Tropfest Partners with Brightcove for Short Film Competition Entries

CASE STUDY TROPFEST

TROPFEST PARTNERS WITH BRIGHTCOVE FOR SHORT FILM COMPETITION ENTRIES

Tropfest is Australia’s most prestigious short film festival and one of its most iconic cultural events. It is also the largest short film festival in the world. At home, Tropfest is recognised for its enormous contribution to the development of the Australian film industry by providing unique platforms for emerging filmmakers through its events and initiatives, and new and expanded audiences for their work.

John Polson started the ‘Tropicana Short Film Festival’ (as it was originally known) as an informal short film screening for cast, crew and friends at the Tropicana Cafe in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. More than 200 people showed up for that first screening. Inspired by the turn out, John decided that a full- fledged short film festival was the next step.

Twenty-one years on, Tropfest Australia SITUATION attracts a live national audience of more Henry Kalaf, Film and Entries Manager at Tropfest, than 150,000 people on a single night. explains that online video has been an integral The event is now hosted at Sydney’s part of the festival for a number of years. Centennial Parklands, with live satellite links to outdoor locations in major cities around “Tropfest has been online for a number of years. the country and broadcast to thousands Previously, entries were submitted to YouTube, who more on free-to-air TV channel, SBS. we had partnered with for a customised upload tool. While this worked well, we wanted a platform that Tropfest has expanded internationally to gave filmmakers more options and freedom, while also now include new competitions and festivals giving Tropfest more control in how we distributed the in New Zealand, New York, South East Asia screeners to our preselection judges around the world.” as well as Tropfest Arabia, which is open to filmmakers across the Middle East and North Kalaf explains that their initial transition away Africa. Other discussions are underway in from YouTube was not a seamless one. territories around the world including China, Singapore, Japan, Turkey, London and more. “We moved to a new service for submissions in preparation of Tropfest 2013. Very soon after we In the months leading up to the final opened it up for entries in October 2012, there event, filmmakers are invited to submit was a breakdown of the service, and we lost all their films using an online system. the entries, including their accompanying data.

Thankfully, it was early on and there had only been 15 entries, and we were able to contact each filmmaker to arrange alternatives and to refund their We couldn’t be happier with fee. But we did have to put entries to Tropfest on what Brightcove has created for hold while we came up with our own solution.” us. Within three weeks we had “a fully operational, secure, and SOLUTION: PARTNERING WITH BRIGHTCOVE much more powerful online video As soon as the upload service crashed, solution for Tropfest filmmakers. Kalaf and the team at Tropfest began Henry Kalaf looking for an alternative solution. Film and Entries Manager at Tropfest

“That day we reached out to a number of experts in As soon as Tropfest opened up submissions again, the field, including Brightcove. The team at Brightcove everything ran like clockwork. Filmmakers were Australia responded to my email immediately, and able to use a simple submission form, pay their “ we had a great initial conversation. They were in our entry fee and upload their films. Video Cloud office within the hour, and we were able to fully brief matched all of this data up to the Tropfest database, them on our complex and demanding requirements.” and made the entire process very simple.

The team at Brightcove worked on a customised Prior to the Brightcove solution, filmmakers were Video Cloud solution that integrated with extremely limited in how they could submit their Tropfest’s existing online properties. Brightcove Tropfest entries. They had to be in a specific worked closely with Tropfest’s web agency, The format (FLV), and file size restrictions meant the Nest, to ensure the online submissions powered pre-selection judges were unfortunately seeing by Video Cloud would work seamlessly with low-resolution videos. With Video Cloud, entrants the existing website and online entry forms. could upload a much wider variety of formats and up to 800MB in size. It was also possible to “We couldn’t be happier with what Brightcove upload submissions in high definition this time. has created for us. Within three weeks we had a fully operational, secure, and much more powerful online video solution for Tropfest filmmakers.”

“We have 25 pre-selection judges who, this year The ability to quickly create playlists of entries and for the first time, were viewing the videos as the to share them with the pre-selection judges in high filmmakers had intended,” Kalaf said. “Filmmakers definition meant Tropfest’s back-end processes themselves commented on how much easier it was were much more efficient and streamlined this to upload this year, and praised the ability to submit year. And, having all the films in a secure library, their work in the format they were happy with. while also ensuring the videos are of the highest quality was a huge benefit for Tropfest. THE RESULTS AND THE GLOBAL PLANS “The solution we created in Australia has been The solution developed for Tropfest handled over 600 such a success for us that we’re rolling out the film entries in total for Tropfest 2013, which culminated same entry system for New York, Southeast in a live event showcasing the finalists on February 17. Asia, and more to come. We hope Brightcove will become a long-term partner, and we’re really Kalaf praised the new solution, and pointed to an excited about the online future of Tropfest.” ongoing partnership between Tropfest and Brightcove. In the future, Tropfest hopes to create its “We’re continuing to work with Brightcove to see own public-facing Tropfest video on-demand what we can do on a global scale, and how we channel that is as user-friendly, shareable, and can use Video Cloud to its full potential. We know intuitive as the online submissions Brightcove we’re just at the tip of the iceberg with the benefits has helped to build for the filmmakers. we’re seeing. The customised solution, the local team, their expertise, support, and personalised service have been invaluable to Tropfest.