Before lights, camera, action

There's a problem brewing at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Word has gotten out that a short sneak preview of the 2008 summer blockbuster "X-Files: I Want to Believe" will be shown at the festival, and a huge influx of people have begun lining up hours before the show, causing security concerns and a headache for managing director of the festival Gloria Campbell.But Campbell acts calmly, gets on her walkie-talkie and directs extra staff to go out and squelch the anxious "X-Files" crowd and the preview goes off without a hitch.

"It's all about putting out fires," says Campbell. "It's kind of like being the host of a party at your house. You have to make sure that the egg rolls don't burn, and everyone's drinks are filled, and at the same time you want to have a good time. But the goal is to make sure everyone else is having a good time. And to clean up after yourselves so you can have brunch the next morning. And that's what it is like, except for it's 80,000 something people instead of 8 friends."

This is just one example of some of the behind the scenes action that takes place each year at the L.A. Film Festival, this year taking over Westwood Village from June 18-28 showcasing over 200 feature length films, narratives, shorts, documentaries and music videos.

The festival began in 1995 as the Los Angeles International Film Festival and was held over five days in Hollywood, Calif. and entertained about 19,000 film fans. Since then, the festival has blossomed into one of the premiere film festivals in the United States rivaling big name festivals like Sundance and drawing over 80,000 people over its 11- day course. The L.A. Film Festival has seen its share of big premieres including "The Devil Wears Prada," "Tranformers," "Hellboy 2" and many other award-winning films.

Campbell got her start with the L.A. Film Festival in 2003 after moving to Los

Angeles and having previously worked extensively at other film festivals throughout the country. She began as a freelance worker and steadily worked her way up, taking on more responsibility each year until she was hired full-time in 2007.

"The festival had gotten so big that they needed to create a permanent, year round position to focus on budgets and production and all of those kind of features of it and that is what I was hired to do," says Campbell of her current job.

As managing director, Campbell's job includes "a little bit of everything. I have

to pay attention to the overall festival, and make sure that the people, the systems, and the resources are all in place to make the festival successful."

Also one of the biggest priorities for Campbell and her staff is to make each personal experience, especially for the filmmakers, as enjoyable and smooth as possible.

"Each person that comes to the festival, we want to make it easy for them and be clear where they need to go and are treated nicely when they get there and everyone has a positive experience." says Campbell.

"We pride ourselves in the way the film makers are treated when they come to our festival, and want to make sure that the presentation is the very best. It's music to our ears when directors say 'Oh my gosh, I have never seen my film look so good.'

Because for many film makers, this is the world premiere of their film and the first time it is being shown on a big screen, so the stakes are high."

To make all of this happen, Campbell works with a staff of 50-60 part time employees, who work anywhere from four months to a few weeks on the festival. 40 fulltime employees at Film Independent also work in coalition to help plan the festival. And according to Campbell, most importantly the festival is aided by the 500-600 volunteers who help out each year.

Another important part of the L.A. Film Fest is the actual selection process of which films will make it in to the festival. Each year, Campbell estimates that about 5,000 films are submitted to the various categories of the festival including: narratives, documentaries, short length films, music videos and a special category for high school students.

To narrow down this huge selection, the programming team of the festival, comprised of people very involved in the film industry, and headed by Rachel Rosen and Doug Jones, meticulously review all of the films submitted, as well as travel the world in search of other breakout films that would fit in well with the festival.

For this year's festival, Campbell and first year director Rebecca Yeldham worked to not only improve on the overall experience of the festival, but to also bring new and fresh ideas to the table.

"We had a new festival director that came on in March, which is very late in the game. So it was really important for Rebecca and to put her stamp on something and she has come up with some really lovely ideas that are variations on what we have been doing, or offering refreshing looks at what we have been doing that people will definitely see."

Some of the ideas include increased intimacy and focus on director and actor conversations that festival attendees can take part in. The Ford Amphitheater has served as a film and live music hybrid venue for the L.A. Film Festival, and that will continue this year. And in light of the economy, Campbell and her staff made sure not to raise ticket prices and are offering a variety of discounts to make the festival affordable for all.

Campbell and the rest of her team's yearlong planning will come to fruition in mid-June. But despite her meticulous work pre-festival, Campbell's job as managing director doesn't get any easier once the festival commences.

"It's being everywhere all at the same time," says Campbell of her role during the festival. "I kind of never stop. I am checking out the different venues to make sure everything is running smoothly, if there are problems, I get someone to fix it or I have to fix it."