Publicity Meeting @ 2012-05-16 17:05:00
Wednesday 16th May, 2012 in B2.03 (Science Concourse)
In Attendance: Clarissa Gillingham (Chair), Fergus Cooper (Minute-taker), Mike Lee, Robert Gardner, Timothy Green, George Marshall, Andy Smart, Kat Sroga, Sam Kidman, Mike Perry, Andrew Gaudion.
Meeting commenced: 17:05
1) Welcome
Clarissa introduced herself and everyone else around the table.
2) Autumn Term Publicity Deadlines
Booklet: It was recognised that the booklet was unlikely to be completed by the end of term due to the fact that many of the films in the Autumn schedule are to be released during the summer holidays. The remote log-in pack will be offered to all members of the publicity team so they can work on the booklet during the holidays. It was noted that this remote log-in pack is unavailable for those with only a mac rather than access to a PC. The deadline for the booklet was agreed to be set, at a later date, during the summer holidays.
Graphics and Titles: It was recognised that the release dates of the films in the Autumn Schedule may restrict availability for Graphics and Titles before the end of term; however, most mid-week films should be out early enough to make Graphics and Titles collection possible for collection before the end of term. This was agreed as preferable so that members of the editing team could get started on the booklet before the summer holidays. A rough deadline of the end of week 8 was suggested; this is to be confirmed on the mailing lists.
Reviews: Similar to Graphics and Titles. A provisional deadline of the end of week 8 was suggested for reviews collection so that editors could get started on the booklet; again to be confirmed on the mailing lists.
For all deadlines and information on signing up to edit, collect graphics and titles, or write reviews, see the mailing list.
3) Graphics and Titles
It was decided that all Graphics and Titles were to be collected in both RGB colour format and greyscale format in order to provide the Marketing team with the opportunity to use the collected graphics when making slides. It was suggested and agreed that the publicity officer check that the wiki page for publicity is up-to-date with the procedures for Graphics and Titles collection, making sure all format instructions are current and correct. If the information provided by the wiki is incorrect, the publicity officer is to correct the information.
In order to further aid the Marketing team, the size of Graphics and Titles required for the slides will be confirmed with the Marketing Officer. It is currently believed that images 2000 pixels wide will be suitable for the slides; this is to be confirmed.
4) Reviews and Mini-reviews
It was suggested that the reviews deadline could be extended for films that are due to be released during the summer holidays so our reviews could be more factually accurate. However, it was decided that the provisional week 8 deadline would be more suitable to give editors a chance to start on the booklet before the end of term. A list of the films will be sent out ASAP to give reviewers a chance to sign up for, and write their reviews, before their exams.
It was also suggested that the mini-reviews for the President’s weekly emails (a 2-3 sentence overview of the film’s story) and for the facebook and twitter pages could be submitted by the reviewer with their review. It was decided that no further action would be taken.
5) Weekly Publicity
The effectiveness of the weekly publicity handed out at the beginning of every screening was questioned, since we are now able to show trailers for all the upcoming films in our schedule. It was decided that weekly publicity is not a financial problem (it costs ~£8 to print 1000 flyers) and so as long as people want to make it there was no reason not to keep the practice up. It was also noted that weekly publicity could be good training for those looking to become editors for the booklet. Another benefit of weekly publicity discussed was that people are handed the publicity and so are more likely to look at it than if we left the weekly publicity on the publicity table.
Ways to improve the effectiveness of weekly publicity was discussed, including several ideas pertaining to shifting the focus of the flyers. It was suggested that weekly publicity could be improved by making it cover a longer time-base, for instance picking out highlight films in later weeks, or by tailoring it to specific themes, e.g. having a Foreign Films/Midnight Frights flyer that can be handed out at all relevant films and left on the publicity table for the majority of the term. Themed flyers were also discussed for specific sets of films in the provisional Autumn Term Schedule, notably a Batman series flyer that could be handed out at similar films, for instance Avengers Assemble. The possibility of making the flyers double-sided was also discussed. It was decided that for this term we would make flyers to advertise week 9, week 10 and the Outdoor Screening that could be handed out from week 5 onwards, to raise awareness of our later screenings that might be lost through the less-busy exam weeks.
It was also discussed whether the weekly publicity could be incorporated into the weekly email sent out to members. The discussion included the technical difficulty of creating such an email and whether it would be more or less effective than the current text-based email. No further action was taken on this point, pending discussion with the Marketing team.
6) Editor Listing
The idea of having an email listing purely for editors was raised, with a view to providing communication between editors that would not spam the other members of the publicity team but would enable editors to check on the progress of the booklet, ask for updates on/’sign-up’ for weekly publicity and possibly to ask for help from other editors. It was noted that there is already a forum that was created with the idea of providing help to other editors. The pros and cons of moving this function to the possible mailing list were discussed. Whereas a mailing list would be able to provide update notices and promote communication between the editing team, the forums are already an established place to ask for help that could prove less intimidating than emailing a listing, providing a more relaxed environment. Clear titles on threads could also mean that other people in future editing teams could find answers to frequently asked questions. It was decided that, in light of this, a mailing list for editors would be created but editors would be encouraged to use the forums for hints and tips and keep the list for progress updates. The Publicity Officer agreed to talk to the IT Officer about setting up such a listing.
7) Communication with Marketing
It was suggested that encouraging people to join both the Publicity and Marketing team could improve communications between the two committees and awareness of what both teams do. It might also be a positive thing to share skills across the two committees. It was raised that the general view of publicity is of the more textual side (e.g. writing and editing reviews) and the graphical side (Graphics and Titles collection and editing) could be better promoted to encourage more people to join the Publicity team. It was agreed that this would be beneficial to the team and the graphical side of publicity would be emphasised in future, especially when promoting publicity to new potential members during the first few weeks of Autumn Term (Fresher’s Fair etc.).
8) AOB:
No other points were raised.
Meeting adjoined: 18:00