St. John’s FF – Sarah Smellie, Executive Director
Established in 1989 to support and promote women
filmmakers
1.
How many entries did they get this year? For films make sure to ask them
to distinguish between features and shorts.
·
500 film submissions and from those, we present a powerful
program of international documentaries, short films and feature works.
2.
How many films do they aim to screen each year? How many
papers/presentations do they accept? Again, for films make sure to ask them to
distinguish between features and shorts.
·
Screen between 70-90
3.
What is their pre-screening process?
·
Board volunteer narrow down
4.
How many pre-screeners do they have each year?
·
10 Board members
5.
How do they score entries? Do they use a scoring template/rubric? Are
there scoring guidelines?
·
No scoring template just discussion on what board members think
6.
How far in advance do they send out their call for entries? How do
entries typically roll in? Early?
Late? In waves?
·
Roll in all around the regular deadline and extended deadline
·
January 15th, 2014 — Submissions
open
March 18, 2014 — Early Bird Deadline ($10CAD)
April 15, 2014 — Regular
Deadline ($20CAD)
May 20, 2014 — Late Deadline ($35CAD)
May 27, 2014 —
Withoutabox Extended Deadline ($50CAD)
7.
How many paid employees do they have each year? How many volunteers?
·
40 volunteers. 3 paid employees. 5 employees
8.
Do you use specific programming, trafficking, budgeting software? Do you
like it?
·
Without a box. Works very well but is expensive
9.
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.)
·
Monthly screenings. Framed film education series. Film making camps.
Documentary camps. Mostly in the summer. Get those camps up off the ground.
Cornerbrook in may in associastion with someone. Screening tour films on the
go. Program of shorts and go present to venues across island. Contact
individuals to host a screening.
10.
Do you give out swag bags to visiting filmmakers? Presenters? Guests? If
so, what type of items
do you include in those bags?
·
Local businesses and ask to give swag to delegates. Industry film forum
film and television industry to lead workshops. Filmmaker’s bursaries to come
to festival. Lots of networking. Delegate bags (120). Guide to city so they
come and spend money at your store/ restaurant ect. Liquor gives Newfoundland
rum. Walrus magazine has event around festival time, and sent magazines to.
11.
Do presenter/filmmaker pay registration to attend?
·
No registration. Film forum they pay way to be there and filmmakers who
do talks are paid for but just to see film screen they give them a few bucks to
get over here. Recognize hotel as sponsor and get spornor perks.
12.
Are you able to provide presenters/filmmakers with funds to cover travel
or lodging?
·
Work with local hotels and inns to provide lodging. Provide funds to
travel to see Film festival
13.
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.)
·
Encourage them to attend film forum, which runs all day during the
festival. Meet and Greek parties. Active introductions of filmmakers coming
into town. Good parties.
14.
Do you have special donor perks during the event? Or how do you thank
them?
·
Sponors perks on website, different perks depending on level of donor.
15.
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?
·
Kelly Davis was there for 10 years but got job at nfc. Changes in
attendance from past years but Sarah just took on the job so she doesn’t know
exactly about the changes since the festival started.
16.
Any other ideas or advice that we haven’t thought to ask about?
·
Keep in touch, would be happy to promote our film festival.
Film making camps and films on the go...Brilliant! Thought it was also cool that they use outside vendors to give them free stuff for their swag bags. Using their resources wisely!
ReplyDeleteWhat really struck me was how low St. John's submission fees are. $10 for an early deadline appears to be extremely low in my opinion. I would probably bump up the prices for each deadline by about $5.
ReplyDeleteI like their ideas of monthly screen, since we are at the beach and summer we will get many visitors here. It would be nice to promote films that entered in the spring at summer beach camps, also to promote Visions as well.
ReplyDeleteI feel like all the outside promoting and events during the year would be a really effective way of bringing in an audience. I liked the idea of a filmmakers camp the best. It would take a while for us to get something like that started, but that could be something to think about in years to come.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like their Swag bags had a lot of local discount items. I think this is smart for the local community, but for Visions, I feel like they wouldn't have enough time to experience as many local places. This just made me think that all the filmmakers and scholars should have dinner at the Brewery. It's a cool place with good food, and in a great location. I'll look into the party room upstairs. And for the swag bags, they also mentioned magazines. Maybe I can look into our Film Matters magazines.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was extremely interesting that they get 500 film submissions, which makes them sound like a pretty large festival, but then they only have 8 paid positions, and 40 volunteers. We have close to those numbers in volunteers.
ReplyDelete