PRobantur

Steps towards a Global Truce become more and more defined

March 24, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

Some will think you are very unreasonable, but can I tell you, only truly unreasonable people succeed in achieving unreasonable results.

Rt. Hon. Baroness Scotland QC at at the launch of Reducing Domestic Violence campaign

At the launch of Peace One Day campaign Global Truce 2012 - Reducing Domestic Violence, at The Grosvenor House Hotel with

Jeremy Gilley, founder of Peace One Day (to the left) and
Rt. Hon. Baroness Scotland QC (to the right)

During the last days we witnessed the launch of two major Peace One Day campaigns, Student Activation and Reducing Domestic Violence, which marked an important step towards achieving the biggest gathering of individuals to ever be recorded in the name of peace, planned to take place on September, 21^st, 2012. Today I am thrilled to announce a further step towards Peace Day 2012 – BookMARK Balcani (BMB), the online book raising campaign, has reached its objective; together we succeeded in raising 150 English books which will benefit children from four different schools in the Balcani village, in N-E Romania.

“People love people, they love success” (Baroness Scotland at the launch of Reducing Domestic Violence campaign) and once I tasted the joy of success I want to take BMB to the next level: gather 50 more books by 21^st of September 2012.

At the launch of Peace One Day campaign Global Truce 2012 - Reducing Domestic Violence, at The Grosvenor House Hotel with Rt. Hon. Baroness Scotland QC

Yes, I will be ambitious enough as to take this decision, but you know why? Because you, the donor, make me become so and I am deeply thankful to you for that.

NB: Many thanks to a special donor who asked me not to reveal his/her identity.

Filed Under: BookMARK Balcani, NGO, Social Media Tagged With: Baroness Scotland, BookMARK Balcani, Global Truce, Jeremy Gilley, Peace One Day, step

Connecting the dots between the Olympic Truce & the Olympic Games

March 8, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

The wide range of events taking place in the fast-paced life of London brings us closer and closer to two main events, emblem of 2012: The Olympic Games and the Olympic Truce.

Last week we witnessed the launch of the giant Olympic rings over the river Thames, symbol of 150 days to the official start of the London 2012 Olympic Games. While some of you might be familiar with the event from the media, I am sure very few of you know that some members of the same team who organised the above-mentioned event also joined BookMARK Balcani, the book raising online campaign in support of Peace One Day’s international campaign, Global Truce 2012. Michael Braithwaite, Olivia Pearcey, Victoria Hills, Abbie McGillivray, and Stephie Joslin showed their support to Book MARK Blacani (BMB) through a 80-book donation which will benefit young people aged 8-18 from four different schools in N-E Romania.

Asked what she thinks about BMB, Olivia said:

I think it’s a great idea, and good way of sharing a love of books. I love to read and have done from an early age so any initiatives that involve encouraging people to read and, in this case learn a new language as well, is something that I will try to support. I also think it’s a brilliant way to develop language skills by reading something enjoyable and aimed at a specific age group rather than a dry textbook.

All donated books can be seen here.

The 80-book donation could be seen as making the smooth transition from the Olympic Games to the Olympic Truce.

For those less familiar with what the Olympic Truce is, it is important to know it dates back from the 9^th century when the area around Greek Mount Olympus was declared a safe zone as to enable peaceful and safe participation of athletes in the Olympic Games. The Olympic Truce became an international celebrated event after being revised in 1992 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and after the first United Nations General Assembly Resolution was passed. Ever since, the IOC asks every host country – this year the UK – to officially declare the Truce.

The Peace One Day campaign, Global Truce 2012, could be seen as a symbol of the Olympic Truce itself. Worldwide student leaders, entrepreneurs and a host of international artists will also take the pledge for peace by getting involved in a series of activities on the 21^st of September 2012 when we will, hopefully, witness the largest recorded reduction in violence worldwide.

Undoubtedly a global truce is a fundamental need of the world and the sine qua non condition of the Olympic Games to take place.

Will we be able to achieve the greatest gathering of individuals in the name of peace by 21^st of September 2012?

The answer still strongly hangs on the actions each of us takes in their local community.

For me, at least, the answer is yes, as long as students develop programmes which bring a positive change in the society and, most importantly, as long as they encourage other people to join in.

Filed Under: BookMARK Balcani, NGO, Social Media Tagged With: book donation, books, Global Truce, Michael Braithwaite, Olivia Pearcey, Olympic Games, Olympic Truce, Peace One Day, Stephie Joslin, Victoria Hills

International youth leaders join Peace One Day’s campaign, Global Truce 2012

February 22, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

Jeremy Gilley, the founder of Peace One Day, speaking about the power of youth in the peace sector as part of his key note speech “When Does Buzz Become Action?” at Social Media Week in New York City, 22nd of February, 2012

The power of change is in our hands.

Peace is possible.

We can make a difference if we come together as one.

(Jeremy Gilley, at the Social Media Week, NYC, 22nd of Ferbruary, 2012)

On the 27^th of February Peace One Day (POD) together with students all over the world and a mystery celebrity will unite their voices in the hope of achieving on the 21^st of September 2012 the greatest ever recorded gathering of individuals in the name of peace marked by POD’s official launch of the World Record’s Attempt for September 2012 and the Global Truce 2012 Student Activation.

It is clear that POD’s partnership launch with the National Union of Students (NUS) has the main ingredients of a successful event:

a good cause – POD’s attempt to practically involve youth from all over the world in the biggest call for peace recorded by humanity,

people – UK’s biggest student union, NUS, alongside student leaders from various continents, and

a celebrity, POD’s ambassador.

The mystery celebrity is going to be revealed on Monday directly from the event.

Until then, you can have a glimpse at Jeremy’s speech last year at the NUS Student Activism event when he pinpoints some aspects of the Global Truce 2012 Campaign.

Hope to see you on Monday at the event.

Filed Under: NGO Tagged With: Global Truce 2012, Jeremy Gilley, Jude Law, National Union of Students, NUS, Peace One Day, students, When Does Buzz Become Action, youth

The changing face of film promotion (part 2)

February 12, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: Thierry Brouard, Photographer and Co-founder of JetT Photo Paris

Connect with PRobantur on Facebook /Flickr to see the complete photo gallery from the event.

Kino London’s open-mic night is a unique event for movie makers, but I would say for PR practitioners as well as, it is the proper place to not only socialise with them but also find out directly from filmmakers about how social media has influenced their professional life.

In the first part of the interview we found out that Facebook is one of the most beneficial social networks for a young filmmaker while in the second part Edoardo L’Astorina and Mark Bowsher revealed how, from a young filmmaker’s point if view, the best social media tool would look like and what inconveniences certain social networks have.

In the hope this interview would be a social media lesson for all of us, Mark and Edoardo also shared some advice derived from their own online experience.

If you have a lesson learnt as a result of intensely using social media for making a product/person well known, we are happy to hear it from you.

4. If you were to describe the social media tools of your dreams (either existing or not), how would you describe it? What would be its best assets?

Edoardo L’Astorina

It would maybe be similar to Facebook but a little better.

I’d like it to be better with videos because Facebook doesn‘t have a lot of interactions with videos. It’s amazing for pictures – when you share a picture on it is amazing. That’s what most people do in fact…it doesn’t have any cool feature for videos. You can link it to YouTube, put it up on Facebook but there are no other functions. I would like to see something where people can share the video more easily, in a grander way.

When you share a picture on Facebook it takes the whole page, the whole wall. When you share a video is smaller, it doesn’ t look so interesting, I don’t feel compelled to click “play”. The icon is very small, the “play” button is very small.

My ideal social network for a film is a place where you can share a video and is big and you really wanna click play, like Facebook with pictures, but adapted to videos as well.

Mark Bowsher

It’s a difficult one to judge. I think is probably looking something like Facebook. I guess finding something that has that line between the social and promotional it would be better.

5. Which three social media tools combined do you think succeed in delivering the best informational cocktail for the viewers/fans of a filmmaker?

Edoardo L’Astorina

Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.

I like Twitter a lot.

Mark Bowsher

Facebook, Twitter, Youtube.

I think it is the combination of them because on YouTube is where you start to watch it.

I have started to put thinks on Vimeo but it seems that it’s more a filmmaker thing. It’s not always that YouTube is better it is just that is the big one. Vimeo has a nice look but that’s targeted to a certain sort of audience whereas YouTube is for everybody.

Facebook is a really good portal for everything. I found also WordPress effective. It works quite well.

Twitter, because there is where people and filmmakers come back and give me a feed back.

But I think it is amazing how the combination between Facebook and YouTube works. I like how the video sits on the page and it is better than having a link on Twitter, but having said that, I think Twitter is likely to change.

6. What do you find to be the most inconvenient aspect of the social media tools you use?

Edoardo L’Astorina

We covered something about Facebook but let me just put a note here. It is not answering to your question but it is important.

When you share a video on Google+ is much better. You really just see the video and want to click play. I think when Google+ is really going to work is gonna be awesome.

Inconveniences…

Inconveniences are that sometimes it would be nice to have a social network as Vimeo, which is primarily based on videos that actually work. Vimeo has a nice infrastructure but people don’t use it a lot..a little bit but not a lot. So the possible solution would be either a more personal version of YouTube or maybe a better Facebook where you can better interact with videos.

Mark Bowsher

It is possibly, [that the most inconvenient aspect of social media tools I use] as I said, is that tricky barrier between me using as a social thing and me using to promote stuff. I think [the main issue here is] trying to work out promoting things without irritating people. It gets quite irritating if you get someone on Facebook or Twitter and just send posts all the time.

Also, I don’t like seeing targeted adverts anywhere.

7. If you were given the opportunity to make several changes to the social media environment so that you could improve the existing tools, what would you do and why?

Edoardo L’Astorina

I would make Google+ work better. I think it has an amazing infrastructure, amazing, but people don’t use it. I don’t use it that often either. My main change would be to get more people to use Google+. It’s got beautiful video features but people are not really there.

Mark Bowsher

It is difficult to work out what I would actually change because I don’t think neither Facebook nor Twitter are perfect.

8. Can you tell us a lesson you have learnt while promoting your work on social media platforms?

Edoardo L’Astorina

When you share something about your work…whether it is about the actual film or a still from the film, a nice picture that looks good, my advice is striking content first of all: the picture must be beautiful, the video must be engaging, a nice interesting fun tag line. If there is something nice in the picture, a nice comment, a nice question is going to enhance it. If you want to use social media well then engage people, ask a question, make a pool, say something funny or striking. When people reply or comment on that, then more people will see it because all the profiles are interlinked. If someone comments, somebody else will see it. That’s my advice.

Mark Bowsher

Knowing the right time to put something on Facebook or on any social media network is a difficult one. Any opportunities on Twitter for you to mention someone else, tag something else, do that, and hyperlink on WordPress.

Connect with PRobantur on Facebook to see Kino London’s open mic night photo gallery.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Edoardo L'Astorina, Facebook, filmmaker, Google plus, Google+, JetT Photo, Kino London, Mark Bowsher, Social Media, Thierry Broward, Twitter, Vimeo, WordPress, YouTube

The changing face of film promotion (part 1)

February 8, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: Thierry Brouard, Photographer and Co-founder of JetT Photo Paris

Connect with PRobantur on Facebook /Flickr to see the complete photo gallery from the event.

If you ever had the chance to come at one of Kino London’s monthly open-mic nights you would realise that when it comes about the way young filmmakers promote their creations, the industry is taking a turning point. If, in the past, the cinema was the only option available when it came to seeing a film, now the wide range of social media networks makes everything easier to share.

However, easier to share does not necessarily mean easier to make a more successful movie. As young filmmaker Edoardo L’Astorina says:

“It is hard for the user, for the viewer, and it is hard for the film to find an audience.”

I consider myself lucky to have attended Kino London’s open-mic night this summer as I had the chance to network and secure an interview at the end of December, last year, with two young and talented filmmakers.

Edoardo L’Astorina, video producer and founder of Dendelion Blu, called by tiame.net to be a truly forward thinking filmmaker and Mark Bowsher, award-winning writer and director of the online sketch show CAFLTtv, who is currently working on “a slightly more serious short” (Mark) called The Watchers, shared with us in an eight-question interview the joys and the pains of social media networks in the online promotion of a movie.

In the first part of the interview you’re going to find out why social media and a certain social network is particularly important for a filmmaker, while in the second part of the interview will cover the inconveniences of certain tools such as Facebook, Vimeo or Twitter. The two budding filmmakers will share with us how the social media network of their dreams would look like and will also give us some piece of advice directly derived from their online experience.

1. What role does social media play in the life of a young filmmaker?

Edoardo L’Astorina

Social media is key for everything, especially for the promotion of a film. Sometimes it is hard because so many people do it. It is hard for the user, for the viewer, and it is hard for the film to find an audience.

I think social media for an independent film – it doesn’t have to be a short film, it can be any film – is the best way to look for an audience that is not tied to the old dying distribution schemes that we used to have in the past; you know, talk to the distributor, put it in the movie theatre or struggle to be in the movie theatre, which show almost only major movies now. With social media you can find a target, show it on YouTube and see if they like you.

Also, if you have a good campaign you can deliver the movie to the right people and do clever things. For example, what I did with my first short film, which is called I Hate, I created a Twitter account for every character in the film. So five different girls tweeted about their life about what they’re doing, where they went.

Mark Bowsher

I think [social media], to be honest, is where everything is at the moment. Because if I didn’t put my work on Facebook or on Twitter, then I would never get the immediate response I do.

When I started, I was sending e-mails to people and they would forget about it. Even if they watched the film they didn’t bother responding. So social media has become very important, particularly on Facebook where people can reply straight away.

As I see it as the main type of force I think very well where I’m gonna put the next episode up. I think about 7 pm is the time when the most people are on Facebook whereas if I were to put it in the middle of the day or early in the morning I think no one will see it, as people are at work.

2. What type of social media tools do you use to make your work well known online?

Social media networks	Edoardo L’Astorina	Marc Bowsher
Facebook	✓	✓
Twitter	✓	✓
ForthSquare	✓	-
Blogs	I have a blog but I use it as a website. It has few blog posts from the main characters and some links from their personal Facebook page and their Twitter accounts. So if someone likes the blog they can follow the character on Facebook and Twitter. That’s how it works.	Is a WordPress site, it uses a blog format. I don’t run it like a blog but it has a follow button.
YouTube	✓	✓
Vimeo	✓	✓
Google +	I use it personally but haven’t used it for the first film, maybe for the second one.	-

3. What social media tool do you find to be the most beneficial for you and why?

Edoardo L’Astorina

Definitely Facebook. Everybody is on it. By this I don’t just mean they have an account they use a lot. I like Twitter as well but I think with a film I had more success with Facebook because the fan page of my company has gathered by far 2.200 fans. So it’s pretty nice.

It was easy cause you target people who have main interests that might be similar to the videos or films you do and if they like it they’re going to click “like”. So it’s working very well on Facebook for me.

Mark Bowsher

I would say it is probably Facebook. I find Twitter, that it can be amusing, but I find it is more of a network thing. The Kino have been really responsive on Twitter but I find Facebook better because so many people respond online on it. It is a good sign in this. There is something more about the time when you put stuff on Facebook as well.

It just seems a bit a better portal for everything; it’s got more of that mixture of friends and people in general.

Stay tuned to PRobantur for the second part of the interview and for the photo gallery from Kino’s open-mic night.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: CAFLTtv, Dendelion Blu, Edoardo L'Astorina, Facebook, film, filmmaker, Google plus, JetT Photo, Kino London, London, Mark Bowsher, open-mic night, probantur, promotion, Social Media, Thierry Brouard, tiame.net, Twitter, Vimeo, WordPress, YouTube

BookMARK Balcani, a library for peace

February 4, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte 3 Comments

As a student back home in Transylvania, I had two-year long internship with the Romanian Peace Institute, PATRIR, where I had the amazing opportunity to understand what PR means from an NGO perspective.

For those who don’t know about the atmosphere within the institute, I can briefly say that most of the time you will find a very diverse team, as interns from all around the world come to transform theory into practice in order to alleviate conflict in several parts of the world and improve local relationships between members of the local community.

It was here that I met Francesco Marelli, who back then was doing his internship and with whom I had the chance to exchange certain opinions with regard to the world around us and we have ever since kept in touch. Recently we also had the wonderful chance to see each other again.

When Francesco wrote to me and told me he was going to come to London for a few days to see his friends I was thinking whether or not I should tell him about BookMMARK Balcani (BMB). As he came just for a few days I really doubted he would be able to physically do sth to help me with the initiative but I gave it a try and wrote to him about my plan of creating an English library for children.

To my amazement, Francesco not only liked the idea but also succeeded to squeeze in his luggage a book that even I avidly read.

I promised myself I was going to write a review for Outliers, which is an international bestseller written by Malcolm Gladwell, in the PR Library section as it is really an amazing book which not only improves your vocabulary but also your way of thinking about success in life.

This blog post is dedicated to you, Francesco, for encouraging me and for making this wonderful donation!

Overall, I know I would have never met Francesco if it hadn’t been for the internship at PATRIR. It is here that I learnt that if you want to change the world around yourself you need people’s support.

This is a call to PATRIR staff to join this book raising initiative in support of Peace One Day‘s international campaign, Global Truce.

It is you that taught me the peace of this world belongs to all of us, so let’s all act together to achieve it through education!

Filed Under: BookMARK Balcani, NGO, Social Media Tagged With: Action, and Research Institute of Romania, BookMARK Balcani, Francesco Marelli, Global Truce, internship, library, PATRIR, Peace, Peace One Day, Romanian Peace Institute, Training

A leap of faith towards an English library for young people

February 1, 2012 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

It was four years ago when the British Council launched a Leap of Faith Together (LoFT), the first in a series of collaborations on intercultural dialogue which was to be developed as a part of British Council’s South East Europe Region, Living Together project. In 2007 LoFT gathered students from four different countries (Scotland, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Macedonia).

Thinking back to the experience we had five years ago, I believe one of LoFT’s most important achievements was getting a deeper insight into how cultural dialogue can be improved in our local communities. Also, we managed to establish long-lasting relationships among some of us.

This is how I met Chris Monahan in 2007 – as a LoFT member – and four years later he is a friend with whom I shared my thoughts about creating a library for the children of the village I come from.

The Psychology of Happiness by Samuel S. Franklin is the book Chris donated in order to show his support for BookMARK Balcani (BMB).

Thank you Chris for your support and to every LoFT member who raised awareness about BMB on social media platforms (Daniel Eror, Besa Jasharevich, Taja F. Grubi, Elena Tabakovska and others).

I would also like to use this particular blog post as an opportunity to make a call to Romanian LoFT members to join in, be it through a book donation or by spreading the news about BMB in the online space.

In 2007 together we were part of a leap of faith; in 2012 we could create an English library together.

If we made a small change for the community five years ago, why not do it again through BMB?

Filed Under: BookMARK Balcani, NGO, Social Media Tagged With: Besa Jasharevich, BMB, Bosnia Herzegovina, British Council, Chris Monahan, Daniel Eror, Elena Tabakovska, Leap of Faith Together, Living Together, LoFT, Macedonia, Romania, Scotland, Taja F. Grubi

BookMARK Balcani goes global

December 30, 2011 By Ana-Maria Leonte 2 Comments

One more day to go and we’ll enter a new year with new projects and new stories to share. Before thinking what 2012 is going to bring, let me tell you what this year meant for BookMARK Balcani (BMB).

2011 marked the moment when BMB was launched, when people joined in, and when it went global with Alexandra (NY, USA) and Raluca Ciucu (Bucharest, Romania) joined the initiative.

Before sharing Raluca’s thoughts on BMB and on Peace One Day‘s international campaign, Global Truce, I wish you all a Happy New Year and don’t forget that as architects of our dreams the future belongs to us. Don’t let them vanish before even trying to make them happen.

Once again, Happy New Year to all of you: donors, readers, friends, and anonymous passers-by.

Having previously worked in my high school’s Center for English Resources, I knew how difficult it was to convince people to donate books and how these books had to fill a very specific gap of knowledge. It was easy for us to identify it, but rather difficult to convey our needs to a public willing to listen.

BMB is an ambitious application of POD’s Global Truce; since its purpose is to facilitate access to foreign languages in a rural area, the endeavor you embarked upon is even more difficult than my experience from high school. I believe BMB will not only take the children off the streets, give them a new use for their spare time and create a stronger sense of community in Balcani, but also create a prime example of proactivity in a society far too used to no longer investing in its birthplace.

Best of luck!

(Raluca Ciucu – Bucharest, Romania)

NB: Special thanks to Raluca and Alexandra Ciucu for their book donation.

BookMARK Balcani is a social media initiative in support of Peace One Day, for a Global Truce.

For book donations please do not hesitate to contact me at probanturpr@gmail.com or to join my PR Facebook page at PRobantur.

Filed Under: BookMARK Balcani, NGO Tagged With: Alexandra Ciucu, BookMARK Balcani, Global Truce, Peace One Day, Raluca Ciucu

Book by book we build the paradise

December 23, 2011 By Ana-Maria Leonte Leave a Comment

Photo credit: Thierry Brouard, J&T Photo

At the time I launched BookMARK Balcani (BMB) in the social media ecosystem my discourse was full of verve. Enthusiasm ran through my veins and I had such a desire to make this initiative come true that it seemed impossible, at least from my point of view, to fail in creating an English library for children.

Now, more than 80 books* have been donated since I first started to talk about BMB in the online environment and my wish to succeed in creating a library has grown even more.

It is because of you, of every single person who helped me go on this road.

It is because of you, the donor, who has not only donated a bunch of books, but also a part of your own childhood, a part of your youth, of your soul, as the books come directly from your library. They are books that you once read and enjoyed.

I have always imagined the paradise will be a kind of library, Jorge Luis Borges once said and I can’t agree more.

We are on our way to create a similar “paradise” for students aged between seven and eighteen years old from four different schools in the rural area of NE Romania, in a village called Balcani.

We are on our way to support Peace One Day create a global truce through the means of education.

For this reason, I would like to thank every single donor so far, and also make a call for other people to join in. Thus, I am asking you, the reader – would you like to donate one of your books so that we can create together a library for children?

NB: For book donations, please e-mail me at probanturpr@gmail.com or join my Facebook page, PRob antur, to be up do date with the latest news regarding BMB.

*the names of the other book donors who joined BMB will be revealed in future blog posts