Only 2 hours left! It’s getting close to crunch time. #UOAFP
I just came down from a five-day high, and no- not that kind. From May 5-9, the little hippie town of Eugene, Oregon experienced Cinema Pacific, a brand new film festival featuring films and new media from Pacific-bordering countries. As a graduate student in the University of Oregon’s Arts & Administration program, I was lucky enough to serve on the staff as Community Outreach Coordinator under the leadership of acclaimed film festival director Richard Herskowitz. What I want to highlight, though, is Cinema Pacific’s use of media technologies and how those technologies contributed to a sense of community within the town of Eugene and beyond.
The Cinema Pacific staff had to overcome a number of obstacles before we even began publicizing the festival. Challenges included this being the inaugural year of the festival, the plethora of smaller but more well-known film festivals already in Eugene, the timing (not only did the festival take place during the week of midterms at the university and the weekend of Mother’s Day, but the sun also decided to make its first real appearance of the season at this time), and the lack of an existing and abundant cinephile community in Eugene.
The Fringe Festival
I want to focus on three ways the festival used media technologies to foster a community of filmmakers and non-filmmakers alike. The first way is with the Cinema Pacific Fringe Festival, which is an exercise in video creativity that this year was inspired by Korean director Kim Ki-young’s 1960 black-and-white film The Housemaid. University student artists were given the opportunity appropriate images and sounds from The Housemaid into a 2-5 minute collage film that responded to the strange and powerful film. Artists could use any combination of footage, typography, music and effects they created themselves with at least thirty seconds of images and sounds from The Housemaid. They could also mix in other appropriated images and sounds that are in the public domain. The best entries, selected by a jury of filmmakers and curators, were displayed within a larger media installation at a local gallery.
The fringe component of the festival embraces Henry Jenkins’ idea of a convergence culture, where new media interacts with old media instead of replacing it. Participants in the show were not only introduced to obscure Korean cinema, but they learned to look critically at the remix aesthetic of our time and grapple with what that means for the art world.
The Adrenaline Film Project
The second way is with the Adrenaline Film Project (AFP). The Adrenaline Film Project is a three-day intensive film production workshop that engages students and filmmakers from the community. Under the mentorship of three visiting industry professionals, participants write, shoot, and edit films that are screened on the final evening of the festival. Both the audience and the jury of film professionals vote for their favorite films, and the winners receive cash and other prizes. Media education is an easy way for film festivals to get the community involved while at the same time instilling the arts and art skills into the lives of younger generations. Although the filmmakers are required to submit entries and do need previous filmmaking experience before the competition, AFP allows them the chance to hone their craft and gain real life experience in a Hollywood-like setting. Not only was a new community of filmmakers in Eugene was born over those 72 hours, but this community was also initiated into a prominent and exclusive community of filmmakers via the visiting mentors.
Social Media Outreach
Everyone knows social media is a good marketing tool. I don’t really think anyone would argue with me about that- especially when it comes to marketing to college-age kids. However, I am not going to focus on how Facebook and Twitter helped the staff promote Cinema Pacific or how it can provide independent filmmakers with marketing opportunities during film festivals. I am going to focus on how Cinema Pacific’s social media strategy worked in conjunction with AFP to inform, engage, and inspire a community of filmmakers and their audiences.
1. Inform- Before AFP began, we were able to use both Facebook and Twitter to post deadlines and reminders about the schedule of events. The Facebook event page acted as a sort of hub for participants to ask the staff questions, as well as for the staff to post pictures and video related to the mentors and past AFP competitions that took place at the University of Virginia.
2. Engage- During the AFP orientation, participants were given a business card. What was on this business card? #UOAFP - a Twitter hashtag. AFP coordinators asked the participants to track their progress throughout the sleepless 72 hours and use the hashtag so anyone with or without a Twitter account could follow the teams. Doing this engaged both the participants and their followers. Adding the hashtag #Eugene added yet another dimension of community- that of the local community.
3. Inspire- By having the AFP participants post updates on their filming and production progress, teams could see how their competition was doing and what kind of sets they were working with. Photo updates could inspire other teams to work on similar projects and challenge them to take their creativity to the next level. Friends, family, and followers of #UOAFP could gain insight into creative minds and become inspired themselves.
It is especially interesting to look at Cinema Pacific through a transmedia lens because we can see how people inside and outside of the art world are responding to the convergence of old and new media in the arts. Festivals in particular have become multimedia hubs in recent years, and Cinema Pacific has definitely taken a lead on the smaller, more local scale. I view this blog post as only a draft. That is to say, as Cinema Pacific grows and expands its influence, I am certain that we will become true leaders in the field, and I look forward to being a part of it!
For more information, check out some resources and news pieces on Cinema Pacific and the Adrenaline Film Project:
Cinema Pacific on Facebook
Specifically Pacific
Amateurs to Create Films in 72 Hours
Adrenaline Film Project: 47 Hours and Counting
Making the Rush of “Adrenaline” Permanent
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Arielle Sherman is a California- born and raised Arts Management graduate student adjusting to a not-so-sunny life in the Pacific Northwest. You can find her on Twitter @arielle_rose1 or via e-mail: arsherman@gmail.com.
