University News Last updated 16 April 2015
Master's students from the Film Marketing and Distribution course had an opportunity to springboard their careers this March by getting first hand experience during the Flatpack Film festival.
The Birmingham based festival, now in its ninth year, is a showcase for an eclectic mix of films at a variety of venues. It featured the Colour Box Programme for children, the UK premier of the 'living' trilogy from Swedish director, Roy Andersson and other feature length films, experimental three dimensional art, animated shorts and new releases.
The students helped to develop and deploy social media campaigns for some of the events and find experts to interview for live Q and A sessions. Students were also involved in writing press releases and contacting companies for promotional work.
"This experience has really be a good insight into the film festival industry and has allow us to put in application what we have studied throughout the year."
The Teams
The three teams of student assistants included:
Team 1
Claudia and Saras were in charge of promoting the event, networking with professionals and reaching out to participants for the live Q and A sessions. They were also in charge of producing press release packs and gaining experience in the field.
Team 2
Caroline and Birgit covered the Colour Box Programme doing market research and audience demographics. Their role was to create a database of people for survey deployment. They networked with other communities within Birmingham that would support the Colour Box Programme geared towards children to promote the event. The market research will be used to improve next year’s programme of events.
Team 3
Fabien and Nina worked at the Mac Theatre in Birmingham, one of the partners for the Flatpack Film Festival. Their role was to oversee the programme of events, promote using social media and raise awareness.
The Film Futures students worked one month before the start of the festival and all market research and findings will be presented to the Flatpack marketing team and professors. The students commented on the event as an overall enriching experience, being able to get their hands dirty into the real work of film distribution and to see what it takes to run a festival. This aspect of their course will help in the lead up to their immersion into the Cannes film festival in France later on in the academic year.