Week 15

Manuals

The class decided that we should all update manuals for a grade and the grade should come from the class as a whole. In order to update ours, Jack and I met Saturday and then reviewed it again on Sunday. We added what we did onto the manual and it was very easy because we just followed our list in the marketing action plan. This was really helpful to have, as well as our blogs helped us out a lot in remembering what we had done. I plan on adding more details to Galaxy quest and the oped piece into next semesters manual. 

Week 14

Meeting with Shannon

I met with Shannon about my oped piece this week after updating it twice. She gave me a lot of good feedback about where I should be going and the tone of the piece. We both felt that it was a good idea to be writing personally. I tried to update the best I could giving concrete examples from my own life. 

Meeting with Jack

Jack and I met to talk about the oped piece more and what I hope to do with it after I make more adjustments. I also talked with him about how we will stay in contact over the break. We talked about the ideas he had for social media about how to keep up with posts and better ways to keep the like share calendar up to date next spring. 

Email to Dr. Berliner

I emailed Dr. Berliner for his feedback on my oped piece and he said that he liked the tone but that he thought there was a very slim chance I would get into the NYT. He suggested that I submit to technical magazines. I think he does have a point. I think I will definitely start to create a schedule for where I will be submitting, like a festival roll out schedule. I think I am also going to send it to some friends I have in publishing. 

Week 13

Meeting with Jack

This week was a short one. We had a meeting about the Oped Piece and social media and how that should be handled. Jack and I talked about how we would hope to use it in the spring and what we can do to beef up our posts a little and create some better tone. 

Meeting with James and Rebecca 

James, Rebecca, and I went over the Galaxy Quest idea and they were able to put in their ideas about how we should handle the race. We went over the locations that we found and found more locations in Fisher when we met up. We also went over the Powerpoint and what they would need to discuss. 

Oped Piece

It's been hard to find direction with the oped piece, but I think I know how I'm going to try to tie in Visions and technology and millennials. It's definitely going to be a work in progress, but you have to start somewhere. I think once we write it, and everyone gives feedback it will really get the ball rolling. 

Cucalorus Paper

Films I saw:

1. Princess

2. Trinidad Shorts

3. 10X10 Connect commercials

4. The Devil's Candy

5. TAG

6.Wilmington on Fire

7. Hazing: How Badly Do You Want In? 

I had a Pegasaurus pass for last year’s Cucalorus, so I was able to see clearly that they must have lost a sponsor, and I thought the way they handled that was interesting. The swag bags took a hit – last year a t-shirt was included and the tote was a better quality. The food, beverages, and venue also took a hit. It didn’t seem like a bad thing, but it changed the tone of the festival. The open bar, and the amount of food they served would not work for visions.

I talked to a lot of the members of the staff, as well as Dan for a short period of time. The staff didn’t feel as though they had specific jobs, and that the animations and bumpers didn’t have a strong theme. I thought this was weird to say, because their art was similar to past years. They had red solo cups that they sold which played off the fact that it was their 21^st anniversary. I saw that they had a lot of different aspects that they pulled from, and this year’s theme didn’t seem as fully developed as last year’s “Chicken & Waffles” theme. I think it worked for them though, because the festival is already out there and weird.  

I spent a good amount of time in the lounge this year between screenings. They had popcorn all weekend and the same drinks. The atmosphere was laid back, but not many people were mingling. It broke off into cliques pretty quickly, which was not good for connecting. You kind of had to force your way into the conversations. Michelle and I developed a strategy at Virginia where you made up a ridiculously dressed person and open up the conversation by asking if they had seen him around. It was a good way in, and we always left a business card at the end. ($8 for 250 @Staples). I think for Visions we should have the Visions staff be the people who make others (as well as themselves) mingle at the after party. I also like that we have forced bonding time with the video race. Cucalorus does similar bonding with their connect sessions.

I would not like to be a mediator.  I feel like people would talk over me and we would never get anywhere, ever. Maybe I would like to be an usher? I honestly wouldn’t like to have any job at the festival the day of besides talking to people and getting them comfortable, or being stationed somewhere to make sure people get where they need to go – making sure people are where they need to be is my thing. I think I enjoy the back work of the festival atmosphere more.  

Week 11 Update

Departmental Meeting

Jack and I met for thirty minutes on Wednesday, and then during Cucalorus weekend 30 minutes before Wilmington on Fire. We troubleshooted how he might go about making a shares and likes calendar for the V6 team. We then talked about making posts and how he would need to divide those up between us. 

Animation Meeting with Tyler

Tyler and I met and talked about the animations left for this semester. I told him that in each animation there needs to be Cosmo, the planet, and #boldlygo, as well as keeping it in the same environment. Tyler seemed to be in agreement and I messaged Grace to keep me involved with developments for new ideas so we can keep the marketing and art department talking. 

Oped Piece

I talked with my dad and gleaned some experiences he had as a journalist. He had an oped piece published when he was around my age too! He said that it's a great idea, and even if it doesn't get published it's good experience and can be easily transformed into a blog post to go on other film blogs or less prestigious newspapers. He said that the millennial basis for the piece was an interesting and relevant topic, and that he's seen a lot of pieces about the same kind of stuff so it has a good chance of being published. He also said I need to develop a cover letter for it before sending it out, and that he would be happy to help edit it! He also said to not only attach the press release but to also put it in the body of the email. 

I've also been talking with my friends and one has a cousin at Huffington Post, so hopefully I can finagle my way in there. 

Research

How to write Op-ed Columns - The Earth Institute - Columbia ...

https://www.natcom.org/uploadedFiles/Public_Engagement/Writing%20and%20Submitting%20an%20Opinion%20Piece.pdf

You can only send an oped piece to one publication at a time!

"If your op-ed does not get accepted, but still concerns a topic of current concern and has been recently covered, you might consider shortening it and resubmitting as a letter to the editor."

http://www.dailyoped.com

Week 10 Update

Departmental Meeting

Jack and I moved our meeting to Wednesday at 1:30 because of VAFF. We talked about Jack taking over the social media page and I walked him through how I did the marketing action plan for October and the social media calendar. We agreed that he would take over for social media and make the calendar and we would collaborate on making the posts.

VAFF

I went to Virginia Film Festival this weekend and paid a lot of attention to how they marketed the festival. The thing that was really cool and made me want to go to the festival the most was the MoxBox which was just a camera in a box with a large LCD screen so you could see all the pics and they posted them straight to Facebook so that you had to log on to get your picture - and you can save your picture from there! That was so cool because it kind of forced people to log on and follow. On their Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/virginiafilmfestival/?fref=ts. They had a lot of podcasts that people could "check out." I don't think that would go over as well with our audience though.

They handed out sheets of paper that you could tear at the top to rate the film you watched on a scale of 1-5. I thought this was really awesome because it made it so you didn't have to pass out pencils to everyone. 

They had a lot of hors d'oeuvre and free drinks which got everyone a little looser to mingle around and added a very fancy tone to the party - since their audience was not ours I thought that was a good touch. Our audience I saw at the party was mildly uncomfortable at the party. 

On their instagram, they were posting interviews with directors and their pics... I found this strange for instagram because it had a lot of info on a small platform. I also noticed they had "Takeover" days during the festival where they would pass around the instagram to different people like interns or one day it was the festival director. I've never seen this done before, but I'm not sure if I like it or not. They also got together with their partners to do Facebook giveaway contests. They did film of the day staff picks. We might be able to do that too! 

All of their stuff obviously had their name and little bird on it. They had stickers, pamphlets, brochures, magnets, shirts, beanies, sweatshirts, bags, wine toppers, water bottles, koozies. All really cool and all really expensive.

Everything they did felt big and expensive, and I think that's why it came off as big and expensive. However, I think it also made some of the younger people slightly more uncomfortable, and that's not what we want for our festival. I think I need to ride a fine line between inspirational without making it feel unattainable. 

I wish they had had better maps. We got lost a lot and the parking was atrocious.

Update on Marketing Action Plan

I am currently working on the Marketing Action plan for November. Here is my research for that. We are going to try to focus on getting something published in a big time magazine - who knows. 

http://www.carefulcents.com/get-published-on-the-huffington-post/

After reading this maybe we should go after popular blogs!

Less editing means more likely to be published!

Send in headshot and bio with it

http://newsoffice.duke.edu/duke_resources/oped

op-ed piece?

750 words!

http://www.theopedproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67&Itemid=79

advice

http://abovethelaw.com/2013/12/how-to-get-published-in-the-new-york-times/

Pitching a news story to NPR 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5170632

Week 8 Update

Meetings

I had two meetings with Jack this week. One on Thursday during our regular time and then one on Sunday with him and Grace. At our Thursday meetings we talked about what we still needed to get done and updated the marketing action plan. At the meeting with Grace and Jack, we talked about the social media posts that we have and divvied them up. After that we all looked at last years party event page and brainstormed verbage for the event page. We messaged Rebecca about the party details and Rebecca said that she would get those to me by Friday. The event description however is ready to be edited by the class and I am going to post that to Facebook to be given approval. I sent the press release for approval to OUR on 10/8 and haven't heard back. I expect to hear back Friday and then I will send it out. I met with Adrienne and Shannon about the brochure packet and we decided to go with the one piece of paper instead of the brochure. I also talked with Shannon about class presentations and made an excel sheet for everyone to sign up. We also got the class to make bios for the website. 

week 7 Research for Marketing Plan

http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/templates-and-downloads/Pages/marketing-plan-template-and-guide.aspx

http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/sampmark.htm - Good notes on how to start

http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/marketplanning.htm - Marketing Worksheet

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanhall/2012/10/27/the-10-steps-to-finding-more-customers/ - client base

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/06/essential-content-templates-checklists/

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/11/content-marketers-checklist-editorial-calendar-essentials/ - Look at again

http://www.business.vic.gov.au/marketing-sales-and-online/increasing-sales-through-marketing/marketing-plan-template - marketing plan

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1662/2497/1600/Bild1.0.jpg - worlds shortest marketing plan

http://masterful-marketing.com/marketing-plan-action-steps-to-achieve-goals/ -Helpful

http://www.mplans.com/articles/outline-for-a-marketing-plan/ - examples of marketing plan outline

http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbpitt/SpreeMPE.htm - example

                  - look at other student film fests

Step 6. Tactics and Action – Our marketing action plan

This is the area where the plan can break down! Lots of ideas, but no action. The Action Plan is an essential element that shows

• What you’ve agreed to do
• The detail of what’s involved
• Who will be responsible
• When this will happen

The final column ‘status’ is part of the mechanism to monitor progress. Each month when you’re reviewing action, the status can be updated. This helps to stay on track.

      -found at: http://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/create-a-marketing-plan/build-your-marketing-plan-with-this-useful-template/

http://drmiddlebrook.hubpages.com/hub/Creating-a-Bare-Bones-Marketing-Plan

https://www.sba.gov/blogs/creating-marketing-action-plan

http://marketing-made-simple.com/articles/marketing-plan.htm#ansoff - GOOD LOVE (look at again)

http://byregina.com/creative-action-plan/ - This girl is AWESOME! Stole ALL of her worksheets. So helpful and worked with how my brain works! Very visual and hands on worksheets made for brainstorming sessions!


http://filmcontests.reelshowint.com/student-film-festivals-international-directory-2015/ - this is a list of some student film festivals that I went through to get some ideas.

http://byregina.com/find-your-first-clients/ - what to tell the class when thinking about contacts

http://byregina.com/serious-social-media/ - how to narrow social media

http://byregina.com/serious-social-media/ - how to get serious on social media, who to follow, etc

http://byregina.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/The-25-Types-of-Content-to-Share-on-Social-Media.pdf - good pdf pic about ideas for posts

Week 6 Update

Readings

The first link was unavailable and I couldn't find it when I googled it, so I looked up some other articles on the same topic and read those. 

Here are their links: 

http://www.northeastern.edu/events/downloads/Top%20Ten%20Tips%20for%20Planning%20an%20Event.pdf

http://www.buzzbinpadillacrt.com/ten-tips-for-successful-event-planning/

The second link was the most helpful for me, because it talks about using a twitter handle and creating a hashtag, so that guests can post pictures and tweet about the event which I hadn't thought of before. It's a cool idea because it takes a lot of the pressure off of the visions staff to take pictures and allows our guests to post photos for a reason. I'm also thinking it might be cool to have our instagram pulled up on the screen in the background when no one is singing or we have a break, so our guests can show off their pics! 

The budget reading was intense for me, because budgets are hard for my brain to understand, but the tips at the end were very straightforward. These will be helpful in staving off any "unexpected" costs. 

Weekly Research

I've been doing a lot of research lately about the best platforms for small businesses and how you should decide where to spend money in marketing and where to not spend money. Things that will help me answer the questions: Is it worth it? Do we actually need it? How can we be better? 

Also, I love "the marketing blog" so much!!

Here are the links I've found to be most helpful:

http://themarketingspot.com/2010/11/how-do-i-get-my-name-out-there.html

http://themarketingspot.com/2009/06/complete-thumbnail-guide-choosing-right-media.html

(This one's about Facebook!) http://themarketingspot.com/2010/08/science-art-of-your-facebook-posting-strategy.html

Festival Update

I've emailed and called four more festivals (Brooklyn Film Festival, Tribeca (again), LA Film Festival, and Manhattan Film Festival) and I still have not heard back. I also targeted these four because they have May/June festival dates. I'm not giving up though! 

Meetings

Jack and I met for around four hours on Thursday, spending a lot of time re-working the missions and about statement. Then we met Monday to go over it once more before class after he reworked some of the sentences that we had trouble with. I looked over it and signed off and also showed him the press release I drafted over the weekend and asked him to research some other press releases and see if he had anything to add. He has also been in contact with CAIC to figure out all of the on-campus advertising can take place and how long it would take to set up. I've been in contact with one radio station and have found that Kevin has a contact in radio that we can get in touch with. My number one stress inducer is trying to remember that doing everything isn't as helpful as doing three things the best. I'm trying to narrow down and am hoping that the class will be able to tell me better what they use the most and what advertising stands out to them the most. Putting our eggs in all the baskets isn't going to be as good as putting them in only a few--and cost wise it's impossible to get the word out there to absolutely everyone. 

Week 5 Update and Dirty Dozen

Update

Jack and I met on Thursday during our Departmental meeting time (7-8), and we talked about our different options of publicity on and off campus (our brainstorms are in the folder, which will be uploaded to the manual ASAP). Then we divvied up the on campus and off campus to find out how to contact those sources. We then met on Monday after I had given him instructions about the presentation and I approved his final presentation to share with the class this Tuesday. 

In the director's meeting, we talked about how to be better managers, using Trello, and emailed Natalie to get Pegasaurus passes. And Passion Planners - which are the shit, by the way.

On the Festival Interview, I am still waiting on a reply for Tammie Rosen - who is in charge of press and interviews for Tribeca. I really want to interview the Marketing Director there. I think that she is about to break. But if she doesn't contact me back this week, then I will lose all hope.

Dirty Dozen

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?

Film Freeway is supposed to promote Visions 6 as a professional festival, get the word out in a clear manner about when call for entry dates are, and be an easy way to submit and contact our festival.

2. Who is the customer?

Filmmakers and Scholars who want to submit their films and papers.

3. What are the deliverables of the project?

The deliverables of Film Freeway are a page that intrigues undergraduate filmmakers to submit to Visions.

4. What is the budget?

$0

5. How long will it take?

Setting Up Film Freeway will take about a month.

6. What specific skills are needed?

Ability to research other festival’s FilmFreeway pages. Knowing how to keep a consistent tone throughout. Knowing how to hit on key points that “sell” our page to the filmmaker. Knowing how to work with key creative personnel to achieve a cohesive, clear, nice looking page. 

7. What special resources are needed?

Times and dates for call for entries and an agreed upon mission statement for what Visions truly is will be needed to complete the Film Freeway page.

8. Who is working the project? What is each person's job?

I am in charge of looking over the content on the Film Freeway page. I also work with Kevin (Programming Director) to make sure that all the dates are correct and the vibe of the content meshes with what he believes his audience will be looking for. I work with Michelle (Art Director) who is in charge of the backsplash, logo, and the look of Film Freeway. I work with Shannon (Hospitality Director) to decide on which pictures from past Visions we should use to promote the festival.

9. What is the schedule?

9/22 – Brainstorm verbage with class

9/23 – Meet with Shannon B. about Pictures for Film Freeway

10/5 – Upload Backsplash and Logo from Michelle

10/27 – Film Freeway Up and Running

10. What are the risks? (Small vs. large impact, likely vs. unlikely)

•   Large impact, unlikely: We don’t get enough submissions

•   Large impact, somewhat likely: We get too many submissions

•   Small impact, unlikely: We have confused customers submitting films/papers at the wrong times because the website is confusing.

11. How will you communicate with your team?

I am communicating to make sure that each department is getting the message out that they want and communicating that in the right way, dealing with audience, age appropriate research. I have each of the director’s numbers and can Facebook message with them directly. For Art we have a weekly meeting together, as well as a group chat. Since I’m mainly dealing with directors on this project the two weekly director meetings will be helpful in getting across important messages.

12. How will you determine if the project is successful?

We will determine if our project is successful by the number of submissions, but also looking at the quality of submissions that we receive. If we receive submissions that we believe are not well done, then we may have targeted the wrong audience.

Week 3 Reflection

Departmental Meeting (Thursday, 7-8:05 PM)

This week Jack and I brainstormed for taglines to go with the Festival theme - Space. At our departmental meeting Jack and I brainstormed together throwing out every idea that popped into our head and I created a Google Doc so we could refer back to it over the weekend to think more about it.  We talked more about our social media plan and I told him to keep researching festivals that he liked and what their posts on Facebook looked like and I will do the same. We then met with Michelle and Tyler and talked about tones of writing that we thought went with their overall theme. We brought up five words that we hoped to go over with other directors and the class as a whole: Resilient, Witty, Savvy, Creative, and Resourceful. We thought these words matched the feel of a Millennial's mindset (which Jack and I researched and shared).

Director's Meeting (Friday, 10-11 AM)

Michelle, Adrienne, Shannon Silva and I were at this weeks director's meeting. We talked about the schedule for the next two months and gave tasks out for each department to distribute. Until October 27th (the day of the launch party), we will all be busy publicizing the event and launch for the call for entries. My main tasks are coordinating with the press, keeping track of dates, and making sure content is cohesive and matches in tone across all departments. Kevin, Michelle, and I have set up a meeting after class on Tuesday to talk about Film Freeway.

Assignment 1 Progress

As of yet no Festival Director will contact me back. I've emailed several film festivals. I am specifically targeting New York.  I have been in direct contact with Tammie Rosen the press coordinator for Tribeca and she seems very willing to help but says all of the Festival Directors are in Toronto. If I cannot get an interview eventually I hope next year a director might contact her more in advance. She said if they had known sooner they would have been better prepared to say yes to a short interview especially to aid in education. 

Manual and Job Description Readings 

The Job description for the Art/PR department was a lot to take in, but also very helpful. I can see better now my goal and how I fit in with the rest of the departments. It was also very helpful to read the other job descriptions because they filled in key elements that I did not know needed to happen - as in important dates and events that I need to be aware of. It's also good to realize how much work others have so that you realize you're not in this alone, and you can't fall down on your job, because everyone else has their own stuff to deal with. 

Assignment 1, Part 1 for the Sacramento International Film Festival

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

Martin Anaya is not responding. 

2. Who started it and who runs it? 

Kenneth Knoll started the Sacramento’s Festival of Cinema in 1995. He then gave control to Executive Director, Ron Cooper, and Managing Festival Director, Martin Anaya. Martin Anaya gained full control of the Sacramento International Film Festival in 2004.

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

The Sacramento Film Society affirms the visionary spirit of the world’s cinematic geniuses who use the film arts to enlighten, educate, entertain and enrich the audiences of the world.

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...) 

This past year they programmed films that dealt with local issues and talent, sports documentaries, and global documentaries. The overarching themes that this festival tends to lean towards are universal emotions or subjects, films that everyone is able to relate to. This works with their mission, because they want to focus on educating the world. It also works with their history, however, because the festival started out being a local festival concerned with local issues. 

5. Where is the event? 

The events are held at Tower Theater, Crest Theater, The Delta King, and the Esquire Theater. 

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

This year was April 25 – May 3, 2015.  

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

You can submit on FilmFreeway or Withoutabox. Links to both websites are included on their home page. 

8. When are the deadlines to enter? Early? Reg? Late? 

Early deadline is July 15, 2015. Regular Deadline is September 15, 2015. Late deadline is October 15, 2015.

9. How much does it cost to enter? 

 Each category an early, regular, late deadline fee, final deadline fee, and extended deadline fee. ($25, $30, $35, $50, $65),  

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

There are three main categories: short form (under 20 minutes total running time), long form (20 minutes to an hour total running time), and features (over an hour total running time). There are also special Showcases, which include: Latino Filmmaker’s Showcase, Environmental Visions, Urban Films Showcase, Animated Film Showcase, Future Visionaries: Youth Showcase, Nor Cal All Stars, American Screenplay Challenge (Comedy, Dramatic, Short), Cine Asia, Fashion on Film. Everyone is eligible to enter unless they are employees, volunteers, interns, or board members.  

11. Is there a Student category? 

There’s a student category for filmmakers 7^th to 12^th grade. 

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

You can submit a preview copy on Film Freeway online or you can submit a DVD with the completed application. DVDs must be NTSC standard (no PAL tapes or other formats).

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

Exhibition and screening formats must be on an HD online copy (vimeo/youtube), a 35mm, DVD or Blu Ray. 

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

56 films screened last year.

15. How long is a typical shorts block or paper presentation block at their event? 

A typical shorts block is two hours long. 

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

They program around 6-9 films per block. 

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

It costs $150 for an all access general pass and $120 for students. You can call and get tickets or you can order tickets from Brown Paper Tickets located on the schedule on the website. 

18. 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. 

There is no page dedicated to sponsorship, but the sponsors for the California Film Foundation are listed at the bottom of every page: The Studio Center, CalMediaSolutions.com, Withoutabox, The Delta King, SAG-AFTRA, Sacremento365 Event page, SacLatino Magazine, The Crest Theater, Brown Paper Tickets, Reading Theaters, IP Narrow Cast Digital Signage.  

19. What are their sponsorship levels and incentives for each level? 

Not applicable to this Festival. 

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

I could not find a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign. 

21. What kind of non­traditional film/video events have they had before? Things like Installations, 'Visual Soundwalls,' VJing etc.

-They have incorporated a 48 hour film event called “48 Hours Sacramento.” Each year has a different theme. This year the theme was “SUPER-MODELS” (Super-sexy heroines). They also have an after party equipped with DJs and stars. 

22. 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 hold one of their film blocks on The Delta King, a boat much like the Henrietta in Wilmington. They held a workshop called the Digital Odyssey Conference in which you meet creators of film, games, music and online distribution and then you are able to build your own transmedia project at the festival. 

Our website is our virtual face. Every day our site has incoming traffic, nationally and internationally. It's important that visitors are able to find the information that they need without being sent on a wild goose chase through our pages. We want visiting our site to be easy and painless, and for our visitors to have as good of an experience virtually as they would actually attending the event. Our goal is for the Visions site to be easy to navigate, to be aesthetically pleasing, and to easily deliver the information our audience is looking for without overwhelming them. The following exercise will help you see how important all of these things are to a first time (and hopefully a future repeat) visiting our site.

Answer the following questions about your experience with your assigned festival’s/conference’s website:

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

No. The layout is very difficult to navigate. The only things that were easy were the submitting links to Withoutabox and FilmFreeway. 

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

Yes. It’s very difficult. It’s confusing and I’m not sure what is what or where I can find the festival page. The buttons at the top that link to parts of the page don’t even link to information about the festival and the link at the top of the page to the “festival’s page” takes you to the same exact site you were on. 

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

No. I had to look on Google, Facebook, and dig into their website, and even then I couldn’t find some of the information about the festival. 

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

I do like that they have a community of filmmakers on their website that can have their resumes and connect. I also like d that they had the upcoming events so readily available on the homepage.

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

It’s very messy, and the cover photo for the homepage looks like it was from smart art on Word. None of the fonts match and the links to important information on the side look like their sponsor links, so they are confusing and camouflaged to people who aren’t looking carefully. None of it seems very cohesive and I have to work to find some sort of theme for this festival. 

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

No. Putting more information on the page would be overwhelming. 

29. Should there be less information? Is the page too busy?

There needs to be less information on each page and more tabs on the top of the site full of organized, thorough information.

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

I would give the website a cohesive theme and make all of the colors and fonts match. I would also reorganize everything and perhaps make two separate pages that link together: one for the California Film Foundation specifically and one for the Sacramento International Film Festival. 

31. What would you keep the same if you were to redesign this website?

I would keep the added element of the community of filmmakers on the website connected in a Facebook-like atmosphere.