Dallas VideoFest Conference Research

First of all, can I say...researching this festival makes me want to go so badly!  It looks AWESOME.

Dallas VideoFest, Dallas, TX

Festival/Conference Research

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

Friday 9/20 12 PM EST/11 AM Central with Barton Weiss (confirmed!)

2. Who started it and who runs it?

Barton Weiss and John Held started VideoFest as a video art program at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1986.  Barton Weiss is still the Festival Director.

3. What is the mission of the festival/conference?

“The mission of the Video Association (and Dallas VidoFest) is to promote an understanding of video as a creative visual art medium and cultural force in our society, in addition to supporting and advancing the work of Texas artists working in video and the electronic arts. As technology has changed since our inception, the VAD has evolved its mission to include digital video and other digital mediums. Through its programs and information services; the Video Association educates and informs artists, students, educators, critics, video/film producers and an interested public to better understand, appreciate and evaluate the creative possibilities of the video medium, especially in combination with other digital technologies. The VAD also provides a forum for the work of regional video artists, in order to stimulate excellence in their work and provide the opportunity for dialogue and critical discussion.”

VideoFest is the oldest and largest video festival in the USA.  This is their 26th year.

4. How does this compare with their actual programming choices from the past two years? Be specific in describing what they program (mode, categories within mode, niche, Political? Global? Local? Gender? Sexuality? Race? Any themes that you see? etc…)

VideoFest definitely likes to focus on regional artists, as evidenced by their last film block, The Texas Show, that features short films created by Texas residents juried by a panel of Texan artists.  They archive every single film that is submitted even if they don’t show it, so they have this great collection of film made just in Texas.

Their other categories are Documentary Short/Feature, Experimental Short/Feature, Narrative Short/Feature, and Music Video. 

From looking at their programs, I would say they focus a lot on character pieces and biographies – they are definitely interesting in the human condition.  (Of course, having the documentary category definitely plays into this.)  Although the Texas influence is obvious, they have documentaries and stories with subjects from all around the globe.  Their shorts blocks are pretty diverse and have some interesting titles – “Youthful Struggles and Joy”, “Short Bursts of Horror”, “Incidental Odysseys”, etc. 

From purusing the program, I’d say VideoFest is still playing pretty true to its mission statement of programming thought-provoking video works, with special emphasis on regional artists.

5. Where is the event?

This year it’s at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Richardson, TX.

6. When is the event?

Wednesday, October 9, 2013 through Sunday, October 13, 2013.

7. How do you submit?

Submission is done through Withoutabox.  Submission by DVD is an extra $10 on top of the regular entry fee, but submission by online link has no extra cost.

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

Early – April 15^th

Regular – Jun 1^st

Late – August 3^rd

9. How much does it cost to enter?

Early - $30

Regular - $40, $35 if student

Late - $50

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

“The 26th Annual VideoFest is open to professional and non-professional filmmakers working in all genres: documentary, narrative, animation and experimental. There are no length or thematic or content restrictions, although works which reflect innovation, creative storytelling, alternative viewpoints, diversity, multidisciplinary explorations, or off-the-beaten path subjects compete strongly.

Works previously submitted are not eligible. All video entries must have been originally produced within the last two years and/or post-produced in video or some electronic form.”

11. Is there a Student category?

There is a discount for student submissions during the regular entry period, but there is no specific “Student” entry category.

12. What formats do they accept for jurying? DVD, Vimeo, Flash drives?

Any online link, as long as its in NTSC format.  DVD is accepted, but it costs an extra $10.
Additional note - The Texas Show is the only part of the festival that is juried.  Bart, the Festival Director, watches all the other submissions and picks which ones to put in the festival.

13. What formats do they accept for exhibition/screening?

h.264 Quicktime.  According to an interview with Bart, they use iTunes to create playlists for screening movies.

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

There were about 120 films at VideoFest 2012.

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

Shorts blocks run about an hour, except for the Texas Show block, which was 95 minutes.

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

They programmed anywhere from 4 to 10 films, depending on how many would give them that target of about one hour’s worth of screenings.  Narrative blocks had less films than experimental.

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

They register by paying for tickets.  There is a link on their website to Eventbrite, where they fill out their billing information.  It is $25 for a day pass (only available Saturday or Sunday) or $150 for the whole festival, which gets you in to all events and screenings.  The festival pass is currently half-off for $75.  It is $8 per individual film.  There are student and senior discounts.

18. 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.

Texas Commission on the Arts, AMS Pictures, Dallas Film Commission, KD College, Office of Cultural Affairs Dallas, Angelika Film Center and Cafe, Dallas Producers Association, Austin Film Commission, Amarillo Film Commission, Houston Film Commission, Dallas Film Commission, San Antonio Film Commission, Texas Film Commission, The Woodland Area Film Commision, Film Texas, Red iD, sell.com, Alford Media, Let's Talk Productions, HBO, Brugal, Radisson, Vision Wise, Brainfood...These were very difficult to find on the website, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are actually more that aren't listed.

Many of these (10) are local/regional film commissions, so those are definitely grants.  Most of these are local businesses or organizations, so obviously searching local will probably bring us more success than looking at big, national entities, especially since we have even less community-wide reach than VideoFest does.

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

Producer - $250

Executive Producer - $500

Visionary - $1,000

Film Lover - $5,000

Creative Producer - $10,000

Creative Director - $15,000

Festival Sponsor - $25,000

All levels get website recognition, some number of VideoFest passes, reserved seating, logo placement on VAD social media, some number of VIP gift bags, and advertisement in the VideoFest program.  All but the Producer level gets an advertisement in the VAD e-newsletter, logo inclusion in the festival intro, logo on the home page of the VideoFest website, and promotional items in 100 gift bags.  Anything that is Film Lover level and above gets verbal recognition by the host before each screening.  Anything that is Visionary Level or above is the presenting sponsor of at least one film, increasing up to the Festival Sponsor level, which is presenting sponsor of all films.

They can also sponsor individual events, like the Texas Show or Animations block or whatever.

The Video Association of Dallas also offers memberships ($50 or $100), which offer updates and newsletters and a pass to VideoFest as incentives.

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

They had a Kickstarter for last year’s VideoFest.  Here are the levels:

            $5 – a thank you on the website and Facebook

            $15 – a thank you in the program guide

            $25 – poster or t-shirt

            $30 – 5 tickets to showings at VideoFest

            $35 – VAD membership (includes festival pass) and t-shirt, or a multi-pack of various past 

                      VideoFest shirts

            $45 – pen stand designed by Brad Oldham

            $70 – two year VAD membership (includes festival pass)

            $75 – glasswork by Brad Abrams or photo by Misti Chambers

            $100 – consultation with media strategist Angela Alston or necklace by Brad Oldham

            $125 – tour of AMS Pictures Studio

            $150 – one-on-one lesson with Bart Weiss

            $175 – earrings designed by Susan Rockefeller

            $200 – 2 tickets to 25^th Anniversary Bash and VIP Party

            $250 – 5 photos by Misti Chambers

            $500 – Festival pass, 2 tickets to VIP party and Anniversary Bash, necklace

            $1,000 – 2 Festival passes, 2 tickets to VIP Party and Anniversary Bash, glass art,
                           necklace, and photos

No Indiegogo.

They also are a part of North Texas Giving Day, using DonorBridge, which allows people to make donations to nonprofits.  On Giving Day (this year, Sept. 19^th), organizations and donors pledge to match any donations given online for Texas nonprofits.  VideoFest is doing a good job of advertising this through their Facebook.

They also have partnered with Tom Thumb and Randall’s, two grocery stores in Texas, to set up a program where 1% of registered people’s grocery bills are donated by the stores to VAD.

21. What kind of non-traditional film/video events have they had before? Things like Installations, 'Visual Soundwalls,' VJing etc.

“Expanded Cinema” is something VideoFest started as their festival kickoff last year for their 25^th anniversary and they are continuing this year.  They are used the sides of the Omni Hotel, “the biggest canvas in Dallas” to show video art works from a variety of different artists.  The soundtrack is broadcasted via FM radio.

“The exterior of the Omni Dallas Hotel is continuously wrapped with LED bars that function like a low-res computer monitor. Only a handful of buildings in the world offer similar displays; and since this particular system was specifically created to fit the hotel’s architecture, it is unique. The display constitutes a potentially looping screen approximately 193 feet high and 999 feet in width or circumference. But while it’s the biggest screen in Dallas, its unusual in shape and very low-res, effectively just 20 display “pixels” tall and 333 pixels wide.”

Here's what it looks like!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBcC1Lp35T0

22. 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?

Besides Expanded Cinema, VideoFest also does something called “The Program”, which is a display of video art the Video Association of Dallas (VAD) sponsors.  Each year they take a different approach to how the group of experimental shorts will be shown.  They’ve done it in various was throughout the years, including month-long museum exhibits, installations, and combinations of live and video performances in the festival schedule itself.

There are also a few discussion panels, mainly about television.  (“Ed Bark on TV Commercials, “Breaking Down Breaking Bad”)

They also have a 24-hour video race.  The 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winners’ films are shown in a 60-minute block.

The Animation Workshop takes place the weekend before the festival, and is a free stop-motion workshop for kids ages 8-12.  Their films will be shown at VideoFest.

Website Review

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

It’s easy in the way that it is very simple – there is just a header and a few links on the top of the page and a link bar down the side.

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

The links are odd – there are sixteen different ones to choose from on the left.  It is kind of confusing to find what I want because I have to read through so many choices.

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

Some parts of the webpage are out of date.  Although they are having a festival in 2013, it still says 2012 on their website.  There is no link to submit a film at all!  The link to buy tickets is too far down on the list of links on the left (there are sixteen links and “Passes and Tickets” is fourteenth).  Although the tickets are updated for 2013, when I click on the schedule link it still brings me to the offerings for 2012.  There is no link to see a schedule of the festival events this year.  Although there is an order form embedded into almost every page to buy tickets or donate, there isn’t a very good description of what I am buying.  For example, you can order tickets to the opening night movie True Tales, but until I click on the “Order Now” button and it takes me to the payment page, the date and time of the movie isn’t listed.  If I were looking to buy tickets to this fest, I’d have to do research on press releases and such from other sites to get the information I needed to decide what I want to buy and see.  Badly updated and organized website!

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

It’s cool that it’s very simple.  No images, just a block of black on top with the Dallas VideoFest name in white and logo of this TV-head guy in red.  Underneath the header, the background of the page is bright, strong red with a very subtle textured look to it.  The combination of colors is striking and is what makes the page memorable.

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

The text looks bad.  It’s not centered or justified, and it’s not formatted well.  A lot of information is just walls of text, which can be discouraging for the reader.  The text box is this creamy yellow color and the links are a mustardy color, which I think takes away from the black/red/white scheme they have going already.

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

When you go to the homepage, there is an embedded video player that plays an intro video for VideoFest from the Video Association of Dallas’s YouTube channel.  Below, there is a link to donate and a few lines of text with no header giving some description of this year’s festival.  The formatting of the text makes it difficult to know what I am reading – only after I’ve finished do I realize “oh, this is an overview of this year’s festival.”  However, even after I’ve read it, I still don’t know much about the specifics of the festival.  There needs to be better accessible info to dates, times, locations, film selections, etc.

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

Instead of including hyperlinks in the lines of text, it might be better to just give a short description and then have an icon or hyperlink in another line.  Seeing all this text peppered with links makes it look cluttered and also makes it difficult to decide what I should click on.

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

Update it, first of all.  Even though they do not have all the films picked out yet, they still should have as much specific info as possible available in an easily found place.  The header still says VideoFest 25, September 26^th-30^th, 2012!  There should be no old info like that on the page once the fest has passed.  If it is difficult to figure out when and where the festival is this year, you know it is a bad page.  Also, I’d change the way the text is formatted to make it look more streamlined.  I’d change the links on the side, too – there are links to individual events but no link for one big schedule or description.

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

I like the simplicity.  The choice of red and black color scheme makes the site striking and memorable without cluttering it with too many images or designs.  In fact, there aren’t any photos at all – the only graphic is their logo, a little guy with a TV for a head.