Success, Hopefully

So it recently came to my attention that I completely forgot about this blog for the past few weeks. I've been so caught up with figuring out the festival date and venue--as well as the many other projects in this class--that it simply slipped my mind. My apologies, though it's probably not too much of a loss considering how little progress I was able to make until very recently. Nonetheless, things really started to come together in the past week or two, so here is what I've been able to put together:

The festival is now set for 7:00pm on Sunday, May 16th at Fifth Avenue Cinema. The screening will be part of a larger weekend-long event organized by a friend of Jen's, without whom the date itself wouldn't have been possible (thanks again). Hopefully this won't stir too much trouble with the PSU Film Committee, who had previously seemed so resistant to the idea of the festival, as we are now set for only two weeks ahead of their own Visuals Film Festival. Regardless, I'm confident that Portland can handle more than one film festival this spring, especially given the specific emphasis on narrative non-fiction.

Last week I started collecting submissions from students in my Documentary Production course, primarily final projects from last term. Some students will also be submitting their "person at work" profile pieces completed this term. Two of the prizes for the winning filmmakers have been finalized: a free camera rental package from NW Documentary ($50 value), and two free tickets to Cinema 21 (two for the grand prize winners and two for the runners up). I hope to establish a few more prizes as well before the event, though it might be difficult to compete with the cash prizes offered by the Visuals festival.

I designed the submission flyer (as seen below), and will be posting an additional "event" flyer two weeks before the event itself.


I posted 30 flyers across the PSU campus, the NW Film Center, and NW Documentary, as well as several NW Documentary course programs. I will be distributing additional flyers in class Wednesday. I had hoped to do more promoting this past week, but unfortunately was sidelined by a trip to the ER and subsequent doctor's visits. Here are a few of the flyers currently posted across town:

At this point I'll simply need to wait for submissions and determine the event staff. Once the submission deadline arrives, I will review the films with NW Documentary and make the final selections that will appear in the festival. I will then contact the filmmakers with the final lineup and create the screening DVD. The last step will be to post the "event" flyers, which will ideally be designed to encompass and advertise the films themselves.

Despite the incredible difficult I encountered throughout the term in simply establishing contact with potential venues, much less finding an open date in a surprisingly hostile environment within the Portland State film community itself, I feel like the event has really come together over the past couple of weeks. Luckily I have gathered a lot of support from my fellow students and PSU film staff, as well as the folks at NW Documentary, so it looks like the final event should ultimately prove successful.

In retrospect, the time constraints of the ten week term put a great deal of pressure on this project, especially given the surprising lack of communication from many parties (to this day I still haven't been able to get a hold of the Mission Theater, or the Bagdad). I also wish I would've consulted with someone who had planned a similar event in the past, as I definitely went into the whole process relatively blind, and certainly could've benefited from the expertise of someone familiar with event planning and promotion. Ultimately, though, the experience has greatly reinforced my initial purpose for the festival, which was to help bridge the many gaps in the depressingly fractured film community in Portland. Hopefully this event will at the very least draw enough people together to increase awareness of the avenues available for film students, and create a bit more collaboration among filmmakers. Hopefully.

The Trainwreck Continues...

This week (or rather, the last week and a half) has not been particularly productive. I've contacted every venue that is remotely practical to host the festival, but still have yet to hear back from nearly all of them. I had emailed the Mission Theater (host of NW Documentary's own Homegrown DocFest) about two weeks ago and still not heard back, but when calling directly I am told that email is the only avenue toward booking. Very frustrating. A similar story for the Hollywood Theater (which seems to be at the top of the list right now, as they are both a non-profit and purportedly eager to help students), where I was redirected through a couple of phone numbers before being told I need to contact Richard Beer at Film Action, the parent organization of the Hollywood Theater. I am still awaiting a response from him as well. As for the Bagdad Theather, there is someone to talk to but they're never in the office, so I'm waiting for them to return my voicemail.

Finally, the Clinton St. Theater was the only venue that I was actually able to get a hold of, where I was told that booking a weeknight would be $300, a Saturday $600, and a Sunday $700. Needless to say, that's far beyond my current budget of $0. This is particularly frustrating as I am hoping to keep the festival free (in theory I could pay for a weeknight at the Clinton St. through door fees, but even then, I literally don't have the available cash to book the venue upfront, so that's essentially out of the question). The only other option I've encountered is a family connection to the owner of the St. John's Cinema, but the location essentially rules that one out, as it would cut the attendance in half (at the least). I think it's integral that I find a way to host this downtown (or close in on the East Side), in a relatively accessible area.

Given the quickly dwindling time frame, at this point I think if I haven't heard back from a venue and locked down a date by early next week, I'll need to look at other, emergency options. One of those is to greatly scale down the event and essentially hold a screening exclusively for students in each of the institutions, which would essentially combine the recently completed final projects of each class. This could be held after graduation (or possibly on a weeknight before) at the Smith Ballroom, but last I checked they were booked solid until then. Right now I'm starting to design flyers in an attempt to get something completed, but even that is greatly reliant on the final venue, date and time. Basically, I'm crossing my fingers at this point.

Trainwreck

So this week has been a relative organizational meltdown. The Portland State Film Committee finally responded to my email after over a week, only to tell me that because the annual Visuals film festival is being held this May, they won't allow me to use the 5th Avenue Cinema space for the next four months. Interesting, as I was under the impression that 5th Avenue was a student resource and thus, ideally, available to students. Given this relatively large wrench in my plans, I spoke to someone about booking the Smith Ballroom, only to find that it is booked solid through the weekend of Spring graduation, June 13th. Shit. At this point my only options seemed to be either holding the festival much later than anticipated (potentially an entire term later), or scrapping the project entirely. I had also looked into a few independent theaters, but because this project lacks any form of budget, it doesn't sound like I'll be able to afford a proper outside venue.

Luckily after speaking with Jennifer it sounds like I'll be able to hold the festival during Spring term afterall, so long as I'm able to nail down all the details within the span of this class. So, I emailed the Film Committee back to say that the end of Spring term would work for me and to try to schedule a meeting to discuss the project further. Two days later (ironically while sitting in my PSU Documentary Production class, where we had just discussed how bizarre it was that they would want to restrict students from using the cinema...) I received a reply stating that, on second thought, even a month after their festival had ended would still somehow have a negative impact on it, so maybe I should wait until Summer term. Seriously. I immediately relayed this to Steve, my documentary professor, who chalked it up to another example of the horrible bureaucratic nightmare that arises wherever the PSU film program is involved.

So this essentially puts me back to square one. The Portland State University "Film Committee" is actively keeping Portland State students from using their own "student-run" cinema so that the student body is unable to share the work being produced within the school and city in general. This is irreconcilably insane. If it were up to me, there would be a film festival every single day if there were students motivated to run them. This whole debacle is particularly ridiculous given that the primary objective of the festival is to work around the insularity of Portland filmmakers and foster a sense of community and collaboration, as well as showcase the work being done by students at both Portland State and NW Documentary. Yet now the festival has essentially been blackballed by Portland State itself, and so I will need to find a way to finance renting an outside, third-party venue just to keep the project alive.

I wish I had something more concrete and hopeful to say this week, but at this point I think I'll be lucky to even find a venue. Here's hoping next week is a bit more fruitful...

Progress

This week I met with Ian McCluskey at NW Documentary to go over the project. It was my first time visiting their loft on 115 SW Ash Street, and I got a feel for the environment there, which was really quite amazing considering how little physical space they actually have:



The first photo shows the "classroom" area, as well as the screening room for student work. Next are the editing stations, all stocked with Final Cut Pro (additional laptops are available for editing and can be checked out, complete with hard cases). The relatively small loft also hosts an audio recording booth for voiceover work, a book and video library containing many resources for documentary production, and an equipment room that houses the various audio and video equipment available for rental.

Ian and I discussed the state of documentary filmmaking and education in Portland, both agreeing that the film world here can be a bit insular and lacking in collaboration, much less awareness of the resources that are available. We discussed ideas for the festival, including how submissions would be handled and judged, how NW Documentary would be presented at the event, and the idea of prizes in the form of free camera rentals for the winners in order to both promote NW Documentary and to use existing resources to motivate filmmakers. I also brought back several pamphlets for the organization that will be distributed throughout the PSU campus in addition to promotional materials for the festival itself.

I still have not heard back from the PSU Film Committee in regard to hosting the event at 5th Avenue Cinema, but intend to track down a direct number in order to get things better organized. I am also looking into the possibility of booking the Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum. This week I will hopefully be finalizing the event date and venue, allowing the next step of creating promotional fliers and beginning to organize the event itself. Until next week...

The Plan

The Portland Short Documentary Festival (placeholder) will ideally be a collaboration between NW Documentary and the Portland State film program, designed to increase awareness of the resources available to Portland filmmakers and develop a better working relationship between them. By including works from a variety of Portland film students representing NW Documentary, Portland State University and the Northwest Film Center, the event will showcase the work being produced throughout the city, highlight the educational resources that made the films possible, and foster an active community between the various institutions.

I am still waiting to set up a meeting with the folks at NW Documentary, but earlier this week I spoke with Steve Amen (host and producer of OPB's Oregon Field Guide, and currently the instructor of a three-part documentary production course at PSU) about the possibility of his collaboration. Steve seemed enthusiastic about the project and suggested I talk to Ian McCluskey, a producer on NW Documentary's award-winning film Eloquent Nude. I'm hoping to visit NW Documentary this week and hopefully get a chance to discuss the festival with Ian and anyone else available, but in the meantime, Steve seems willing to host the event, which would be a terrific fit.

I will also hopefully get a chance to speak with the PSU film committee about booking 5th Avenue Cinema as the venue. A friend and recent graduate of the PSU film program, Bryn Hubbard, previously produced the 2009 edition of the annual Visuals Film Festival for his capstone, so I will also be discussing the project with him in order to better understand the logistical aspects of the project. This week will hopefully see a lot of progress in regard to the community partner(s) and determining the foundation of this project.