First Cut Film Festival
FLAME University's student film festival, 2025–26. Now Co-Chairperson.
One big reel and a ₹10,500 (about $112) ad budget took a college festival to 550+ registrations.
- views on the hero reel
- 216K
- views on the hero reel
- people reached without paid ads
- 828K
- people reached without paid ads
- times the paid ads were seen
- 1M+
- times the paid ads were seen
- people registered
- 550+
- people registered
Situation
First Cut is FLAME University's annual student film festival. In 2025 its posting was irregular, it had never run a proper paid campaign, and its reach stopped at the campus gate.
Problem
It needed more registrations, and more filmmakers from outside FLAME, without a real budget.
The call I made
Put most of the effort into one great piece instead of many average ones, then keep a steady rhythm of smaller posts around it.
What I did
- Planned the content in three levels: one big, polished reel to reach as many people as possible, weekly posts to keep them interested, and simple everyday posts so the page never went quiet.
- Scripted and produced the hero reel, and built a three-month content calendar.
- Ran creative direction across Reels, Stories and static posts.
- Ran a ₹10,500 Meta campaign on Facebook and Instagram, aimed at film students and cinephiles aged 18 to 26 across Maharashtra.
Output
I'm now Co-Chairperson of the festival, running Take 13.
What I'd change
I'd build the calendar six weeks earlier. The hero reel landed too close to the registration window, so awareness and sign-ups ran at the same time when they should have come one after the other. I'd also test two ad creatives instead of one.