Prior to selecting this studio, reading the prompt made me question where you would even begin to conceive a film festival, and what actually constitutes as film festival culture. However, reflecting on my overall experience and the knowledge I have gained thus far, I am very proud of my individual contribution and team collaboration efforts that have resulted in this incredible film festival, the Séance International Film Festival, which is also based on a genre that I personally love.

In the conception of our festival, each of us in class realised that we all shared a common interest, which is a passion for exploring the world of horror. Establishing our festivals name was a very fun and enjoyable process where we had all sat around a large corporate like table pitching words and phrases related to horror. I remember mentioning the term ‘asylum’, which somehow made sense when thinking back to the never-ending Melbourne lockdowns. However, we finally concluded that the word ‘Séance’ best represented what we were aspiring to achieve. I particularly love how the word derives from the French language meaning session, which a séance typically demands a session to be held in order to communicate with spirits. Here, the ‘Séance International Film Festival’ emerged and our mission statement was locked in – ‘to showcase a variety of international horror films which expand beyond borders and the Western media-sphere’.

Additionally, we decided that splitting up into four different sub-groups: communications, production, programming, and design and marketing, was a great way for everyone to work more productively in smaller teams, make decisions more efficiently, and still work towards achieving a shared common goal. This idea, brilliant in its conception, also gave me the opportunity to work in a department that I had not experienced before. As my previous classes were very production based and focused primarily on filmmaking, I decided to join the design and marketing team to try something new and gain more experience. Our team was responsible for the creative aspects of production which included the website design, organising and maintaining of social media accounts, creating the festivals logo, dealing with sponsorships, and also creating marketing campaigns and merchandise. Within our team, each of us also had specialised roles to ensure all aspects were being covered and that work was evenly distributed. Specifically, my role within the team was to start designing the layout for the website, begin the brochure design, and maintain some of the social media accounts to ensure all queries and information were answered and up to date.

Skills of mine that I could further capitalise on and utilise to benefit our festivals production, include organisational and administrative skills, efficiency in writing and communication, and having a good sense of creativity which is very important when working in design. I was also excited to have the opportunity to have some input with our festivals overall design, as I was eager to unveil some of my creative ideas that centred on the horror genre. Moreover, taking on these roles has made me more aware of what the constituent parts of film festival operations are in relation to design and marketing, and what skills and abilities are needed to begin constructing a film festival.

In regards to establishing an efficient workflow and communication strategy among our entire class, I believe we successfully collaborated as a unified party and remained in constant communication using both Facebook messenger and the Slack app. We also kept each groups documentation and materials in shared folders using google drive. Everyone had access to each other’s folders which was very handy as most of the departments still needed to collaborate with one another. For instance, creating the brochure required the assistance from both the communications and programming team, as I needed to know exactly what films were going to be screening and what the specifications of the film were. Moreover, I am very pleased with everyone’s contribution to the festival, and I believe everyone put in an amazing effort to get to where we are today. Individually, I have also spent many hours researching and looking for new ways to reach more audiences and heighten our visibility. Particularly, I have recently recommended that creating a giveaway post on Instagram can increase our visibility and audience engagement ever further. We decided that one winner can receive some free merchandise and two tickets to our event to attend any day they choose.

Furthermore, from all of the weekly readings and insights to film festival culture provided by Cerise, I can now understand what exactly constitutes as film festival culture, and what initial steps are needed to be taken to begin constructing a film festival.