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!