In a world where hundreds of indigenous languages are dead or facing extinction, there is one bright, shining hope: Kohanga Reo, the Maori “language nests”.

Veteran filmmaker Tainui Stephens documents the ground-breaking indigenous educational movement, and the pioneering woman behind it, in a feature documentary screening this week at ImageNative, the Toronto native arts festival.

Kohanga Reo is based on a simple but powerful principle: total immersion of pre-school children in Maori language and values. After 25 years, the program is recognized worldwide as a turning point for revival of Maori language and culture.

The model has been replicated successfully in other native communities, including the Hawaiian Punana Leo.

Let My Whakapapa Speak
ImageNative
16 Oct 08, 1:00PM
Al Green Theatre

Let My Whakapapa Speak – On Maori Television

They are the two magic words in the story of how a struggling Maori language was pulled back from the brink of extinction: ‘kohanga reo’.

The Verdi at night

There is a lot that goes on at Pordenone. While the main film shows takes place in the Verdi theatre, in three sessions (from 9.00, 14.30 and 20.30), supplementary screenings (often 16mm or video formats) take place in a side theatre, the Ridotto. This is also the venue for the weekly talks given to the Collegium, a gathering of selected students who are attached to the festival for the week and write a paper at the end of it. There are masterclasses each day, on the art of combining music with silent film. There is a book fair, which has book launches every evening. There are assorted special events and lectures, notably the Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture (named after a much-admired New Zealand film archivist who died too young), which this year was given by Eileen Bowser. And there are meeting of specialists groups, such as Domitor and Women and Film History International.

In between all this, it is essential to take time out and sit at one of the pavement cafes (the Posta, opposite the Verdi, for choice), with cappucino at the ready, waiting for the world to stoop by for a chat. The world invariably does. Pordenone is the ideal spot for learning about others' projects, exchanging ideas, hatching schemes. So, hello to all those I met - including a smattering of Bioscope regulars - and look out for the fruits of projects large and small, maybe, one day. Some of these took precedence over the films shown, hence some of the gaps in the reports (which I hope those who saw the films may rectify by adding their impressions to the comments, please).

And so to Monday 6 October. Out there in something called the real world stockmarkets crashed, banks crumbled to dust, and you wondered first if there would be any airlines to fly us back, and then if that would really be such a bad thing. In our world, we had Jacques Feyder and, to these eyes, the interesting issue of servants. There were four of Feyder's earliest films on show, all part of the 'French touch' strand. Des Pieds et des Mains (1915) told its romantic tale ingeniously through shots of hands and feet alone; Tetes de Femmes, Femmes de Tete (1916) had two women wittly getting the better of the errant husband of one of them; Un Conseil d'Ami (1916) echoed this by having a man puzzled by his social failure advised by a wiser, older man; and La Faute d'Orthographe (1919) told a comic tale of an ambitious officer worker let down by his inability to spell, his salvation unexpectedly coming in the form of a burglar at the office who corrected the man's spelling on an application form while about his own business.

These were elegant, artfully-composed works, notable for emphasis on close shots, so that one saw relatively little of the broader social background, and instead concentrated on eyes, faces, and details of house interiors. And servants. I was fascinated by the compliant figures who appeared at the edge of a frame, merely to announce an arrival, pour a drink and deliver a message. This was class-bound stuff, accepted as the norm - how such a narrative should be constructed, who it should be about, how they should behave. There's a famous line uttered by the title character in Pinero's play The Second Mrs Tanqueray, which sums it up:

Servants are only machines made to wait upon people - and to give evidence in the divorce courts.

But I wanted to know where the servants went once they respectfully slipped out of shot. There were other worlds out there, to the edges, away from the selfish concerns of the characters on which the films chose to concentrate. I enjoy picking out these counter-narratives, the stories one can imagine running through the film that were not in the filmmakers' conscious mind - or perhaps they were, as these early Feyder films were notable for the precision with which shots were populated and framed. In two of the films, the great Françoise Rosay - towering figure in French cinema, and of course Feyder's wife - appeared as a figure in the background; in one a guest at a party, on another a passenger on a bus. These were films that encouraged you to look closely, films to savour.

Poster for The Sorrows of Satan, from Wikipedia

And then it was the Griffith of the day, The Sorrows of Satan (1926). As I've said, the late Griffiths were films I'd managed to avoid up til now, and I came to them with prejudices gleaned from the standard film histories. Re-reading some writings subsequently, I can see that these films have always had their champions, but the general audience reaction at Pordenone was one of genuine surprise that the films were so good. To my mind, the best of them was The Sorrows of Satan.

The omens were not good. A tale of young love thwarted by the appearance of Satan himself, taken from the novel of the ludicrously moralistic Victorian novelist Marie Corelli, filmed by a man whose lapses into Victorianism show him at his worst. The startling opening shot of angels and devils at war above a giant heavenly staircase may have confirmed the worst fears of some, or else alerted us to a sense that here was a film with the courage of its convictions and the skill to display them. The two lovers are played by Ricardo Cortez, as an aspiring writer living in a garret, and Carol Dempster (on fine, mannerism-free form - her final screen role), another aspiring writer living next door. The relationship between the two is built up gradually, with a fine sense of pace and telling detail (as was evidenced in the best parts of Sally of the Sawdust). Then Cortez rages against his fate, specifically against God, and suddenly Adolphe Menjou has appeared at his side. This was one of the best appearance in a film that I can remember. We know he's the Devil, but he's also Menjou at his mostly Gallicly elegant, fresh from A Woman of Paris, looking just so pleased with everything and in total control of all about him.

He leads Cortez away from Dempster and into a debauched social life (excellent change in visual scale), culminating in marriage to ultra-vamp Lya de Putti, which anyone could have told him was going to end in tears. Again and again there were striking camera set-ups (clearly inspired by German cinema, with telling composition and atmospheric, apposite lighting. It was all terribly moralistic, of course, but entirely justified within the parameters it had established. Mercifully we weren't shown Menjou turning into his Satan self - it was far more effective to show just the winged shadow and the horror on Cortez's face. In the end, when Satan has been shaken off, the lovers are reunited, but there is no other reward. Neither becomes the great writer each aspired to be - forgiveness is all. I thought this was a great film.

Frank Scheide speaking to the Collegium

I made a tactical error in bypassing Gloria (1921), a commemorative record of ceremonies held to mark the death of 650,000 Italian troops in the First World War, which reports suggest was extrordinary. Instead I went to one of the Collegium sessions, on theatre and film. There were interesting short addresses given by David Mayer, Phil Carli and especially Frank Scheide, on the relationship between vaudeville/variety and film, but I wasn't entirely sure what the Collegium (students attached to the festival for the week) were expected to get out of it all. Speaking to some past and present Collegium members, it seems that culmulatively the concept works, as they learn from each other, and of course experience the Giornate in all of its richness over the week.

The Corrick Collection is a collection of short films collected by by an Australian family of touring entertainers from early in the last century. The first part of the collection was presented last year; in part one of the remainder, we saw a selection of real gems - an unidentified record of the coronation of Edward VII in 1902; Pathé's 1903 tableaux-like Marie-Antoinette, featuring a gruesome scene where she is taunted in pirson by a severed head on the end of a pole; a 1908 Pathé travel film of life in Sudan; and a dazzling trick film with cut-out figure made by British magician-turned-filmmaker Walter Booth, The Hand of the Artist.

This was followed by a hour-long documentary on the work of the festival's great discovery, Alexander Shiryaev, but we'll cover him in full in the report on Day Seven.

Tactical error no. 2 was missing The Kiss of Mary Pickford (1926), the delightful Soviet comedy inspired by the visit of Fairbanks and Pickford to the USSR, though I did see it once years ago. For many that I spoke to it was one of the highlights of the festival.

In the evening, we went on holiday. Maciste in Vacanza (1921) was one of a great number of films made in Italy following the huge success of Cabiria which were vehicle for the strongman from that film, Maciste, played by Bartolomeo Pagano. Here were saw Pagano more or less as himself, a strongman film-star beset by fans wherever he goes, who needs urgently to go on vacation to recover his strength. So he does, in a little car which he rather disturbingly refers to as his wife, though he is still pestered at every turn ('Maciste, please move my cottage nearer the town' asks an elderly countrywoman). While the film was in this self-referential mood it was great fun. Then it got caught up in a mystery plot set in a castle with too many intertitles and rather lost its momentum, but overall it was a happy piece of fun.

The film was shown, along with other Italian silents at the festival, in tribute to the late film historian and Pordenone stalwart, Vittorio Martinelli. So we also saw a sonorised nature film on the life of the cricket, from nature film specialist Roberto Omegna, and a travelogue of Sicily. And so ended Day Three for me, missing the late night French film Paris en Cinq Jours for a discussion on film archives and their collaborative future in the UK.

Keep your eyes peeled for Day Four, where we will see the evils of war, the first films ever made, a Japanese actor playing a Hindu living in Scotland, and why Keystone represents the spirit of America.

Pordenone diary 2008 - day one
Pordenone diary 2008 - day two

It is common knowledge that we have a lot of festivals. For that matter India is a country with a lot of festivals and this is multiplied by the fact that different sects in India have different dates for an event which has the same cultural explanation to it.

The thing is that these festivals have a very practical significance which bears relevance to habit making. Most of the festivals emphasise on remembrance of concepts like 'good over evil', 'repentance' and 'fresh beginning'. an example of event which would fall in the first ctaegory would be 'Diwali', that of the second category would be 'Sabarimala pilgrimage' and that of the third category would be 'new year celebrations'.

The reason why I am quoting these examples would be the fact that they repeat once in a year and to me they are more like the reminders that we have in our outlook calendar. They are spiritual reminders which have very interesting significance. The festivals in the first category seem to be pusing us in the direction of 'supposed' socially good practises. The festivals in the second category seem to give us a chance to make ado for what is 'supposed' socially unacceptable practises through activities which esentiallly focus on controlling the senses/ immediate gratification. While the festivals which fall in the third category are meant to help us tide over crises. 

Let me digress for a brief moment and talk about habits now. It is common knowledge that we are a bundle of habits. Given that we took atleast 20 odd years to mould ourselves, we cannot bid to change ourselves overnight. It will take time and the path to work on our habits will be a path strewn with obstacles and personal set-backs. the moot point is to never lose heart in this personal and emotional journey.

Now come back to festivals and particularly those of the third category and it is easy to realise that they help when there are repeated failures when we work on ourselves and our habits. When all is else is lost, the best to do would be toi forget the past and open a fresh chapter in life. This, I believe is a very interesting way to look at festivals in our country.

The festivals are meant to remind us of such concepts to egg us forward on our spiritual journey. But things seem very different in the popular space with commercial elements and abject superstition taking the place of reason. Think about it the nect time you celebrate a festival. It really adds a spin to something which you might have been doing mechanically for all your life.

Nice!

Some people believe that on this night Laxmi moves about from place to place asking, "Who is awake?" and shows her pleasure on those she finds awake. Hence, the night is spent in festivity and various games of amusement, in honour of the goddess. So people sit in the moonlight singing songs, or keep themselves entertained in some other way. [Wikipedia]

But we are somewhat more prosaic than that and with festival season round the corner, hard cash is always needed. So we indulge in an all-night card playing session. Though I did manage to scamper back to home last year and notch up few wins, the same was not to be this year round! Hence the self-evident title of this post :(. Ah...I wish for the days to come back when my time was my time.

( proceed at your own risk, coz there are lots of Bengali words interspersed, and you’ve gotta understand them. )

The pujo schedule looked like this …

Saptami and ashtami – Bari,

Nabami – Mamar bari,

Dashami and Ekadoshi – Mashir bari.

I won’t call it my best pujo so far, as the actual reason for the mamar bari visit was the funeral of my mother’s jethima (although it turned sort of a reunion among us, the maternal and mashi-ternal siblings).

Um, you know, pujo is evolving. Before (and by that I mean even when I was in class 1 or 2) it was basically a matter of three days, dashami reserved for pronam and narkel-naru only. And now … the festivities and anticipations start from panchami itself, culminating in the bisorjon of the para idol in dwadashi! – yet another example of the famous (and ever-increasing) Bengali aalsemi (laziness).

Here are a couple of ‘curious’ snippets (of course opinions differ and everything is relative) that I came across this pujo, in the chronological order I experienced or heard about them …

1. Baahon dilemma … Nothing complicated, just plain common sense. Read it, and tell me if you’ve got a better alternative.

It’s about the pujo in our flat complex. It was held on the empty place behind the twin flats. Now the thing is that a couple of stray cats are used to get fed by some of the ground-floor people, hence they’ve turned quite pet-like, … and the Durga-idol that was brought was small in size, so you can guess the size of the baahon-s … the lion, peacock, owl and so on … not to forget about the rat though, which was more or less the size of a medium-size live rat. Naturally, you-know-what can always happen to the baahon-s in night when none is around except the two cats! So the organizers, our flat-ternal kaku-kakima-s decided to keep the baahon-s separate in the first-floor flat of one of them, bring them out in the pandal when it’s time to get worshipped, and back to the flat when done.

See? Can it get easier ??

1. The six-pack Kartik … without the ‘almost’ it would turn into a gross overstatement.

As a child I used to hero-worship the macho Kartik, although to my utter dismay they always used to make him more phulbabu-like and smaller than a macho image can suit. Compared to those days this one Kartik in a pandal near my mashir bari was of course a step in the right direction. He was bare-chested … well, almost (alas, again), if you don’t take into account his sparse net-like jacket (or whatever). Felt pretty glad to see the conscious effort behind giving him a muscular look, but alas the result turned out to be a bulky, overweight Kartik, evident from the fatty-looking upper arms and midriff (for obvious reasons, can’t use the jargon, i.e. ‘biceps’ and ‘ab’.).

You have every right to feel repulsed after reading the apathetic descriptions, but do keep aside a hats-off for them. At least they TRIED something new!

BY JEYANTHY PILLAI

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - It's once again time for the Damodara month festival. Devotees in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley are hitting the roads, knocking doors and entering into homes and then speaking about the glories of Lord Damodara. Armed with little ghee lamps, and a photo or figurine of baby Damodara and His mother Yasodha, they spread the mercy of the Lord into thousands and thousands of homes in Malaysia.

Even a person addicted to all sins and averse to all pious deeds who somehow offers a lamp during Karttika becomes purified. Of this there is no doubt. - Padma Purana

Please hear the glories of offering a lamp during the month of Karttika, an offering is very pleasing to Lord Kesava. O king of the brahmans, a person who offers a lamp in this way will not take birth again in this world - Skanda Purana

What started of as a small event some 7 years ago, had a snowball effect and last year, Malaysia saw a tremendous boost, catching the attention of the Iskcon world. In the year 2000 they started with 24 homes taking part in this festival and gradually they grew by leaps and bounds. From 24 home programs they reached an astonishing figure of 3800 homes by the year 2007, and what was more amazing is the total number of friends and well wishers who actually offered this ghee lamps reached the incredible figure of 70,000.

The Damodara Program Coordinator, HG Vishnu Caitanya das says, "It is simply by the collective effort all devotees, working together to achieve something that was incredible. Traditionally we were doing the home programs, but to reach the masses we had to come with different ideas and different ways. Last year we did something that was spectacular that was launching if the Damodara program in a prominent location in Kuala Lumpur that attracted thousands of media and people at large. Traditionally we were doing Damodara home programs. But then again devotees came up with innovative and creative ways to see how this Damodara home programs can be spread in different different ways. What we did was 'harinam' better known as caroling. In this ways we reached many many homes, thousands and thousands of homes were reached in this way. We spend some 10-15 minutes in each home. And what a way to enter into all this homes. It is like a free passage getting into all this homes. and informed them of the glories of this program".

Many senior Vaishnavas, sannyasis and GBC members have endorsed this program and have encouraged the team to spread in around the world. As part of the endeavor to share the success of this Damodara month with other parts of the world, a few members of the preaching team have visited countries like India, Fiji, Australia, Mauritius and South Africa, and imparted their knowledge and experience they have had over the years.

Will they be able to meet their target of reaching to 5000 homes and 100,000 individuals this year? We will soon find out by the end of the Damodara month as they bind little Krishna with ropes of love.

The beauty of photographing people, especially newborns is being able to capture an insight into what their personalities will become, even at 2 weeks. Every photo shoot is different even though sometimes i ask myself - how many different ways can you photograph a baby? But every time, it always surprises and delights me to be able to create an individual story that is unique to every child, to every person.

I get asked often whether i only take photos of babies? No, i take photos of people of all ages and occasions through life. So if there is someone in your family, network or community- a child, partner, parents, friends, or even a special event requiring images, please consider me to tell your story.

My name is Hang Le. I am a Melbourne based female portrait photographer. I have just started this blog so check back often as there are more photos to be uploaded. Sample images can be viewed in the gallery links above.

Growing up we did not celebrate this day. However, my ILS have done so for years. DH has these wonderful stories about spending the night on their buildings rooftop. Now I continue to do my part of keeping the tradition going. So tonights spread for Kojaagari was - Bhel,Shev-Batata Puri and Masala Doodh. I am sure have already tried the first two items on the menu. Believe me any Indian, and more so a Mumbaikar knows what-how-where of Bhel and Shev Puri. So lets move our focus to Masala Doodh

Masala Doodh (Masala Milk)

Ingredients

2 cups Milk (2%)
10 pistachios (de-shelled)
6 almonds( preferably skin on)
Kesar Milk Extract
1/2 teaspoon cardamon powder
1/2 cup sugar

Preparation

1. Set the milk to boil on low heat
2. When the milk gets warm enough add sugar and let it heat.Make sure you boil it on low heat so as not to burn the milk.
3. Meanwhile, in a spice grinder, grind the pistachios and almonds to a coarse powder. Almost the consistency o store bought bread crumbs.
4. When the milk boils, add the pistachio-almond powder, the cardamon and about 4 drops of the Kasar Milk Extract
5. Let it boil a few mins till the milk has reduced a little. The thicker the better, but you dont have to reduce it to half.
6. Ladle in glasses and enjoy in the moonlight

Note
If you havent done so already,Supreme Spice's Kessar Milk Extract and Tea Masala are worth the buy. I use the Kesar Milk Extract in all sweets,kheer,sheera,milk,shrikhand. And at 5$ its def cheaper than those dry-non-coloring-Kesar boxes you find at Indian store.

How do I get started in acting/film/movies/etc.?

If I was given a nickel for everytime I was asked that question, well… I’d have a lot of nickels. But I don’t get a nickel, so I’m writing this article so atleast I don’t have to keep repeating myself over and over again.

Let me also say that I am, by no means, an expert on the business or how to get into it and establish yourself. I only know what I have seen, been through, where I have gone right and wrong, as well as others and I am just sharing my personal notes with you. I also happen to make mention of many different resources throughout this article, most of which are just a Google search away. With that said, here's ten basic steps to get you started:

1. Get Professional
I can’t stress this enough. I’ve seen too many people who might have had great potential and didn’t get very far because of their lack of professionalism. In an environment of flakiness, you can easily set yourself apart simply by standing by your word. Showing up early with everything you need and not being afraid to help out wherever needed go a long way.

Also, be professional in your correspondence as well. Using proper grammar, spelling and punctuation easily set the proper tone. Getting a message like, “hey I see u do dat marshal arts and movie stuff. can I work wit u sumtime? hit me up.” only gives me a headache before I hit the ’delete’ button.  I could go on and on about this part alone, but I’ll keep it at this for now.

2. Get Located
Going through the rest of these steps would not do you much good if there’s not a whole lot of filmmaking going on in your area. The small communities throughout the country may be great places to settle down and live, but you’re not going to do much for your acting career if you’re in some podunk town in Nebraska. You may easily become a big fish in a small pond somewhere, but eventually you’ll need to relocate. The hotspots include California, New York, Florida and Louisiana. Yes, I said Louisiana. Do your research and you’ll find that state has blown up in the last two years or so with all sorts of high profile productions including Déjà Vu and Babel with lots more to come.

3. Get Training
If you think you can just jump right in with your ’natural talent’, you may be in for a surprise. There are too many skilled people in this industry that have put the time into training and sharpening their craft for anyone to ‘bust’ onto the scene with any sort of long term success. Look into schools, seminars, workshops and training academies in your area and ask other established actors where they go and/or recommend. Many universities and community colleges offer classes and programs in drama and theatre, which is where many great actors got their start.

4. Get Educated
Learn as much as you can about the business. Everything from the different roles and jobs of people on set and terminology to the structure and processes of making a movie. That knowledge will help you tremendously the first few times around and maybe you won’t feel so awkward when you don’t know what to do when the casting director asks you to ‘slate’ during the audition process.

5. Get Headshots
Headshots are more important than most care to imagine. In most cases, they present the first impression to producers/directors. In other cases, it helps leave the lasting impression after you’ve already met and auditioned.

When starting out, you can usually find an apprentice photographer that is willing to work with you on what’s called a TFP/TFCD basis. It stands for ‘trade for pics or trade for CD” and it basically means the photographer is willing to work for free to hopefully get great shots as he/she is developing their portfolio.

But as with most things in life, you usually get what you pay for. So as your career progresses (hopefully), there will come a time when you will have to seek out the best photographers in your area and fork out some money for it. Word of mouth go a long way here as well, but you can also search for photographers with online portfolios to look through. You may not be an expert on photography, but most people know good quality when they see it. It’s also a good idea to work with a few different photographers to get different looks and styles so that you have a diverse look to them when you post them up and to switch them out at will when going to an audition.

The standard on headshots is size 8” x 10”. And it’s called a ‘head’ shot for a reason. Submitting full body shots to production companies or any other kind of photo where your face isn’t easily visible is not advisable. Also, don’t have a theme to your photos or make them too gimmicky. A nicely lit, touched up, classic, close-up of you with a warm smile on your face will do just fine. There has also been much debate over whether Full Color or Black & White headshots send the best message, so I’ll let you research all that and decide for yourself.

6. Get A Resume
So you’ve done your homework on the industry and have some nice photos of you; now what? Start booking gigs! There are a lot of great resources for someone starting out to find auditions and casting calls in their area, especially on the internet.

The website, craigslist.com, is a staple in finding productions in need of actors and performers. Just click on your state and area and scroll down to the “Gigs” section and click on ‘talent’. Other websites include mandy.com, greenroomorlando.com (Florida area, which also include greenroomtampabay.com and greenroommiami.com) or even just googling ‘casting call’ with your city and state.

Another good spot to look is in your local colleges and universities. Most have film production programs where students are needing to make a short film almost every semester and are always in need of actors for them. As your career progresses, however, you may need to seek other sources for higher quality productions that start paying and will truly benefit your performance reel.

Also, when you watch a movie at the theatre… do you ever wonder where all those people in the background came from? What happens most of the time is the production company that is making the film will hire a company that specializes in having a large database of aspiring actors to fill those slots. They almost act as agents, but we’ll get into that subject later. Although they don’t do much for your performance reel, these gigs pay, might earn you points towards getting into the SAG union and will help you score huge, large-budget credits on your resume, even if you were just sipping an expresso at the café in the background. They also provide great networking opportunity while on set, which we‘ll get into in the next section.

One other resource in this section to help get more work is seeking out Casting Companies in your area. These are not agents most times, but sometimes better in that they keep a database of actors themselves and when they are contracted to book talent for a production, they can book you directly without having to go through an agent. There aren’t that many, so you have search around pretty hard to see if there are any in your area. If you’re in Florida, I highly recommend Rita Manyette of Martini Shot Casting based out of Jacksonville.

Once you start to work enough gigs that are worthy enough of using a sheet of paper to print them on, there are also a number of resources on how to properly format your resume with the right information, as well as what should go on there and what you should leave out. As far as the special skills section goes… even though your grandma loves when you come to visit and balance her walking cane on your nose for the enjoyment of her and her nursing home friends, it’s not something that should go on your resume (unless you can balance many different things, and maybe at the same time!). That should be left to skills like singing, dancing, martial arts, etc.

7. Get Noticed
Once you get headshots and a decent resume going, you need to promote yourself. This is where some people go wrong. Putting your name and face out there help to generate some notoriety as long as you have the skill and the resume to back it up.

A website would be the easiest way to get started. Make sure the name of the site is streamlined; something to the effect of ‘your name’.com. It would also need to be a nicely designed site that is user friendly and simple to navigate through. It should include the basics, such as a biography, resume/filmography, headshots and photos of you in character from your projects, contact information and maybe even a news section to keep everyone posted on upcoming projects, current filming, premieres and releases of films you’ve worked on. A poor website that looks like a 7th grader put it together for a school project will almost certainly reflect poorly on you, even if you are a talented actor.  If you need a great website, you should check out Elamintal Multimedia (Shameless self promotion… gotta love it!). A performance reel on YouTube that you can also embed into your website will help out… as people are more inclined to watch a video than to read a resume.

Although it’s a great networking tool to gain exposure, a Myspace profile page would only be fairly acceptable in lieu of a website when you’re just starting out and working the unpaid student productions, but even then, it should look professional and easy to read… with only professional headshots, your resume and a basic biography on it. With the moniker that Myspace already has, you don’t want to send a producer to a page where they are looking at your dog Fluffy and having Linkin Park on autoplay.

You should also make it a point to seek out and attend every industry-oriented meeting and event in your area. Film festivals, networking groups, film reviews and premieres of local films are all great locales for rubbing shoulders with most of the area’s filmmakers.

A key networking tool to have is business cards. Have I ever booked a gig off of a business card alone? No. But you sure do look dumb and unprofessional when you don’t have one. Good ideas are having your headshot on them, name, contact info, website, that you’re an actor (duh), and maybe one other special skill you have as mentioned earlier that would benefit a production.  Anything more or less than that will have the filmmaker wondering why they have your card in their pocket the next day.

8. Get An Agent
This is a bit of a tricky subject to discuss, let alone, task to accomplish. One thing I have come to know is that other actors will not hesitate in telling you what they really think of their agents. I’ve been on many gigs, especially commercials and films with lots of background talent, where actors will spill their guts on the types of gigs they get booked on, how fast or slow they get paid (or not at all, unfortunately) and other little tidbits. Word of mouth goes a long way in this industry.

This is how agencies work: You seek out a reputable agency and contact them to set up an audition, just like a film. If they select you, they put you in their database. When a production hires the agency to provide quality talent, they give the agency a list of characters and what they are looking for in those characters. If you fit the role, the agency will contact you, either for the audition or sometimes for a direct booking if you’re lucky.

Another note worth mentioning is the types of agreements you can have with agencies. These are: exclusive, non-exclusive and semi-exclusive. Most agents opt for non-exclusive when you’re starting out, meaning that you have the option of signing with other agents and booking work through them. Reason being, even if you’re booking gigs with other agents, those gigs are still going on your resume and help provide that agent with even more tools to getting you bigger and better projects. If you have attained extensive notoriety within the industry, an agent may request an exclusive agreement, meaning you cannot sign with any other agency, and will offer certain incentives for that within law. Semi-exclusive do not come up very often, but do have a variety of clauses, sometimes including not being able to sign to other agencies within the same state.

As far as pay, the industry standard fee for agents is 20% for non-union gigs and 10% for union gigs. The union percentage is governed by SAG (which I’ll cover later), but if anyone is charging more than 20% for non-union gigs, it’s not worth it. You also have to exhibit a bit of patience when it comes to this part. The agency pays you when they receive the money from the production company AND it clears the bank (which, apparently, is sometimes an issue). The problem with that is sometimes production companies don’t cut checks to the agencies until all production is finished. So if you were booked and worked at the start of production, you may not get paid for a while. This isn’t the agency’s fault, nor that of the production company really, it’s just how the industry works. I would advise you to do your best to have steady money coming in between gigs as it’s a well known struggle in the beginning to be a full time actor.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams out there. I won’t try to go over every single one, but one thing to mention is to stay away from any so-called agent that asks for money up front. Agents make money from booking you gigs, period. Some agents may recommend certain services that have fees, such as online actor databases and photography, but requiring them in order to be represented by them is something to avoid and is even illegal in some states. Also, as mentioned earlier, pay close attention to information you hear from other actors, especially stories of not ever getting paid after a good amount of time. Although some stories may need to be taken with a grain of salt, if the individual is a stand-up person with some experience, it may be worth heeding the caution.

With that said, beware of Thomas Link of The Link Agency in Orlando Florida. That guy is a joke and I have yet to get paid my promised expense reimbursement for a MLB commercial gig over two years ago. He never answers the phone and does not return phone calls or emails pertaining to getting paid. It’s the only agent I’ve worked with that has caused any sort of problem and I should have listened to the horror stories before I signed up with him. The amount is not worth going to court over, but I do my best to get the word out about this disgrace of an agency. Great agents in the Central Florida area that I can vouch for are Posh Models, Benz Models & Talent and The Diamond Agency as well as AVA Talent in New Orleans.

9. Get In The Union
This step is optional and for those who want to seriously progress their careers. Once you meet the requirements, you may join the union, Screen Actor’s Guild, commonly referred to as SAG. Although you can visit their website at www.sag.org to find out more info on them and the requirements, I will tell you that it is a serious commitment. Under Global Rule One, a SAG member must always work under a union contract, and must NEVER work non-union. This means no more student productions, no more community center plays or even local independent productions unless they have a SAG contract.

If you decide to take this step once you’re eligible, I would highly suggest relocating to one of the hotspots mentioned earlier to make it worth your while. While productions are being filmed all throughout the country and the world, living and operating within those areas will provide the best advantages of getting the most work. It’s a great step to take and can really boost your career to the next level in the industry.

10. Get Your Own Work And Keep Working
This is where motivation is a big factor. Agents and SAG only go so far to get you work. You have to stay motivated, keep networking and keep climbing up the ladder of success. It’s all about doing the grunt work in the beginning in order to position yourself where you’re in high demand. Even then, it still takes some hard work and dedication to keep it that way. The only person that can ensure your success is you. Good luck and Godspeed!

There you go! Ten basic steps on what it takes for you to go anywhere in this industry. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any comments, suggestions or complaints… or if you’re Thomas Link wanting to know why I put you on blast (as if you didn’t already know), please feel free to leave a comment!

La fecha indicada será cuando se den a conocer los ganadores de la edición 2008 de los London International Awards, uno de los festivales más importantes a nivel mundial de publicidad, de la que por lo pronto tenemos listo el shortlist y México tiene varias y muy grandes oportunidades de levantar metales de la mano de las ya clásicas Grupo W, JWT México, Ogilvy & Mather, y Olabuenaga:Chemistri ordenadas alfabeticamente.

Las piezas que están compitiendo -en el órden descrito-, son las siguentes:

Para Grupo W claramente la competencia se centra en Digital Media y los vemos tan fuertes como antes. O más. En esta ocasión tienen como primer finalistas:

Showdown Interactive - para The One Club.

One million clicks - para Rexona Power:

Enseguida tenemos a JWT México que compite con piezas a las que ya les conocemos varios premios y listas cortas en otros Festivales mundiales. Básicamente sus entries se concentran en Print y TV, aunque esta primera es un Ambient:

Braile - para el Centro Nacional de Transplantes:

Rearview/tricycle - para Ford Expedition:

Rearview/kitten - para Ford Expedition:

Love Story - para Kermato:

Ogilvy & Mather tiene todas sus fichas puestas en Print con la campaña que realizó para Hot Wheels, en específico para una versión:

Piloto F1 - para Hot Wheels:

Y finalmente contamos con la valiosa integración de Olabuenaga:Chemistri en el shortlist de los London International Awards, con piezas en TV y Print.

Teeth - para Asociación Nacional de Pediatría:

Milk Soccer - para Asociación Nacinal de Pediatría:

Zidane - para Milenio.com

Definitivamente esperamos un excelente performance de las Agencias mexicanas, y sabemos que a latinoamérica le ira muy bien en este Festival.

Pueden checar la lista completa de finalistas directamente en el sitio de los LIA.

Mucha suerte a todas las Agencias involucradas.

Man in a tengu mask at the Kanamara fertility festival.

This photo was taken at the "Taste of Palmyra" festival Monday, October 13, 2008.  The light that day was pretty awesome, but at first I was a little disturbed at the contrast between light and shadow.  Tall buildings up and down Main Street cast deep shadows over all the people, while the sky and upper portions of the buildings were washed in this great light.  Shooting at eye level meant the background in every direction would be washed out by super-duper highlights.  As you can see, I finally figured out I could shoot from a low angle, get the great light and settle for keeping the festival participants in shadow.  Thanks to the leaping dancers filling the sky, everything turned out well.  I do wish the overhead wire wasn't in the photo, but it is, so we'll have to live with it.  This is the only picture posted.  There are no additional photographs in my Main Gallery.

This 18-day festival starts at the end of September through middle October (2008: Sep 25-Oct 11) and takes place on various locations in Dublin. This is a great opportunity to see major Irish theatrical works in development before they reach full production on the stage. As a visitor, you are also a participant, you are able to see rehearsed readings, open rehearsals and semi-staged performances which are followed by feedback from the audience which will, that way, be able to participate in development. If you are an artist, you can be one of 18 theater practitioners from all disciplines that will be chosen to participate in intense programme of performances, talks and workshops.

Festival also features film series, creative dance workshops that are designed to give participants a deeper understanding of the show and its themes, different panel discussions...

Tickets can be bought separate, for each performance or one of the whole 18-day event that includes all performances, workshops and talks for €250.

The Times BFI London Film Festival

This film festival showcases some of the best new films from all around the world. This year it is held from 15-30 October. Festival includes special screenings of most anticipated films of the year (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Quantum of Solace... ), new British Cinema (best new films from around Britain), French Revolutions, best of European and World Cinema, rediscovered classics from around the world too, animation... There is also Experimenta with cutting edge and avant garde films and outdoor screenings on Trafalgar Square where live music will be accompanying archive films celebrating London.

Needless to say, you will definitely enjoy it. The Times BFI Film festival isn't just about the showcases but includes interesting events like onstage interviews with leading figures in contemporary cinema (2008: Benicio del Torro, Danny Boyle...), conversations with some festival filmmakers (Charlie Kaufman), free events like discussions about popular themes and others to meet even the most eclectic tastes.

It's best to book you tickets in advance because it's hard to get them last minute. You can buy them for the shows you want to watch, separate, or buy vouchers.

We'll be doing press, screenings, Q&As and various other activities in Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York, but we start on Thursday evening at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis where THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS is the opening night film.

I'll keep the blog updated as I travel around. We had a great couple of weeks in the UK, Spain and Switzerland recently; hopefully it'll be as much fun this time.

Although being a minority has become a daily part of my life here in Japan, I have never felt its effects so strongly as I did when I participated in the local festival in Ayumi's hometown district, Kise.

Kise, being in the countryside of Aichi Japan, home of Nagoya city, is a place with little foreigners. And its small annual festival thanking and asking Shinto gods for good harvest, in which I participated, is not one that would be found in any travel guide. The only reason why I was able to find out and join the festival celebrations was because Ayumi's family invited me. As a result, I was the only foreigner out of the hundred or more participants, dressed in full festival gear.

Either with awe, curiosity, or disgust, nearly everyone stared and gawked at my white skin, curvy face, and deep eyebrows.

I was very aware of myself as a foreigner.

The festival was great. First we all met in an area just down the street from Ayumi's house, to prepare, drink sake, and eat dried minnow's much like one would snack on chips. From there, after the six shots rang from the some of the first guns that ever arrived in Japan and notes blown from Takayuki's and No-chan's seashell horns, we proceeded to march down to the local shrine. Along the way we chanted "Hosai, Hosai, Hosai!" and stopped in designated areas to watch children preform choreographed fights with wooden weapons.

After the fights people would cheer and throw in pre-wrapped 10 yen coins for those who preformed. Often those younger in age would throw the coins as hard as they could into their peers faces for a good chuckle.

Followed by more gunshots, the group would then proceed its journey to the shrine, stopping twice again for more choreographed fights.

Before entering the temple, purification rites were preformed by people shaking wet bamboo chutes so that drops of water would fall onto those passing by.

Upon entering the temple, people began eating and drinking the free alcohol and food provided. Food was then thrown from the temple balcony, to those eagerly awaiting below.

More choreographed fights were preformed, as those who gathered and watched drank and ate, and drank and ate. Takayuki would even toot on his horn just for fun!

As the festival passed, various drunken people talked to me, a drunken Alec. Many conversations were held, and many words were misunderstood, but we all knew what we had in common... BOOZE~!

Once the darkness came, with lit chouchin (lanterns) we ran back to the to our original meeting spot, then dispersed back to our residences to continue eating and drinking.

I fell asleep, from intoxication, in Ayumi's living room while those around me ate various raw sea creatures.

Did mention that I won the most amazing box of kleenex at the temples raffle. In my drunken state it was my way of breaking the ice with the most hesitant of the Japanese. I would run up to them, spin in a circle, then offer a fresh piece of kleenex which I procured from inside my happi (festival garb).

Twas a merry old time!

Outside the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi

Before launching into what we saw on Sunday 5 October at the Giornate del Cinema Muto, a word of praise for one particular innovation. Pordenone shows prints from around the world, which arrive in a multiplicity of languages featured on the intertitles. For years we have benefitted from the skills of translators viewing the prints as we did and providing instant translations through headphones. This year the headphones were gone. In their place we had computer-generated subtitles immediately below the screen. If the film was in English, the subtitles appeared in Italian, and vice versa; if it was in any other language, we got subtitles in both Italian and English. The amount of preparatory work must have been prodigious, but the result was a hugely improved viewing experience. Warm thanks are due to all those who made this possible, and everyone's hearts went out to whoever had translated all of the 160 minutes of the Norwegian film Laila in English, only to discover that the print came with English titles...

This innovation went hand-in-hand with a welcome emphasis on bilingual presentation generally. In Giornates past it has felt as though English speakers were taking over, which must have been greatly trying for the Italians in the audience. Now most (if not all) spoken introductions were translated from one language or the other. One or two speakers need to know when to take a break to give the poor translator a chance to recap, while one speaker was perhaps unnverved by the translator and stopped speaking in mid-sentence, leaving the translator with an impossible task. But we're getting there.

The day started for me (earlier risers had caught the French film Triplepatte) with two mindboggling Baby Peggy shorts, Such is Life (1924) and Carmen Junior (1923). Child star Baby Peggy (played by Diana Serra Carey, ninety years old next month) is beyond rational criticism. These bizarre films give every appearance of having been made up as they went along. A surreal sequence in Such is Life where an unexplained living snowman melted through a street grill was memorable, but had no logical connection with anything around it (the story was based on 'The Little Match Girl', though feisty Peggy wasn't about to do pathos).

Ever since 1997 the Giornate has been working its way chronologically through the works of D.W. Griffith. This year we reached the end of the journey. The films of Griffith's last working years are generally dismissed as the embarrassing efforts of an out-of-date man in his creative dotage - at least, those such as me who hadn't actually seen them believed this. I wasn't alone in such assumptions, and the astonished (well, pleasantly surprised) rediscovery of Griffith's late films was one of the major points of the festival. We started with Sally of the Sawdust (1925). This is a comedy-drama of a circus performer (Carol Dempster), whose mother was thrown out by her parents when she married a man from the circus and who has fallen under the care of entertainer Eustace McGargle (W.C. Fields). What surprised about Sally of the Sawdust was its general competence. That sounds like a dreadful thing to say about the man who established the art of directing films, but by this period in his career one had sensed that he was wilfully opposed to the ways in which studio-dominated cinema was evolving. But for the most part Sawdust is pleasingly competent. It ticks along nicely. Fields is outstanding - in complete command of the screen from his very first shot. We even get to see him juggle. Dempster is, inevitably, annoying and she puts on all her girlish mannerisms (it's an oddity of the film that she seems far too old for such faux-teenage mannersims, though she was only twenty-three when the film was made). Yet even she surprised in a house party scene where is dresses up glamorously and gives a hint of a quite different, and alluring presence, which she might more profitably have returned to. There was also a touching scene where she dances in the way her mother used to for the woman she does not realise is her grandmother. Unfortunately, Griffith's control fails him towards the end of the film, with his taste for old glories taking over as we have two prolonged chases, one with Dempster, one with Fields, which are poorly executed and fail to intertwine as they should have done, ending with a casual resolution of the plot that lets the audience down. But there were signs of promise, and better was to come.

Included in the catch-all 'Rediscoveries' strand were four Max Linder films. Of these Max Toréador (1913) was remarkable for its prolonged scenes filmed in a bullring in Barcelona with Max himself in the middle with the other toreadors genuinely taking part in the bullfighting. It was no surprise to learn that different prints exist with scenes cut according to local sensibilities - the film did not shy from showing the 'sport' in all its bloody cruelty. Rather more enjoyable was The Three-Must-Get-Theres (1922), a goofy parody of Douglas Fairbanks in The Three Musketeers. The try-a-bit-of-everything humour was variable, but the film gleefully sent up the Fairbanks self-satisfaction and panache, laced with a string of anachronistic gags (motorbikes instead of horses, that sort of thing). Max remains one of the geniuses of the silent cinema, a poetic blending of opposites - graceful air with a penchant for pratfalls; debonair confidence with always just a touch of panic in his eyes.

One of the festivals themes was filmmaking in New York, tied in with Richard Koszarski's new book, Hollywood on Hudson. The films chosen were an odd mish-mash, none odder nor mish-mashier than His Nibs (1920-21), directed by Gregory La Cava. Starring obscure comedian Chic Sale (whose gentle comic style suggests he might be worth investigating further, if more films exist), the film was made out of what was going to be a conventional drama, The Smart Aleck. At some point someone realised that the film wasn't working, and decided to build another film around it. So we get a film about a cinema show, with Sale playing multiple parts, including a crusty projectionist. The audience settles down to watch the film-within-a-film, now called He Fooled 'Em All (starring Sale and Colleen Moore), with commentary from the projectionist in the intertitles to prevent the audience from reading out the titles. The projectionist also tells us that he cut out a train journey from the film, because those scenes all look the same, plus some mushy stuff at the end. So some good laughs at the expense of cinema, and an intriguing portrait of a small town film show, but a minor oddity overall.

The highlight of the day - indeed one of the highlights of the week - was quite unexpected. On 28 December 1908 the Messina Straits off Sicily was at the epicentre of a huge earthquake. It was probably the biggest earthquake in Europe ever experienced; around 200,000 died in the region, with Messina itself having its population reduced to just a few hundred. We saw how film responded to this tragedy, through three actualities and two fiction films. The first actuality, from an unknown producer, had the greatest effect - aided by Stephen Horne's eerie music (starting with solo flute before turning to piano). Each shot framed people within the ruins of the city to haunting effect. There was a profound sense of a shock, a dawning realisation of what had just happened. A Pathé news report showed us more, while a Cines film showed us the town being rebuilt in 1910. An Ambrosio drama, L'Orfanella di Messina (1909) depicted a couple who had lost their daughter to illness adopting an orphan girl from Messina, simple yet deeply touching. Finally, and oddly, there was a Coco comedy in which the comedian imagined himself caught up in the earthquake, with collapsing walls and floors in his bedroom. In this simple package of films, we saw how film was used to report on and to help people come to terms with what the country had been through. The sequence moved us all.

The Orchestra della Scuola Media Centro Storico di Pordenone, a school orchestra, was given the chance to show its mettle, accompanying Buster Keaton's One Week (whose inventiveness greatness put the middling efforts of other comedies seen during the day into context) and three cartoons. Heavy on the recorders and percussion, but good accompaniment for all that, with spot-on sound effects. And further evidence of the growing bonds between community and festival.

The Golf Specialist, from criterioncollection.blogspot.com

The evening's screening kicked off with a sound film: W.C. Fields in The Golf Specialist (1930). The Fields theme was a bit of an opportunisitc one, probably chosen because some of his silents turned up in the Griffith and New York strands. The film is a classic, of course, and it was good to have it as a point to which his silent films were pointing. It's a variety sketch in which Fields chaotically fails to demonstrate his golf skills, which tangling with children, animals and sticky paper with progressive absurdity. Delicious cynicism is on view, though there could be more of Fields' sardonic view of the world and a little less of the golfing calamities.

After a modern Romanian silent short on climate change, whose logic eluded me, we had The Show Off (1926), directed by Mal St Clair. Part of the New York strand (it was filmed at Paramount's Astoria studios), it starred the ever unappealing Ford Sterling (the Keystone star that Chaplin famously supplanted) in a relatively straight role. This had some cultural-historical fascination in its picture of office life and suburban aspiration, with Sterling playing all too accurately a vain and selfish social failure. Somehow he becomes aware of the unhappiness of other people about him and implausibly saves the day. Had Fields been given the part, we might have had a film of note. As it was we had a minor work of academic interest, its most diverting feature being Louise Brooks as the girlfriend of Sterling's brother-in-law, looking for all the world as though she had glided in from a different planet.

Look out for Day Three, where we will encounter hands, feet, Satan, puppets and a strongman on his holidays.

Pordenone diary 2008 - day one
Pordenone diary 2008 - day three

Classes were canceled today at my alma mater, according to the Daily Sundial, which also has this nifty review of "Big Show 8," which happened over the weekend and featured the homies U-N-I and Ludacris. Also performing were hip-hop violinists Black Violins and Luda's sidekick Lil' Fate.

Peep the review by Richard Castaneda in the Sundial, he gives U-N-I love and overall does a pretty nice job with the piece, if  I say so myself. There's also a photo gallery.

Austin City Limits - Where the Music World Comes Together
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ki_Gray]Ki Gray

Every year, during the sweltering late summer months, bands from across the country converge on Austin, Texas for one weekend of music, food and hot, sweaty fun. Thousands upon thousands of people, young and old, flock to Austin each year for the massive music event that is the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Some of the biggest names in music show up every year. The festival's eight stages, spread out across Zilker Park, host more than 100 bands over the course of the weekend, each playing for sold out crowds. In recent years, music legends such as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, The Flaming Lips, Beck, The Foo Fighters, N.E.R.D., Gnarls Barkley and many others have graced the ACL stages.

Ideally situated in downtown Austin, Zilker Park closes down each year for the massive three-day event, and the music can be heard throughout downtown. But ACL isn't just about music. A local artisan village is set up each year to allow Austin's local businesses and artists to showcase their work to the thousands of attendees, who hail from across the nation. Likewise, many of Austin's top local restaurants have booths set up selling menu favorites at the expansive food court on site. With the coveted three-day passes selling often selling out six months before the festival, ACL poses a prime opportunity for Austin businesses of all kinds to showcase their products and reach new (and substantial) audiences.

But, really, it's all about the music. With a wide range of genres represented, including country, bluegrass, rock, hip hop, folk, and pretty much anything else you can think of, ACL truly offers something for everyone. There is even a dedicated children's stage. Attendees of all ages, races, and musical interests can be found here, making it one of the most unifying music festivals in the country.

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And it's not just the biggest names in music that grace the stages at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. In fact, many ACL provides many up and coming groups a break out opportunity. It's the holy grail of every struggling Austin musician's career, which adds one more reason Austin thrives as the self-proclaimed live music capital of the world. Competition for a spot in the lineup is cut-throat, yet each year the array of artists manages to remain strikingly varied and comprehensive. From funky bands like G. Love and the Special Sauce and breakout stars like Vampire Weekend, to old school legends Asleep at the Wheel and gospel groups like the River City Christianettes, ACL is quite literally a melting pot of musical talent and expression (and the 100 + degree heat makes the analogy all the more appropriate).

In 2008, Austin City Limits is being held on the weekend of September 26-28. Three day passes have been sold out for months, but stragglers can purchase single day passes on the festival web site for $80 apiece. With almost 50 bands playing daily, starting at 11:00 am and running until the headlining show wraps up at 10:00 pm, Austin City Limits is the place to be in Austin, Texas, (and many would assert, the entire country) for one raging weekend each year.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ki_Gray http://EzineArticles.com/?Austin-City-Limits---Where-the-Music-World-Comes-Together&id=1458223

Sponsorships entail more than just money.  If done well, there is a commitment of dollars as well as labor and time.  It is important to evaluate each sponsorship opportunity in light of Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Effort (ROE).

First, let's explore both the tangible and intangible benefits of sponsorship. 

Tangible benefits can include pre-event and onsite media coverage in which the sponsor's logo and marketing message appears, signage, online presence and links between the event's and sponsor's websites, tickets to the event and/or a hospitality package, onsite presence with premium positioning, access to mailing list(s) and television or other expanded onsite media coverage, if applicable.

Intangibles may include association with a prestigious event, exclusivity of the sponsorship (i.e., lack of competitors in the same category), the audience's level of interest or loyalty, networking opportunities with clients and prospects, and the potential for further media coverage. 

I believe there is also value in being associated with an event that is either launching or growing, which is not to say there is less value in an event that has a stable "following" or history of successful attendance.  I mention this because some companies are reluctant to be "the first" to participate in a new event or one that is being taken to the next level.  There is value in being associated with success and the audience's positive emotional attachment to the event.

Although sponsorship is usually considered to be a long-term marketing tool used to raise awareness, derive a competitive advantage and build brand by having "face time" in front of a particular community*, it is possible to use it to drive traffic to business.

If you are considering event sponsorship, here are some ways in which you can derive a higher level of return on your sponsorship investment:

• Assess the festival's audience - Does the audience demographics fit with your organization's current target audience or can it realistically be considered a new or potential target audience?  Consider both size of the attendee base as well as alignment of demographics or psychographics with your business' target market.  For example, if an event's or festival's attendance is relatively small, but the target audience exactly matches the one you are seeking, this sponsorship may make more sense than the sponsorship of a larger festival where only a percentage of the attendees match. 
• Weigh the competitive advantage - If your competitor is there, is it important for your business to be present?  If they are not there, will sponsorship potentially increase your visibility and market share?
• Consider cost/benefit ratio - Is the benefits package and audience exposure equal to the price being charged?  Is the fee competitive with other such sponsorship opportunities?  
• Plan your participation in the event - The presence of knowledgeable representatives onsite who can interact with the public, give the company "a face," answer questions and offer information almost always increases the value of participation.  Think about booth design and marketing collateral so that a targetted message is delivered to the event's specific audience.  One size does not fit all.
• Don't be afraid to negotiate - Most sponsorship offerings are negotiable.  The event organizers want to be sure each sponsor derives value from the event.  If the package being offered does not meet your business needs, brainstorm with the event organizers on alternatives that are a better fit.
• Do your own PR - Although successful events and festivals establish a  marketing/PR plan that includes sponsor promotion, you will maximize your participation by putting out your own press releases as well.  In this way, you can put your company's spin on its partnership with the event and increase the possibility of media exposure for your business.
• Measure your participation - If you are taking the time, effort and money to sponsor a festival or event, make your effort count.  Plan a way to measure your investment.  Perhaps that's an offer designed to grow your database or increase website or foot traffic through a special promotion. If awareness and brand building is your goal, establish a success measurement to justify the sponsorship.  For example, in a recent local festival in which Verizon was a major sponsor offering text-messaging for attendees to vote in a "Battle of the Bands," they could measure the number of text votes registered, but were also able to capture the cell phone numbers and send a branded thank you note to each voter. 
• Finally, be creative! - Consider value-added offers, an innovative booth, exhibit or presence and outstanding onsite personnel.  A soon-to-open Skincare and Spa owner chose to sponsor a local festival to promote the opening of her new business.  Not only was her booth beautifully-designed, giving potential clients a sense of her new spa's atmosphere and level of pampering, she also sold skincare products and distributed a special promotion incentivizing first-time trial.  She had multiple ways to assess her investment and was delighted with the outcome.

Everything you do to give your company a "Face" or persona that the target audience will identify with your  product or service and logo helps to increase the value of your sponsorship.  While it is certainly not possible to measure every tangible and intangible benefit of a festival or event sponsorship, much can be done to ensure return on investment. 

For futher information on the topic of sponsorship valuation, see the following articles:

• IEG Sponsorship.com on Valuation Services
• Measuring Sponsorship's Return by Nicholas J. Cameron
• Measuring the Intangible Value of Sponsorship

If you found this article helpful, you may enjoy Festival Sponsorship, Part I: Can Sponsors Expect a Return on Investment?

QUESTION: HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO MEASURE YOUR FESTIVAL OR EVENT SPONSORSHIP , OR WHAT HAVE YOU PREVIOUSLY DONE TO ENSURE RETURN ON INVESTMENT?

*  "Community" is used broadly to define a geographic destination as well as a group of individuals comprising an organization or broader-scope community.

The Bad: paperwork (again); not getting paid till end of November; falling Aussie dollar not doing me any favours; confusion about the buses going to and from Comines.

The Ugly: complete and utter disorganisation at my school

Comines: Fete Historique des Louches

I may or may not mentioned the geants: the large papier mache people which belong to each town here in the north of France, especially in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and southern Belgium. They're wheeled out for particular historical festivals. I found out that in Comines, a small town to the north of Lille, which is half in Belgium, and half in France, would have a local festival last weekend; after discovering it was well within reach by public transport, I headed over there for the Fete des Louches on Sunday.

I knew nothing about it except that 'louches' meant 'ladle' and that there would be a costume parade. The program mentioned something about 'jeter les louches' - jeter means 'to throw' - and was a little curious about what that would entail.

Well.

Comines is a really nice day trip out of Lille. It's in the middle of farmland, and has a UNESCO heritage listed beffroi (bell tower - theres a bunch of UNESCO listed belltowers in the north of France). Getting there was relatively easy - the Transpole #18 or #36 buses leaving from Lille Flandres Gare, or the Transpole Liane #1 bus leaving from Grand Palais or Republique Beaux Arts in Lille, gets you there in 40 minutes, takes you right to the city centre - or should, except when you go during a festival, and you're made to walk a kilometre from the outskirts because the roads are closed - and because it's Transpole, it was covered by my usual weekly commute ticket, so I didn't even have to pay to get there (for those of you at home, 'Transpole' is Lille's equivalent of the 'Adelaide Metro' meaning all buses, trams and trains use the same ticket.)

So, I'd had to walk from the outskirts, which worried me a little because I really didn't know where I was going, but knew I was in the right place when I turned the corner and saw what could only be 'L’Eglise Saint-Chrysole' - a somewhat oriental ('neo-byzantin', apparently) art deco church (with what appears to be concrete cancer), built between the World Wars.

It was closed due to the festivities, but I would've loved to see inside it.

The beffroi is down right unreal, it's bizarre and beautiful, with a slight oriental/eastern feel. The 'Hotel de Ville' (town hall) and beffroi were built in the 20's, in Flemish style.

Comines is a half French city, half Belgian. Apparently this entire area of France used to Belgian, and vice versa; hence the frequent Flemish architecture clashing with Renaissance architechture throughout Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In fact, both sections are joined by this bridge:

I still can't get over the relationship between Schengen countries (for those playing at home, Schengen countries are those in Europe which don't require border controls when moving from one to the other - such as France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy etc.). A Melbourner I've met here lives near the Belgian border, and regularly goes for a run over there; here, in Comines, I wandered back and forth between Belgium and France. For an Aussie that's simply unreal.

Of course, historically, Comines (France) and Comines-Warneton (Belgium) were the same city, so it's pretty much not that much different on the otherside (the language is even the same, as it's Walloon Belgium). Anyway, continuing.

There was a medieval market, with mostly pageant participants wandering around in costume, and not many shoppers. I'd arrived in the day too early - most of the festivities, stalls and rides weren't to open till mid-late afternoon. All you cosplayers back home, northern France is your place to be: seriously, they take their costumes seriously here. Wait till you see the Roman soldiers in the Youtube clip I'm going to do.

On the Belgian side, I found the geants, who would later feature in the parade, waiting patiently outside a church (the parade starting point).

So, from French Wikipedia, I have been able to determine that 'Grand Gueuloute' - a ribbon maker - and 'P'tite Chorchire' - a maker of 'macaroons' (a traditional cake) - have been around since the 1880's (yes, that is how old those geants are). In 1984, Buchard de Comines appeared, in memory of the lord of Comines who went to the crusades; followed by the Lord de Comines in 1987, who wears the costume of the 'brotherhood' of Comines, and proudly holds a ladle.

After checking these guys out, people were starting to line up for the parade. I grabbed myself a possie on the bridge, and so began the afternoon's festivities.

This festival, in its current form, has been going on since the late 1880's, but has been around in some way since the 1600's. I wasn't able to find a definitive origin, something to do with a Duke who was locked away in a castle. He alerted some tradesmen, who were working in the dungeons (? I think), to his predicament by throwing his wooden eating utensils out the window. Anyway, I found these: posters of the festival dating back to the 1900's:

The parade was quite amusing. The floats represent interpretations of the history of Comines, and are prepared by locals