Week 15 Check-In

Well, this is it. We have officially reached the final lap of this semester. It is still surreal that Visions6 is behind us and Visions7 is pretty much just beyond the horizon. This past week was relatively light in work for the class for the first time since I came onboard in January. Though it was nice, I kept thinking I was forgetting something. On Monday Programming and Operations decided not to meet and instead reflected on how the event went. Tuesday before class I met with Beth for my career consultation and got some really good tips for my resume and LinkedIn account. Then in class all of the departments met with one another to talk about manuals for Visions7. We also separated all of the events from last Friday to have edited for the DVD copy that will be created soon. I actually began working on the manual Tuesday night and finished that yesterday, while today I began editing Kyle’s section of the conference block. This is the first time I have edited anything this entire semester, so I’m actually pretty excited to work on it some more tomorrow. Because too I am unsure as to whether or not this is my final blog for the class, I do want to clear up a few things. This class was by far the hardest experience of my college career. I came in incredibly nervous and not very sure of myself. Everyone from the fall semester however, welcomed me into the class with open arms. Even now after everything, I still truly wish the best for everyone after graduation and genuinely like them as people. I have never been a big grudge holder since I feel as if it is a waste of energy, and I never had any intentions of changing that. Though I can’t say I agree with the way Visions itself is done, I will say it has been quite the overall learning experience. I’ve learned more about myself and overcoming intense stress. Unfortunately even though I don’t necessarily see film festival anything except for hopefully selection on my resume in the near future, I’m glad I was a part of Visions6 and know that Visions7 will be even bigger and better. I wish the best of luck to all of the new staff, and look forward to the new adventures that await me during my senior year at UNCW.

Week 14 Check-In

I cannot believe it’s all over. And….now I’m incredibly sad! We had some truly awesome filmmakers, and though I’m sure that is said every year, it was an absolute joy getting to meet everyone. On Monday Programming and Operations held their weekly meeting at 8 instead of 6 due to a few other events going on that some of us needed to attend. We all checked in and tweaked some video race stuff while Kevin informed us of the installation progress. Monday night I also worked on getting a couple of t-shirts ready to present to the class with the team names on the back. Tuesday of course we had class again to discuss the finality of everything for the festival. Wednesday night Devon and I got together to try and finish the shirts and prop bags, but unfortunately we had to call it quits around 12:30am because we had both run out of steam. The dinner at Dig and Dive Thursday night was a ridiculous amount of fun, and everyone was just so nice! I had a blast playing volleyball (even though I wasn’t too good at it and hit innocent bystanders with the ball) and enjoyed the conversations I got to have. Devon and I had to leave a little early to finish t-shirts. She left around 3am because her sinus infection was giving her a really hard time, and I took an hour long nap after getting the bags finished with all of the necessary forms and props at 5am. Thursday night I was also incredibly angered by the change in rules regarding the drive for video race considering it was almost midnight and everything had already been finalized for weeks and printed off. I’m not sure why I was ever given a title of video race anything honestly, because this whole time I’ve never been able to have my own opinion and have been nothing but criticized for doing exactly what I was told. I committed myself 110% and was never thanked or appreciated by any of the other staff when I was more than willing to help out anyone else who needed it. I’ll save more of my negativity for another blog since I want to go ahead and get to the day of the event. Friday morning I was super excited to go pick up the Dew Drop crew. I was absolutely amazed at the things they told me regarding the filming process. All of them drove to New Orleans from New York (that’s a 25-hour drive) while they were still in school. THAT IS BEYOND INCREDIBLE! It was also totally worth it because in the end, they had an awesome documentary that was well received by the crowd. After I dropped them off at King, I headed to registration and handed out a few badges to people, but Hayley had it under control the whole time and the tables all looked great! Devon and I realized we forgot to bag the extra t-shirts, so I made a quick trip back to my apartment before the video race to bag them before we got started. Because I was up until 5am on Friday ensuring all of the bags were ready to go for the teams, I accidentally left the master team list at home, but had access to it from my laptop and my phone. I am extremely proud of how the video race turned out despite all of the criticism I have received these past few weeks. All of the filmmakers and guests had an awesome time, and that’s what matters. Their films were hilarious and it was tough to announce the winner since I enjoyed all of them. After the video race we had the conference block, dinner, dessert, then the second film block before the after party. I got to drive Vicky, Dean, and Charlotte to the hotel before the after party, and they were all so incredibly nice and couldn’t stop raving about how much fun they were having. That was pretty awesome, and then I got to drive Ariel, Isabelle, and Jack T. to the after party where they all also told me how much fun they had been having. The after party was epic thanks to Kebba and everyone seemed to be truly enjoying themselves. My group and I, including Matt D. who joined us for the ride back to Baymont, all left downtown after 1:50am. Today Carson and I picked up Aileen at 11:30 and met everyone at Neptune’s for brunch. Afterwards we took her by Mission BBQ so she could finally try barbecue and take it back home with her before her flight. We dropped her off at the airport at 2:30 before her 3:30 flight, and once I turned out of the airport I could not believe it was all over. Holy crap that flew by. 

Week 13 Check-In

I have a funny story for you. One day I came onboard with Visions6, blinked, and…OH MY GOSH IT’S THIS FRIDAY! This has been a killer week. Literally. My last blog took place before the t-shirt apocalypse of 2016. Everyone was right, tie-dyeing is a lot of fun…however 50 shirts into it you start questioning your decision. By the 100^th shirt you’re not only questioning your decision, but your sanity as well, and by the 115^th shirt you’re just so done with the art of tie-dyeing. This was me, Devon, my roommates, and a few of our friends last weekend. We tie-dyed every single shirt last Saturday, and I went back and forth between my apartment and my downstairs neighbor’s apartment to get them all washed and dried properly to prevent the bleach from forming holes. It pretty much consumed the entire day and was incredibly tiring. On Sunday we moved on to the painting process….and while it was much more exciting than the bleaching, it took FOREVER. We started around noon and were not finished until after 6:30 that evening. My roommates are literally the bomb for not only helping me, but for committing their time, sharing their space since t-shirts were hung all over our apartment, and for making a process that could have been entirely dreadful 10x better. I pretty much ate dinner when we were done and went to sleep after taking them all down from where they were hanging. They were all put on my dining room table since I needed my racks back to hang my clothes that were lying on my bed back up in my closet. On Monday I took meeting minutes again at the weekly meeting for Programming and Operations. When I got back I folded up all of the shirts by size and sorted them nicely into the boxes, which took about an hour. It was quite the relief seeing them all nicely folded in the boxes. During class on Tuesday I was incredibly unsettled to learn that any sign of glitter in Lumina would result in being fined. Considering the amount of time I personally had put into the shirts, yes I was upset, and while it may have been unprofessional, it did show, but there was absolutely no way of hiding my frustration. When the shirts were voted on, why was nothing said of the glitter situation? If I had known all along, we would have stuck to fabric paint without glitter. More people were supposed to help us with them as well, but I guess when I took initiative and made my own sign-up sheet for help, I ruffled some feathers. However, they look kickass and I was more than willing to take on the challenge. I had a lot of help yes, but I still put in the most time and effort towards the shirts since they were my responsibility, not my roommates. Tuesday night I stayed up well past 2am working on everything Devon and I were critiqued on in class. On Wednesday night I was up until 3am discussing on Facebook how submissions were going to be voted on. I finally caved to the committee and went along with judging them based off of applause, even though I thought I was no longer allowed to take any help from them. This week has not been fun, but it has definitely been a learning experience. Everything being done from here on out is only being done to make this year’s video race the best one yet! On Thursday Devon and I met with Sydney to get the process of participants submitting videos to us figured out, discovering four ways that should work. I’ve also been keeping up with the social media schedule and have been seriously promoting the prop box. I’m incredibly nervous that we won’t have twenty-five by Tuesday, but we’ll keep pushing and getting people excited about it!

Week 12 Check-In

Fun fact for you… it is April. WHAT?!?!?! When did that happen?! The festival and conference is coming up right around the corner and I’m so excited for it! This past week felt like it was incredibly long for some reason, but everything has been moving right along. On Monday I took minutes like I always do at the Programming and Operations weekly meeting. We really didn’t talk too long and Devon and I set a time for us to go to Walmart and pick up what we needed for the shirt tie-dyeing. Video Race Registration launched on Tuesday and the prop box was put back out in King Hall. Hoping to get some awesome props since the space quotes are all sounding good! On Wednesday I found the motion clips Kevin wanted for the installation and uploaded them to the Dropbox. I hope they worked so I guess we’ll see. On Thursday Devon and I made a trip to the store and got the supplies for tie-dyeing, which we are starting today. The craft day that was supposed to be planned didn’t work out, so Devon, my roommates, and a couple of my friends are tie-dyeing them ourselves. I don’t feel like they’ll be finished today though, so Devon and I, along with everyone else, are hoping to start painting them tomorrow. I’ve also been sticking to the social media schedule this week and am keeping track of it as we go along. Other than that it’s been a rather quiet week overall and once we get the t-shirts done it’ll be down to the nitty gritty. 

Week 11 Check-In

This has been a rather interesting week. Sunday night I decorated and made sure the container was ready to be put out the next morning, only to realize later on the registration for video race was moved to the 29^th. Since Monday morning the container has been moved elsewhere, though I do not know where and am assuming it will be brought back out on Tuesday. On Monday Devon and I discussed the need to order t-shirts and checked with Rob to see if he wanted to register the card for us. He said he would and activated it that evening. Tuesday night we had issues placing an order with the card, so on Wednesday I called the BB&T number, got it figured out, and ordered the shirts that afternoon. We got them for one heck of a deal and fortunately they arrived in Wilmington today! I’m excited to decorate them with the galaxies when the time comes since I think they’ll turn out really cool! After class on Tuesday I briefly spoke with Kevin about my thoughts involving being Programming Director and how I was beginning to doubt how much I wanted it. I told him I was incredibly excited and honored to get the position when it was first given to me, but not long after that I went to my advising session and started to question whether or not I would be able to manage everything. Earlier this month I applied to 495 Documentary and was planning to focus on that next semester, though I am assuming I did not get accepted into the class since I did not receive any kind of email yesterday. This is incredibly disappointing as I was very excited about the opportunities 495 would present, however I am still planning on taking a film history along with a writing intensive. I’ve never been great with history and writing intensives are…dare I say, intense. I realize others have had heavier schedules with Visions included, however I am the only one who understands my limits, and I would like to focus on doing well in my classes for my senior year. As of yesterday morning I am no longer Programming Director for Visions7, and though I am incredibly disappointed, I know that this is the best decision for me and the film festival. There are other film students who genuinely want to be involved with festivals after graduation and I am not so sure I am one of them. This semester I have deeply missed production and post production, especially editing and I want to take more classes while I’m still a student that allow me to focus on these things. I also would hate to take away opportunities from others who have a passion to work within festivals. I am however ridiculously excited for April 15^th and cannot wait to see how everything plays out since it’s all starting to come together!

Week 10 Check-In

Boy have I missed Spring Break. This week has just been nothing but frustrating. Luckily, it has also been a productive one. On Monday Programming and Operations had their weekly meeting in Port City Java at six. It was relatively short, but Devon and I put together our video race presentation and Kevin and Rob discussed some installation stuff. Our location for the video race has been approved and secured, though I wish we had been sent a document of some sort that proves this along with the email. I don’t mind printing out the email, it just seems a little unprofessional honestly, which is something I definitely don’t want to come off as. In class on Tuesday after we were told to create questions for our directors as well as answer questions that were created for us, I went home that night and looked closely over the manuals again to see what I would want my questions to revolve around. I posted the questions for Kevin on Wednesday and also answered his questions for me. I also picked up the container that Devon and I will be using for the prop donation box, so it is ready for us to decorate this Sunday. We are obviously only planning on putting glow stars and stickers on there so that they can properly be removed once our drive has finished. We’re both very excited to see what awesome items we end up with for the video race! Yesterday I created my question for Rob and answered the ones that he had created for me. That afternoon I went by Fanboy Comics and got the prizes that’ll be awarded to the members of our winning video race team. I’m not a comic book reader, but they look pretty cool. Last night Zoe, Devon, and I talked for a bit on releasing a statement on the UNCW Current FST Student’s Facebook page about registering for our video race and about the prop donation. Zoe helped us get the wording all figured out and encouraged me to set up an entirely separate Google Account for the video race. I did shortly after our conversation after realizing how much easier it would be when the videos need to be submitted on the day of the race. This morning I created a label for our prop box as well as a signup sheet for students who donate but wish to get their items back once the event is finished. Aeden also emailed me the registration form to send to Carson so that he can go ahead and get that ready to post on the website Monday when registration launches. Busy week, so definitely ready for the weekend so I can be well-rested for the busy week ahead. 

Week 9 Check-In

This week I did absolutely nothing to contribute to Visions6. Ha, just kidding! On Monday Devon and I contacted Kimberly via email to discuss securing our location to film for the video race. Everything was approved, and the last thing we needed to do was send Kim a copy of the waiver that all of the participants must sign before competing in the race. Since sending that to her, we have not gotten any more requests, so it looks like we are good to go to film on campus! Because our launch date for the video race sign-up is going to be on the 18^th, we want to have our prop donation box ready by the following Monday on the 21^st. Last week I put in a marketing request to advertise where the box would be located and what we were looking for, for anyone interesting in donating props. I plan on checking with a couple of people this upcoming week to make sure it is okay to have our box outside of the Film Studies Office in King Hall. If it is not, I will see what our other options are and take it from there, though as of right now I am not too worried about it. Once we get the prop donation box set up and ready, Devon and I will start focusing on the number of participants and their t-shirt sizes so that we can get ready for our next big project involving ordering and tie-dyeing the shrts. I will save the details on that for another blog though since this week has been Spring Break and I was fortunate enough to get to go back to Charleston SC! For Spring Break last year I went there as well, but I had a bit of a cold and the weather did not want to cooperate. This year I took extra Vitamin C to prepare and the sun was out the whole time my Aunt and I were there! We ate, shopped, ate, took a ghost tour on the USS Yorktown, ate some more, went on a carriage tour, ate, went to the aquarium and saw their ridiculously cute otters, ate, went on a harbor tour, shopped some more, and ate a lot. Those free samples add up a’ight! Even though I ate a ton of food and walked everything, this trip was a blast! I worked hard from Saturday through Tuesday to allow myself to relax while in Charleston, however I stayed in contact with Devon and made sure to not fall behind. Kevin has told Daryl and I that aside from helping him with the installation when needed, our jobs as programming assistants will be pretty light from here on out. I can’t even begin to believe that Visions6 is literally only a little more than a month away though, and the closer it gets the more excited I get!