The Eye of the Storm

So first off, I know I originally wrote that i'd be speaking to someone from the atlanta film fest and after being in a internet hole for a week there was no way to update that that was no longer happening. HOWEVER, that didn't mean I was without someone to turn to for guidance and advice. Enter Dan Partridge, the Production Co-Director of Full Frame. A festival most of us should be familiar because it's located in NC's very own Bull City. Dan was honestly so welcoming and got back to me very promptly. Many of the things Dan said kind of went together, so I think it's best to get the technical stuff out of the gate first. Dan got drawn to Full Frame because he himself is a former doc student who had always been around the festival before finally taking a job there. Full Frame got over 1200 submissions last festival but they usually only program 40-50. They work in teams similar to ours and they assign volunteers (they get about 350-375)  to each team about a month before the festival so everyone can get used to the venues and he noted that "the more you know ahead of time the more composed you can be in case of an emergency". I kind of liked the idea of meeting with the volunteers a month ahead of the festival because they'll be more comfortable and less like wandering babies later on. He mentioned that really the lack of technology was one of the biggest things that he felt they lacked early on because with updated tech they can prevent people from lining up for sold out films and blocks and even give them recommendations for similar programs. He talked a great length about dealing with sponsorship and donations and how that relationship works out in many different ways. Advising that we don't, in dealing with local business especially, don't ask for more than they can give and figure out what they want in the process.
And maybe with more high bar donors have films from past programs to kind of start the conversation. When it came to filmmakers attending, Dan really does his job for them, to make sure that they're having a good time meeting others, and seeing their films being shown. As well as to see and hear people discussing the films after they leave the showing. His final pieces of advice was to have excellent communication between your teams and to assure filmmakers that people are going to show up to their film and when they do show up it's going to look amazing for the both of them. I gained quite a bit from our conversation and I'm glad I now I have someone else to reach out to for guidance (he told me his email is always open to me now!).