Cucalorus!

I had a great time at Cucalorus this year, just as I did last year. Though they were very different experiences. Last year, I was more focused on the films, and I really enjoyed myself. I didn't really care about the various social obligations attached and fully allowed myself to just indulge in some great, immersive filmmaking. This year was a different story––the films almost came as an after-thought. I don't know if cucalorus has changed at all, or it's just my level of involvement in the film department, but there was a much more obvious push from everyone around me toward the "events." I enjoyed the social aspect of the festival and wished I had gotten a bigger pass! I agree with Ally in that Cucalorus is definitely marketing an experience, rather than film screenings. I think we should do this too, though it's proving harder when we don't have as established of a reputation as Cucalorus. I'm definitely going to be reading a few marketing books over break... One thing I noticed right off the bat that Cucalorus could improve on was communication when it comes to their passes. I've been to the festival numerous times and still get confused every time how exactly to get tickets with my pass. You basically have to act like youre buying them and then last minute say you have a pass do you don't have to pay. I thought this was really disorganized and it delayed me getting tickets. This could easily be remedied with an instructions for passholders tab on their website. Also..while I preferred the programming of last year's festival, there were some great stand out films I saw. My favorite was definitely The Act of Killing. It was one of those films that you just can't stop talking about after it ends. I went home and discussed it with my roommate Jane until I had to leave to go to my next screening. It was very thought-provoking and powerful. In addition to The Act of Killing, I saw the comedy shorts, Borgman, and the secret screening. I really wanted to see Short Term 12 and had a ticket but had to do some last minute 495 filming instead :/ Oh! A note on the secret screening: I loved it, and think it's a great idea. Is this something we could do?? I thought it was great.

Work log 11/12-11/18

Planning/Researching/Posting Indiegogo Announcements: 2 hours
Visions Blogs: 1 hour
VCU/VFF thank you: 15 minutes
Meeting with Shannon: 15 minutes
Instagram/Tweet about VCU tour: 25 minutes
Meet with Jillian about Indiegogo Marketing: 45 mins
FUNDay Monday posts: 20 mins
Indiegogo class posting schedule: 1 hour
Keynote Research: 45 min.
Miscellaneous messaging/coordinating: 20 mins.
Group meetings: 2 hrs

Keynote Speaker

Okay, I was pretty sure I knew who I was going to vote for after our discussion in class but now after doing all this research, I just don't know! It's between Kiva and Sami for me. They are both so well-spoken, so articulate and have interesting backgrounds. I like that Kiva founded her own film journal--a feminist one no less. Her interview in which she discusses the founding of said film journal was so inspiring. I love that she actively encourages women to enter the world of film criticism. The film industry is significantly lacking a woman's perspective because of how male dominated every faction of the industry is, and I think what Kiva is doing is so important. Watching her interviews, it also really stands out how humble, reflective, and confident she is which I find really important in a keynote speaker. Finding someone who is reflective about what they have achieved is crucial to communicating anything worthwhile to the audience. I do think she can come across as maybe a little too serious for what we have been projecting thus far, so it depends how we want to be represented. Kiva seems to be the most accomplished of our options. I also really like Sami. Like Kiva, he is well-spoken and engaging. I like that he is on the other side of the film industry in that he's a filmmaker. Reading his twitter, he seems a bit more on edge than Kiva, in that he can be very critical/snobby but I think that may serve an undergraduate film festival and conference well. I also like that he's a reader and screenwriter, which I can see many students realistically doing after graduation, so that's cool..ahh I just can't decide! I'm definitely interested to discuss this in class tomorrow to see what everyone else is thinking. Can we have them both??

To Do

-Research other film festivals' social media campaigns, especially surrounding Call for Entries, Kickstarter, etc,. Find ways of making it more interactive and fun.

-Meet with Steven about Indiegogo announcements (Alumni page, main Visions page, etc,.)

-Post Indiegogo announcements by 9am Tuesday

-Write a few words of thanks for VCU/VFF, send to Shannon

-Upload cover photo from Kyle when he sends it to me

-Talk to Audra about FUNDay Monday Campaign

-Start contacting and compiling directory of social media contacts (people that will help announce call for entries, etc,.)

-Install Excel to download weekly insights, then download

-Think about campaign for Indiegogo party, talk to Zoe and Ally about what they're thinking

-Get some pictures from Zoe from the VFF trip to instagram

-Get it together and start kicking ass on our social media

Work Log 11/5 - 11/11

11/5-11/11

Website Critique/Evaluation: 1 hr
Call for Entries/Programming Help: 5 hrs
VCU tour prep/meeting Wed. Night: 4 hrs
Richmond/VCU research: 1 hr
Social Media posts combined: 1 hr
VCU tour/VFF: 3 days?
Conference pictures: 20 mins
Miscellaneous messaging/coordinating (Ally, Jillian, Audra, Steven): 45 mins
Cucalorus/past Visions campaign research: 1 hr

Visions DVDs

I found it especially important for me to watch both DVDs as I am the only one in the class putting on a festival that I have never attended before. I needed to see what Visions was all about. Watching the films, I just felt like something clicked. I understand Visions a little better now, I think. And I like it. It was interesting to see slicker films next to less professional-looking work that had tremendous amounts of heart. I really like that our festival has both. I thought all of the documentaries were really well done. I also noticed that we really strayed away from typical narratives. They were all really bizarre, which I enjoyed. I think The Birds Upstairs might be my favorite. I may have gotten a little emotional...ahem. It was super exciting to show these at VCU!

Procrastination

I am a procrastinator. I procrastinate like it's my damn job sometimes. I started picking up these habits in high school and they stuck around because nothing bad ever really came from me procrastinating back then. I worked well under the pressure, and was able to turn in A+ assignments I was proud of that I did last minute. In fact, freshman year of college I would start writing papers a few hours before they were due and they would turn out better because I didn't give myself time to bog the paper down with extraneous details (which was a bad habit of mine at the time.)  However, that all changed sophomore year when I started taking multiple creative classes at once. I still remember sitting in a pile of papers and a puddle of tears, crying to anyone who would listen (aka my roommates and parents) that I wasn't going to get into the film program––that I would need to transfer schools––because I had turned in an unfinished, unedited final research paper for FST 205 that was 40% of my final grade. Procrastination had finally bitten me in the ass, when it mattered the most. I was bit a dramatic, and I ended up getting an A- in the class. (Which I just think proves that professors don't actually read through the entirety of our papers.) But it scarred me. Ever since then, not only do I try hard to avoid these situations, when they do arise, I can't pull of what I used to. A newfound anxiety started taking over, combining my hang up on small details and perfectionism, fear of evaluation, and an unhealthy dependence on adderall that led to the possibility of pulling an all-nighter and not even finishing the task. So that's where I am now. I try really hard not to procrastinate. I have a master calendar, multiple lists, and reminders set up on my computer to try to prevent procrastinating from happening. But because it really seems to be at the core of who I am sometimes, it happens. I've learned this semester, taking 18 credit hours of heavily-involved film classes, I really have no time to do much during the week except mindless busy assignments. So I try to plan the big projects that take a lot of creative energy on the weekends. When that doesn't happen, I end up doing things that I thought could be really cool in the beginning, last minute and rushed during the week. Some reasons that I still procrastinate even though I should know better now are:

Being Overextended: This is especially true of this semester. I've gone back and forth on whether what I'm doing this semester is really even humanly possible. Sometimes I really just don't have time in the week to get everything done that I need to. This is where it's been really important for me to plan everything out so it doesn't all fall on one week, or one day. Every week this semester has felt like Finals week, except with classes during the day that don't get out until 8:30 on some nights. Organization has been key this semester.

Lack of Training: This is only relevant sometimes, and for only some classes. But I can often be intimidated by the ambiguity of a project where I don't know what's expected of me. This also links to fear of evaluation. What if I just go for it, and I'm wrong? This is probably the biggest source of procrastination for me (not in that it happens the most, but I procrastinate to the highest degree when this happens) as it leads to general uneasiness and anxiety when I don't know where to start, so I don't.

Faulty assumptions: I'm never right about how long something will take me, so I've started just saying that I need to block off the whole night for this. But that's because I fail to break it down into smaller tasks. If I did that, like the article suggests, it wouldn't be one big ambiguous task, but little ones that I could do at different times, so I can manage my time better. For instance, I should download all the found footage I need for my editing project on Saturday. This will probably take around 3 hours. Then, when I'm editing it the day before it's due because I have no other time, I'll have already done all the little tasks, and I'll have a better idea of how long the polishing edit will take (which will be far less time than if I left the whole thing to the night before!)

Perfectionism/Fear of Evaluation: These two are combined for me, but a huge reason why I procrastinate, or at least why tasks take me a lot longer than they should. I have always cared what people and teachers thought of me. Not in the weird insecure sense that reeks of middle schoolers seeking validation, but in the sense that I wanted them to see me how I saw me--who I believed I really was. If they didn't like it, that was fine. But I wanted the idea to be accurate, or at least what I thought was accurate. Even in the third grade, I remember taking a test to evaluate our intelligence. The teacher kept saying not to stress out, that this was not for a grade. I cared sooo much more about the evaluation of my intelligence than some lousy grade. Obviously now I've learned that bad papers/projects happen and not every one has to be a test of my character. When the project really matters to me, though, especially in things like writing, my inherent need to be perfect kicks in which is a deadly combination with my obsessive attention to detail. My need for perfection growing up led me to be really bossy at times. I was always the person that would just take over the group project because I thought my standards were higher than others, but what I later learned was that the collaboration was often more important than the project itself. Learning from your peers can have some really cool outcomes, and I need to start realizing that the standards I hold myself to can be highly unrealistic at times. It's more important to get the task done.

Avoidance of negative experience: These are what I have started doing on the weekends. I get them out of the way and feel such a sense of relief for the rest of the week!

VCU Film Programs

Wow. This program feels so close to what I would design as the perfect film program. I spent a lot of my time first researching the Film and Photography program, and loved the emphasis on the art side of film. That's definitely what I wish UNCW had a little more of. One's schedule is so regimented, and I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I do like all the art classes they are required to take. I imagine it serves as a great foundation for all future work students do. I also thought it was interesting that one of the classes was to put on a film festival but it was only worth one credit hour! Say whaaa?! hahah

In terms if the Cinema program, I LOVED the requirement for another major. I think this is so important to film, and I try to take as many classes in other subjects I can for this very reason. What is going to serve as inspiration for your films if you have no background in other subjects? Well, okay...life experience is a good one, I guess. I just think subjects like psychology, anthropology, english, history, etc,. add so much depth to film. And then you could also be practical and go the economics route, too!

In terms of how this affects our pitch, maybe it's just the website...but these kids sound like they know what they're doing. We should definitely prepare ourselves for a "few" people raising their hands when we ask them if they've entered in festivals...