Reading Andrea Kuhn’s chapter ‘Who is Organising it? Importance of Production and Team’ in the second volume of ‘Setting up a Human Rights Film Festival’ (2015), as well as participating in class discussion surrounding festival roles, highlighted where my strengths lie and what requires further development in mounting a film festival.
The field trip our studio embarked on in search of venues for our festival was exemplary of skills I already possess – being able to navigate the CBD and hotspots for possibly hosting a film festival. Although, I wasn’t aware of how many theatres there are in the city in such close vicinity of each other, and the ability to screen films virtually anywhere, with the essential resources and without thinking too practically. As Kuhn discusses in their chapter ‘Who is Organising it? Importance of Production and Team Members’ (2015), “orientation” is important, and we should choose venues easily accessible by public transport. As Swanston Street is easily accessible by PTV, The Capitol ticks our boxes in terms of location, but as our other venues are undecided, accessibility is important to consider in deciding where and when we host the following days of the festival. Having the program late at night, especially on a weekday, “may not facilitate participation… from elderly (and) youth” (Kuhn, 2015). Hosting a matinee session, or an earlier session one evening may help bring in larger audiences by suiting those who need to commute to or from the city or are unavailable at certain times of the day.
Kuhn also notes the importance of being “realistic” in the venues we choose depending on the number of tickets we expect to sell, while still decorating the smaller venues “only for screenings” to create atmosphere (2015). In class discussion of assigning roles, decoration is a role we noted, and will be an important one in making our festival fun and inviting. Keeping everyone on track requires deciding on a production manager early on (Kuhn, 2015), and a great way of approaching this decision was Cerise’s question of who considers themselves an “extrovert”, being a key characteristic of the production team, as they are the “face” of the festival. Not many of us shot our hand up at the question, but allowed those who did to consider the role, and others to identify where their strengths lie – mine being in writing out of the listed roles.
In discussing what our festival will look like and the roles we’ll all take, questions surrounding who would be appropriate to “moderate an event on sensitive issues” come to mind (Kuhn, 2015). This may be applicable in discussion of First Nations films, as members of the production team will likely have to discuss the program in interviews, so it’s important that we’re respectful and honest in how we publicise the festival’s program and have the skill sets to do so. Ultimately, everyone “should feel that they’re part of something special” (Kuhn, 2015), and I can’t wait to see what comes of this in future weeks.
References
Kuhn A (2015) ‘Who Is Organising It? Importance of Production and Team Members’ in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, pp. 71-83