HOW TO USE AIRTABLE TO RUN A FILM FESTIVAL

In our third installation in our BuiltOnAir Winter Series, we bring back Jon Gann, a Film Festival Consultant from Washington DC. Jon started his career in the marketing world and owned a design and graphic marketing firm. He decided he was ready for a change and went into film making because at the time it was something different and new. He attended film school and made a few films that he entered into a few film festivals. While attending these festivals, he discovered that he wasn’t a fan of them because of how they were produced. This inspired him to come back to Washington DC and create his own film festival about short films called DC Shorts Film Festival. Now Jon focuses on the consulting side of work for film festivals and helps with events and as an organizational strategist.

During his consulting work, he noticed that most of the information needed to run the show is stored in dozens and dozens of google sheets which leads to possibilities of outdated information being given out. This guided him to Airtable because it allowed him to customize it to fit his exact needs and it has tons of interconnection capabilities. He also loved the community surrounding airtable. All the community resources available are a really spectacular thing. Now, Jon uses airtable as part of his everyday life and work.

In his day-to-day, Jon is called in to do marketing, onsite problem solving, decision making, mission revisits, and much, much more. Depending on the event, he works on a project from 2-3 weeks, months, or from the planning stages all the way until the end of the film festival. He also works to put on arts events and live outdoor art fairs. To him, airtable is a no-brainer for his line of work. Jon is very hands-on while working and prefers working smarter instead of harder. Airtable goes hand in hand with that motto and helps him to create simple solutions using technology geared to what you need it to do.

Demos:

FestRUNNER SUBMISSIONS:

Table for films, scores, and reviews
In the Films Table, he can change the view to see films imported from film submission engines by exporting the data right into his base and tag the films by which submission engine they came from
Once film submissions are exported in, he can fill them with information like the type of film, which submission engine they came from, year film was made, image, and so much more
He has different views based on film scores that he can send reviewers to watch and review the film
Once a review watches the film, the review gets a form that they can fill out and submit
He has automated his base so that once films have had enough reviews, they drop off from the Films table
In the Scores table, he can see all the reviews that have been submitted and pick and choose which films can make it to the second round and final picks.
Once his final submissions have been chosen he can import directly into his FestRUNNER EVENTS base

FestRUNNER EVENTS:

This base includes all the information to actually run the film festival
By utilizing different views, he is able to easily access and provide specific information to specific people (press, social media, designers, etc.)
Table for People, Venues, Shows and Events, Hospitality, Sponsors, Print Traffic, Shipping, Marketing Outreach, and Press

Jon’s bases are packed full of extremely useful information and by utilizing the views and filters you are able to see exactly what you need as well as provide that information to who needs it. Jon’s incredible work in creating these really shines through and shows us why he is excellent at his job. He has really thought of every possible data point needed in order the run a successful film festival and used the power tool that is airtable to make it all come together seamlessly.

See Jon’s FestRunner, FestRunner SUBMISSIONS, and FestRunner EVENTS bases on Airtable Universe.

Click here to learn more about Jon’s work and the services.

Here’s the video of the original podcast, including more of Jon’s story, and the live walkthrough of the bases described above: