By Nia Edwards-Behi
Back in 2010, I put on an event to mark the first Women in Horror Recognition Month, the painfully punny Ghouls on Film. I’ve always wanted to do another, but that scarce modern commodity of ‘time’ always seems just a little bit too far out of my grasp. I mean, I was busy when I put Ghouls on Film together, but somehow since then it’s always been much harder to get something together, not least of all because a year on from Ghouls on Film I was helping out with the equally as punny Abertoir.
I’ve been tearing my hair out a bit trying to come up with something to mark this year’s Women in Horror Recognition Month. Boss Ben suggested a reflection upon that event, almost as something of a guide to organising a film event, particularly as I have amassed, in the time since, a little bit more expertise thanks to my work with Abertoir. I’m usually quite loathe to think of myself as an expert in anything, but when you’ve been doing something for five years it’d be difficult for anyone not to pick up at least a little bit of know-how. I won’t call this article a how-to, and it’s certainly not exhaustive, but hopefully I can write something that people thinking about putting on their own film event might find helpful. Here is some broad advice then, from this woman in horror, to anyone who’s thinking about putting on a film event.
– Don’t be afraid to be amateur. I should note this is not advice on how to put on a super-professional film festival with huge name stars and big release films. That is a lot more difficult, expensive and time-consuming than what I did with Ghouls on Film. This is about just doing something because you want to make it happen. That’s not to say that you can’t get a big film or a big guest or be extremely professional with your low-budget grassroots event, but please don’t look at my advice and expect that to happen without either a lot of extra work or a stroke of good luck.
Bearing that in mind, remember also, there is nothing wrong with an ‘amateur’ event. As long as you have not mis-sold your event, people are not going to criticise you for, say, not starting exactly on time (as happened with Ghouls on Film), or if your venue was not entirely ideal (as happened with Ghouls on Film). As much as I am generally cynical about people, for the most part, if people are coming to a small film event, they are there because they are enthusiasts, and aren’t going to seek absolute perfection from an independent event. That being said, imperfection is only excusable if you’ve made the utmost effort to make your event the best you can. If you’ve just been lazy, then it will show in other ways too, and people will notice and they will be rightly unhappy about it.
– What do you want to do? Before you dive headlong into planning the intricacies of your event make sure you know exactly what it is you want to do. An event to tie in with something like WIHM makes that quite easy, so in my case, I wanted to put on an event celebrating women in horror. In a bit more detail, I didn’t just want a day of films, so I broke it down: a showcase of short films, a discussion with guests, and two feature films. Your event can be as simple or as complicated as you want, and by all means be ambitious, but make sure it’s something you’ll realistically be able to do.
– Find a venue. This is important. I held my event in Birmingham, even though it would have been much easier to do it where I actually live. My reasoning for this was simple: would many people come to my event if I hosted it on the far coast of rural mid-Wales? Well, no, they wouldn’t. It’s naturally tempting to take an easy route to something like this, but you have to bear in mind your audience. If your event’s focus is on something local, then of course keep it local – if my event was about Welsh films, for example, I wouldn’t have taken it to Birmingham (obviously). If you’re lucky, you might already live in or near a big town or city where people can easily get to your event.
To find a venue, I simply searched online for places that could be hired, and sent around some emails, asked about some prices, and made a rough decision based on that information. However, I did also visit the venue, even though it involved 6 hours of train travel there and back again, because you don’t want to show up on the day of your event and be confronted with something completely unexpected. That effort will pay off.
You want to make sure your venue is suitable. That doesn’t necessarily mean hiring out a cinema, if it’s out of range of your budget. It might be a multi-purpose auditorium (that’s what I went for), or a function room with a projector, or the back room of a pub, or a lecture theatre. While budget is naturally an extremely important consideration, please do not under-value the films you’ll be showing. If you find a venue within budget but the sound system is sub-par, or the screen is decrepit, or whatever, keep looking. You might find somewhere else. If you don’t, so be it, but chances are you will. You need to respect the films you’re screening, and you need to respect your audience, who have made the effort to be there.
– Reach out, and make the most of social media. Without the internet, Ghouls on Film would have fallen flat on its face. Even before I’d secured a venue or finalised plans, I was able to gauge interest, and ask for advice and feedback. You might think that an 8-hour marathon of nothing but you and your mates’ films is the best thing ever, but other people might not.
Once you’ve got your venue/time/date sorted, social media is a wealth of free publicity. You will almost certainly rely on friends, and indeed with WIHM there was, and is, of course, a network of people who will happily spread the word for you. It sounds obvious, but don’t just make an event page on Facebook and let it sit there. Invite people, ask them to invite people, post the link to groups and pages, spread the word on Twitter…you might want to judge for yourself the fine line between promotion and spamming, but you will have to do that work yourself.
Do not be afraid to reach out to people. Don’t just rely on blogs and websites within your niche, either – find local newspapers, blogs, or groups who might promote your event. Even if you send out 20 emails and only have one blog post anything, that might get 5 more people through your door. There will always be people willing to help, in whatever way they can – for example, my poster was designed by someone I followed on Twitter, who was willing to do that for me in exchange for a bit of mutual promotion.
Indeed, this isn’t just for the purpose of promotion, either. Ghouls on Film wouldn’t have had any content if not for making contact with people via social media. While I was lucky enough to be put in touch with one or two short filmmakers through my links with Abertoir, the majority of what I screened was picked from films sent to me, or through sending messages and asking to see people’s work. This goes for guests too!
– Be prepared to lose money. This is the biggie. If you are setting out to put on a one-off event for the purpose of making money, you are a) doing it for the wrong reasons and b) going to be extremely disappointed. I’m not saying money is the root of all evil, or anything – money is nice, and obviously if you are planning on making a career out of putting on film events then actually making money might start to be more important. However, if you’re putting on an event for the first time, please let me tell you in all seriousness that doing it for the love of it is extremely important.
Why are you going to lose money? To break down where my money went: venue hire, guest travel, printing costs, my own travel, and my own accommodation. If you’re putting on a bigger event, you might also be dealing with appearance fees and screening fees too. Some of these costs might not be huge (I reeled off my posters at the uni library, and made the cheaper black and white versions more interesting with my own ‘bloody’ handprints), and some of them might not even apply to you, but it’s a sensible to approach an event with the expectation that will cost more than you first think.
Costs are one thing, but what about income? I did charge an entry fee: £6, for the day. I don’t think you should be afraid of that, and by all means be upfront, I was. I explained that I was charging a fee to cover the costs of the event. Was I expecting to cover the full costs? No, but it certainly reduced the loss that was made. 40 people came to my event, if you want an idea of what sort of income did not cover the costs. Of course, had 100 people attended, I probably would have covered the costs (I can’t honestly remember what it all cost me, in the end), but I didn’t set out expecting even 40 to come along. Expect to lose money, and any financial outcome will be satisfying.
To close, I feel it’s important to note that I think I was extremely lucky with my event. My content was good, I had a recognisably-named guest in Emily Booth, and people supported me, both in promoting the event and in attending. Was it easy? No. Did it leave me out of pocket? Yes. Was it a great experience and would I do it again? Of course I bloody would. It’s worth adding, even if just for trivia’s sake, that some of the fine sorts of people who came out to support the event were our very own Ben, Keri and Steph, and look where we all ended up. Putting on an event like this is something I’d genuinely encourage people to do, moreso if it’s in conjunction with a broader movement or theme you’re particularly passionate about, women in horror or otherwise. Even if all you’re doing is hiring out the back room of a pub and screening an independent film you really believe in, doing so is an incredibly rewarding and worthwhile experience.
Editor’s note: here’s Ben’s coverage of Ghouls on Film from February 2010 – reviews of Slaughtered and the world premiere screening of Dead Hooker in a Trunk (who knew…)