16. Do you have special donor perks during the event? Or how do you thank them?

            Donors get passes; depending on the levels they donate at, they are invited to special events, special private parties and allowed for programs to be named after them.

17. What do they wish they had done differently or better when they were first starting out? What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

I wish we had a general background in non-profit management; the three staff are artist and we bring in interns from art and film school; we have started to look into arts management interns. 

18. If it’s a festival or conference that no longer is in existence…why did it end?

19. Any other ideas or advice that we haven’t thought to ask about?

One thing that distinguishes this festival from others is the commitment to the avant-garde, especially in the last decade.  So much success came from our supporters, it could have taken a turn towards a different area of focus; it says a lot to have maintained it’s identity through the years.