As an individual whose never had a keen interest, nor the skillset for the practical aspect of filmmaking and as someone who doesn’t aspire to be a film critic, I’ve frequently wondered what I could do with a film degree and have often anxiously dreaded the thought of leaving university, entering a world of film I wasn’t ready or qualified for. However, this all changed when I started my work placement at Belfast Film Festival. Using Borton’s reflective model, as the

‘relative simplicity of Borton’s work’

(Jasper, 2011: 74)

will allow me to get straight the point, providing the most effective reflection, I will reflect on my experience at Belfast Film Festival. Discussing the ways in which it changed my perspective of the film industry’s expansive range of job opportunities and reassured me that my degree was worthwhile.

Initially I didn’t think I would be using my Irish during my placement, I only included the fact that I was bilingual in my CV as I had made a short documentary through Irish previously and wanted to showcase all my previous works. Growing up, studying film from GCSE I had never studied/watched feature length films in Irish until my placement at Belfast Film Festival. I never imagined that my Irish would get me anywhere in the film industry, although considering the work I’m doing at the minute within this local film festival which annually hosts events all over the city, showcasing local and international films, it seems to me that it was my bilingualism that secured me my placement. Providing me with the opportunity to promote, and practically sell out the premiere of the first animated film translated to Irish in the North, Puffin Rock agus Cairde Nua (Dog Ears/Cartoon Saloon, 2023, UK/IRE).

‘Festivals are an important expression of human activity that contributes much to our social and cultural life…events are central to our cultures as perhaps never before.’

(Allen et al., 2011: 5-15)

This event meant a great deal to me as it gave me the opportunity to give this new generation of young Gaelgoirí (Irish speakers) the chance to experience film like I never got to. Leaving school, you often left the language at the school gates. I knew this film was an opportunity to finally make these kids feel included, therefore my promotion had to be tactically thought out with an extensive targeted outreach list.

Going into the promotion, whilst I was nervous, I was also slightly overly confident. I figured since the Irish Language community is such a close-nit community that the utilization of my personal social media platforms would be enough to sell 358 tickets…I was wrong.

‘the number of active social media users reached 3297 million in April 2018.’

(Gutierrez et al., 2019: 3)

Social media is a phenomenal promotional tool, I thought it would be perfect for advertising, it’s a free method of promotion for a free event. However, upon further reflection, I realised that I had overlooked social media age demographics and, as a result, I discovered that it was not the suitable promotional companion I had initially believed it to be. This oversight led to the unfortunate waste of valuable days.

Social media promotion is targeted at young adults, whom the majority of my target audience are not, I needed to think of other ways to fill the premiere. Therefore, bearing in mind that it’s a film aimed at primary school kids, I compiled an Irish Language outreach list with every Irish Language primary school in the North, as well as Irish Language youth centres. I then wrote an outreach email to send to each organisation, in both Irish and English to attract their attention, detailing how wonderful of an opportunity it is to see this great inclusive film. I spent a lot of time on this email ensuring it was well written and began to think this is it, if this doesn’t fill the cinema I don’t know what will. Upon entering the office the day after sending the email I was prepared for an influx of emails to respond to, I had one email from our box office manager giving the team a sales update letting everyone know that Puffin Rock agus Cairde Nua was in the red band (low percentage sold) of sales. It was embarrassing, my ideal career aspiration is to secure a position at this esteemed festival and I can’t even sell out one film within my domain.

I was feeling extremely low at this point of my placement, but I didn’t give up, taking advice from The Handbook of Work Based Learning and coming to terms with the fact that the ‘most useful learning happens in what can be called unstructured situations.’ (Cunningham et al., 2004: x) I began to understand where I was going wrong. Going back to thinking about the close-nit relationships within the Irish Language community, I overcame the petrifying fear of the phone call and called everyone who I had previously emailed. The first call was the worst, then I gradually calmed down and didn’t shake with the typing of each number.  Everyone I called and discussed the event with were ecstatic about it. This more personal promotional approach worked, as phone calls are more personal than emails. The direct real-time communication allowed me to convey my message with tone and enthusiasm, my excitement elicited excitement from them and pushed Puffin Rock into the amber (middle) band of sales.

A sense of relief came over me, then I checked the date, it was 3 days before the event and I had only sold half the tickets. This was when the panic started pounding in, and a flurry of thoughts began to race through my mind. I became consumed with concerns that the festival would no longer host inclusive events due to my failures, and I started to worry that this would have a detrimental impact on my future job prospects. Therefore, recognising the efficacy of personalised, individualised communication and full of adrenaline I hurriedly made a poster advertising the event and drove all around Belfast putting posters in the schools/organisations and discussed it with everyone in person. This was a long tiresome day that I prayed would work, as it was my last opportunity to prove myself and show the demand for films like this in the North, and quite frankly all over Ireland.

Overnight with my direct promotion, Puffin Rock was practically sold out. It was such a rewarding feeling after the many promotional failures, happiness took over me and it was even better the night of the event seeing the packed-out screening. With free events there’s more than likely always a drop in numbers but seeing how many people came and getting to talk to everyone I had met during the promotion of the film was simply phenomenal.  

Whilst I was extremely proud of myself, I narrowly escaped failure. I was given a considerable degree of autonomy which allowed me to showcase my skills and creativity while taking ownership of this promotional process, but as insinuated by my reflection above it’s clear that I struggled. It was a constant journey of learning, where I consistently honed my skills and made improvements along the way. Personally, it seemed like a huge thing to put on one intern with no previous experience, they entrusted me with this project more than I entrusted myself with it. It was quite overwhelming trying to handle this significant amount of pressure, but it somewhat worked to my advantage. It helped me develop valuable independence and confidence skills, if I was working with another staff member I more than likely would have relied heavily on them to do the face-to-face and personal engagements, whereas when that option isn’t given you’re forced to be bold, put yourself out there and do these things yourself.

There are many things I would do different if provided with this opportunity again. In the future I now know that I can’t rush into things, prior to uploading anything on social media and spending valuable time drafting appealing posts, I will study my audience and examine where they are most likely to hear about it, in this case it’s in schools. As quite an anxious person I avoided in-person engagements early on, I could have organised assemblies with school kids and showed them posters and a trailer, but instead I hid behind social media. I can’t rely on these platforms to do the work for me. This experience has benefited me greatly and I’m confident that it will help me inform future practice as I’m more aware of what works and what doesn’t work within the promotion of inclusive events. It is imperative that I promote myself as confidently as I promote the film as my message will garner greater receptivity.

References

Allen, J. et al. (2011) Festival & special event management, Fifth edition, Australia: Wiley.

Cunningham, I. et al. (2004) The Handbook of Work Based Learning, Aldershot: Gower.

Gutierrez, A. et al. (2019) Digital and Social Media Marketing: Emerging Applications and Theoretical Development, Germany: Springer International Publishing.

Jasper, M. (2011) Professional Development, Reflection and Decision-making for Nurses, United Kingdom: Wiley.