Charlotte Brownhill: The Work Experience Diaries 2015
Charlotte Brownhill – A second year BA (Hons) Media, Culture & Journalism student at the University of South Wales, talks about her placement with Riverfront Arts Centre (Newport):
21st October 2015
Today my day involved writing a press release for Disney Pixar’s Animated film Inside Out (U). The Riverfront will be showing this film at their cinema next week for half-term from Monday 26th – Thursday 29th October.
The Riverfront usually screens a film a week from Monday – Wednesday but due to half-term it was really important to produce a lot of marketing for Inside Out as it is a cheap day out for all the family, only costing £1.50 a ticket – you can’t go wrong there!
I began by writing a press release that will hopefully be featured in The Argus – A South Wales Newspaper. This newspaper is where The Riverfront advertise all of their upcoming events e.g. theatre, cinema etc. To ensure my press release would give the film justice I began to research reviews written about Inside Out, this involved the website Rotten Tomatoes which I highly recommend when trying to find an in depth review of a film as it provides statistics, trailers, ratings and reviews varying from top critics (such as The Guardian) to everyday users. I also began to look reviews from The Telegraph to Variety to Rolling Stones. I gather key words and information from them all and begin to form my own press release. I enjoy this as it gives me the opportunity to research thoroughly into a film – since beginning my work experience here my knowledge of films has improved.
After my press release is completed and checked, I schedule a number of tweets for the upcoming week to promote the film. I schedule tweets on Hootsuite throughout the day and evening promoting Inside Out in various ways such as linking trailers or images on the film as well as hash tags. The power of the hashtag can really boost promotion and I think it’s important to use as much social media as possible when promoting.
Another perk of the job this week was that I got two free meals for the Nando’s opening opposite the Riverfront in The Friars Walk shopping centre!
Children’s Film First Conference 2015 (Claire Vaughan, Chapter)
Claire Vaughan, Programme Officer at Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff tells us all about her experiences at the Children’s Film First Conference 2015 in Brussels:
“A hop to London on a bus, a skip onto the Eurostar and a jump off the platform into the beautiful, multicultural city of Brussels and I was making my way to a European-wide conference on Children’s Cinema.”
In these times of austerity it proved that there are alternatives and with a little investment in these areas we can create a more robust and healthy film culture in the future. A really inspiring couple of days with some wonderful people.
Berlin International Film Festival 2015 (Iris Prize)
Berwyn Rowlands, Festival Director of the Iris Prize and Queer Film Network member, visited the 2015 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) and wrote this blog about his adventure.
The 2015 Berlinale proved to be everything I had ever dreamt it could be and more!
For the past 25 years people have responded with varying degrees of surprise when I admit that I’ve never been to the Berlin Film Festival. Sundance, Cannes, Edinburgh, Cork have all featured in my film past, each offering different experiences as I visited as a programmer, film producer, media executive or ordinary punter! Some were designated festivals for watching new films while others were places to do business and close deals, almost divorced from any screenings.
Berlin for a number of reasons was never on my list. What a mistake that was!
I was able to rectify this omission and spend 3 days at the 2015 Berlinale thanks to the support of Film Hub Wales. The dates were carefully selected to co-inside with the annual Queer Programmers Meeting co-ordinated by the Teddy Jury. This proved to be the largest gathering of queer programmers and festivals I had ever attended.
With the potential to be completely overwhelmed by the whole experience I kept reminding myself of my objectives for attending:
- Meeting people – new contacts, sponsors, partners for collaborations!
- Seeing films and meeting film makers to expand and enrich the Iris programme, especially now that we have increased the number of feature film screenings from 8 to 20!
- Promoting the Iris Prize to encourage submissions and increase the international audience for the annual Cardiff festival.
I’m pleased to confirm I achieved all my objectives and more by attending the Queer Programmers Meeting, hanging out at the Market Place, attending meetings which I had organized before leaving Cardiff, leaving space in my schedule for unexpected meetings and watching films (not as much as I would have liked).
What was unexpected during my packed 3 days in Berlin was finding the time to “think” – considering how busy and frantic the Berlinale can be – but I found the moments between meetings an opportunity to focus the mind.
I’m already looking forward to returning to Berlin for the 2016 festival.
ABCinema Flatpack 2017: Archive and Young Audiences (Chapter)
Paul Holder, Workshop Leader at Chapter, Cardiff, tell us about his experiences at the ABCinema Sprint during Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham:
The key challenges were summed up early on; how and why should we try to reach young people regarding film history? ; how can we bring digital mediums and methods into our attempts to encourage participation? ; how can we re-imagine the way in which audiences are invited in and experience film? Big questions, which over the course of the three-day event found many intriguing and innovative answers.”