Volunteer Departments & Responsibilities

Programming: Screening Committee

• Screeners with industry knowledge (Name recognition of major players in the indie film circuit, some knowledge of the indie film scene). We need descriptive, empathetic, writers. Interviews for the screening committee take place 6 months out.

Box Office:

Requirements: Friendly, outgoing volunteers who can work on their own and s .

• Be THE face of the festival.
• Greet festival-goers, reel them in and help them find their way
• Provide general film and festival info
• Consult or guide people to the right films
• Some sales — sell festival-goers on tickets to additional films, sell memberships
• Promote merchandise

Call Center:

• Taking questions/calls from everyone involved with the festival, from the festival-goers to the sponsors, and filmmakers. Anyone who has a question will end up asking it here.
• Book tickets.
• No prior knowledge is required, as training is provided.
• Fun way to get to know all about the festival
• Great for outgoing people who can be on the phone/computer at the same time.
• Sometimes there are other tasks like creating badges counting ticket stubs, when there is a lull.

Marketing

• Distribution of our marketing materials (walking and driving in downtown Sarasota)
• Outreach Crew: Flyering, Stream Team stuff, etc.
• Someone who can help Priscilla go through and organize photo archives
• Making badges (potential photoshop editing, printing, paper cutting
• Social Media assistance

Media:

• Distribution

Photography:

• Event photography
• Red carpet photography

Central Office (323 Central Ave):

• Front desk reception, answering phones and greeting walk-in visitors
• Administrative tasks such as filing, printing, copying
• Routine Festival preparation tasks

Volunteer Festival Headquarters – (1900 Main Street, Suite 209):

Requirements: Helpful, calm, patient, preferably past/lead volunteer.

• Help coordinate volunteer shifts
• Answer volunteer questions
• Help ensure that headquarters remains clean/organized
• Distribute volunteer shirts and badges.

MUST be willing to do ANYTHING, inside or outside, and be willing to rotate OR be re-assigned completely.

Events:

• Humanpower for Pre-Festival events such as SFF Sponsor & Press Kick-off
• Runners to assist in getting last-minute items for events
• Greeters
• People to help with setup and teardown. Sometimes heavy lifting/setup. Closed-toe shoes required.
• Hiring: Administrative Events Assistant to help keep budget tallies in spreadsheets, assist Erin with other administrative tasks related to event coordination.

Runners:

Requirements: available on a moment’s notice. All runner/on-call volunteers will need cell phones and vehicles.

• Available on a moment’s notice to the Festival manager and other STAFF.
• Running materials between the theatres and offices
• Assisting in delivery/set-up of marketing banners at event venues
• Collecting volunteer and staff meals, and other related tasks.

General Assignments:

• Report to me, the Volunteer Coordinator, to help out wherever needed.
• Great way for new Volunteers to get a little taste of every department.

Sponsor/Filmmakers’ Lounge Check-In / Serving:

Requirements: Must be 21 years old or older.

• Act as a Sarasota Film Festival Ambassador at the lounge
• Gracious greeters to our Sponsors and Filmmakers
• Ensure only appropriate guests are entering  by only allowing the correct-colored badge lanyard
• Shift only during the Festival – usually 11 AM – 5 PM

Theater Operations (House/Lobby):

• Work under the Front of House Theater Manager throughout the daytimes/evenings
• Assist in organizing the waiting lines, showing patrons to the correct theater
• Collecting tickets
• Distributing/collecting film comment cards
• Tallying ratings
• Assisting customers with film and ticketing questions in box office/ main lobby.
• Assisting with red-carpet premieres / security
• 4-hour shifts each day

Theater Operations (Tech):

• Assist in various technical aspects of film screening
  • Talk-back with the projection booth
  • Working on the Q & A periods with filmmakers after screenings
  • Perform basic daily operations of screening set-up and break down
• Clean up theatre in between screenings

Transportation:

Requirements: Must be 25 years old, an excellent driving record, background checks and potential drug tests. For insurance purposes, all drivers are screened through the DMV.

• Help drive Festival guests from the airport to the hotel
• From the hotel to the screening
• Driver shifts are variable but generally require a commitment of a minimum of 8 hours.

Will Call:

Requirements: Friendly, helpful, outgoing

• Assist festival-goers in finding their tickets and having them sign receipts.
• Alphabetic the will call envelopes.

Welcome Tent / Standby Line:

• Answer festival-goers general questions about the Festival
• Coordinate the stand-by lines

Outreach:

• Recruiting more volunteers at outreach events where we set up a booth in the community, such as farmers markets, etc.
• Vibrant volunteers who are outgoing
• A mixture of those who are young and excited and those who are very knowledgeable about the festival
• Need people who can speak to the film programming, perhaps someone who has done some screening.

Education:

• We have a number of events that need help. These include:
  • the Kids VIP Trips
  • Reeltalk Awards
  • Hollywood Nights Young Filmmaker Showcase
  • 20 Hour Film contest screening/awards
  • Build On foundation panel
  • Booker High screening

Volunteer Flex “ ON CALL” position (get double the hours):

• Volunteers assigned to this role will be shifted throughout various positions to fill cancellations/no-shows OR they may be reassigned completely to one role for the duration of the festival if help is needed on that team.
• FLEX volunteers MUST be willing to do ANYTHING, inside or outside, and be willing to rotate OR be re-assigned completely. This position will last for the entire duration of the Festival