Exec Meeting @ 2023-07-25 14:00:00
Present: Daniel Kallin (minutes), Liv Lancastle (chair), Josh Heng, James Patt, Zain Mothupi, Jay Patel, Eric Liu, Sophie Cooper (late), Adam Skrzymowski (late)
In attendance: Kieran Hall
Apologies: Tomas Caldon, Ethan Dougall, Dillan Patel
Welcome and Apologies
Exec Updates
Proj: EL: Barco is off
DM: JPT: we need more till roll before term starts, will order when I get home, nothing is off, DMing is on
LL: it’s under £50
IT: JH: new website being designed, might start on coding in next two weeks (also changed some stuff on Gluster)
Mark: JPL: working on Welcome Week trailer, mid-Aug going to split marketing tracker for T1 into two, save Weeks 6-10 for any potential freshers
Pub: SC: trying to keep up to date with the tracker, leave until after schedule vote and then have a rejig, a lot has been done already, planning on checking some pub stuff in L3 but it’s closed off, will send out some colour stuff, next week things will pick up again, go on Pub channel – did some pricing up, put on spreadsheet, will send out when complete, priced up 75% of pub, waiting on Pointon reply about discounts, soon as reply comes will be ready to vote on, will explain again in big message, this is a necessary big spend – deadline 6th aug and going to be met, bulk of it being done, will notify if there are any problems, appreciates it is first time for some people doing pub, but definitely on-track, if you have signed-up to pub then get on it sooner rather than later, will send finalised pub tracker out again with all info, read the things I said it’s all there! Will be busy so use guides as much as you can.
LL: L3 is closed. Currently yet to know how it will affect us over the summer, emailed the guy in charge and he didn’t respond with any dates, will chase up again, if we can’t get into L3 until the day before WW then that’s a panic, will try and ascertain timelines on that – does affect Westwood Academy charity film night, wanted to do it pre-term-time during Sep, might have to reschedule into term-time for a Wed
SC: how early in term? WW show-running will be tiring, depends on crew, Wed is the first actual day off, if there’s enough people then would be fine but could be a problem
LL: will message #collabs about dates for that
EL: can we not wait a bit longer to tell them this?
LL: problem is that we don’t have a right to L3 over September so if the works ran over we would have to cancel at short notice and we wouldn’t have any leverage to push for works to be faster
LL: vote on membership price change, has been done and in effect from Sept 1st, in a pre-WW meeting we can discuss selling memberships and strategy to push memberships more
LL: we have FHM funding secured, got contracts through from FHM yesterday, have to get SU to sign this off in the same way you would a sponsorship, so will now take this contract to the SU,, all will be CC’d so we can be updated
EL: we went to Lewes Depot, ICO Screening Days, it was fun, caused some fury, DK met head of Screening Days who is WSC alumni – also I left my laptop at the cinema and had to go back the next day, great for networking but hard to do as we were youngest people there, but if we could meet the person who gave us the bursary might help networking
LL: next one we can attend is at Leicester Phoenix, very cool! Can have a chat about some people going to that
Schedule vote
ZM: Posted an update in exec channel but we've checked the availability of as much of the schedule as we can right now. Also It's a wonderful life + phantom thread are booked. And hunger games + american psycho were accidentally booked. Also I know one of the halloween slots is listed as Death BECOMES her/Corpse Bride. Death Becomes her would probably be cheaper so unless feels super strongly could go with that.
LL: thanks ZM + DP for getting pricing doc written up, 2001 is the most expensive film but Pitch Pot covers it, rest of it can cover 35mm, everything else is DCP, couple films unavailable, are we going to book these before schedule goes to print, do we have a backup plan?
ZM: Maybe. Basically all the stuff in yellow is stuff that distributors said it's too early to determine when they'd accept single day bookings. So they want us to check in at a later stage. We currently put everything in places that have historically been safe to book
LL: Dune II probably riskiest of all, closest to release date
SC: in terms of stuff too early to confirm, what’s the likelihood of it being still on the schedule but being shuffled around somewhere us, can I just do Pub for them and then shuffle it elsewhere or will I need to be prepared for them to replaced by something else
LL: New releases, don’t know if they’ll take single-day yet, unlikely they would not to be completely taken off, if we do need to go to print without availabilities confirmed before print deadline, just need to make sure all of those films are far away enough from their release dates that they are safe from being unbookable, varies by distributor but in the past it’s been 6-8 weeks from release and has safely worked
ZM: Yeah most likely would be shuffled around. Unless the studio decides to delay the film. But most likely publicity would be able to be used in general.
LL: Was it Challengers which got delayed until 2024? It is an unlikely occurrence to happen and rarely once schedule has gone to print
SC: fine by me from a Pub standpoint, as long as most of it as fine by mid/late August as on holiday when the print deadline is so definitely need to know by end of August, shuffling films around isn’t too much of a problem
LL: only thing that could go wrong with schedule availability is if they delay booking times for a couple of films, should be okay to vote on and start booking the schedule, just allow for some wiggle room in case any unconfirmed ones have release dates pushed back
Vote for schedule in current form/money spending on it: 9 For 0 Against 0 Abstain
LL: ZM and DP can get booking the schedule, WW most vital to be booked in time for A-level Results Day (Aug 17th), if there’s anything that needs removing at short notice or if any of the “yellow” titles are being problematic then send updates to Slack from a Pub/panic POV
SC: double-checking which document will say when films are booked
ZM: the one we sent to exec chat
LL: deadlines are in the chat, will pin them, any stress? Let us know and we will readjust
EL: when we are booking the film, can we ask for trailers (if it’s an old film) to avoid lots of back-and-forth, will make a trailer tracker
EL: Also, we definitely need a Barbie Box
ZM: we tried to get oppenheimer filmstrips but they ran out
EL: *shows us picture of him in a Polish Barbie box*
LL: thank you Eric for the Barbie box
LL: was going to suggest voting on Pub spending now but not ready yet, will do it on Slack
LL: Spider-Man all-nighter potentially unavailable, Shrek is potential alternative, worth getting Shrek prices,
KH: Park Circus should have a combo drive available for Shrek so it should be v. cheap
LL: the ‘drive’ is because we are sending [EL] to collect it
EL: who is collecting the prints??
LL: such a good question which won’t be answered now
ZM: Dillan and i can get the prices and stuff done. Pretty sure it's films as a package
Reunion plans
LL: Reunion is going to happen, been contacting alumni trying to get email addresses, SC done a couple of FaceBook posts, list currently at about 60 alumni, plus current crew – current thoughts are if we can finalise the agenda for the day now then we can get proper invitations sent out to the mailing list we have around the first week of August, get people to RSVP to ascertain numbers
LL: two questions to answer, what is the schedule for the day? We have GBU at 18:30 so will want to be ending at about 18:00 to set up show, when to start? Drinks? Speeches? Already invited Clive to speak if he wants to.
DK: will we screen the documentary?
LL: hope is to make a doc, very much still in pre-production stages, sent emails, received no replies, attempting to source people to be interviewed is proving difficult, hope is that we are still on-track for it to be ready in time for the reunion, if that changes then we can change schedule of the day, supposing there is a doc, best time to show that would be just before GBU as a little premiere (instead of ads and trailers)
Welcome Week
LL: more to discuss sooner to the time, for today; got reply from people about doing popcorn on the piazza and they said no, exhausted all public popcorn avenues
KH: can we ask the WW people if there’s somewhere more appropriate to do popcorn?
LL: good point, they did send a reply explaining why we couldn’t do it, means we have WW team email addresses, ongoing and not sorted
LL: in terms of Getting Involved Meeting, needs to happen asap, last year we had it at 3pm on the last Sunday of WW, got it onto the WW timetable by editing it
KH: had the thought that we may need to have a contingency plan to extend one of Barbie or Oppenheimer onto the Sunday for another showing, if it sells out, would do one immediately on the Sunday rather than saying it’s in two weeks
LL: however there is a 6.30 screening of Bee Movie, so would be a 9pm extra film, keeps 3pm slot free for getting involved meeting - fairly valuable to have it on WW timetable, as opposed to more Barbie/Oppenheimer
SC: when would we decide to do a second screening?
LL: probably on the day
KH: unless advance sales are demented
LL: definitely wouldn’t know by pub printing deadline, and only if they do super well because there are W1/W2 screenings of them
KH: can we try and have tickets on sale (just for WW) by Results Day?
LL: Pub runs! Last year they were between Week -1 Thurs-Sun, big push at start of WW, can people please be around for same thing this year
SC: would move-in days be the same?
EL: Term dates are including the Thursday (21st)
A-level Results day is on the 17th Aug
LL: want to have WW tickets on sale by then, getting WW schedule confirmed by then, hopefully that’s feasible, looks like everything definitely available besides maybe 70mm Opp
ZM: shouldn’t be a problem
LL: if we could get on results day marketing out, that would be excellent
SC: can send A5 WW thing out in time, if JPL wants to put that up
LL: basically, we want to have a presence by Results Day
KH: what do the kids do nowadays on social media?
LL: watch Reels?
KH: back in maday, you’d join the Warwick FB group, tweet about it, could do have some sort of proactive interaction
JH: There's always loads of whatsapps and facebooks and discords
EL: can definitely infiltrate 2023 Discord, thestudentroom but maybe not?
KH: studentroom tried before and didn’t really work
LL: Reddit too, r/uniuk
SC: can we revive the TikTok?
LL: videos, groupchats, can be crossposted between TikTok and Insta
LL: last year we attempted to do season passes, unlimited films for a fixed price, were very popular and SU shop were unhelpful and it didn’t set up properly, have had people inquiring where they had gone, some level of interest, question is whether we would like to try this again – pricing last year was £25 for unlimited films for members, £35 for non-members, slightly cheaper than a film-per-week, can be rediscussed
KH: I feel like the cost's low enough that anyone who's that enthusiastic will be willing to buy the whole term? ("such good value!")
JH: We could also do a welcome week pass maybe?
LL: a lot of welcome week passes seem scammy, don’t want to be in the line of things that look dodgy like that
SC: problem with logistics of selling it through the SU or MSL last year if I recall, we have a fair amount to do with the 50th, might be too much effort, would be wanted on the Pub, needs to know soonish
AS: the main thing was whether it'd be sold as a ticket or shop item, but looking at other groups ticket doesn't seem too difficult, could email the SU now and just sort it
LL: last year we concluded that people that come more often than once a week often just join crew and then stop giving us money, the pass creates loyal customers, would be happy doiing admin myself
AS: I think we're an outlier in student cinemas not having one
SC: what Pub would you want, obviously would be added to pricing in A0, would we want a physical card, make them feel special
KH: It was there on last year's pub, it just never actually went on sale
LL: do it as ticket coming up for free if you tap your card, would people need to buy it via SU shop, no way to give them something physical with it
KH: in terms of time, making passes add automatically onto EPOS would be low priority, people can bring proof of purchase to tills and we can activate at it tills
JH: If we have spare posters we could give a free poster?
ZM: i think last year someone( i dont remember who) was concerned that it might be taking away from crew, specifically stewards? But I don't think that's a big problem so still back it.
LL: would back not doing any physical cards in first term as we don’t know how many people will buy them, we don’t know how popular/effective it would be
EL: was cute to get the card from York but they have probs been doing that for a while + they don’t have online tickets
LL: leaning towards yes for season passes, no for anything physical, yes for website and pub
SC: per term?
LL: termly last time, benefit is it still keeps free film incentive for joining crew in T2, Vote?
EL: does T1 incl. WW
LL: did that last year
JPT: back including WW gives people more incentive to buy it, might sell more of them
KH: people most willing to spend money in WW
SC: voting on it happening, sorting logistics later? Non-members who buy the pass might be discouraged from becoming a member.
LL: price differential between passes should encourage people to buy membership as it will be £6 cheaper
JH: We could increase the price a little if we're including WW?
EL: yeah increased price
AS: nah nobody will buy it then, we're already pricing it higher than other unis
JH: But people may be reluctant to get it for the same price on term 2 or 3 if that's the same price for 10/13 less films
LL: price increase for WW would be minimal, £30/40, a lot of people won’t find us until near end of WW so extra films won’t really matter, won’t actually see any WW benefits
EL: could drop the price post-WW
SC: but then the Pub would be wrong, can’t lie to people for 10 weeks to benefit 1 week
LL: benefit of keeping price the same, creates a bonus week which is more incentive to buy the pass
EL: would be losing out on a bit of revenue
LL: might be relevant to consider what films you saw and how late in the week you started coming
AS: I ran the numbers last year and it didn't make much difference
KH: if it does make people come to FilmSoc to the point where they are saving a lot of money, then isn’t that a good thing? Is it worth making it more confusing?
AS: the main financial point here was that people will buy this when they weren't going to buy 8 tickets. there were only actually about 10 people who would've saved money! though that was with bad times viewership
LL: could keep same ts&cs about double-bills and all-nighters
ZM: if you have the season pass and not a membership can you got to the FFM events? I assume yes?
JH: is barbenheimer in ww not a 'double bill' kinda thing too
KH: I'm not sure excluding double features makes sense bc you could come and watch a double twice
LL: season pass would include all films, including FFM, as free ones, only all-nighter would be excluded
AS: I'd say it only applies to things where the alternative is buying £3/4 tickets if that makes any sense
LL: sounds like we are all happy to do a season pass, is £25 for members, £35 for non-members + WW incl. for free good?
Vote: 8 For 0 Against 0 Abstain
SC: will include in Pub and keep with other pricing info as it was last year
LL: will this be good for website in time for results day?
JH: yes
LL: won’t be on sale before Sep 1st, memberships renew then, so website and marketing should mention that, promote in future tense
JH: worth collecting emails somewhere and then send them an email when memberships go on sale?
KH: yeah, just do a little form
LL: JPL can put it on Socials
LL: shop item?
KH: whole discussion not for now, if it’s a ticket it would need to be a pseudo- event that lasts most of the year, will be a case of convincing SU with whatever they can get to work, email shop@warwick
TADONM
LL: two more before WW
SC: late aug based on deadlines
LL: pls fill out lettucemeet
AOBs
LL: hoodies/polos which ED mentioned, probably worth having a Slack discussion about this and money of it, pay attention to Slack
SC: can I clarify what the latest film booking date is?
LL: it’s in Exec slack channel
SC: if you can get WW done earlier please do
ZM: yes
ZM: more sports movies on future schedules?
LL: pay attention to Slack, do your tasks, ask for help, do Lettucemeet, I hate Teams meetings too, sorry it was long
Meeting ended at 16:25.