Page 109 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

The organisers’ Twitter and Facebook strategy is to post information on current activities, promotions and competitions (such as Phonetastic, which will be examined later on) and follow-ups throughout the year of lms presented at previous editions – for example, when they are premiered in major theatres,or if any of the main people (actors, directors, producers...) win prizes, or related news, but all in connection with the festival itself.Even so, so many signi cant agents from the fantasy and horror lm world have taken part in its 48 editions that they cover practically the whole of the genre.During the year they also stage activitiesin conjunction with other organisations inthe Barcelona area and Catalonia, such as launches of related books on which they have collaborated in some way, or with media and lm institutions such as the Catalan lm academy, the SGAE (Spanish society of authors, composers and publishers) and even other minor regional horror and fantasy lm festivals. Throughout the year they thus supply content of interest to fans of these genres and likewise help disseminate lms of this kind.The organisers furthermore tell us that it is extremely important to them to reply to all the questions and comments they receive, which require answers, especially during the run-up to the festival, which is when interaction of this kind intensi es. Around this time they have a team of three people devoted speci cally to this task.Apart from online networks, in recent yearstheir e orts to cultivate relations with the local community of the town of Sitges and with the fantasy lm sector (including fans) have been vital to achieving their objectives and dynamics. They have gained visibility on the digital platforms through some of the abovementioned collaborations with other organisations and through the degree of interaction they achieve inFacebook, for example, where they have a high pro le. In a sense, it is evident that social media technologies facilitate many processes but are no substitute for the whole process of weaving the cultural fabric.L’Alternativa is a lm festival specialised invery speci c genres, especially those that arenot easily found in cinemas or at mainstream festivals: it ‘makes the hidden visible’. The festival is on various social media sites – Facebook and Twitter, Google+, YouTube and Dailymotion, Instagram and Flickr – and also has a blog.The media the organisers use continuously throughout the year are Facebook and Twitter. The days around and during the festival seethe most action, as it is then that they share information about screenings, presentations and prizes, but during the rest of the year they also post information and news related to alternative lm genres and screenings of this kind in the city’s cinemas. Their philosophy is to reply to all queries and comments received and to repost the most grateful comments and mentions by other agents of the audiovisual and culture sectors, among others.They use Instagram during the festival only, beginning two weeks beforehand, by posting a few images in connection with the forthcoming edition. In 2014 they also launched an activity featuring prizes – a draw with tickets for the special screening of the prizewinning lms – in which attendees could post a picture taken in a particular corner of the festival using a speci c hashtag (to allow all the photos posted by users to be found). Flickr, which is less social, is used to handle the o cial photographs of each edition to be shared on the Internet.They use the video channels YouTube and Dailymotion for separate purposes. The former is used for sharing videos related to the festival in general (trailers and clips, the trailer of each edition of the festival, and footage of some of the activities such as openings or prizes), whileAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2016109Focus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals