FILMEETING
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
FILMEETING was born thanks to a group of young people between 18 and 25 years old, whose passion for cinema has made them decide to found a cultural association. Innovation in the hybridisation between events with spectators and digital promotion, green and carbon neutral approach, quality and art movies: these are the three key aspects to think back to some events in the area. We want to promote a new way to communicate and add value to culture searching for new audiences.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
How can we think back to movie events after the pandemic? Cinema needs hybrid structures. We have to admit that the pandemic has speeded up ongoing processes in the movie industry and that it has strongly changed spectators’ habits. If on one side we have seen the determined protection of the movie theatre idea, because filmmaking was basically born to share a place and some experiences during a show, on the other side many production, distribution and journalistic institutions have completely moved to digital and to streaming first of all for necessity and then for benefit. The problem at the reopening is the following: how can we find a compromise between the promotion of quality filmmaking and spectators’ involvement in events with spectators? FILMEETING was born to find a middle way that is to cooperate with already existing organizations (local administration, movie owners, schools, newspapers) to make original events with spectators that can add value to the area, respecting the environment and exploiting the digital aspect as a mean to communicate and teach. FILMEETING was born during the lockdown to plan shows, school workshops and festivals. The association has developed a website that publishes three detailed studies written by the members every week, it has organised online events involving experts of other subjects (such as Theatre, History of art, Animation), it has organised a few events to be held in September and November and it is organising some events to be held in July. All these activities have been organised during the period in which it wasn’t possible to organise live shows. The association is not only focussed on proposing movies, but also on written and oral research and production thanks to the different education background of its members. For young people it is a unique opportunity to plan events with experts to give voice to and release their creative energy in a constructive dialogue both for next and past generations.
Key objectives for sustainability
FILMEETING’S target is to remain a completely green association. The association has been launched online during the pandemic with a remote work that has let us involve young people living in different areas of Italy.
CO2 consumptions related to the website activities and to the participation to social media are equal to 0, but the challenge is to keep carbon neutrality also during the digital promotion and communication of events with spectators. As a matter of fact the pandemic has speeded up the digitalization process in Italy expanding the awareness in the use of social media, search engines and ticket purchasing platforms. FILMEETING wants to organise events and promote them without the use of paper and other materials through clarity, simple use and intelligent communication. During live shooting (which is the only activity carried out in the presence of people so far) and for the next indoor and outdoor shows, we will try to fully exploit digital tools also for school and extracurricular workshops. As far as the emissions resulting from the people taking part to the events are concerned, we will give clear instructions about the use of public transports or about ways that let people get to the event location walking or bike riding. FILMEETING is completely digital also under an accounting point of view, disincentivizing the use of cash. Moreover also the topics the shows deal with focus on an eco-friendly approach.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
FILMEETING thinks that the graphic aspect is a key element for an incisive communication and an enhanced experience. The logo has been conceived with a professional graphic designer and it represents filmmaking in its most essential form: light on a screen, a projector light that breaks the theatre darkness. The name we have chosen tells a lot about our target and about the visual union between the subject we deal with and the way in which we want to add value to it. The letter “M” in italics breaks the logo rigidity and it represents our creative aspect. Our website follows this basic idea with black writings on a white background and with a design conceived to give as much legibility, elegance and image promotion as we can. The making of explanatory videos has been carried out by a skilled photographer and video maker, who is one of our members, with whom we have worked on the essential symbolic space for filmmaking that is the theatre. The communication of our activities through social media is carried out following the above mentioned colours and paying great attention to the balance between the visual and written components and to the respect of the movie copyright. FILMEETING will continue to work with professionals to conceive posters and digital promotional material for events, festivals and initiatives in order to keep a coherent and recognizable appearance. The staff made of people with an age between 18 and 25 years old help to develop an effective digital communication that aims at helping the institutions already working in our area to modernise. We talk about institutions that sometimes find it difficult to communicate in the right way and that sometimes restrict themselves to only using recycled graphics just to inform.
Key objectives for inclusion
The sentence we have chosen to represent FILMEETING is: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This idea, extrapolated from the movie Holy Motors by Leos Carax, is crucial to understand that it is impossible to add value to the beauty of art without training spectators. If the movie production makes a proposal, those who distribute this movie have to know how to sell it or, in our case, to add value to it. If we want to suggest author quality movies, we must explain them and train our spectators. That’s why FILMEETING has already committed in online meetings and will be involved in meetings with spectators in order to talk together to movie enthusiasts, students, filmmaking experts and others to create the best cultural environment for shows, festivals and movie forums. The association has conceived for its members some information contents (news, international events and new movies) and some training contents (movie or scene analysis) in order to train that “eye”. FILMEETING is working on school workshops that use filmmaking to communicate with Literature (a crucial character in 2021 is Dante Alighieri), but also with History and contemporary Geography as we think that filmmaking tells not only about people in themselves but also about the history, places and countries in which those people have grown up under a professional and a personal point of view. The idea of hybrid structure consists in the attempt to involve young people that sometimes are just attracted by mainstream filmmaking. In this way young spectators can mix with adult spectators that try, on their side, to understand the strong and avant-garde filmmaking style of new film-makers. FILMEETING suggests, also under a publishing point of view, topics both for unskilled spectators and for the best experts in the field.
Innovative character
FILMEETING is innovative because there is no other similar association in our region. Its staff’s skills about communication, technology and filmmaking have been gathered and searched to reach a renewal in the movie events in the Province of Ravenna where those events are often limited to show brand new movies. In particular, having an independent site and both oral and written publishing skills (in person or remote) makes our association to add value to the show and festival proposals with extra contents that are impossible to be found somewhere else. The challenge is to make it without excluding or affecting other institutions in our area that have already been affected by the pandemic. As a matter of fact it is the cooperation with these institutions that makes FILMEETING a hybrid structure. Our aim is to take filmmaking to as many people as possible and where it is starting to disappear without diverting towards commercial filmmaking and continuing to add value to high quality European and global filmmaking. The interaction between in person and digital ways will be carried out by the tools offered by and developed during this pandemic. We can no longer exclusively think about shows with spectators, but we can’t talk about cinema if it is exclusively digital. Our commitment with schools wants to develop on different branches of knowledge that sometimes are neglected by national training programmes such as communication, audio-visual material (filmmaking, documentary, series), Geography and contemporary History. The association will welcome as many people as possible, in a clear, easy and quick way, in order to develop more public activities and looking for places and people that can make our institution big and open to dialogue.
