November 01, 2024
Client Success Story: Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival
Quick implementation for streamlined film festival planning
“Ahh, finally, we don’t have to spend a week in the office with the Post-its and counting the minutes of the films and the breaks between the screenings. (...) That was enlightening!”
The Nippon Connection Film Festival is the largest Japanese film festival outside Japan and the world’s largest platform for Japanese cinema. They annually showcase both traditional and modern aspects of Japanese culture with a comprehensive six-day program filled with great films and a side program, including workshops and concerts. Managing this extensive schedule requires efficient tools. After trying out different film festival software for a year or two, switching back to Google Drive documents, and even using good old-fashioned, handwritten, sticky notes on their walls, they decided to keep an eye out for a more efficient film festival planner tool.
So, when we connected at the European Film Market at Berlinale, we talked about possibilities. Nippon Connection discussed it internally, found the right funding and when we saw them again in November of that year, they were ready to try out Fiona. Since their preparations started in December, we had a swift setup and training phase, allowing them to put it into practice and make the workflow their own.
Starting small and starting quick with the film planner
We started with a small version of our software to answer their biggest question: how can we plan our timetable more efficiently? So, we trained them to use our film festival planner. It’s a visual drag-and-drop planner in which they can plan the film screenings per location, day and time and include all the important (technical) information: the language of the subtitles, the aspect ratio and the people present for a Q&A, introduction or for translating. One major benefit of a digital planner is the automatic notification of technical or organisational conflicts. Nippon Connection used to keep all their information in a couple of different lists (compiled by different team members) and planned with sticky notes, a method that left some room for error:
“Before Fiona, we were always late with the screenings because we didn’t calculate the Q&As or made a mistake in the timetable when we made it by hand. Of course, sometimes we’re still late because of a technical problem, but for the audience, it’s good that they don’t have to wait so much.”
While the start-up was very quick, the Nippon Connection team understood it easily, immediately implemented it in their workflow, and liked it!
“Ahh, finally, we don’t have to spend a week in the office with the Post-its and counting the minutes of the films and the breaks between the screenings […]. Making a change in the timetable is not a big deal; you don’t have to recalculate everything, and you can export the timetable to an Excel sheet. That was enlightening.”
Implementing it for the right people
``(...) Yes, but if you put it in Fiona, you have much less work after that.``
Implementing new software is not just about the possibilities of the software itself, it’s also about the people using it. Nippon Connection is a non-profit organisation that works with many volunteers every year. So, deciding who had to understand and use Fiona was a process of trial and error. They eventually settled on assigning one admin per team. Although, even with a smaller group, it sometimes took some convincing to get everyone on board:
“For some parts, we had to convince some team members to use it. They would say, ‘It’s too much work, it’s too much work’. But then I said, yes, but if you put it in Fiona, you have much less work after that.”
Our best features, according to Nippon Connection
“Once it’s in Fiona, you’ll have the correct data and it applies to everything.”
Nippon Connection has now used Fiona Festival for four consecutive festival editions, gradually expanding the features and modules. So we asked them what they thought of Fiona so far:
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“Once it’s in Fiona, you’ll have the correct data and it applies to everything.”
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“It’s getting more and more useful the longer you use it.”
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“If you have a question or can’t find something, you can just drop a message, and the next day you will have an answer.”
For me the entry feature is very important because it makes everything much easier and also in the past if we had around 100 entries, I had to send 100 emails separately and now I can just push a button and the emails get sent out automatically. Also, I don’t have to set up the whole new entry form for every festival each year, I just have to modify it a little bit and I can just reuse it. And, of course, the timetable!”
– Florian Höhr – Head of Program
Fiona Festival can be customised to every specific film festival. Every year, we evaluate with Nippon Connection. Afterwards, we can fine-tune the software, add features, and swap modules, all to keep building on their ideal software solution.
“If I use some parts of Fiona and I think ‘oh maybe it would be better like this, or maybe I need an overview of that, or maybe…’ but it’s not existing, then I’ll write a message to Fiona and they will put it on our wishlist. That’s very nice, because every festival is different and has their own needs. They say ‘okay we will try to do it’. If you only have a standard software that’s not possible, but now we have very personal support.”
Marion Klomfaß – Festival Director
Of course, switching film festival software is a big step that requires a lot of attention and risk management. When you start small, big benefits can be achieved with limited risk involved. Whether you need a new software solution yesterday or just looking around, we’re always open to talk about the possibilities. Book a meeting.
