2. 2
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Acknowledgment 4
Note to the reader 55
I. Just Festival: an association and its festival 6
1- The association 6
2- The festival 6
a. Content 6
b. Context: the Fringe Festival 710
c. Just Festival: Standing out from the crowd 7
d. The festival’s actors and contributors 8
II. Communications intern: an interdisciplinary role 10
1- The Just Independent Asian Film Festival (July 9-12) 11
a. Promotion 1115
b. Preparation and Supervision 12
c. Report 13
2- Before the main festival (July 13 – 31) 14
a. Setting up promotional tools 14
b. Starting the promotion prior to the festival 1820
c. Establishing a procedure for media volunteering 20
3- During and after the main festival (August 1-30) 22
a. Updating social media accounts 22
b. Producing content 23
c. Assisting the Public Relations Manager 2625
III. Difficulties and Achievements 27
1- Difficulties 28
2- Achievements 29
Conclusion 30
Sources 3130
Appendix 32
3. 3
Introduction
I completed my third year traineeship as a communications intern in an
association, just Festival, which organises each year an eponymous festival from August
1st
to August 25th
.
First of all, I must precise that this internship position did not exist beforehand: it35
was created for me after I met the Volunteers Coordinator of the festival and contacted
her repeatedly for over a month. My first aim was to find a position as assistant event
manager or assistant project manager. I already had some experience in event
management and wished to acquire more professional skills in this field. I believed that
taking care of projects on a larger scale and in a foreign country could confirm or40
disconfirm my career plans, and would in any case constitute a truly constructive
experience. However, my applications for those positions all failed for the same reason:
employers could not hire an event assistant for less than six month. I thus started
applying for communications intern positions in the various festivals hosted in
Edinburgh during the summer, and was finally hired by just Festival.45
Even though I did not really wish to work in communications, I also possessed
some experience in this area and this could be an excellent way to learn more about
event management on a large scale. Just Festival being a small organisation, with the
entire team working in the same room, I would be able to observe what was happening
around me and learn from different actors. In the meanwhile, managing the Festival’s50
communication would also allow me to gather some professional contacts, to develop
my creative skills and of course to use English in a professional environment.
After a discussion with the Volunteers Coordinator and the Public Relations
Manager, it was decided that my role would consist in the following tasks:
4. 4
Promoting the festivals (just International Asian Film Festival and just Festival)55
prior to the events
Being responsible for social media updates, blog and media outputs
Coordinating media volunteers
Taking, sharing and editing photos and videos
Assisting the Public Relations Manager60
Besides, it was agreed that I would help completing any other tasks if needed be.
Moreover, this list cannot be exhaustive since as shown in this report, my role evolved
considerably throughout the Festival.
Acknowledgment65
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the whole team of just Festival
for accepting to take me on board, helping me and encouraging me throughout my
internship. I am particularly thankful to Theodora Cadbury, Volunteers Coordinator,
who created a Communications Intern position for me despite my lack of experience, to
Katherine Newbigging and Beata Skobodzinska, respectively Festival Director and70
Coordinator, for their support and patient guidance, and to Kleio Pethainou, without
whom I would often have forgotten to put things into perspective and breathe.
I would also like to thank the ISIT for allowing me to accept that internship
position and helping me to understand where were my priorities, my goals and my
assets.75
Finally, I express my warm thanks to my friends, flatmates and relatives, who
gave me all the advice, help and support I needed before and during my internship.
5. 5
Note to the reader
Just Festival being the name of the festival as well as of the association by which it
is managed, it will appear a great number of times throughout this report. In order to
lighten the text, I will often use the shortened version of the festival’s name: Just.
Just Festival is also a brand, and as such shall be written in a specific way, which I point
out here to avoid any confusion:
- When written in full, “just Festival” is spelled with a small j and a capital f,
unless the name is at the beginning of a sentence. In that case, the j becomes a
capital as well.
- When written in its shortened version, “Just” is always spelled with a capital J.
- Likewise, when used as a shortened version of just Festival, “the Festival” is
spelled with a capital f. On the contrary, a small f is used to insist on the nature
of the event, in particular to differentiate the festival as a punctual event from
the Festival as an association running all year or as a brand.
6. 6
I. Just Festival: an association and its festival80
1- The association
Just Festival is a Scottish registered charity which gives half of its income to
selected charities: Mercy Corps and Streetwork in 2014. The association, formerly
known as the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, respects some core values: respect,
peace and freedom. All the actions taken by the association tend to promote these values85
in order to create a just society for everyone: just Festival, for instance, refuses to be
sponsored by any company, for it is extremely difficult to find out whether they are
ethical in every aspect. For this reason, just Festival, unlike most of the other festivals
organized in Edinburgh, cannot yet be self-financed, and receives 60% of its funds from
the government. Three years ago, Katherine Newbigging was appointed Festival90
Director and proceeded to a rebranding of the association. The Festival of Spirituality
and Peace thus became just Festival, a name that underlines the aim of the festival while
removing the religious connotation contained in the former one.
Throughout the year, just Festival organizes events such as conversations, talks,
films, civic cafes, and this year for the first time the just Independent Asian Film95
Festival, the main event being a one month festival, named after the organization.
2- The festival
a. Content100
The eponymous festival displays each year over three hundred events from the
1st to the 25th of August. These events are classified in 6 categories: performances,
conversations, talks, family events, workshops and exhibitions. These activities are held
in 19 different venues, however most of them, and the association’s headquarters, are
7. 7
hosted by St John’s Episcopal Church, which allows the festival to use its facilities105
without charges.
b. Context: the Fringe Festival
Even though just Festival stands by itself, its environment plays an extremely
important role in its success: each year in August, Edinburgh turns into a sort of110
festivals factory, hosting a dozen different festival, hundreds of artists and attracting
visitors from the entire world. During one month, the population of the Scottish capital
doubles. One of the most important events is the Fringe Festival, named so because it
federates all the shows which are not part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s
official programme. The aim of the Fringe is to give the opportunity to any artist to find115
his public without being censored in any way: comedians, dancers and singers are given
a spot to perform in the city without being selected by any panel beforehand. The result
of this system is a city swarming with artists who perform day and night in the streets,
pubs, theatres and churches. Some of the just Festival’s events are part of the Fringe,
which gives them more visibility. But more importantly, for Just, taking place in August120
means taking advantage of this unique concentration of visitors whose aim is precisely
to see as many shows as possible.
c. Just Festival: Standing out from the crowd
125
As positive as this context is, it makes even more important for Just to assert its
unique character. Each year, just Festival revolves around different themes which define
the choices of shows, talks etc. This August, all the festival’s events were related to four
themes: home, freedom, forgiveness and sectarianism, the last being a request from the
8. 8
government. These themes were evoked through various performances such as “The130
Onion of Bigotry : A history of hatred” – a play about the construction of sectarianism
in Scotland – as well as talks and conversations animated by associations like Weaving
Destination1
or Mercy Corps2
. It has to be noted that the association has been reputed
since its creation for its talks and conversations. It is only recently that Just developed to
host various types of events and become a festival in its own right.135
d. The festival’s actors and contributors
Despite its achievements, just Festival remains to this day a small association
with a quite simple organisation. Outside of the main festival’s period, only two people140
remain to manage the charity: the Festival Director and the Festival Coordinator. From
July to August, the core of the festival increases from two to ten people, including the
Board Members, the Festival Director, the Festival Coordinator and the different
managers (Front of house, stage, box office and public relations). A large number of
volunteers must be added to this central work force, as well as the vergers in charge of145
the church’s maintenance. They receive their instructions from the managers and work
by shifts. The volunteer’s workforce is renewed every week, which amounts the total
number of volunteers to about 120 over the whole festival.
I myself was a volunteer, however unlike the other I was present during the
entire duration of the festival, including during the preparation and report phases, was150
1
Weaving Destination is a social entreprise established in the State of Assam in India. Its weaving
production units employs women and girls affected by the HIV or who are survivors of human trafficking,
in order to give them skills which allow them to earn their own income and start a new life.
2
Mercy Corps is an NGO present in over 40 countries to help people striken by poverty, conflicts or
natural disaster. Mercy corps aims to build stronger communities by developping sustainable solutions
to these situations.
9. 9
attributed a particular task – promoting the festival – and received my instructions
mainly from the PR manager and the Festival Director.
Besides, an important network of external contributors gravitates around the festival
and is essential to its smooth functioning: the church’s and other venues’ employees,
artists and their managers, supporting associations etc. (See organisation chart below).155
Board members
Festival Director
Katherine Newbigging
Festival Coordinator
Beata Skobodzinska
Church
Stage
Manager
Daniel
Hunter
Hall Stage
Manager
Wezi Mhura
Box Office
Manager
Kleio
Pethainou
Front of
House
Manager
Marco Bauder
Marco Bauder
Public
Relations
Manager
Nicky Hawkins
Communications
intern
Sandrine Cazalet
VolunteersVergers
Catering
Knights Kitchen
Funding
Scottish Government
Artists
Supporting Associations
Streetwork
Mercy Corps
Weaving Destinations
Edinburgh Inter Faith Association
International Voluntary Service
Promotion
The Fringe
Journalists
Reviewers
Bloggers
Venues
St John’s Church Cornerstone Bookshop Henderson’s Café
Quaker Meeting House St Mark’s Scotish Storytelling Center
The Assembly Rooms Cuckoo’s Bakery The Theosophical Society
The School of Philosophy The Alwaleed Center
Legend: Internal actors (core) External contributors
Figure 1: Just Festival’s Organisation Chart (2014)
Volunteers
Coordinator
Theodora
Cadbury
10. 10
II. Communications intern: an interdisciplinary role
As shown on the organisation chart, just Festival does not include a
communication department as such, nor any Communications Manager. The Public160
Relations (PR) Manager is in charge of liaising with journalists and reviewers and of
writing press releases, but did not work full time for the festival and thus could not
devote herself completely to its promotion. Given the situation, I could rely on the PR
manager’s instructions as far as journalists were concerned, but was for the rest
expected to take initiatives and to write by myself, so to speak, my job description. To165
do so, I gathered information about my role and what was expected from me at the
weekly team meetings, where I had the opportunity to understand the functioning of the
festival and to ask questions to all the managers at the same time.
This explains the diversity of the tasks I completed but also the lack of
terminological precision which may appear in this report.170
My internship can be divided into three distinct periods, each of which implied
the completion of different tasks:
1- The Just Independent Asian Film Festival : Preparation and supervision (July 1-
12)
2- Before the main festival: Promotion and preparation (July 13 – 31)175
3- During and after the main festival: promotion, organisation, reports (August 1-
30)
The tasks I completed, the way I did it and my perception of my role evolved
over these three periods, therefore I shall split up this part of my report into three points,
following a chronological order.180
11. 11
1- The Just Independent Asian Film Festival (July 9-12)
The Just Independant Asian Film Festival (JIAFF) was organised by just Festival
for the first time this year and aimed to celebrate Cambodian and Indian independent
film producers. It consisted in a series of screenings organised during four days. Each
screening ought to be preceded by a short oral introduction about the historical,185
sociological or technical context of the short film and some screenings were followed
by Q&Y sessions.
During the JIAFF, my main tasks consisted in promoting the festival, preparing and
supervising the screenings, and writing a report.
190
a. Promotion
Since I started my internship a week only before the JIAFF was launched, I
mainly promoted the festival as it was running.
My first task was to promote the JIAFF through social media, however at that
time I only had access to the festival’s Twitter account and to its website. However I set195
up an account on Hootsuite, a social media management dashboard which allows users
to manage several social media accounts from a unique platform, in prevision to the
main festival. I therefore was able to programme tweets and publications at the start of
the JIAFF for its whole duration, ensuring that all the projections would be promoted. In
complement to these daily informative tweets, I published some movies trailers before200
the screenings and pictures of the audience and panellists afterwards.
However this technique proved to be as good as useless, for I had not targeted
the right audience: the Festival’s Twitter followers, that is to say the Festival’s regular
visitors, did not seem overly interested in these screenings. Tourists and festival-goers
who came to Edinburgh for the International Festival and the Fringe also showed a very205
12. 12
limited interest towards Exotic short movies, as I discovered while flyering in the streets:
most of them would argue either that it was “not their type of movies”, or that they were
leaving Edinburgh the next day. I thus tried to target a new audience, which I thought
could feel more affected by the themes and subjects addressed in the selected short
films. I listed the five most influent Asian associations in Edinburgh and sent them210
newsletters and invitations to the screening. This helped raising the profile of the
festival, as noted in the board report I submitted at the end of the JIAFF: “The success
of Love In India can be explained by its screening time, but also by the presence of a
large Indian community in Edinburgh. Most of the audience present at this screening
was de facto part of this community.”215
In addition to the promotion via the internet, I worked alongside with the Public
Relations Manager, Nicky Hawkins, in order to achieve coverage in local newspapers
(The Edinburgh Reporter, The Evening News) and on Radio Forth. We put together
press releases combining information about screening times and venues, and reflections
related to the content of the short films.220
Anyhow, promoting the JIAFF on short notice was a risky challenge, and it
resulted in rather low audience figures, but it allowed me to get a grip on my role within
the festival and to define the type of promotion to be used in August.
b. Preparation and Supervision
Besides promoting the screenings, I was in charge of helping with the225
preparation of the JIAFF at a very concrete level.
I was put in relation with one of the JIAFF’s programmers in order to assist her
with the choice of the films and with their running order – when several short films
were to be projected during one screening – and to burn DVD’s. I also met with the
13. 13
venue’s technician before each screening to make sure that the DVDs, the projector and230
the sound system worked properly, and to review the films running order. I also had to
ensure that the panellists were present and ready to deliver their speech. When it was
not the case, as it happened for one screening in particular, I presented the films to the
audience myself.
However, the main challenge I encountered appeared when I was given the task235
to establish a daily list of guests who would receive complementary tickets. The
screenings were programmed at the Scottish Storytelling Centre (STC), an external
venue. Just Festival therefore had no control over the box office, for the tickets were
directly sold by the STC, hence the necessity for the guests list to be approved by STC’s
Manager. The number of complementary tickets granted per screening had been decided240
by STC’s Manager and just Festival’s PR Manager before the start of my internship, but
problems soon showed up as neither one nor the other remembered clearly what they
had agreed upon. As I first followed the PR Manager’s instruction, the first day I
submitted a list which was too long and was thus rejected by the STC. Since just
Festival could not pay for guests’ tickets, what was originally a mere communication245
problem resulted in guests’ discontent and awkwardness on both sides, the STC’s and
just Festival’s. The situation required me to act as a mediator between audience
members, the STC and just Festival and was solved by negotiating with STC’s manager
and setting up some strict rules about who would be granted complementary tickets.
250
c. Report
The attendance statistics, the problems encountered as well as the suggested
solutions were listed in the report I submitted, along with the PR Manager, to the
Festival’s Director at the end of the JIAFF. This report was to be handed out to the
14. 14
board of directors. Writing this report was a good way to look back on my first255
experience within the festival and to understand how to improve in the following month.
(See appendix: JIAFF report)
2- Before the main festival (July 13 – 31)
Just Festival has been existing since 2005, however the team being renewed260
every year – to the exception of the festival’s director – its promotional strategy has
been changing with the people in charge of it. By taking over this role, I needed to find
out which tools were used in the past and for what purposes, which was my first task. I
then was able to start promoting the festival – or to be more accurate to intensify the
promotion already started by the director – and finally to develop my own ideas: in this265
case, putting the volunteers who would be present throughout the festival to
contribution.
a. Setting up promotional tools
“Tools” refers here to electronic tools, which includes the social media, the
website, photos and videos. All non-media communication supports – banners, leaflets,270
programmes – were managed by the festival’s Director and Coordinator.
Social media
Just was already present on a number of social media platforms in the past years,
however its activity on some these platforms – Instagram for instance – had not been
maintained, while some other platforms – Facebook, Twitter – were overloaded with275
publications.
Here are the social media on which Just already had an account before 2014.
They are listed from the most to the less used by just Festival.
15. 15
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/justFestival
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justfestival.page280
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFoSP
- Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/justfestival
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/justfestival
In addition to these, I created an account for Just on Scoop’it
(http://www.scoop.it/t/just-festival), a content curation platform which allows to create285
content hubs focused on a particular subject and to share them with other curators and
on other social media.
This list of social media might appear quite short. However, in the light of my
late hiring, focusing on a few platforms rather than multiplying accounts seemed to be
the best way to strengthen the Festival’s visibility and popularity. Just could benefit290
from its already large circles of followers on these media to attract other people in a
snowball effect, while starting from an empty base on another platform would be much
more time-consuming.
Blog and website
The Festival’s website is hosted by Squarespace and can be found by typing the295
following url: http://www.justjust.org/
It had already been set up by the Festival Director and Coordinator and was only
sporadically modified during the festival in August. Its main aim was to give static
information about the festival’s content, programme, values and team. Audience
members could also book tickets through the website, each event page being linked with300
Brown Paper Tickets ticketing system.
16. 16
Meanwhile dynamic information such as day-to-day shows promotion,
performances reviews, pictures and recordings had to appear on another platform, hence
the necessity of a blog. Just’s blog was previously hosted by Blogspot
(http://justfestivalnews.blogspot.fr/ ), however I was asked to create one on Squarespace,305
within the website itself, in order to link static and dynamic information in a very
simple and straightforward manner. In concrete terms, this resulted in adding a “2014
just Festival Blog” button in the website’s top navigation bar, and linking it to the built-
in blog.
Before the start of the main festival, I divided the blog into the following310
categories:
One category to advertise for upcoming events:
- Just Today (renamed “Farewell!” on the last day): this section appeared at
the top of the first page and was divided into two sub-sections, one
containing advertisement for one or two selected events, and the other listing315
all the festival’s events programmed that day, each item of this list being
linked to the corresponding event in the calendar. This section’s content was
to be updated every day.
Six categories matching each of the six types of events announced in the320
programme, containing mainly reviews:
- Performances : containing performances reviews
- Discussions : containing discussions reviews and recordings
- Talks: containing talk’s reviews and recordings
- Family : containing family events reviews325
- Exhibitions: containing exhibitions reviews
17. 17
- Workshops: containing workshops reviews
Three categories were devoted to a deepest reflection on the Festival’s themes
and its whereabouts:330
- Let’s talk about it: containing posts about selected themes relevant to the
festival (sectarianism, peace…)
- Artists voices : containing interviews of artists
- Behind the scene: containing posts describing the volunteers / staff work
These categories were to be filled up with articles, reviews, but also pictures and335
videos, which production was also my responsibility.
Photos and videos
Since Just could not afford to hire any professional photographer and
considering that taking photos and filming are tasks I was glad to take on, I became the340
Festival’s official photographer for the time of my internship. In July, I thus set up an
electronic photo and video archive on Google Drive in order to share pictures easily
with the rest of the team and some performers, producers or artists. A file was created
for each event, and events files were gathered together by event categories:
performances, conversations, talks, films, workshops, family events and exhibitions.345
Another file was dedicated to pictures of the volunteers and the staff. Within each file,
each picture or video was to bear the name of its author – in case it would not always be
myself – and the date.
Organising the archives in this way was meant to allow just Festival’s team to
reuse visual contents easily even after the end of the festival. It also enabled the350
18. 18
Director to control my work since I was working independently, and was free to access
any event and capture any image all along the festival.
b. Starting the promotion prior to the festival
Besides setting up numeric promotional tools, most of my time before the355
beginning of the main festival was spent on making contact with potential audience
members, journalists and bloggers through three main channels:
Facebook and Twitter
Before the 1st
of August, my use of the social media was limited to posting
reminders for the opening event (Just Starting, on August 2nd
) and enlarging the360
Festival’s circles of “followers” on Twitter and “friends” on Facebook. The main way
to achieve this task was through contacts association. On Twitter, this consisted in
looking at a key follower’s list of followers. When some of these followers had values
or interests which could denote a potential interest for Just, posting on their timeline or
starting to follow them would draw their attention to just Festival, and some of them365
would start in their turn to follow us.
This technique was an efficient way to attract specific people’s attention,
however it would have been more adapted to a long-term communication strategy rather
than to a pre-festival promotion.
370
Events listing
Another way of touching the audience, but in larger proportions this time, was
through inputting the festival’s events in the database of listing websites, or through
sending press releases about particular events to influent paper publications such as
19. 19
Three Weeks Edinburgh, a free weekly magazine which defines itself as a375
“comprehensive guide to all the festivals that take place during August”3
.
Listing events is an extremely effective technique, since websites dedicated to
festivals are the first tool used by tourists and locals when looking for an event to attend.
It gives a great visibility in particular to performances, and facilitates the booking
procedure by allowing people to book tickets online. It also creates a link with380
reviewers, for most of these websites are animated by journalists and arts professionals,
who are looking for shows to attend in order to fill up their reviews pages.
However, most listing websites require festival teams to list their events
themselves one by one, which turned out to be an extremely time-consuming procedure.
Within 15 days, I managed to input the full list of Just’s events – over 300 – on two385
websites only: Broadway Baby and What’s on Scotland. Despite of the tedious
character of this task, it is one of the most important I was entrusted with, and resulted
in the attendance of a journalist from Broadway Baby to a performance. Some audience
members also confirmed that they had found out about just Festival through these
websites, although most of them either already knew just Festival before, either were390
browsing the Fringe mobile application to find shows, or simply came after receiving a
flyer in the street.
Contacting journalists and bloggers
The last promotion task was a request from the PR Manager. It consisted in395
contacting journalists and bloggers in a very direct way – through e-mails, phone calls
or even face to face . As the PR Manager had already started to contact specific people
3
ThreeWeeks Edinburgh. About ThreeWeeks. [online]. Available at :
http://www.threeweeks.co.uk/information/ (Accessed 21 November 2014)
20. 20
according to the nature of the different events, I was in charge of liaising with food
experts and amateurs to communicate around our food and drinks events.
Apart from exchanging with bloggers and journalists through e-mails, this led400
me to meet with the manager of a Punjabi restaurant which happened to be a social
enterprise focused on the professional insertion of foreign women in Edinburgh, and
with the owner of an African street food restaurant. Their interviews were then reused
as a lively illustration of the Festival’s aim and diversity within blog articles and press
releases. Meeting the restaurants’ managers face-to-face led them to feel more implied405
in the festival’s life as opposed to participating to a vague event from afar – and for me,
it constituted a first contact with some external actors of the festival and gave me more
assurance when meeting artists and proposing them my ideas later on.
c. Establishing a procedure for media volunteering410
Being in charge of the major part of the promotion was possible while the
festival had not yet kicked off, however I was well aware that my task would not be
sustainable once the festival started if I was the only person producing written and
visual content and updating all the blog categories as well as the various social media
accounts, hence my decision of seeking the help of volunteers. The idea was to propose415
volunteers to produce some written or visual content – reviews, blog articles, pictures,
videos – on a punctual basis. This content would then be used for the Festival’s short
and long term promotion.
Volunteers were assigned tasks by the stage, front of house and box office
managers, and were following a rota established by the Volunteers Manager. However,420
media volunteering was not included in this rota. The aim was thus to have them
helping out even though this not part of their contract as volunteers.
21. 21
I established a media volunteering procedure (see appendix, file 3: “Media
Volunteers Handbook”), created a sign-up sheet and talked to the volunteers at the first
volunteers induction session.425
Yet, my attempt to obtain some help from the volunteers failed for various
reasons which I was too busy to understand at the moment, but can now decipher. First,
although I was trying to maintain the contact with the volunteers, I was spending most
of my time behind a computer or a camera and was not integrated to the life of the main
group of volunteers. As I was presenting media volunteering as a service which was430
asked of them but had no authority on them, neither any connection with them, they did
not feel concerned by my situation not by the need of media content. The second reason
is technical: since I proposed the idea of a media volunteering system after I was hired
in July, most volunteers had already been told what kind of tasks they would be
assigned and had planned to use their free time for other purposes such as socialising435
and visiting the city.
Some volunteers did participate by writing down a short review, taking some
pictures or sharing their impressions about a show or the Festival with me, however
they only did so when I addressed a precise request to a specific person. Any attempt to
convince the group as a whole was failing because I left them with the possibility of440
pretending they had not understood, not heard, or that they were counting on the rest of
the group to do it.
My inability to understand this dynamic at the time left me with a feeling of
failure and a considerable amount of work to achieve, which I shall now detail.
445
22. 22
3- During and after the main festival (August 1-30)
After the beginning of the festival, I had to reorganise my work to take on the
new tasks at hand. These tasks can be categorised as following: updating the social
media accounts, producing content to populate these accounts as well as the blog, and450
assisting the PR Manager with various promotion tasks.
a. Updating social media accounts
The social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, were initially used as an
extension of the website: the events pages already created on Squarespace were shared
through these platforms to touch a larger audience and increase the number of views on455
the website itself. This was the simplest way of promoting events and I perpetuated this
practice by sharing key articles and reviews published on the Festival’s blog. In this
way, the use of Twitter and Facebook was similar, all the more so as the two accounts
were linked together, duplicating any information published on one of these platforms
on the other one.460
In the same way as some of the content published on Facebook, Twitter and on
the blog could be drawn from Just’s accounts on other social media, mostly Youtube,
Vimeo and Scoop’it, thus creating a certain dynamism and self-sustainable media
system.
However, each platform also has its specificities and was used according to them.465
Facebook posts can host a greater number of characters than Twitter, and was a better
platform to publish illustrated articles, reviews and videos on, whereas Twitter was used
in a more specific way to send short and striking messages: last minute reminders for
upcoming shows of the day and quotations from speakers which could be shared by the
Festival’s staff members present at talks and conversation events. As for Scoop’it, it470
23. 23
was constituted into a press book, curating and classifying all the articles about just
Festival published on the Internet. A Scoop’it widget was attached to the Festival’s blog
in order to give more visibility to this tool, still not very well known by the larger
audience.
Youtube, Vimeo and Instagram were mainly use to publish events-related videos475
and pictures. These were key media as visual content attracts the audience more
efficiently than any kind of text, as proved by the statistics of just Festival’s Facebook
page. Nevertheless, I chose to publish a relatively low number of videos and pictures
via these platforms to favour good quality content – a good quality video requires hours
of editing – and to strike the public by punctual information rather than overwhelming480
them with multiplied images.
b. Producing content
Apart from the professional reviews, press articles and event description pages
which could be reused on the various platforms, all the content had to be produced from485
scratch. The Festival Director and Coordinator being extremely busy, they gave me
carte blanche regarding this content and warned me that no one would proofread my
articles. The only requirement was to avoid publishing any content likely to tarnish just
Festival’s image.
490
o Written content
The written content I produced was mainly intended for the blog and consisted
in reviews, thematic articles and promotional announcements for the upcoming shows.
The category appearing on the homepage of the blog, “Just Today” was meant as
an advertisement tool for daily performances or for performances programmed a few495
24. 24
days later. However, promoting events on a day-to-day basis and at the same time on a
long term basis without overflowing the blog with information was quite delicate and
led me to favour short articles, allowing web users to see the content in one glance,
without opening a new page.
The articles and reviews published within the other categories had to be more500
substantial and required a certain knowledge of the subject – theme, performance,
personality – addressed. These articles were my main concern and yet those I published
the less, for I did not have the time to attend all the events and did not manage to obtain
any help from the other volunteers. Besides, reviews written by a member of the
Festival’s team would seem biased and might not yield the effect desired, all the more if505
all these reviews were written by the same person. I thus mainly used an indirect way of
reviewing shows, by including critical comments in the promotional articles published
for a performance. This was only possible, of course, for shows performed on several
dates spread out over the festival.
The very large majority of the articles published were illustrated by a picture or510
a video, when these pictures or videos did not constitute the main body of the post. This
kind of visual content always has a great power of attraction over readers, and as such
had to be very carefully produced, chosen and edited.
o Visual and audio content515
I focused on three types of visual and audio contents: pictures, promotional
videos and talks or conversations recordings.
Pictures were the most used and the easiest to manage. I photographed events,
artists and staff members according to my needs or to journalists needs for articles
illustrations, but also on the request of artists and show producers, and more generally520
25. 25
to create archives which could be reused to promote just Festival throughout the year.
The pictures would from time to time be sent to newspapers by producers or by just
Festival’s PR manager, and would consequently be published online as it is the case
here: http://alledinburghtheatre.com/such-a-nice-girl-review-3-stars-edfringe/ . The
thousands of photos taken had to be sorted out, classified and shared with the people525
concerned through a numeric platform, either Google Drive or Dropbox.
From an aesthetic point of view, the pictures had to respect the atmosphere of
the performances and the artists’ requirements. It was not unusual for artists to tell me
that they did not want any close-up picture or did not wish to appear on any picture at
all. In any case, all the people whose voice or image was captured had to sign a media530
release form, without which I could not publish the picture, video or recording in
question.
Videos were more complicated to manage, more time-consuming, and required
me to work in close relation with artists and their managers or producers. I thus faced
very different situations, which can be illustrated through two main examples. The first535
one is the promotional video made for the play An Island Between Heaven and Earth
(http://vimeo.com/103123232 ). Since this video was a command from Alistair
Rutheford, the producer of the play, the artists and technicians all cooperated and gave
me some instructions. The video eventually met their requirements and was published
on their and our website, Twitter and Facebook pages. I was warmly thanked for my540
help and the audience started to grow. On the contrary, the second example, the trailer
of The Onion of Bigotry (http://vimeo.com/103834978 ) indicates a real lack of
communication on each side, mine and the artists’. The initial situation was different, as
the video was not a command but a personal initiative. After taking film footages with
the consent of the actors, I edited the video following the scenario I had created. Not545
26. 26
long after I had published the video, the producer asked me quite bluntly to discard it
and to start again, for he judged the video quality very bad, and the actors thought their
acting during the performance I had filmed and used as rough material was too poor to
be shown. I was then asked to filmed bits of the play chosen by the actors, who also
gave me some very precise instructions regarding the editing part and the final result550
they expected. The second video met their requirements and our cooperation was
ultimately a success, but this video cost me days of work and dissuaded me from
starting any new project on my own initiative.
The last type of media content published was recordings of the conversations
and talks. This was a rather simple task, which only required me to record the555
discussions with the agreement of the speakers, to convert the recording into the proper
format and upload it on the blog with a short comment. These recordings could then be
added to the Festival’s archives and shared on Twitter to raise just Festival’s profile,
given that the association was first known for the quality of its conversations and talks
events.560
c. Assisting the Public Relations Manager
Aside from my day-to-day tasks, I assisted the PR Manager on a punctual basis
by liaising between herself – who did not work on site – and the Box Office Manager to565
make sure journalists’ complementary tickets were ready, by writing some press
releases and by welcoming and escorting journalists when she could be there herself. I
was especially in charge of liaising with a French journalist from Radio France who
came to interview some artists. I organised the interview, welcomed the journalist and
translated the report into English after it was broadcasted in France.570
27. 27
However the most interesting task I was entrusted with was to promote just
Festival’s events at the Fringe Central alongside with the PR Manager. The Fringe
Central is the headquarters of the Fringe Festival, which federates and manages a large
majority of the events happening in August in Edinburgh. Some of the just Festival’s
events were part of the Fringe Festival, which granted us the right of promoting them to575
the journalists and reviewers present at the Fringe Central during one day. The main
newspapers – The Scotsman, ThreeWeeks Edinburgh, Brodway Baby etc. – were
represented, and hundreds of artists were present and hoping to convince journalists to
attend and review their performances. The PR Manager and I went separate ways to be
more efficient, which left me alone with the task of “selling” the festival to journalists580
within one, maximum two minutes. This called up some persuasion and improvisation
skills, as I needed to talk about events I knew very few about and a festival which I had
just started to work for. It went well and I gained some confidence as well as the feeling
that I was truly part of just Festival as I was able to be its spokesperson.
585
Ultimately, assisting the PR manager taught me more new skills than most of the
other tasks I fulfilled, for I was following directions and learning from an experienced
worker, while I was left to work on my own initiatives the rest of the time.
III. Difficulties and Achievements590
This internship has been very varied in its tasks and quite original in its
modalities. This led me to face a certain number of challenges, but ended up to be a
very educational experience.
595
28. 28
1- Difficulties
The major difficulty I encountered appeared from the very start of my internship
and was at the origin of all the others: it is the blurred definition of my position and of
my role within the Festival. As this position was created for me, my colleagues and the600
Director were expecting me to define it myself and to find my place within the team and
the functioning of the whole event. This led to a long list of uncertainties and failures. I
did not want to force myself on the team by taking on tasks which were already
managed or supposed to be managed by other people, even though they entered in what
I defined as my role, such as updating the Facebook account or supervising an event in605
the absence of the Stage or Front of House Manager. On the other hand, I did not want
either to ask repeatedly confirmations about what I should or should not do, assuming
that this would reveal an inability to work in autonomy and embarrass my colleagues,
who were already busy enough.
Working in nearly complete autonomy triggered another difficulty: assessing my610
own work. With very few to no feedback at all, I could only rely on my own feelings,
the answers I was getting when I asked questions during meetings and the results
actually obtained to know what to improve and how. However I could not always
decipher the reason of a failure right away, as it was the case with my inability to obtain
the volunteer’s help, and lost a lot of time trying to figure out what to do. As I very615
rarely heard anything about my work, it also made criticism harder to accept, especially
when I had been working on a project for days as it happened with the video of The
Onion of Bigotry.
Given the important number of events organised each day, prioritising tasks was
the another great challenge I encountered. It was often difficult to cover the events of620
29. 29
the day while promoting the events to come and achieving simultaneously time-
consuming tasks such as writing articles or editing videos. This led me, most of the time,
to give priority to immediate events coverage, when I should have been starting to
promote them at least two or three days in advance for a better result. The blog was also
affected by this situation: by the end of the festival, the initial list of blog categories had625
been considerably reduced, due to the impossibility for one person alone to produce
posts for all of them while covering events (pictures).
To finish with, managing my emotions, maintaining a calm and professional
attitude turned out to be the hardest task at hand while working 12 to 14 hours in a
windowless office with a defective computer, in a quite tense atmosphere due to the630
stress generated by a very busy festival.
In a way, these difficulties all had a positive issue as they helped me to know
myself better and to understand how to adapt to very varied situations.
2- Achievements635
As hard as it could sometimes be, working in autonomy allowed me to innovate
and to propose my ideas, or simply to put them directly into practice. When these ideas
resulted in achievements, as it was the case with the creation of the media archive for
instance, it was a real satisfaction and pushed me to take further initiatives.
Besides, working within the very particular environment of the festival allowed640
me to meet people from very different backgrounds and doing various activities: artists,
producers, association managers, entrepreneurs, festival runners, journalists and so on.
Being in relation with these professionals encouraged me to be creative to answer to all
their requests and gave me a glance on a large range of positions. In the same way,
30. 30
working within a very small structure and being able to participate to all the meetings645
was an opportunity to understand all the different aspects of the festival’s management:
front of house, stage, box office, marketing, public relations and global management. I
also kept some contact from artists, producers and colleagues I met during this
internship, therefore strengthening my professional network.
650
Conclusion
If I should do it again, I would take time from the start to ask questions about
what has already been done in terms of promotion and contact the people in charge of
these tasks in the past years to get some advice and heads up. Looking back on this
experience, I admit that I have been too shy, mostly because the position was created for655
me: I felt like I should be as discreet and autonomous as possible.
Within the variety of tasks I accomplished during the festival, what truly
motivated me and gave me a sense of achievement was to interact with artists and to
create myself – by taking photos, editing videos, helping concretely to set up events etc.
– rather than fulfilling repetitive tasks such as updating media accounts. It confirmed660
what I already knew somehow, that I should aim for a career which would allow me to
be active, creative and to work within a team.
665
31. 31
Sources
Just festival and other associations websites
Mercy Corps. About us. [online]. Available at : http://www.mercycorps.org.uk/about-
us (Accessed 20 October 2014)670
Just Festival. Just festival. [online]. Available at : http://www.justjust.org/ (Accessed
23 November 2014)
Weaving Destination. Weaving Destination. [online]. Available at :
http://nedan.in/weaving-destination-1/weavingDestination (Accessed 20 October 2014)
Listing websites675
Broadway Baby.Fring Festivals. [online]. Available at :
http://www.broadwaybaby.com/search.php?t=7&q=Fringe+Festivals (Accessed 21
November 2014)
ThreeWeeks Edinburgh. About ThreeWeeks. [online]. Available at :
http://www.threeweeks.co.uk/information/ (Accessed 21 November 2014)680
Articles about the Festival
Simpson, Hugh. “An Island Between Heaven and Earth”. All Edinburgh Theatre.com
[online]. 2014. Available at: http://alledinburghtheatre.com/an-island-between-heaven-
and-earth-review-3-stars-edfringe/ (Accessed 15 November 2014)
Simpson, Hugh. “Such a Nice Girl”. All Edinburgh Theatre.com [online]. 2014.685
Available at: http://alledinburghtheatre.com/such-a-nice-girl-review-3-stars-edfringe/
(Accessed 15 November 2014)
Just Festival’s social media pages
Instagram. Just Festival. [online] Available at: http://instagram.com/JustFestival
(Accessed 23 November 2014)690
Just Festival. 2014 Just Festival Blog. [online] Available at:
http://www.justjust.org/2014-just-festival-blog/ (Accessed 23 November 2014)
Scoop. It! Just Festival. [online] Available at: http://www.scoop.it/t/just-festival
(Accessed 23 November 2014)
Twitter. Justfestival. [online] Available at: https://twitter.com/justFestival (Accessed 23695
November 2014)
Vimeo. Just Festival. [online] Available at: http://vimeo.com/justfestival (Accessed 23
November 2014)
33. 33
700
Glossary
press release Communiqué de presse
review critique
Running order Ordre de passage / (ici)de projection
Complementary tickets Invitations / billets gratuits
Q&A session Séance de questions-réponses
panellist Invité, panéliste
Media release form Formulaire d’autorisation de diffusion
d’image
File 1: Glossary
34. 34
July 2014
Aims & Objectives 2014:
The purpose of this year’s communications efforts will be to raise the profile of the just
Festival to a wider audience. This will see more of a focus on general news and feature
sections of the media and more of a focus on the festival and its themes of home, freedom,
forgiveness and sectarianism, rather than individual performers and artists. Performers will be
encouraged and supported to promote their own shows. Of course, festival listings and events
guides will not be overlooked –and in addition these listings will be further segmented to
provide a more targeted communication to specific audiences. (PR Plan attached).
Data capture and event feedback will be part of the marketing communications plans so that
intelligence and insight can be shared for 2015.
The team will work alongside Simon Barrow (plans yet to be shared from SB) to increase the
social media presence and we have the support of Sandrine Cazalet for media communications.
Programme Launch:
Working within a short time frame communications to support the programme launch were
necessarily limited. It was agreed to seek exclusive coverage with The Scotsman and an
interview was secured with Katherine Newbigging and The Kielty Brothers. The article
appeared on the day of the programme launch and promoted the Festival as well as the show.
The Scotland correspondent for The Stage attended the launch and met all launch
performers. Coverage was also achieved on stv.tv. Programmes were distributed to all media
contacts following the event and where new contacts are made, continue to be issued on an
ongoing basis. In future for all launch events, marketing recommends that press invitations
are issued by the end of May for a mid June event.
JIAFF:
Working with The Scottish Storytelling Centre promotions appeared within their newsletter, in
their weekly ezine and on their reception TV screens.
A press release was issued to all contacts and The Edinburgh Reporter attended the launch
event and later films covering the Festival. Coverage was also achieved in The Evening News,
Radio Forth (with an interview on launch night with Katherine Newbigging) and on stv.tv.
Attendance figures to the screenings are as follow:
Date
9.07.14
4pm
9.07.14
7:30pm
10.07.14
4pm
10.07.14
7:30pm
11.07.14
4pm
11.07.14
7:30pm
12.07.14
4pm
12.07.14
7:30pm
TOTAL
Film Dogera
Ship of
Theseus
Five
Lives
Bombhunters
Just
Short
Films
Love in
India
Sleepwalking Harud
tickets
sold
6 10 6 5 5 23 8 8 71
Sup
tickets
13 15 6 9 4 9 5 11 72
Total 19 29 6 14 9 32 13 19 141
File 2: JIAFF Board ReportFile 2: JIAFF Board Report
35. 35
Attendance figures were in excess of expectations and up in the region of 34% on a smaller
2013 film event.
From this figures, it appears that evening screenings were generally better attended than
afternoon screenings, with a maximum number of tickets sold for Love In India on Friday night.
The two screenings including a compilation of short films were the less attended, while
featured and award winning movies (Ship of Theseus, Love In India) appealed the most to the
public. The success of Love In India can be explained by its screening time, but also by the
presence of a large Indian community in Edinburgh. Most of the audience present at this
screening was de facto part of this community.
The marketing team also made recommendations for targeting stakeholders and Asian
communities – more by way of support could be offered here for 2015.
As for supplementary tickets, their number as well as conditions for their delivery available
should be the object of a clear agreement between the STC and the Just Festival. This number
was set at 10 for this edition of the festival, and supplementary tickets were attributed in
priority to people involved in the festival (people in charge, volunteers, Q&A panellists) and
journalists.
Besides, a number of technical problems had to be faced:
- A film (Dogera) burnt on a computer in a DVD format could not be red on the DVD
player. The technician’s computer had to be used, resulting in a reduced sound quality.
- Some DVDs were badly striped and stopped several times during the screening
although they had been checked before the screenings.
- Some screening included several short films burnt on different DVD’s, which resulted
in pauses while the DVDs were being changed.
- The DVDs menu appeared on multiple occasions, which undermined the professional
image of the festival.
- The subtitles were off during the screening of Sleepwalking Through the Mekong.
These technical issues had without a doubt a great impact upon the credibility of the festival
and its organization, and could be addressed by taking the following precautions:
- Running through the whole films using the STC’s DVD player, as opposed to checking
only whether they start running correctly.
- When several short films are to be screened one after another, either burn a DVD
including all the films in the right order, or if the proper DVD format cannot be
obtained, create a playlist on the technician’s computer. This should be done in
advance, as copying the films on the computer takes up to an hour.
- When the DVD contains a menu, ask the technician to skip it and be ready to start
from the first film before the audience arrives.
- Check the necessity of subtitles for each film as well as the way to switch them on.
36. 36
Finally, the presentation of the films and the publicity made for the festival could be improved.
Some films were left to start without a proper contextualization due to the impossibility for
the person in charge of Cambodian program to attend screenings at 4pm. Some other films
were on the contrary well presented and Q&As were appreciated by the public.
In the future, earlier finalisation of the programme will enable greater marketing
communications support. And, if the event continues to be held in July the marketing team
recommend student communications in advance of the end of the academic year.
ENDS
37. 37
Media Volunteers Handbook
WHO CAN JOIN THE MEDIA TEAM?
Everyone as long as you have the necessary tools and you like writing or taking photos:
A mail address for everyone
A computer or a phone for bloggers
A camera for photographers: it doesn’t have to be a professional one! Even regular
pictures can be used on the blog and for some publications.
A camera or a film camera to film events
BLOG
What can you write about?
A lot of things! You can write…
Events reviews: express your opinion and feelings about a
performance/conversation/talk… you’ve been at.
Themed posts: themes related to the festival events and if possible to actuality will be
addressed every Monday and Thursday in the blog’s category: “Let’s talk about it”. I
will communicate these themes in advance to the volunteer bloggers: if you feel
inspired by the subject, write a post about it! If you come up with a different theme
idea, you can also share it with us, we are always open to suggestions.
File 3: Media Volunteers HandbookFile 3: Media Volunteers Handbook
38. 38
Artists interviews: if you are particularly interested in an artist (his work, his view of
the festival…), you can try and have an interview with him. Keep in mind that artists
are likely to be busy though, so ask them politely if and when they could give you an
interview, and prepare your questions in advance.
And more! : if you are interested in a particular aspect of the festival ( its organisation,
technical issues, the public’s reaction, etc.), feel free to write about it! Any post related
to the festival will be welcome.
How to share your posts with Just Festival
1- Proofread your post and correct any orthographic / syntax mistakes you could find.
2- Give your post a title and write your name at the bottom
3- Copy your post in a mail. The object of the mail should be as follow: Blog post:
Date_Subject
4- If there is a picture (that respects the photo policy: see below) you would like to use
for this post, attach it to your mail.
5- Send this mail to sandrine.cazalet@gmail.com
I will then proofread your post and upload it on the blog as fast as possible.
Thank you!
Blogging policy
Here are a few rules to keep in mind when you write:
All posts will be proofread before appearing on the blog. However, please try to use a
correct English to make it easier for us.
Avoid using abbreviations and acronyms, or if you do indicate its signification between
brackets after the first occurrence of the abbreviation/acronym.
Do not use any offensive language
Respect all faiths, nationalities, genders, etc.
39. 39
Keep in mind that your posts will appear on the Just Festival’s official blog and
therefore be used as a promotional content: you can express your opinions, but avoid
criticising the Festival or its events too harshly!
If you interview artists, avoid overly private questions
PICTURES / FILM FOOTAGE
The rules are the same whether you film or take pictures.
What can you film / photograph?
Pretty much everything as long as you respect the rules below.
For the festival’s promotion, we are mostly interested in:
Events pictures/film footages
Performances rehearsals pictures/film footages
Pictures/films of the festival’s life in itself: the public, volunteers, managers…
How to share your pictures / film footage with Just Festival:
Send me a mail with your name to tell me that you would like to volunteer to film, take
picture, or both.
You will then receive a mail saying that Sandrine Cazalet shared a folder on Google
Drive with you. This folder contains a file for each day, and each day’s folder contains a
file for each event happening that day. It should look like this:
40. 40
First, sort out your pictures/film footages, erase the blurred or uninteresting ones and
turn them all in their upright position.
Then rename them as following: Date_Your Name
It is important that your name appears under each picture/film for copyright reasons.
When it’s done, simply copy your pictures in the proper folder on google drive: open
the folder and slide your pictures/films in it.
REMARKS:
o There are two separate folders: one for pictures and one for films,
please don’t put your film footages in the pictures folders.
o The dates on the folders indicate the date the pictures/films were
taken, not the date when you upload your pictures.
o Pictures/films taken during an event should be simply put in the
proper event’s folder.
o If you take pictures/films during rehearsals, put them in the folder
labelled “rehearsals”, which is under all the dated folders.
o If you take pictures/films of the volunteers or the staff, put them in
the folder labelled “Volunteers and Staff”, which is under all the dated
folders.
o You may want to keep a copy of your pictures in another file in case
there would be a problem with Google Drive.
If you encounter any problems with Google drive, you can always pop in the Just
Festival Management office with your pictures on a USB key.
DEADLINES: There is no real deadline to share your pictures, however sharing your
pictures as fast as possible allows us to use them for “hot news” on Facebook,
Twitter or for press releases. If you could take ten minutes to do it each day, it
would be wonderful!
A few rules to respect when you take pictures / film during events:
41. 41
Using the flash is prohibited at all times during events and rehearsals.
Check that you camera’s sound is turned off. Do not use it during events if it is very
noisy.
Always ask the artists’ permission before taking pictures during rehearsals.
Some events are « no pictures » events. Look out for the sign (it should be on the
venue’s door) for it applies to you too! In that case don’t film nor take any picture.
For all events, the following sentence will be hung on the wall: “just Festival will be
taking photos at this event. If you would not like to appear in these photos please
inform the photographer.” If anyone in the room informs you that he does not want to
appear on the photos, you will have to delete all the pictures where this person
appears.
You cannot enter in the church/church all after the event has started.
You are allowed to stand up and move around the room during events to take pictures,
however please respect the performers as well as the audience: be quiet, discreet, and
do not stand in front of the public.
Respect everyone at any time: be as discreet as possible and do not take photos of
people in awkward positions intentionally.
Please bear in mind all these rules.
And above all… HAVE FUN!
Thank you very much!
Just festival media contact:
Sandrine Cazalet
e-Mail : sandrine.cazalet@gmail.com
Phone : 074 56 62 27 35
