Rural Route Film Festival

Festival/Conference basics (from withoutabox, event website and news articles):

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

     -I am meeting with Alan Webber via Skype on Thursday at 12:30.

2.   Who started it and who runs it?

     -Alan Webberà festival director

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

     -The Rural Route Film Festival was created to highlight works that deal with unique people and places outside of the bustle of the city.  Taking in a Rural Route program is like choosing the road less travelled, and learning something new about our constantly amazing world.  Whether it be a fictional backpacking drama set in the Peruvian Andes, a personal/experimental work about life in a Kazakh village, or a documentary about an organic, Appalachian turnip farm, our mission is to screen work about rare people and cultures normally overlooked by the mainstream media.  Our content consists of top quality, cutting edge contemporary and archival work from sources both local and far, far away.

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…)

-The films selected must have a rural theme. It can be a documentary, a narrative or an experimental film. They also select films that have environmental features.

5.   Where is the event?

-Kick Off Party: The Strand Smokehouse in Astoria, NY.

-Screenings: Museum of the Moving Image and the Queens Library (Saturday July 27^th NY premiere of The Sourlandsàfree)

-After Party: Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm

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

     -August 1^st-August 4th

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

            -Receive an application through their website or apply through withoutabox.

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

            -Final Deadline: February 1^st, 2013

9.  How much does it cost to enter?

            -For a feature (40 minutes or more): $35

            -For a Short: (39 minutes or less): $15

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

            -All filmmakers welcome. Submission must contain a completed entry form, a digital entry through withoutabox, a short description of how the term “rural” is defined in your work, and a submission fee.

11.  Is there a Student category?

            -There is no specific Student category.

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

            -For jurying they accept DVDs of the submission.

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

            -If the film is selected for screening, the filmmaker must submit stills in JPEG (size req: 4x6” 300dpi) along with a synopsis and filmmaker bio.

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

            -9 films screened during the most recent festival and 8 shorts screened during the after party/Rooftop Farm shorts screening.

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

-Approximately an hour and a half to two hours.

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

-During the Les Blank program they screened 3 of the great documentary filmmaker’s works: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, Dry Wood, and Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers.

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

-Tickets for the Les Blank tribute were $12 and the screenings at the museum were free with the museum admission. The cost to attend the after party/Rooftop Farm shorts was $15.

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.

-Some of their sponsors include: Burt’s Bees, Wrangler, Fresh Direct, Jet Blue, Nevada Film Office, Museum of the Moving Image, COFFEED, and the Queens Library. Most of these sponsors were local to the film festival so it would be helpful for us to look into local sponsors for Visions.

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

-EVEREST CLIMBER LEVEL SPONSOR: $10,000 and above

            (Limited to two non-competing businesses)

            All Desert Oasis Level Sponsor benefits, plus:

                        · 1 Full page ad on inside cover of Festival Program (2,500+                                          circulation)

                        · Display of sponsor’s banner, poster, or sign inside festival venue                                                (1,200+ attendees)

                        · Company logo screened on private title card before each show

                        · Company logo placed at top of all advertising and promotional                                         materials

                        · Company logo on title page of Festival Program

                        · Company logo on front of Festival Postcard (25,000+)

                        · 8 VIP passes to all screenings

- DESERT OASIS LEVEL SPONSOR: $5,000

            All Crop Harvester Level benefits, plus:

                        · 1 Full page ad in Festival Program (2,500+ circulation)

                        · Link to company website placed in all email newsletters (12,000+                                    circulation) all year throughout offseason tour

                        · Company logo linked from Festival Homepage to company’s website

                        · Company logo on Tour Program for 20-city tour (1,000+ circulation)

                        · 4 VIP passes to all screenings

- CROP HARVESTER LEVEL SPONSOR: $2,500

            All Forest Level benefits, plus:

                        · 1 Half-page ad in Festival Program (2,500+ circulation)

                        · Thanked from stage during film introductions

                        · Company logo screened on title card with other sponsors before each                               show

                        · Company logo on Festival Postcard (25,000+ circulation)

                        · 2 VIP passes to all screenings

- FOREST RANGER LEVEL SPONSOR: $1,000

            All Gardener Level benefits, plus:

                        · Company name on all advertising and promotional materials

                        · Company name on Festival Postcard (25,000+)

                        ·2 passes to all screenings

- GARDENER LEVEL SPONSOR: $500

                        · 1 Quarter-page ad in Festival Program (1,500+)

                        · Company logo linked from sponsors page of Festival Website to                                      company’s website

                        · Company name on sponsors page of Festival Program

                        · Link to company website placed in all email newsletters through festival                          wrap-up (12,000+ circulation)

                        · Product placement opportunities

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

-They did have an indiegogo account and some of the incentives they had for donors were a Burt’s Bees product, a copy of the “Best Shorts Films” DVD from the 2003-2008 festivals, exclusive posters, a festival pass for the 2013 festival, a round-trip plane ticket and a few others.

-They also had a kickstarter account in 2011 where the incentives were very similar to that of this year’s indiegogo account.

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

-Rural Route Film Festival has live music throughout the entire festival during breaks of features. They want their audience to be enriched by this rural culture and to escape from the city life for a few hours. They also utilize an outdoor projection for one of the screening blocks.

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?

-I found it interesting that they do their main shorts block screening at the after party on a rooftop barn in Brooklyn. It deviates from the typical film screening theater.

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

-The website is super easy to navigate I had no problems trying to find what I was looking for. All of their main tabs were informative and helpful for my research.

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

-The layout is not difficult to navigate at all, much easier than that of Artivist’s webpage.

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

-Yes I found everything I needed from the webpage or via a link from the webpage. The only thing that I had to look up outside of the webpage was if they had an indiegogo or kickstarter account, which was very easy to find.

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

-I like the subtle rural elements to the page, like the tractor but for the most part the webpage is very plain.

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

-I would have liked to see more incorporation of color into the webpage to make things more exciting. There is a great deal of white in the webpage.

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

-There was plenty of information provided on the webpage, I never felt like I was struggling to find the answers to the research questions that I needed.

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

-I do not believe that this website was too busy either, it seemed to have the right amount of information on each page without overwhelming me.

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

-I would definitely try to make the page more modern looking. The fonts were a little boring so I would update those as well. I would also try to incorporate more art and graphics on the webpage. That would also help to bring in some more color.

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

-I like the incorporation of a lot of the trailers to the films and that the website actually had an achieve of the previous years and the films they screened during previous festivals.