Former Hamptons Film Festival Executive Director, DENISE KASELL is set to open a new film festival service and consulting division at Home.Work.People, a NYC based Real Estate and HR Company that services the Entertainment Industry. The announcement was made today by Jane Stuart, HWP’s Founder and President.

In addition to offering consulting services to festivals, the HWP Festival Division will draw on the parent company’s established HR staffing and training expertise to supply the client with everything from a production office assistant, special events producer for their big gala, development director, guest coordinator, theatre managers and technicians to transportation directors, print traffickers or a great publicist.

An important component of our Services are Staffing and Training, and the proverb: “Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” is quite applicable.

“While we will completely staff each festival with industry experts,” says Kasell, “I am hoping that many of the organizations will choose to have us at the same time train local personnel to execute these jobs in the future, once they have worked under the supervision of our professionals. That said I do believe key positions will remain industry personnel.”

The new operation’s services will be available to all festivals, but especially geared toward the midsized and smaller events. Every festival has different issues with regard to staffing, operations, programming, development, boards and audience among others. HWP’s Festival division will advise and consult on everything from start-up to daily operations, programming, fiscal management and sponsorships. Consulting and analysis will be specific to each client. Festivals will be urged to take control of their unique locale and population including finding a Signature Program that will resonate with the audience and filmmakers of their community as well as the industry. Kasell and her group, which will include an industry savvy Advisory Board, will help festivals focus on effective management techniques, building consensus with Staff and Board and meeting their long-term goals.

“There is a big gap in the way festivals are run,” Kasell continues, “and we hope to bring uniformity and a professional approach to each event. This, of course, makes everyone’s – audience, filmmakers and industry attendees – festival experience more enjoyable. Saving time and money is another important consideration for what are mostly not for profit organizations. At present there really is no one doing this. There are other consultants but they are stand alone individuals, not a company with resources to hundreds of festival personnel. Home.Work.People has a database of over 2500 professionals currently freelancing in the entertainment industry and we are continuously interviewing.”

Denise’s years of experience running festivals, including running the Hamptons for a decade, coupled with serving as a Film Commissioner, and owning a production company are perfect qualifications for this new business model.

Home.Work.People is a hybrid company, formed in 2001 to service the entertainment and advertising industries. They supply HR and Real Estate services and have worked with numerous production, post-production, equipment suppliers and film financing companies. A partial list includes Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures (I Am Legend), Nylon Pictures, Technical Cinevideo Services, and producer Jeffrey Sharp.

Kasell says, “It’s a very exciting time to be starting this business as film festivals are growing and serving an underserved community, the independent filmmaker and the independent film viewer. In some instances the festivals are the only theatrical venues available to many films. So why not have it be a perfect experience all across the board.”