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! 

Week 8 Check-In

SPRING BREAK!!!! Alright, now that I got that out, boy do I have a lot of work to do. But before I move on to that, let me reflect on this past week real quick because it was a LONG one. On Monday we of course had our regular weekly meeting. Kevin, Daryl, and I addressed envelopes while Devon and I worked on our presentation for the video race. That night I put together my slides on the budget, the props, and the quotes. I really enjoy programming, but it was nice to get away from the database problems and focus on other things for a change. Plus, putting together a power point gave me an excuse to use the burrito-space-kitty gif, so that was an added bonus. In class on Tuesday Devon and I presented our video race update which went really well! Everyone in the class liked the galaxy t-shirt proposal, so I hope those will turn out great! On Wednesday I went through our programming database and input some email addresses that went missing so Kevin could continue notifying filmmakers. That didn’t take too long, but I’m hoping we are getting close to being done with having database issues, so we’ll see. Thursday afternoon I spoke with Fanboy comics who happily agreed to sponsor our video race and donate prizes for the winning team. I am going to contact them after Spring Break regarding when I can go over there and pick those up. Friday my laptop had a seizure and is currently MIA as my hard drive is being replaced, but that’s a minor setback as I have computer access elsewhere in the meantime. My laptop struggles to be a laptop sometimes; it’s just the way it is. Aeden also forwarded an email to Devon and I from Kimberly regarding our location for the video race, so we are planning to contact her within the next week or so to confirm a few things and hopefully FINALLY get approval. I have heard several times from Devon and Aeden how frustrating securing the location has been, but I am determined to get this sorted out before our next class. This week I am going to Charleston for a few days, however I will not fall behind in Visions or any of my other classes and look forward to having a week away from classrooms without windows! BRING ON THE FLIP FLOP WEATHER!

Week 7 Check-In

So March is starting this upcoming week. That’s cool I guess….okay it totally is because then the week after that is SPRING BREAK! But back on topic for now. This week has been one of the longest of this semester. On Saturday and Sunday I went over the films still in consideration and pretty much ended up with the same thoughts I had when watching them the first time. I spent less than an hour on this since I remembered most of them and knew seeing them a second time wouldn’t change anything. On Monday Programming and Operations met at our usual time in PCJ. We once again did not have much to discuss, so my meeting minutes for February have been lacking in points. I’ve tried to make them sound more complex than what they are, but it’s hard taking minutes at a meeting where we’re all cramped in a booth and talking at the same time about different things. On Tuesday I met with Shannon to discuss being a director for Visions7 and was also told I would be the new video race co-coordinator due to unexpected circumstances. This has been quite the adjustment and hasn’t really sunk in yet since I felt like I had just gotten my floaties on for programming. Now I’m pretty much back to drowning, so better get out the swim trunks! I’m actually pretty excited to get started with that this week and see what Devon and I can get done. Tuesday’s class was incredibly long, and even though I left with more than 50 shades of grey bags under my eyes, there was also a slight spark in my eyes from knowing we had compiled the final list of films for the festival. We have some great stuff to show on April 15^th! I was also pretty pumped from hearing the announcement that I would be next year’s programming director. Sweet! On Wednesday Kevin, Daryl, and myself went through the databases again to tweak all of the personal information for our submissions and make sure everything matched up. Yesterday I was fairly busy all day and today I also was unable to call potential sponsorships for the video race. Tomorrow however I do plan on getting in touch with a couple of businesses to see if we can get either a sponsorship or some sort of donation prize for the winners of the video race. Looking to have these things figured out by Wednesday of next week, so we shall see how it goes! Devon also informed me that the official launch date for the video race is March 8^th which was cool to have finalized! Here’s to finally catching up on some sleep from this hectic week though and getting a lot done this next week so that I can enjoy my spring break without being ridiculously busy! 

Week 6 Check-In

Boy it has been a long week, but today is my twenty-first birthday so yay! Definitely helped me push through the week. Programming and Operations only met for about a half hour this week at our weekly meeting on Monday. It was short because we were all already in progress with our current tasks at hand, and there was no need to meet longer than needed. Kevin asked me to update the database before I headed out, and even though I thought I had input all of the films, unfortunately I had missed some. Luckily Daryl realized some had been skipped and added them in to the database. Programming also spent time after class on Tuesday to really tidy up the database and get all of the submissions into the right categories. Overall, cleaning up everything took our department about an hour or so. All of the information was there, it was just jumbled and not laid out nicely. Aside from that, I once again enjoyed discussing films in class. It was nice too how this week we were all pretty certain about which ones deserved to be left in consideration, making for a shorter than normal discussion. This upcoming week is not going to be as quick and will be a tough one. There are however going to be a lot of hard decisions to make. In all honesty, I’ll be happy with whatever ones we decide on, though I am of course biased to the film I worked on. Until next class though, dare I say it – things are pretty calm within my department at the moment. Kevin, Daryl, and myself have been on top of things and have done our best to not fall behind. I’m excited though to move on to other things besides judging films and get into the nitty gritty of programming. I do know that however busy it is going to get from here on out and whatever problems arise, this festival and conference is going to be the best one yet.  

Week 5 Check-In

I realize I said this last week, but ugh! Wasn’t it still January like yesterday? Alright I’ll get back on topic now. A lot has happened since last week. On Monday Programming and Operations had their weekly meeting in the library. It was a short one, but luckily we were all doing what we were supposed to be doing and didn’t have much to discuss for once. That evening I baked my banana bread for the bake sale on Wednesday, and it turned out really well! Made my kitchen smell so good! I got to lead discussion in class again on Tuesday, which was just as fun as last time, though we all left a little more terrible than we were when we came in! Way too many awful jokes…even though they were pretty funny. For the bake sale on Wednesday I was at the table in front of Randall from noon to three. Anthony was hilarious with his salesmanship and everyone responded really well to his tactics. Most of the goods sold and we made our goal, so it was definitely a success! Yesterday we had the Valentine’s Day Party which was so much fun! Even though I left exhausted and my feet didn’t understand the torture I had put them through, I had a blast. Everyone lip-syncing was priceless, and the backup dancers were interesting…..? Oh wait….they weren’t supposed…awkward. Anyway, I have been busy since class on Tuesday, and today I am planning on starting the films for this week and hope to finish them by tomorrow night. I’m so excited about what’s on the list and can’t wait until we start programming what films will actually make it to the festival. Our class is going to have some long, hard discussions when it comes down to the nitty gritty, but by being in this class I am learning about what it means to be an up-and-coming filmmaker as an undergraduate. We’re all in the same boat, so even though we need to be harsh we also need to realize the potential of certain films. I’m definitely interested by what things will be brought up in the next few weeks, and which films will make the final…and which ones will not. 

Week 4 Check-In

Where the heck is February going?! Ahh! First of all, I highly enjoyed leading discussion on Tuesday. We had such a diverse group of films to judge last week, so I knew people might get heated. Though I don’t think I will ever look at meat tenderizing the same ever again….-shudders- On Wednesday I started judging the new set, and once again they’re all very different. Judging films has thus far been my favorite part of this class though. It’s truly fascinating. I tried to finish Round 3 yesterday but got too sleepy, so I’m planning on finishing them tomorrow. Kevin also added a few tasks to my Trello which I am also hoping to knock out tomorrow. Tonight I was sound mixer for a friend’s film and tomorrow night I am going to Jacksonville for a paranormal investigation. A very busy weekend for me, but I will definitely prioritize my assignments to make sure everything is done on time. I plan on too reading the papers on Sunday, even though I’m not necessarily looking forward to that. I am however looking forward to our bake sale on Wednesday and am especially excited for the party Thursday! I didn’t know hardly anyone in Visions when I went to the Halloween party, and I had a blast! This one should be even better since I know everyone in the class! Another busy week coming up, but basically they’re all busy so I really can’t complain. I tend to be more productive when I’m busy, and I don’t have time to think negatively when I have a lot going on. It all works out in the end!  

Week 3 Check-In

Goodness, it sure doesn’t feel like it’s been three weeks. Seems like we have been in school longer than that, but at the same time I can’t believe this much time has already passed. Whoa. At our programming meeting this past Monday at 6, we talked a lot about the dirty dozen. Kevin helped Daryl and I figure out what we wanted to base ours on, and we decided we should all focus ours on judging the films. I posted the dirty dozen on my blog after we discussed that and made sure the time was right since Blogger kept setting my posts to Mountain Time. On Tuesday I paid my book fee and thought our film debates in class that night were hilarious! However I also realized how hard of a time we are going to have choosing the final ones that we decide to screen. Lots of talent so far! On Wednesday I started judging the films and was once again amused and amazed. I got through a lot of them on Thursday and hope to finish up this second round before the end of Monday. Yesterday I entered the information of newly submitted films into our programming list which, proved to be difficult at times since several came from overseas. Before Tuesday I do plan on figuring out how to sort those submissions into their appropriate category since the spreadsheet was confusing me again. Got a lot going on for this class, but I’m managing it along with everything else I’m doing. I can definitely tell my time management is improving, though things aren’t nowhere near as busy now as they’re gonna get. Oh boy. 

Dirty Dozen

   1. What is the project supposed to achieve?

·         Judging of the films and papers so that our department can get back to the filmmakers and writers as to whether or not we are including their work in Visions6.

   2. Who is the customer?

·         Our classmates as well as the filmmakers and writers.  

   3. What are the deliverables of this project?

·         A complete list of works to be included in Visions6 Film Festival and Conference.

   4. What is the budget?

·         This does not require a budget since the films and abstracts have already been submitted to us.

   5. How long will it take?

·         About 3 to 4 weeks.

   6. What specific skills are needed?

·         Time management, organization, and an open mind. I don’t always catch on to what a film is about at first…

   7. What special resources are needed?

·         Passwords to the private films and information on the filmmakers and writers so that they can be contacted regarding a decision. A laptop or some sort of access to internet might also be helpful so that the films and papers can be viewed/judged appropriately. 

   8. Who is working the project? What is each person’s job?

·         The programming team.

                                                               i.      Kevin- Leads decisions and makes sure team is on track

                                                             ii.      Daryl- Helps lead jury conversations and runs the reports in class

                                                            iii.      Jessica- Also helps with jurying conversations

   9. What is the schedule?

·         1/26 – Jury Round 1 of Films

·         2/02 – Jury Round 2 of Films

·         2/09 – Jury Round 3 of Films & Jury Papers 1-6

·         2/16 – Jury Round 4 of Films & Jury Papers 6-12

·         3/01 – Finalize Final Films & Papers

   10. What are the risks? (Small vs. Large Impact, Likely vs. Unlikely)

·         Judging the same film twice or missing an answer. Not understanding a film.

   11. How will you communicate with your team?

·         We will text, email, message, and talk about what films we are judging and make sure the team, along with everyone else, is on track.

   12. How will you determine if the project is successful?

·         Each week Kevin will put up the round with films to be judged and our team will keep track in class to make sure all of the films are being properly judged. 

Week 2 Check-In

Boy, this has been one long week. Even though we had MLK Day off, I still somehow managed to not get enough sleep. Despite it being a rather tough week as well, I managed to push through and still get a lot of work done. This past Monday I took my first minutes at our department meeting. Though I was late after having traffic problems when coming from downtown, I wrote down everyone who was there and what had been discussed before I arrived as well as what we briefly talked about while I was there. After class on Tuesday I really didn’t do too much aside from a little bit of reading for my leadership class. On Wednesday I spent an hour or so watching some of our films from the first round and viewed a couple more Thursday morning. I have enjoyed the films ten times more than reading the abstracts. I’m not a huge reader overall, but I am glad on Tuesday we decided which papers we will judge to have programmed. The ones we chose looked cool from the abstracts, so reading them hopefully won’t be too bad. For the films though, I have enjoyed seeing what film students from around the world are capable of. Some films have been much better than others of course, but even the contrast between the different filmmaker’s styles is interesting in itself. Aside from the films, on Monday at our meeting I will take minutes again and should be on time since this past Monday I had something going on that is not a weekly occurrence. We will discuss the dirty dozen at this meeting too since we ran out of time in class on Tuesday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this semester is going to be ridiculously tough. But I chose to have a hard schedule, so therefor I have no right to complain. Yes I am already tired and a bit overwhelmed sometimes by the seemingly never-ending work load, but I’m good at being productive when I am busy. Visions too seems like an awesome experience thus far, and I’m already learning a lot about the festival process. I’ve still got a lot to learn before the end of semester, and who knows where it’ll take me.  

Festivals of Their Own Response

This article was lengthier than I thought, so I took more notes than anticipated, but it was rather fascinating. I had no idea the first standalone film festival was way back in 1938 in Venice. What's even funnier is the fact that Leni Riefenstahl's documentary Olympia won top honors. A couple of semesters ago I was forced to do a presentation on Riefenstahl where I basically learned she was a huge Nazi endorser and allowed Hitler to control what films she made. I'm just going off on a bit of a rage at this point since I hated that class along with that presentation, but I was proud of myself for knowing some film history for a second there. Though I had never done any research into it, I always assumed the first American film festival had started somewhere such as LA or even New York City, so I was intrigued that it was actually in San Francisco in 1975. It was sad to read that these festivals first showed a lot of experimental films but started to give them less and less screen time as the years went on. As a film student I unfortunately still don't have a huge liking for experimental films as they tend to have a deeper meaning that I never catch on to. In saying that though, I do believe that they should be shown to audiences as they can be extremely creative and different. I was glad to see that in 1978 a new type of film festival emerged to showcase underground films, and eventually became the well-known Sundance in 1989. On a quick random note, I was completely unaware too that The Blair Witch Project premiered there. Once again though, the further I read, the more disappointed I became as I saw that Sundance too followed in the footsteps of other festivals by giving less and less screen time to experimental films. Luckily, I wasn't too alarmed as I knew that more and more underground film festivals such as Slamdance and Slamdunk eventually became popular venues for experimental flicks. Something that sounded epic was the "Bring Your Own Film" film festival started by Michael Williams, and I find it weird that something like that hasn't become more of a thing over the years. Some really good advice in the article too was that as a filmmaker you should take the opportunity to have your films screened anywhere and everywhere since that will allow you to have a diverse audience. Another thing that sounded epic was the travelling film festival that Antero Alli first put together in 1992 as the Nomad Video Film Festival. Since that time, the Resfest Digital film festival and Microcinema International's Independent Exposure film festivals have traveled beyond America, which is also ridiculously awesome. I literally knew nothing about the history of or broadness of film festivals before reading this article, so to see that the Substream Film Festival since 2002 has presented a single festival that runs simultaneously in multiple cities just seems insane. I can't even begin to imagine how much effort goes into all of that planning...goodness! So to start wrapping up this blog, I feel that I should go over the random facts I collected from the overview of the film festivals they listed towards the end. The Bare Bones International FF in Oklahoma has a "Bonehead Award", and Cucalorus (whoop whoop!) was founded in 1994 by Twinkle Doon. DancesWithFilms was confronted by Orion Pictures who claimed the name of the festival was too similar to the film with the name Dances With Wolves. Meanwhile Orion has gone out of business and DancesWithFilm continues to thrive, so ha! The HiMom! FF was started in Chapel Hill (go NC!), and the No Dance Film Festival was billed as the world's first DVD-projected film festival. The interview at the end of the article reinforced how every film festival is different and rejection letters should never get you down. I also think it's neat that Josh Koury started the Brooklyn Underground FF that has the feel of an underground art gallery.

Week 1 Check-In

Alright, so this is my first official weekly check in…and there are so many more to come. –dun dun…DUUUNNN- Because this was the first week of classes, obviously I went to class. This semester I am in Sound Recording, British Cinema, Leadership, Visions of course, and I am also in an internship with etc. media. Though I wasn’t able to start at etc. this week, I officially begin on Tuesday and am excited to get more experience in production. I too am the Vice President for Wilmington Paranormal Research, so I am happily keeping up with that amid all of the other craziness. After class on Tuesday I read the job manual along with the descriptions, and though I learned yesterday that I read last semester’s because I couldn’t find the others, Kevin showed me where to find the correct ones. Since this was the first time I read what I was supposed to be doing, the descriptions seemed very overwhelming at first sight. However, I do hope that once we get more into the flow of things, though we will still be constantly busy, it will be manageable. Thus far I am liking all of my classes, and it’s looking to be a busy but great semester! I even graded the abstracts on Thursday, and though some of them were longer than others because they actually adhered to the word count, it only took me about an hour and a half total. I had to leave about midway through to get to a meeting with Kevin and Daryl, but overall it wasn’t too bad. Programming as a whole seems to be dare I say…fun. Of course there will be several overwhelming days, but I think it’s cool just how much Visions accomplishes. Daryl and I were assigned ten films each from the submissions to input information for. My section was very diverse in the schools from which the students were from, with one person from Poland. Yesterday, in all honesty, I didn’t do much for Visions except look over the blogs of some of our staff members to make sure mine was somewhat on the right track. Today though I shared the Cinemixer event with 25 friends on Facebook and am going to read the article “Festivals of Their Own.” I am still having technical issues with Trello as well, so I’m planning on tinkering with it some more today to see if I can get it to cooperate with me. Now, back to work I go! 

So I read the Manual and the Job Descriptions...

and there were a lot of words. They were quite lengthy but did lay everything out nicely with a lot of good tips. Being a programming assistant I will supervise the creation and administration of our schedule and budget. When our departments have meetings, I need to take attendance and turn them in to the Festival Director at the start of each month. Though I am not sure what to look for yet, I also need to review films that were submitted incorrectly on Film Freeway. Working with the directors to access and plan for the tech requirements sounds pretty cool too, since I feel I will learn a lot about equipment during this process. Another thing that actually sounds interesting is making sure the bumpers, trailers, and slides all play in the right slots. Something that makes me actually nervous is seeing that I should advise the projectionists on sound and other elements. I am looking forward to the sound aspects since sound designing has become rather intriguing to me. In terms of the aspect rations though, I'm really not sure how that's gonna go since I don't really know much about what works for what films. That'll definitely be a learning experience. On the day of Visions6 the program department should stay in the theater throughout the event to make sure everything runs smoothly and on time, so hopefully nothing catastrophic goes wrong. In the manual I saw a lot of things that we talked about yesterday in class along with other interesting things. For instance, it makes sense that film blocks should be run through DVDs since technology never wants to cooperate when you need it to. Also, I noticed that diligence was stressed throughout. This class is definitely going to be a challenge for me since I have other classes, an on-campus job, and an internship. Everyone is busy though, so that isn't an excuse by any means. I love being busy and being productive, so by being a part of this festival I plan on learning how to manage my time even more than I already have. My communication skills are also bound to expand as I meet new people and learn new skills. Last year when I volunteered I really didn't get to see much of the behind-the-scenes of Visions, which was quite sad. This semester I am really looking forward to getting all of my tasks completed and being on the inside of the festival rather than the outside. Though Visions is going to be one heck of an experience as I'm sure there will be good days and bad days, I look forward to going through this process with my team and working hard to get it all done so that we can put on a good show!

Randomness on Day 1

First class was tonight. Interesting initiation to say the least, but everyone seems cool and focused, which are both good things. Read the job descriptions for the Programming department and started on the manual but will have to finish it tomorrow since I am dozing off. Really excited (and anxious, not gonna lie....but definitely excited) to get more involved with this awesome festival and have an awesome event for everyone the day of.