Straight from the Programming Manager's Mouth:

Interview:
Sterling Hedgpeth
Programming manager
Mill Valley Film Festival

1.     Number of entries received: around 1,000

2.     Aim to screen: Every film gets watched.

3.     Prescreening process:

4.     Number of Pre screeners: They have a huge selection of individuals that have been helping program for over 12 years. They even bring in a documentary specialist.

5.     Who is chosen as a pre screener? They usually don’t need to bring more people on because of the mass pool they already have.

6.     How do they score entries? Guidelines? The entries are broken into categories then rated on a scale of 1-5. They factor in originality, aesthetic, production quality, and local connection; however, those scores are not averaged together. They request a number from 1-5 as an overall score. They do, however, average the scores from multiple screeners.

7.     Jury after the prescreening? If entries score an average of 3 ½ and up, it will then be passed to the jurors. The film will be watched by at least two jurors.

8.     How far in advance do they send out call for entries? How many come in? Early, late, in waves? Early is March 1^st, regular is mid May, late is early June, and the deadline is late June. The busiest times are the early and late deadlines.

9.     How many paid employees each year? Volunteers? There are only two permanent paid programming staff. The others are seasonal.

10. Specific program or budget software? For programming, they use withoutabox. They were one of the first film festivals to ever use it and have a deep-rooted loyalty with them.

11. What outreach do you use to keep the festival on the public’s radar on the offseason? MVFF actually owns the main venue they use. During the offseason, it acts as an art cinema house. Also, MVFF is paired up with CFI (California Film Institute) and puts on events with them.

12. Swagbags? For who?

13. Filmmakers’ perks? Free registration? Yes. The filmmakers also get ticket comps regardless if the film is on rush or sold out.

14. Travel funds? They provide accommodations and flights. The short filmmakers are provided accommodations but not usually flights and with less comp tickets.

15. Perks? They definitely try to keep the filmmakers busy. They have brunches, parties, receptions after screenings, and tours of LucasFilm and Pixar.

16. Special donor perks? Solely advertising on website, program, festival trailer (played before every screening), bumpers.

17. Anything you’d do differently or better? He actually turned down a higher operations position to be the programming manager. He wanted to work with the filmmakers directly and have an authorial voice as far as scheduling and film selection.

18. Any advice? Be true to your mission. Find your emphasis and really concentrate. Don’t change so much every year. Changing is a sure bet of shedding your audience’s loyalty. Be authentic to what you want and what makes your festival watch worthy.

This is how we mingle in September

JAMfest Shmavenger Smuttin’
September Event

1.     Objectives: To create a fun social interactive event that increases our awareness of the community. And to prove that we (development) are smarter than the puppets.

2.     Customers: The class.

3.     Results: To ignite teamwork in an exciting realm that promotes intradepartmental cohesion.

4.     Budget: Dis shit is free…other than like..gas.

5.     How long: Planning will take 2 hours… 3 tops. The event will last 2 hours…3 tops.

6.     Skills: Teamwork, abstract thinking, well planned out communication

7.     Needed Resources: technology (smart phones), college level literacy, some good goddamn attitudes (think golden retriever puppies)

8.     Team: Josh, Ally, Melissa (JAM). We will each be in charge of 4 secret-squirrel photo-bombing locations. Ally-collect everyone’s telephone numbers.

9.     Schedule: 18Sep: Meeting for planning. 25-26Sep: Scouting top-secret locations. 28Sep: day of event

10. Risks: People get lost. Likely with a huge impact… we avert this disaster by keeping close comms using our cellular devices.
No one shows up: Unlikely but with a huge impact… solution: WE FAIL YOU
Phones die: Likely not a huge impact… make sure multiple people in a team have a back up phone and have a charger on deck. KYLE MUST WEAR HIS SPACE BOOKBAG.

11. Comms: Smartphones (texts, fb, old fashion talking)

12. Success? We gain new friends while learning about historic downtown Wilmington all while building our communication and puzzle solving skills.

Research MVFF

1. What time is your interview scheduled and who will you be talking with when you call/skype?
Sterling Hedgpeth, Programming manager

2. Who started it and who runs it?

Mark Fishkin started it in 1977 as a 3 day showcase of film. It is now an 11 day international film festival.        

3. What is the mission of the festival/conference? (copy and paste the first paragraph)

The internationally renowned Mill Valley Film Festival offers a high-profile, non-competitive environment perfect for celebrating the best in independent and world cinema.

The nonprofit California Film Institute celebrates and promotes film by presenting the annual Mill Valley Film Festival, exhibiting film year-round at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and building the next generation of filmmakers and audiences through CFI Education. For more information please visit www.cafilm.org or call 415.383.5256.

4. How does this compare with their actual programming choices from the past two years? Be specific in describing what they program (mode, categories within mode, niche, Political? Global? Local? Gender? Sexuality? Race? Any themes that you see? etc...)

Being such a long festival, MVFF really has everything. Kids films, docs, shorts, active cinema, scientific, comedy, world cinema… the list continues.

5. Where is the event?

Mill Valley, California

       

6. When is the event? (Give dates from last year if not current)

October 2-12, 2014. IT’S COMING UPPPP!

       

7. How do you submit? Snail mail, online, withoutabox, through their site, etc...

Snail Mail and withoutabox

       

8. When are the deadlines to enter? Early? Reg? Late? How much does it cost to enter?

       

9. Who’s eligible, what are the guidelines to enter?

Anyone is eligible, just under right the right category. Every category has their own guidelines. Features have to be over 50 minutes.

10. Is there a Student category?

No, but there is a youth produced category.

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11. What formats do they except for jurying? DVD, Vimeo, Flash drives?

DVD

12. What formats do they except for exhibition/screening?

       

13. How many films screened at the festival last year?

Over 200

       

14. How many films or papers do they program per block?

        This festival is so big that it really depends on which block you’re going to.

15. How do people register to attend? Is there a cost to attend as a guest?

General Admission: $14.00


California Film Institute (CFI)

Members: $11.50


Seniors (65+) and Students: $12.50


Children’s FilmFest (all ages): $10.00


Shorts Programs: $8.00

All access badges:

Single: $2,500

Dual: $5,000

16. Look at sponsorship page and see what businesses. Grants and private entities give money to the event. Figure out how many of each kind and note any leads that might be useful to us.

Whoa, they have major sponsors including Wells Fargo, Lucasfilm, Nordstroms, vimeo, and a whole bunch of international sponsors. I don’t think any of their sponsors are in our league right now.      

17. What are their sponsorship levels? 

The sponsorships are broken up into the type of sponsorship they’re providing rather than levels. For example: Film Festival Circle Support, Government Support, Hotel Sponsors, Major Media Support, etc.

18. Did they have a kickstarter or indiegogo? What incentives did they have for each level of donor?

Nope.

       

19. Are there ways in which they have expanded the typical film screening event? How have they branched out from sitting in a dark room in front of a screen?

        They have active cinema which include calls to action and even a nature hike. The artists in residence right now are METALLICA. YES… There’s online voting for a film to get into the festival. They have concerts, memorials, and throwbacks (Star Wars). There’s a lot going on.

20. Is the layout easy to navigate? What makes it easy?

It is pretty easy because the drop boxes have pretty much everything you can think of…except submissions, which are on withoutabox. I don’t know if the submissions area isn’t on the website because the festival is coming up and there’s really no need to have it.

21. Is the layout difficult to navigate? What makes it difficult?

Nothing except for the submissions.

22. Can you find the information you are looking for on the homepage or via a link on the homepage?

Yes.

23. Aesthetically, what catches your eye? What's cool about it?

     It’s very clean and simplistic. The colors they are using are blue and red which is the most pleasing contrast of colors.

24. Aesthetically, what doesn't fit in? What makes it look bad?

There are no defining features. I love simplistic but with something to make it stand out.

25. Should there be more information? Is the page too bare?

No. There’s a ton of info about the upcoming events right on the homepage that catch your attention.

26. What would you do differently if you were to redesign this website?

I would had some time of characteristic that de

Times and Spaces

Week 3:
(Sep 9)

Director meetings: 2 hours
Department meeting: 1 hour
Class scheduling: 1 hour
Budget and job description research: 2 hours
Lynda: 2 hours
Lynda Presentation: 1 1/2 hours


Week 4:
(Sep 16)

Director meeting: 1 hour
Department meeting: 1 hour
Blog: 1 1/2 hours
MVFF Research: 2 1/2 hours
Lynda Presentation: 2 hours


Week 5:
(Sep 23)

Director meeting: 1 hour
Department meeting: 1hour
Sept. Event planning: 2 hours
Blog: 1 hour
MVFF Interview: 1 1/2 hours
Tyrone Power Luncheon: 2 1/2 hours
Emails/Research: 3 hours

This week was when things really got started. The development team has put together our September social, starting to put together the Halloween bake sale, deciding what's best as far as an Indiegogo fundraiser is concerned, and finished our film festival project. What are the best avenues we can take to make the most money? Focus on easy events that make the most money (bake sales, Indiegogo). What businesses should we look to for sponsorships? What can I take from the MVFF research to apply to Visions?... not a lot. MVFF is a huge, long standing film festival that is a road to an Oscar win. It was interesting but felt kind of artificial as far as what i usually associate with film festivals. Anyways, the next steps in the Visions process is start reaching out to last year's sponsors and finding new ones. We'll also hop onto the indiegogo train.. TOOT TOOT.

Week 6:
(Sep 30)

Director meeting: 1 hour
Department meeting: 1 1/2 hours
Sept. Event planning: 2 hours
Crowdsourced funding research: 3 hours
Indiegogo prep: 2 hours
Emails/Sponsor packets/Sponsor list: 3 hours
Blog: 1hour
Presentation work: 2 hours

We've decided on using Indiegogo. After a lot of research, pros and cons, and pizza, Indiegogo is the one for us. However, we are going to create our campaign around a more educational approach to hopefully gain more funds from the older crowd.  As far as the younger crowd goes, we want to play around with a more interactive way of donating. Since we're going for the superhero theme, we were thinking of creating creatures or villains that eat donations. They can be taken to any event or posted up somewhere. I think it'd be cute. It's something that we need to hash out more in detail after talking to the class. Now that our fundraising campaign is pretty much just waiting for the green light, we can kind of divide up and start working on future business sponsors.

Week 7:
(Oct 7)

Director meeting: 1hour
Department meeting: 1 1/2 hours
Indiegogo research/ video prep: 2 hours
Printing quotes: 1 hour
Sponsor research: 2 hours
Comments/Revisions on Joshua's bake sale schedule/budget: 1 1/2 hours
Weekly Breakdowns: 1 hour

This week I started keeping track of our department through weekly breakdowns which can be found under the V5 Development Department folder, then under the Weekly Breakdowns folder. This creates a visual checklist for the three of us to see how we are spiderwebbed together and what needs to be done at what time for what reason. SO, if the blogs don't have enough detail in what i (or my team) is working on, feel free to check out these docs.

The pressing matter right now is Joshua's bake sale, which is on Oct. 29th. He's doing a really good job as far as coming up with a theme that brings together the tone of Visions for this year. Eating our "filmmaker inspirations" to become the superhero filmmakers we want to be is a creatively perfect way to start off this year.

Melissa is taking over Indiegogo. This is going to be her baby, and i know she's going to excel with it. The presentation is ready. She's presenting on Oct. 21st. The next move is making sure we know what we want for the video.

The printing quotes I sent in, have to be redone because Evonne wasn't sure of the paper stock i picked with the Sponsorship brochures. I wanted the glossy cover paper so it looks professional; however, since that's not the norm, i need to reply to her concerned email and maybe change it up or get a price check on both normal paper and glossy paper.

This week is also Fall Break. So instead of having class on the 14th, we will have a folder in which we are required to comment on everything providing each department enough feedback to keep working through the break. The only thing that needs to be posted for Development is Joshua's Autumn Bake Sale update, budget, and schedule.

Week 8:
(Oct 14- Fall Break)

Director meeting: 1 1/2 hours
Department meeting: 1 1/2 hours
Weekly Breakdowns: 1 hour
Blogs: 1 hour
Update indiegogo date: 20 mins
Make indiegogo book fee schedule: 30 mins
Oct 14 (fall break folder) comments: 2 1/2 hours
Check department comments, send to Shannon: 45 hour
Comment/Revise indiegogo schedule and budget: 30 mins
Indiegogo storyboards: 2 hours
Revised printing quotes: 30 mins
Crew Evals: 20 mins
Sponsorship letter revision: 1 1/2 hours

We have our indiegogo video locked down! Melissa has decided to direct with Joshua as her AD. I'll produce. J'aime and Luqi are going to help from the art department, and it's gonna be sickkkkk. I'm stoked for the video this year. I'm so glad we found our campaign early, and as a unit, we are running with it. It really creates compradore in Visions. Visions 5 here we commmmeeeee. Melissa definitely has a handle on this project. I have full faith in Joshua's directing skills that if she runs into any problems, he can help her.

Joshua's bake sale baby is next week. It's on the 29th. He is crushing it with finalizing everything and making sure everyone in class is on the ball as far as their inspiration baked goods are concerned. I love that he made it so each person is required to bring a food item AND a decoration....super smart. Also, the fact that he secured and set up TWO tables this time around...YES!

Now that execution is on the horizon for both of these projects, I am taking my hands completely off (unless help is needed) and focusing solely on sponsors. I've been reworking the sponsorship letter into a personalized 5th year version and will sit down with Hillary (marketing/writing pro) soon to flesh it out. The letter we've used in the past seems stiff and too professional. I want a mix of stoked and professional. Yes, we need to be very professional, but let's not forget that we are undergrads. We are creating this film festival for undergrads. This is our domain. Let's have our voice in it.

As we enter the second half of the semester (holy crap!)... I am so proud of JAM. I couldn't have asked for a better team. Let's make money!

Week 9

(Oct 21-Oct 28)

Sponsorship Packet Updates- 1 ½ hour

VFF logistics- 2 hours

Directors Meeting- 1 ½ hours

Department Meeting (with Luqi and J’aime)- 2 hours

Revisions on Mel’s Indiegogo presentation, budget, schedule- 1 hour

Indiegogo equipment and location requests- 2 hours

Sponsorship Presentation- 2 ½ hours

Blogs- 45 mins

Class- 3 hours

This week was all about Indiegogo previs. We finalized what Mel wanted from the Art department and moved forward with our shoot logistics. Joshua did the final details for the bake sale such as scheduling, double checking baked goods, and decorations. I went over the sponsorship packet again adjusting what I thought was needed. Also, I put up the VFF specs for the directors’ trip to Virginia. Our Indiegogo shoot is on Sunday, Nov 02 at 1230, and the Bake Sale is this Wednesday, Oct 29^th. I also have a sponsorship update in class this Tuesday; Mel has an indiegogo presentation.

Week 10

(Oct 29- Nov 4)

Film Kid Mixer- 2 hours

CFE/Pegasorus Announcements- 1 hour

Bake Sale- 6 hours

Department Meeting- 2 ½ hours

FB Crew Call- 15 mins

Equipment pickup and drop off for Indiegogo- 1 hour

Prop list/ Call Sheet- 1 ½ hours

Indiegogo Shoot- 7 hours

Sponsorship Letter Revisions- 1 hour

Blogs- 45 mins

Fall Event Meeting with Shawn- 2 hours

Budget meeting with Shannon- 30 minutes

Class- 3 hours

Organize Indiegogo footage- 1 hour

The bake sale was this Wednesday from 9am-6pm. There were two locations, one at randall, one at wag. I brought baked goods, a tent, decorations, and signs at 9am, checked on the Randall location to make sure Josh had everything he wanted at 10:30am, and went to the Wag location at noon until clean up at 6pm. The bake sale made us $353.56, which is awesome and is more than the $350 we had budgeted. Joshua took note of who was on time for their shifts, what worked/what didn’t, and things to keep in mind for the future.

The Indiegogo shoot is set for this Sunday at 1230. We will shoot in King, Fisher, and Randall. We’ve scheduled it until 5pm, but it will probably run after. I pick up equipment on Friday and drop off on Monday. The footage should be labeled and organized and given to Luqi and/or J’aime for editing.  The shoot went really well. We got almost all of the shots we need except for my scene, J’aime’s, and some B roll. Melissa seems really happy with how it turned out. The Indiegogo launches November 18^th, which means we will be focusing on the web page content from here…while still keeping close ties with the edit and art going on for it.

I’m still working on making the sponsorship packet. The plan is to have it finalized and beautiful for the 10x10 Kickoff for Cucalorus at Tekmountain. That way, I can hopefully get a meeting with the CEO to discuss potential sponsorship. Speaking of which, I had a budget meeting with Shannon before class on Tuesday. I’m stoked to go forth and find sponsors, focusing on local businesses and finding the line and fit between potential sponsors and partners.

We are also planning a Fall Event this semester. Shawn has been brought on to lead this endeavor. I gave him the low down on event planning and required he sent me his research and ideas by Sunday at midnight. He got them to me a day in advance. We met up Monday night after classes to go over his presentation and everything. During class, we voted to have the event at Bombers Bev Co, and it will be themed 80’s Hanukkah Pajama party. We’re moving forward with finding entertainment, locking down the venue, and finding ways to make money.