POW needs more POW!

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

• She emailed me back with the times that she is available next week and I told her that Tuesday at 6pm (3pm her time) would be best for me. She hasn’t responded to confirm this yet, but I assume that is because it is a long weekend. Right now I am banking on Tuesday, but that could change.

2. Who started it and who runs it?

• I didn’t find who started it. Their “Festival History” section is just an overview and recap of the past 8 years of the festival. There is nothing about who or how it got started. All I got was that in 2008 they started back after a 5 year hiatus. I am hoping to get this question answered in my interview.

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

• The Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival (POWFest) places a spotlight on women directors by showcasing their work and strengthening the community of women in film. POWFest empowers women to find their voice and to share their stories through innovative and quality filmmaking. We feature the work of today’s top women directors, honoring the true pioneers while providing support and recognition for the next generation of leading women filmmakers.

4. How does this compare with their actual programming choices from the past two years?

• From what I have gathered from their “history section” and their submissions guidelines, they accept women directed or co-directed films only and strictly. That seems to have held up over the past 8 years.

5. Be specific in describing what they program (mode, categories within mode, niche, Political? Global? Local? Gender? Sexuality? Race? Any themes that you see? etc...)

• They are looking for women directed or co-directed films. They accept international submissions. There is no theme in the films, as in it doesn’t look like they look for women’s issue films. It seems like it is meant to be more of a celebration of women filmmakers.

6. Where is the event?

• Portland, Oregon. Specifically the Hollywood Theatre.

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

• It usually takes place in March. The 2015 festival took place on March 12-15. The 2016 festival will be on March 3-6.

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

• Direct Entry, FilmFreeway, and Without a Box

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

• Early: June 19, 2015
• Regular: August 14, 2015
• Late: August 28, 2015
• WaB Extended: September 11, 2015

10. How much does it cost to enter?

• Early: $25
• Regular: $35
• Late: $45
• WaB Extended: $55

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

• Must be directed or co-directed by a woman.
• Short Narrative: Narrative Films of any genre under 40 minutes in length
• Short Documentary:  Documentary Films of any genre under 40 minutes in length
• Narrative Feature: Narrative Films of any genre over 40 minutes
• Documentary Feature: Documentary Films over 40 minutes
• Experimental Short: Short Films of Experimental Nature under 40 minutes
• Animation Short: Animated Films of any genre under 40 minutes in length
• Young Director (19 & under): Shorts and Features of any genre

12. Is there a Student category?

• There is not specifically a student category but there is a “Young Director” category where directors 19 and under can submit to.

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

• They accept DVDs through the mail (must send 2 copies) and Vimeo links with the password. Short films must be submitted through an online format.

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

• I would assume DVD or link. They do not specify on the website.

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

• 62 films

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

• They don’t have a detailed schedule of events that I can tell how long each block is. It says what time each block starts, but not when it ends. Some of the blocks look really long though.

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

• Their blocks screen anywhere from 5 shorts to 15 shorts.

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

• Everything takes place at the Hollywood Theatre so the guest has to buy passes and tickets through them. They only have 1 kind of pass which is $40. Tickets for the various events are $8-$10 each.

19. 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.

• They don’t have an official sponsors page (or at least that I can find… their website is weird…) but they have a crawl at the bottom that has a list of sponsor logos. Most of them seem to be companies that probably donated services to them during the festival (Hotel Deluxe, ZipCar, Magnolia Corners Beer & Wine Bar, etc).

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

• Support - $500
• Organization attached to one festival screening or festival related event
• Inclusion of company logo on sponsor slide ad (prior to all screenings)
• Opportunity to include a promotional item in filmmaker gift bags
• Screening/Event Sponsor logo position: printed program and on powfest.com
• Invites to all festival VIP events including: special meet-n-greet with the POWFest Guest of Honor
• 2 POWFest Individual Passes
• Opportunity to gift tickets to participating community partner organizations
• Contributing - $1,000
• Organization attached to one festival screening or festival related event
• Individual Slide Ad (prior to all festival screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo on sponsor slide ad (prior to all screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo in festival promotional video (prior to all screenings + via social media)
• Opportunity to brand one festival related promotional item: Step & Repeat Banner, Filmmaker Bags, Lanyards
• Opportunity to include a promotional item in filmmaker gift bags
• SMALL advertisement in official festival program
• Contributing Sponsor logo position: printed program and on powfest.com
• Sponsor Spotlight Opportunity in the POWFest Monthly Newsletter NEW!
• Reference to sponsorship in all media alerts/press releases/festival program
• Inclusion of company logo in festival poster advertising
• Invites to all festival VIP events including: special meet-n-greet with the POWFest Guest of Honor
• Signage/marketing materials at all events
• 5 POWFest Individual Passes
• Opportunity to gift tickets to participating community partner organizations
• Premiere - $2,500
• Organization attached to one festival screening & festival related event
• Individual Slide Ad (prior to all festival screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo on sponsor slide ad (prior to all screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo in festival promotional video (prior to all screenings + via social media)
• Opportunity to brand one festival related promotional item: Step & Repeat Banner, Filmmaker Bags, Lanyards
• Opportunity to include a promotional item in filmmaker gift bags
• MEDIUM advertisement in official festival program
• Premiere Sponsor logo position: printed program and on powfest.com
• Sponsor Spotlight Opportunity in the POWFest Monthly Newsletter NEW!
• Reference to sponsorship in all media alerts/press releases/festival program
• Inclusion of company logo in festival poster advertising
• Invites to all festival VIP events including: special meet-n-greet with the POWFest Guest of Honor
• Signage/marketing materials at all events
• 10 POWFest Individual Passes
• Opportunity to gift tickets to participating community partner organizations
• Sustaining - $5,000
• Exclusive sponsorship of one primetime screening
• Exclusive sponsorship of one festival related event
• Individual Slide Ad (prior to all festival screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo on sponsor slide ad (prior to all screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo in festival promotional video (prior to all screenings + via social media)
• Opportunity to brand one festival related promotional item: Step & Repeat Banner, Filmmaker Bags, Lanyards
• Opportunity to include a promotional item in filmmaker gift bags
• LARGE advertisement in official festival program
• Sustaining Sponsor logo position: printed program and on powfest.com
• Sponsor Spotlight Opportunity in the POWFest Monthly Newsletter NEW!
• Reference to sponsorship in all media alerts/press releases/festival program
• Inclusion of company logo in festival poster advertising
• Invites to all festival VIP events including: special meet-n-greet with the POWFest Guest of Honor
• Signage/marketing materials at all events
• 15 POWFest Individual Passes
• Opportunity to gift tickets to participating community partner organizations
• Presenting - $10,000
• Presented By Status for the entire festival
• Exclusive sponsorship of one primetime screening
• Exclusive sponsorship of one festival related event
• Individual Slide Ad (prior to all festival screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo on sponsor slide ad (prior to all screenings)
• Inclusion of company logo in festival promotional video (prior to all screenings + via social media)
• Opportunity to brand one festival related promotional item: Step & Repeat Banner, Filmmaker Bags, Lanyards
• Opportunity to include a promotional item in filmmaker gift bags
• LARGE advertisement in official festival program
• Presenting Sponsor logo position: printed program and on powfest.com
• Sponsor Spotlight Opportunity in the POWFest Monthly Newsletter NEW!
• Reference to sponsorship in all media alerts/press releases/festival program
• Inclusion of company logo in festival poster advertising
• Invites to all festival VIP events including: special meet-n-greet with the POWFest Guest of Honor
• Signage/marketing materials at all events
• 20 POWFest Individual Passes
• Opportunity to gift tickets to participating community partner organizations

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

• They don’t have either, but you can make a donation through the Hollywood Theatre website. POW has a link on their website where you can donate. They have suggested donations of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, and $5,000, but they only have incentives of $50 or more get a t-shirt, and $100 or more get a t-shirt and a festival pass.

22. What kind of non­traditional film/video events have they had before? Things like Installations, 'Visual Soundwalls,' VJing etc.

• I haven’t seen anything like that in their programming past.

23. 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?

• It looks like they have Q&As after film screenings, and workshops throughout the year. They also have specialized panels like they had a screening of The Hurt Locker when it first came out and a moderated panel with Kathryn Bigelow.

Our website is our virtual face. Every day our site has incoming traffic, nationally and internationally. It's important that visitors are able to find the information that they need without being sent on a wild goose chase through our pages. We want visiting our site to be easy and painless, and for our visitors to have as good of an experience virtually as they would actually attending the event. Our goal is for the Visions site to be easy to navigate, to be aesthetically pleasing, and to easily deliver the information our audience is looking for without overwhelming them. The following exercise will help you see how important all of these things are to a first time (and hopefully a future repeat) visiting our site.

Answer the following questions about your experience with your assigned festival’s/conference’s website:

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

• Yes because it is a very simple website, but when I say simple I mean amatuer. It is basically like drop down menus, nothing special about it.  

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

• It took me forever to find the Mission Statement because I didn’t know you were supposed to click on the individual drop-down headings. I thought you could only click the drop-down options. So that was weird.

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

• Somewhat. Most of the questions on this didn’t apply to their website (they don’t have Indiegogo, Kickstarter, specific sponsor page, etc)

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

• I really like their logo. It is all pink and it is very eye catching.

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

• It is so simplistic. They need a graphic designer or something on their team. There is nothing special about the website and it looks like a template. It is all pink and white. There is no theme or campaign or gripping. It makes them look like they are a small, amatuer film festival and not an important festival that features major women filmmakers like Kathryn Bigelow or Gillian Armstrong. It really bothers me because it could be so much better.

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

• YES! Their main page is links to their newsletter. They need to just overhaul their website. Make it more clear and inventive.

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

• I just hate their newsletter on the main page.

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

• Oh so many things. Have more of a color scheme, put more info about the upcoming festival on it, feature the mission statement/goals more prominently. I would change the “history” page to make it not look like a teenagers blog. They just posted pictures and had the text wrap around it. It didn’t look good at all. They also need an editor for the website. I found so many spelling and grammar errors. THEY HAD A MISSPELLING ON THEIR SPONSORSHIP LEVELS!!!!!! Just… OY!!!

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

• Honestly, not much. They need Indiegogo or Kickstarter. They need better pictures. I want to go in and change a whole lot about their website, and honestly from where I stand now, I want to change a lot about the festival itself… I am being very critical about this.