Thessaloniki International Film Festival: Enhancing The Economic Value Of Greece

Discuss About The Event Thessaloniki International Festival?

Greece is one of fastest growing economies in the Euro zone and it grew at the annual rate of 4.2% as foreign capital flooded in the country. But now it is observed that the growth of the country is continuously diminishing. Greece is facing various financial difficulties and due to financial circumstances, there is the need for borrowing from IMF, European central bank and European Union. Because of the financial crisis, government of the country has to take some tough decisions in order to restructure the economy so that the country can get its prosperity again (Hope, 2017). There are various events and festivals taking place every year in country. These festivals and activities are very helpful for the company to enhance the economic status and prosperity and to achieve appropriate result. There are many events taking place in the country and to enhance the economic value, it is important to organize a mega event in the effective manner. A number of award ceremony events and film festivals are being hosted in Greece throughout the year. This report focuses on the event management of international film festival in which the award ceremony will take place. This festival is to be held in Thessalonika in Greece. This event will be helpful in order to enhance the visits tourists in the country. In the film festival, there will be two types of films which would be screened-featured short films and lengthy films. This report evaluates and explains the objective of the conducted event which would be beneficial for the country. Further, event plan would be designed and venue would be specific for the overall film festival. Along with this, an effective media message would be shaped that will be effective for targeting the audience for the event. This report will also focus on various details of the events i.e. menu activities budget and type of risks in the event.

The film industry is considered as the most autonomous art form and the film festival always include peace, liberty and equality of the country. The objective of this international film festival is to enhance the economy of Greece so that the county can achieve its prosperity again. Along with this, the objective of conducting the event of film festival is to provide the broad platform to the film makers by discussing their diverse work in the event. Along with this, aim of the international film festival is to provide a meeting place for people and audiences so that the tradition, art shape and attractiveness of the country can be enhanced (Lee & Goldblatt, 2012). Film festivals are the events for the creation of symbolic, cultural and economic value. The festival provides opportunities for the interchange of symbolic value to economic value. Conducting international film festival enhances the chances of distribution and exhibition. Film festival is helpful in rising funding for the country. So basic objective of conducting the event of film festival is to enhance the value-adding process in Greece and attract various tourists in the country by improving its economic value (Fox, 2015).

Benefits

Every event consists of some benefits for the society and related audience. Event must have some values that could be beneficial for the people. By conducting the event of international film festival, Country Greece will have some benefits. Those benefits are as follows:

It is well known that Greece is one of the famous tourist destinations. Due to economic issues, there is the need to attract the tourists in order to gain its prosperity again. International film festival will attract the tourists from both in and out of the country. The film makers and producers will generally travel in all over the world for promoting the screening of their film. Along with this, it will also attract film fans and media professionals (Getz, 2008).

By conducting the event of international film festival, local merchant will be benefited. It is well-known that tourists spend money. Any festival in Greece will attract them. Being a famous tourist’s destination, tourists will definitely visit in various parts of the country and local merchants will experience a respectable spike in their business. This will also benefit to the economy of the country.

These kinds of festivals give various opportunities to film makers to communicate with other filmmakers, media representatives, supporters and many other professionals. Along with this, the event will also establish mutually beneficial relationships and leads to various collaborative possibilities (Olum, 2004).

With the arrangements between theater hosting and festival promoters, the theater will enjoy various benefits such as hike in the sales and positive word of mouth of about the venue. Theater will be able to enhance their positive reputations and management. This approach will minimize various issues before they arise.

It is stated earlier Greece is the famous tourist destination but the country is facing some financial difficulties. In order to deal with this situation, it is important to conduct an event that can enhance the prosperity of the country. There are various events that can be conducted for this manner. Potential event can be Hellenic festival, Thessaloniki international film festival, Rockwave Festival, Easter, Acroplis Rally, August Full moon, European music day and Mothers’ day run etc. These all events are effective in enhancing the prosperity of the country. Out of the list of the events, international film festival is selected. The reason is that the film industry is considered as the most entertaining industry. The international film festival will attract various filmmakers, producers and tourist to visit Greece so that economic value of the country can be enhanced. Along with this, the event of film festival is selected so that film makers and audience can meet a place where they can share traditions, history and shapes from all over the world (Milohni?, Lesi? & Slamar, 2016).

Alternatives considered

Reason for selecting the event of film festival is discussed above. Film festivals are the important link in the chain of international film culture. Cinema is the most democratic art that uses suitable languages for the audiences. Film festival is helpful in maintaining democracy freedom and peace. Film festival is the exceptional tool to cross the communication channels from the most distant places. Sometimes, event selection process is affected by various factors i.e. media exposure, potential economic impacts, time, available resources and local involvement. The most important critical success factor for selecting an event is the unique process and marketing resources. Research will be undertaken in order to gain a better understanding about the nature and importance of the events along with critical success factors of the event. International film festival is selected because it is important for the ecosystem of the country (Adams & Hall, 2015).

Film festival can attract the audiences from the community and all around the world. Along with this, the festival is also helpful in enhancing the local economy. The viewers have opportunity to stay connected with the story of the films by experiencing the film firsthand. The setting of the festival allows the audience to share the ideas with the producers, filmmakers and other audience so that new perspective on the films can be opened. This process can give insights to the filmmakers, producers, and distributors. Data will be collected on the nature and objective of the film festival event from conventions. It is found that international film festival is beneficial for the enhancing the economic value of the country. The selection criteria of film festival are based on the economic impact of the event on the country (Motion Picture Association of America, 2017).

For the international film festival, it is crucial is to select a suitable theme in order to attract people and various film makers. So, the theme for the event would be ‘Unity in Diversity’. This theme is selected because this film festival will include various films including various small and documentary films and fiction films from the entire world. Along with this, there will be various films that would be screening in the festival that would reveal the theme of this festival. Although there is lots of diversity in all over the world but this film festival will celebrate the variety of culture and this will be represented to the audiences. In the international film festival, individual sections will be provided to the audience so that they can choose that film which would be most appealing to them (Lill, 2015).

Selection process

Film industry is the entertaining industry and by this event, country will be able to attract various organizations and government in order to receive financial support from them. The required physical resources for the event will include music, decorative items, stationeries and sound equipments etc. Most of the support staff will be local youth and volunteers. As the result, huge support from organizations will be achieved. (Burgess & Kredell, 2016).

Further, next step is to attract the audience by innovative venue selection and design. The venue of this event will be Olympion Theatre, Thessalonika which is the head office of Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The theater has architecturally impressive structure which is built in 1920s in the heart of the city. In this complex, there are two renovated cinemas i.e. ‘Olympion and Pavlos Zannas’ including two cafes i.e. ‘Foyer and Room with a view’. The building of this theater is suitable for various events like theatrical productions, film screenings, music events and various cultural activities. This is the permanent headquarter for the Thessaloniki International film festival.

In order to manage the event, it is crucial to focus on some essential things i.e. coordination, budget and time. An event cannot be successful without coordination between teams, without sufficient funds and without proper time frame. Although proper and efficient planning for the international film festival has done but there is still need to focus on the time frame and budget for the effective operations in events.

Time factor has a critical role while planning an event like international film festival. So, it is crucial to set such time which is convenient for the audiences. Generally, people prefer evening time to attend the events so; evening to night time will be preferred for the event. If these things are not followed systematically then event will not be successful and the objective will not be accomplished. So, international film festival will be held in the month of January (De Valck, 2014).

There is the need of more and more people to conduct an event so; there should be coordination among the team members. Without proper coordination, there is the possibility for conflict because of the lack of communication among the members while planning the events. Along with this, there are various activities which must be completed by different teams. So, it is important for the authorities to coordinate among the team members for event planning successfully. Proper planning at the initial stages includes knowledge sharing, regular meetings and informal outing would be helpful in coordinating among the team members for the successful event. Planning for the international film festival will be designed from last six months (Getz & Page, 2016).

Further, budgeting and funding is also an important part for the event planning. It is understood that appropriate planning of the budget is helpful to accomplish all the desired activities of the event. So, it is recommended that estimation of the budget will be efficient. By the formulation of the budget, experts will be able to distribute the fund for various activities including infrastructure, lightings, and food arrangements for the guests and salary for the crew members and hosts (Ralston et al, 2007).

It is most important to develop an effective and proper event design plan so that event of film festival can run smoothly. There are many processes which would be included in the film festival. Following steps will be included in the event design plan-

Planning of festival- This step would include detailed planning of the film festival. The planning will be completed by deciding the budget, invitation and key attractions of the event (Kerzner, 2013).

Budget formulation-This is the important part of any event plan. In the budget allocation process, identification of key events of the film festival will be done. In this process, Budget will be decided for various events.

Scheduling the event- It is very important to plan effectively in order to conduct the event successfully. In this manner, there is the need to set a schedule for the key events in the festival like sending invitations, recruitment of staff, major objectives of the festival and many others.

Recruiting event crew- In this process, key people of the event i.e. directors, critics, producers, audiences and others will be invited. Along with this, setting necessary infrastructure for the event like lights, food, projectors, screen, sofa, chairs, bouncers and others would also be done (Brown, 2014).

Promotional activities- Advertising and promotion is the crucial part for any event so that the audience can be targeted. For this event, key focus would be on direct mailing, hoardings, and social media platforms which would be effectively used in order to promote the film event (Meusburger, Funke & Wunder, 2009).      

Launching -   This process of the event will be done by screening famous films from various producers and directors. This will be done with the song sequences and dances.

Red carpet celebrations- Segregation of festivals will be organized including various catagories. Those catagories will comprise love, laugh, debate, thrill, comedy, suspense and action. Along with this, feature and documentary films will also be take place in the event. After that, special function of giving awards and night ceremony will also take place.  

After the planning of international film festival event, it is important to promote the event in order to make it successful. In current time, social media platforms are strong tool to promote the event. It is important to have an effective media message on the social media networks. In order to promote this specific event, Twitter and Facebook will be used as these are the popular social media platform used by people. By using these platforms, audience will be able to achieve all the information related to international film festival (Cetinic, Petric & Pranic, 2012). The message on the social media platforms would be related to time, date and venue of the event. The message would be ‘Inviting for International Film Festival to Film and Cinema lovers which would be detained in Olympion Theatre, Thessalonika from 1^st January 2019 to 10^th January 2019 (Vilhjálmsdóttir, 2011).

Music has an important role in the organizing and managing any event. It is also crucial to enhance the environment and quality of the event. In the international film festival, mild music will be played in order to entertain the audiences during the gap of the performances and activities. Along with this, the music in the international film festival is selected for the background and that will be selected from the nominated documentaries and movies for the awards. The reason for choosing the music from the nominated movies is that filmmakers, producers and directors will be motivated for doing more valuable work (Wagen, 2005).

It is essential section for managing various activities of the events. In this section, different activities will take place which are required to conduct the event of international film festival. It is already decided that the film festival will take place in Olympion Theatre. There are some additional activities in order to manage and organize which are as follows:

It is very important for various teams to plan and organize the work accordingly. There will be various teams i.e. event product team, marketing team and programming team and these teams are responsible to conduct specific event catering arrangements, decoration and promotion of the event and preparing posters for the event etc (Mawer et al, 2106).

Under these activities, quick look of various films i.e. animation, documentary, pop promos, television and film records related to creative arts will be shown. This will also includes of award distribution to the nominated actors, producers, directors, and films (Tassiopoulos, 2005).

This will be the key attraction of overall film festival. In the performance related activity, the performances will be organized in order to promote any specific movie considering performance related concept.

Under this activity, film makers and producers will give talk about their movies and related concepts. They will share their ideas and viewpoints about movies i.e. from where they get idea and inspiration to make the film. Further, public will ask their queries about the movies to the directors. Those questions can be related to their current movies or upcoming movie projects.

This is main activity of the event of film festival. In this, awards will be distributed to the nominated films based on different criteria i.e. best animation, best actor and supportive actor, best direction, best critic, best negative role and others. The activities of award distribution will be helpful in inspiring the film makers and directors so that they can do best work on films in future.

Apart from these activities, there are some activities that will be taking care of by different teams. All the crewmembers will have induction guide for the activities sob that they can be aware of the every kind of emergency in the event. Along with this, there will also be ambulance service in order to minimize the health issues and hazards. ‘Least disturbance of other activities’ regulations will be followed in the sound system of the event.

Budgeting is the important part of a robust planning structure. Budget is helpful for the event managers in spending the amount based on the requirements. Budget of the event must be planned in the visualization and advance of the event. It impact on each factor of the event management and needs to be evaluating on the regular basis. The event of international film festival will be organized on the grand level (Bowdin et al, 2012). So, there is the need of budget planning for the activities so that the event can be operated successfully. The budget plan for this event is as follows:

Conclusion

Greece is the attractive country for the tourists as they go to the country to spend their vacations. During last few years, it is observed that the country is facing economic issues and losing its prosperity. This report is about conducting the event of international film festival. The report focuses on the event management and budget plan for the film festival. The film festival will be the combination of different culture and movies across the world that will be shown in the specific event including the concept of ‘Unity in Diversity’. This report covers various activities of this event i.e. venue design, event design, music, menu, theme and other relevant activities. Based on the above discussion, it is observed that the event of international film festival will be held in Olympion Theatre, Greece. The key objective of this film festival is to enhance the economic value of the country and maintain its prosperity among the tourists by inviting them in the event. Further, this film festival will provide recognition and awards to the producers and film makers for their best work. The recognition and awards will be inspiration for those who are new learner in the field of photography and cinematography. It is stated earlier that the international film festival will be held in Olympion Theatre. The reason for selecting this venue is that this theater can have room for adequate number of people. Along with this, many other activities are organized for the effective management of the event. So, by conduction film festival event, economic value of Greece could be enhanced efficiently.

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