Festival Coordinator

Salary: £10.90 per hour

Borderlines Film Festival is seeking a Festival Coordinator/ Administration Assistant to join the Festival team to deliver the next edition of the film festival in March 2023. 

Borderlines, recognised by the BFI as a film festival of national significance, celebrates its 21st birthday in 2023. Spectacularly well-attended, it returns to its wide-ranging rural venues and super-loyal audiences, including The Courtyard in Hereford, Malvern Theatres, Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Kinokulture in Oswestry and the Flicks in the Sticks network of village halls and community centres, next March. We’re looking for a new part-time member of staff with strong organisational ability and good customer relations skills to join a small but well-established and successful team to deliver our next edition.

Borderlines is the UK’s largest rural film festival, with an enviable attendance, peaking at over 23,000 attendances in 2020. Screening the best new cinema from all over the world, the programme highlights include a strong line-up of previews and is the only film festival programmed by the Independent Cinema Office. 

Borderlines Film Festival will run in cinemas only from Friday 3 – Sunday 19 March 2023. A role in this successful film festival represents an exciting opportunity for someone who is both passionate about film and public exhibition and wishes to develop their career in this field.

The post will require a mixture of working remotely and on the ground in our area (Herefordshire, Shropshire, Malvern and the Welsh Borders) in the run-up to and throughout the Festival. Applicants must have access to their own transport and be able to stay in the area for the duration of the Festival period.

Job role

To provide effective administrative support to the Festival Director, Marketing Manager and Marketing and Events Officer and to ensure the smooth-running operation of the Festival Desk at the Courtyard Hereford during the Festival dates.

Duties include

In the run-up to the festival:

• Attendance at meetings with Festival Director, Marketing Manager and Marketing and Events Officer as requested.
• Set up and manage databases e.g. the volunteer rota for the Festival desk.
• Undertake any leaflet distribution mail-outs under the Marketing Manager’s direction.
• Oversee and monitor brochure distribution top-ups in Hereford City
• Arrange the printing and distribution of film notes, questionnaires and venue packs out to the Flicks venues along with the ident, road signs and post-it notes, in liaison with Marketing Manager.
• Liaise with volunteers/festival ambassadors for the Hereford Festival Desk.
• Collect and collate paper-based audience questionnaires from village and market town venues as requested.
• Liaise with sponsors on film choices/ accreditation and ensure the smooth running of sponsors’ contributions.
• Co-ordinate the use of the Amazon Fire Tablets with the Festival survey and ensure volunteers know how to use this with customers
• Be part of the brochure proofreading team.
• Be the first point of contact for incoming queries from the website.

During the festival:

• Provide a regular presence at the Festival Information Desk at The Courtyard.
• Undertake the front of house management and administration: collate film ratings from data input and print out daily results sheets, photograph and tweet post-it comments, manage the desk rota, print out sponsors signs, manage the voting boxes and ensure volunteers know how to organize this.
• Liaise with Courtyard Front of House e.g. on film start and end times
• Coordinate and process verbal visitor feedback/facilitate and oversee the use of tablets for festival survey
• Deputise for Festival Director or Marketing Manager e.g. releasing comps as needed per screening, dealing with visitor queries, sponsors’ tickets and other issues arising in their absence.
• Take on other tasks during the Festival as requested by the Festival Director and Marketing Manager both at The Courtyard and other Festival venues.

Personal Requirements

Essential: 

• Demonstrable experience of a full range of IT skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word and Excel), Google Forms, and proficiency with social media platforms
• Attention to detail and abilities
• Proven ability to work independently and under pressure
• Good interpersonal skills
• Valid driving license and access to personal transport
• Flexibility – you must be either based in the region or able to stay in here during the festival and its immediate run-up period
• Available to start work immediately

Desirable

• Love of cinema and films
• Ability to collate data and evaluate
• Strong customer relation skills both for audiences and sponsors
• Experience of fostering good working relations with volunteers
• Experience of running websites

Applications

To apply, send your CV together with 2 referees and no more than 2 x A4 pages detailing your experience, why you want to apply for the post and how you meet the requirements of the job description to Naomi Vera-Sanso at: hello@borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk.

Start date: w/c 9 January

Applicants must be able to drive and have access to a car. They need to be free, during the dates of the Festival, 3  – 19 March, to work at The Courtyard Hereford and other venues, if requested.

Place of work: Work prior to the Festival and in the period after the Festival is on a work from home basis with occasional physical meetings. During the Festival period the place of work will be at The Courtyard Hereford or other Festival venues. Based on previous festivals, the workload is likely to be in the region of 250 hours: 15 hours p/w, rising to 37.5 hours p/w during the Festival period.

Interviews will take place Friday 16 December. Travel costs (return standard class rail fare) will be covered if interviews are in person.

For enquiries, please send an email to Naomi Vera-Sanso at hello@borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk

The closing date for this position is 11/12/2022 at 17:00