Reflections on class

MIYFF is up and running, what next? This class was another exciting, but essentially intimidating as we had to start thinking about the fundraiser and how we were going to make money.

Talk about the sheer mass of terrible short films probabily took up too much of my table’s time and will probably take up a heap of time later in the weeks to come. After the class I realised that a lot of us were watching shorts in class, which looking back wasn’t the greatest use of our collective time.

I also decided to nominate myself as resident publicist which was a conflicting decision. I was pretty keen for someone else to be keen to help out with publicity so I could impart my (minimal) wisdom on them but sadly no one was keen in the slightest. Despite this I was pretty confident that we’d get some publicity as the festival is a really interesting idea and some relatively different compared to the mass of arts and screen events that happen in Melbourne.

Reflections on readings

How to Successfully Promote Your Festival – Bohdana Rambousková

Reading this chapter actually started making me question whether I was actually qualified to handle our PR on my own. Reading about social media, securing media partners and having media campaigns were all quite foreign to me and with Rambousková saying that most of these things had to be organised months in advance, I actually began to stress about my ability to do a decent job.

The latter half of the reading, which is more PR based is where I started to feel comfortable again. I am quite confident that I’ll be able to find a range of media that would be more than keen to get involved with the festival. I also learnt a few things from the media release writing section of the chapter which got me excited to write media releases for the festival. Although slightly unrelated from this blog, I have always found critical, analytical and creative writing come relatively naturally to me but I have always struggled with writing event descriptions and media releases. I have always put it down to me not really knowing what I was writing about unlike an essay or a short story so it will be interesting if I find the media release writing for this festival easier as I will most likely know the content really well.

“This rule especially applies when it comes to the media, who will only publish or broadcast news about your festival if they can easily understand what the event is about and are able to get directly to the point. Prepare a clear set of information to present to the media: ■ An exact title of the festival ■ Dates and locations ■ The aim of the festival (or an aim of the current edition) ■ Content (theme, programme categories, accompanying events, guests) ■ Who stands behind the festival (organisers, sponsors and partners)”

I really found Rambousková dot points about when you can start approaching media really interesting although obvious. I feel that these restraints which are all very time dependent will definitely effect not just the PR for this festival, but several other elements of the festival.

I’ll be sure to writing about the trials and tribulations that I’ll face whilst handing publicity for this festival in the very near future.

AG