Location Perugia
Client Stratus Media Group Inc (SMDI)
Typology of the project and activity Coordination and Production - Sets and Shows - Strategic planning - Integrated Communications - Organizing Office and Press Office
Objectives
- To produce a non-competitive event celebrating the cinematic arts and its professions
- To initiate the event with a two-day soft launch in anticipation of the true festival, on the calendar 22nd to 25th March 2012
- To create a public relations event, engaging industry artists and filmmakers from all over the world, though not excluding the general public
Strategic guidelines
To structure the Perugia International Film Festival as an eclectic event capable of melding art, history, culture, and local flavours in a unique, dynamic festival.
To create a Festival that connects recent films, innovative in their use of cinematographic language, to films that have made Italian and international cinematographic history. The programme is to be integrated with meetings, debates, and seminars with experts in the field.
Action
With the participation of the Town of Perugia, which opened several of its most important sites and monuments to the Festival, MAC Group produced the preview of the Perugia International Film Festival (established and conceived by Stratus Media Group), engaging students of the University of Perugia and professional Arts Associations, as well.
A strategic project for the event's organization and production was devised; MAC Group coordinated pre-event operations and the two-day event, directly handling all operational, logistical, welcoming, and administrative phases. All communications tools and materials were designed and presented according to the directions of the creators.
The agency carried out an event aimed at the general public in the case of screenings and at a selected target of guests for several key 'moments' of the Festival. For a select group of guests and VIPs, MAC Group managed all transportation and accommodation operations, as well as social events in the beautiful setting of the centrally located Cloister of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.
For two days, Perugia was the stage for outstanding screenings: the festival was inaugurated by the great American photographer Bruce Weber and legendary documentarians D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, pioneers of Direct Cinema-Cinéma Vérité.
Attendance at the screenings, which were free and in part open to the public at the Teatro Pavone, was handled via online ticket assignments and a specially-created administrative office service.For each film or short, the format included an introduction of the movie, its subsequent screening, and a closing discussion with the artists and filmmakers involved in its production.
A press conference (held in the stunning Sala dei Notari in Palazzo dei Priori) opened the Festival's soft launch, followed by presentations of the first films: 'Kings of Pastry' and 'Daybreak Express' directed by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
Attendees fully immersed themselves in the red carpet atmosphere with the gala screening of 'Senso' by Luchino Visonti. A happy hour and gala dinner at Hotel Brufani Palace, strictly by invitation only, concluded the first day.
On the last day, much time was dedicated to the screening of other shorts: 'Stars, Style and Sunshine: the movies of Bruce Weber', 'Liberty City Is Like Paris To Me', 'The Teddy Boy of the Edwardian Drape Society', 'Being Boring', and 'Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast'.
The Preview of the Festival concluded with the screening of 'The Forgiveness of Blood' by Joshua Marston.
Lastly, during the closing dinner at the Cloister of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, VIPs and institutional guests made plans to meet again at the Perugia International Film Festival.
The numbers
- 300 invitees, of which 60 VIPs
- an average of 215 tickets assigned for each screening
- 3 accommodation facilities involved
- 6 service vehicles and 2 shuttle busses in constant service
- 25 personnel
