MSPIFF Festival Research and Reflection

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

I emailed and called Jesse, who is in Toronto for a Film Festival and won't be back until the 21st. I will contact him again then.

2. Who started it and who runs it?

Frances Wilkinson started it and Susan Smoluchowski runs it currently.

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

To foster a knowledgeable and vibrant appreciation of the art of film through a commitment to exhibiting the very best of contemporary and historical independent, local, national and international cinema to Minnesota audiences. In doing so, we inform our audiences about the cultures, histories, cutting-edge news and filmmaking artistry from countries around 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...)

I think that their mission correlates well with the films shown in their festival. There are a variety in their Voices genre such as Art in Pictures (intersection of music, art, film) and Travel the World (travel pieces). They also reach several audiences by showing Family Friendly films, LGBT, Disabled, Jewish, and other Religious films.fghjkl.;lkb v  

5. Where is the event?

Minneapolis MN

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

April 3-19

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

Withoutabox and Film Freeway (Online)

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

Early: July 1st - Sept. 1

Reg: Sept. 2nd - Oct. 15

Late: Oct. 16 - Nov. 15

Extended Nov. 16 - Dec. 15

Withoutabox Extended Dec. 31

9. How much does it cost to enter?

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

• Films completed after July 1, 2014 are eligible for submission.

• Feature length films that have previously publicly screened in Minnesota, or that have been broadcast, televised, or are available in their entirety online prior to their exhibition in the Festival will not be considered.

• Please note: Short films are exempt from any premiere requirements and may be available online. However, this will be taken into consideration for selection and films available online are not eligible for juried competition.

• Foreign language (non-English) submissions must be available in their original language and soundtrack with English subtitles.

• Feature length submissions must be available for exhibition in DCP format. • Short submissions must be available for exhibition in either DCP (preferred) or ProRes file formats.

• Films that have been submitted for consideration in previous years are eligible for submission for the 2015 Festival only if they have undergone extensive changes and reapply as a new submission.

• MSPIFF accepts film submissions in the following categories: Narrative (all lengths), Documentary (all lengths), Music Video (Minnesota Made only), Animation (all lengths), and Experimental (all lengths).

11. Is there a Student category?

Emerging Filmmaker Category?

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

Online: Vimeo and HD uploads

Hard Copy: Ship 3 DVDs, each marked with: Film title, Tracking number (if applicable), Run time It is advised you test each DVD in a standard DVD

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

Same

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

225

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

N/A

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

N/A

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

Tickets are ordered online.

Individual Tickets:

$12 General Admission, $10 Film Society Members, $6 Students with ID

Passes:

Gold: $425 General, $350 FSM

Silver: $375 General, $300 FSM

18. Look at sponsorship page and see what businesses, Grants and private entities give money to the event.

Different levels of Sponsorship:

Presenting: StarTribune (1)
Foundation Support: The Academy... (8)

Consulate Support: SRE...(15)

Producing: CS...(6)

Premier: US Bank....(5)

Supporting: Condor...(12)

Gold: Whole Foods...(71)

Figure out how many of each kind and note any leads that might be useful to us.

Lots of lower level support to acquire funds easier (local business, smaller companies)

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

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

Neither

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

Organizing Movies by Voices:

“Whatever you’re feeling, we’ve made it easier to find a film in the fest that matches your tastes.  In addition to the Festival’s traditional categories and programs, we’ve organized all the films into nine groups we’ve called Voices. Find the Voice categories under “Genre”, or find all festival  films arranged by Voice in the Festival’s newsprint magazine.”

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?

Nothing comes across as extremely unconventional.

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

The layout is clean and has a lot of links and divided tabs that organize the layout slightly.

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

The layout is a bit confusing because the MSP Film Society is the main page and the festival itself is a tab or portion of it. There are also tons of broken links which might be due to them changing over to the 2016 pages for their upcoming festival. Some things also need their own separate tab and are thrown in with something else. I honestly think that issues stems from having one website do too much. They should link the MSPIFF website from the Society website so that they could divide the festival information more precisely.  

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

Some of it, but not all. It’s impossible to find out somethings unless you email or call them (ie. Sponsorship prices)

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

The colors (Teal Blue, Black, and Pink Red) compliment well and allow for the white text to pop. The film camera icon also works well and looks nice.

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

Some of the images are too low res and look cheap. Some of the words are too small.

 

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

There needs to be more information on sponsorship and about the history of MSPIFF. There also needs to be more about the block lengths and the number of submissions per block.

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

The pages themselves are too full which stems from the earlier issue of not having a separate website.

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

I would make two websites and I would have updated the information for the upcoming festival the moment we were accepting submissions. I would also try and make it match the mission of the festival better. MSPIFF is all about cultural appreciation and learning so I would incorporate that into the website design (photos or more emphasis on different cultures).

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

I would keep the Icon because it works and would be a staple of the festival that people could recognize. I would keep the font and colors as long as it fit the theme and mood of the festival.

Reflection:

In doing this assignment I now have a better understanding of what information should be accessible online to filmmakers, sponsors, and pretty much anyone associated with a film festival. Because I will be taking on the website creation for Visions 6 I realise that I want to make it user-friendly and easy to navigate. The MSPIFF website was really too cluttered and difficult to navigate in terms of finding out vital information about the festival. I also had to “research” in order to find out any historic knowledge about the festival. I think if a festival is over 30 years old, there should be a better account of its creation and notable events. Visions is a young, but important film festival to Wilmington as well as festival history. In particular, this assignment has pushed me to had a history section to the Vision 6 website. It will help strengthen not only our mission, but also our standing in the Film Festival world.