This Week In Visions 3/27-4/2

Wekly Tasks
3/27: Helping with Swag bag (1.5 hours)
3/28: Directors' Meeting (1.5 hours)
3/28: Printer correspondence (2 hours)
3/30: Communicating with Art Department about Program (6-7 hours)
3/30: Working on Certificates (1.5 hours)
3/30: Printing certificates (1 hour)
3/30: Proofing specs for program (1.5 hours)
3/31: Printer correspondence (1 hour)
3/31: Hospitality/Development Meeting (1.5 hours)
4/2: Class (3 hours)

VISIONS IS IN 3 DAYSSS!!!!! WOOOO

Visions4 Reflection

So this past Friday was the day of Visions and the whole day I was wondering when I was going to become overwhelmed with emotion dictating that I helped to not only put together this festival and conference but that I was actively participating in it! To be honest I don't think I truly understood the impact of the event until about 5:30am the next day. After being up for almost 24 hours I was in complete shock of how well everything went. Not that I was expecting anything to go wrong but I was prepared to facilitate staff members if a problem did arise. I believe that the level of professionalism that the staff and the presenting filmmakers and scholars contributed to the event will be extremely hard to "one-up" next year.

I was honestly surprised about how friendly everyone was at the event. Again, I wasn't expecting anyone to be super pretentious but it was humbling to have filmmakers and scholars coming up to me saying "thank you for everything." I was deeply touched by their kind words and I hope that their experience that they had at Visions was one that they will always remember and share with other fellow filmmakers or friends.

I was surprised that there weren't any serious technical difficulties during the course of the day, especially with Video Race. I think everything was super well organized and the mayhem that required recording 10+ videos on different phones and transferring the data in order to showcase the one-take videos in Lumina went flawlessly! I also enjoyed hearing all of the scholars' presentations because some were adapted from their papers which made me even more intrigued about their particular topic. It was also great to see all of the films on the big screen with an audience and not by myself, confined by the dimensions of my laptop screen. I thoroughly enjoyed my entire Visions4 experience and I can wholeheartedly say that I don't think I would change a thing!

3/19-3/26 Weekly Tasks

This week in Visions
3/19: Class (7 hours)
3/20: Chat with Art Dept. on artwork printing (1 hour)
3/21: Director's Meeting (1.5 hours)
3/21: Sending PDFs to Evonne (20 minutes)
3/23: Work on Certificates (1.5 hours)
3/24: Sending Jamie parchment paper (20 minutes)
3/24: Quick meeting with Shannon on certificates (10 minutes)
3/24: Sending Badge PDFs to Printer (10 minutes)
3/24: Hospitality/Development Meeting (1.5 hours)
3/25: Correspondence with the printer and making adjustments (2 hours)
3/25: Helping Zöe with Swag Bag (2 hours)

This past week has been tedious with printing. I am the acting messenger between Art Department and the printer. When there are corrections that need to be made after the proof is received I relay that information back to the Art Department for changes. I have also begun to help Zöe with Swag bag donations. I contacted a few places Tuesday night via email. I will follow up with these businesses this week. I am also planning on starting the research for the festival project I was assigned. I am also meeting with Shannon in this upcoming week to talk about the other grant I will be applying for. WE HAVE BACK ABOUT ETEAL ON MARCH 31ST!!!! I am so excited!

This Week In Visions 3/12-3/18

Weekly Tasks:
3/12: Presentation prep and Grant tips research (1.5 hours)
3/14: Director Meeting (1.5 hours)
3/16: Hos/Dev Meeting (1 hour)
3/17: Meeting with Eliza and Steven about event poster printing (1 hour)
3/17: Printing Posters for Video Race (1 hour)
3/17: Departmental Research (1.5 hours)
3/18: Organization of final printing calendar (1.5 hours)
3/18: Contacting Tim Palmer, Evonne Daniel and Dave Monahan for ads and printing (1 hour)

Visions4 is slowly approaching and I can't help but be excited! We are so close to completing all of the final touches. This week and next week I have been organizing the printing schedule for the Art Department. Event posters need to be printed and so do the badges and programs. I am so excited to see the program come together and have all of our design elements be a cohesive unit. I think the professional level of Visions this year is very high and next year has big shoes to fill. I am continuing to look into grants and I will start my project on the various film festivals in North Carolina within the next few weeks. I will be partnering with Zoë on that project and it will be useful in figuring out how many paid positions are offered regionally for film festivals. This research will be helpful in the sustainability of the Visions class in years to come.

This Week in Visions 3/5-3/11

Weekly Tasks:
3/5: Worked on grant (1.5 hour)
3/6: Last minute revisions to rough copy of eTEAL grant, posting on Google Drive (2 hours)
3/7: Take account for feedback from class suggestions in grant (1 hour)
3/8: Correspondence phone calls (1 hour)
3/9: Finished off the grant and sent to Shannon (1 hour)
3/10: Hospitality and Development Meeting (1 hour)
3/10: Retrieve graphics from sponsors (20 minutes)
3/11: Reviewed Printing specs, emailed Evonne (20 minutes)

This week I finished the eTEAL grant for Visions5. I am super excited and we will hear back March 31st if we received the grant! This upcoming week I will be doing a presentation on grants to the class and giving some pointers on grant writing. I will also be calling back Erin from Whole Foods to see when is a good time for me to pick up the donation. My team continues to contact sponsors and Nathalie continued phone calls to potential Awards sponsors. Things are going wonderful. For the rest of the semester my focus will be looking into more potential grant opportunities as well as developing ideas of sponsors for Visions5.

Weekly Tasks 2/26-3/4

Weekly Tasks:
2/26: Class (4 hours)
2/28: Director's Meeting (1.5 hours)
3/1: Phone Calls (30 minutes)
3/2: Grant Research (1 hour)
3/3: Working on eTEAL Grant (2 hours)
3/4: Meeting with Jamie Hall to discuss Grants (1 hour)

This week, while I continue to focus on development tasks, I am starting to focus on finding grants and raising money for next year's festival through QEP grants based off applied learning requirements. Grant writing is a great skill to have and I am excited to learn more about it from Jamie Hall and outside research that I have been doing! I think that the eTEAL grant looks promising for Visions because we fit the requirements for funding so perfectly. I have high hopes that we will gain funding through grants. We did not have a department meeting for this week because of Spring Break! I plan to keep my team motivated and goal oriented over break so that no one loses sights of responsibilities. Our event is a month away and I am so excited. I also found out this week that Whole Foods will be sponsoring our After Party which was awesome news! The event is coming together nicely and it is all in part to the staff members' hard work!

Weekly Tasks 2/19-2/25

Weekly Tasks:
2/19: Class (10 hours)
2/20: Follow up emails (1hour)
2/21: Director's Meeting (1.5 hours)
2/21: Planning out tomorrow's business visits (2 hours)
2/22: Printing Packets (1.5 hours)
2/22: Visiting business (3 hours)
2/23: Some Phone calls (30 minutes)
2/24: Contacting/Visiting Businesses (2 hours)
2/24: Department Meeting (1.5 hours)
2/25: Grants Meeting with Shannon (30 minutes)

This week was filled with a lot of organization and we finally programmed for the event which is super exciting. I am looking forward to announcing the filmmakers and scholars that were selected for Visions! I was also super excited that I received a donation of $500 this week from a local business in Wilmington. Our event is coming together very nicely and I am thrilled that I have such an important part in planning the festival and conference!

This Week in Visions 2/13-2/19

Weekly Tasks 2/12-2/19:
2/12: Snow Day
2/13: Some follow up emails (20 minutes)
2/13: BYOFF--Goat and Compass (2 hours)
2/14: Directors' Meeting (2 hours)
2/14: Emailing Businesses (20 minutes)
2/15: Visions Class (8 hours)
2/16: Reading Non-UNCW papers (3.5 hours)
2/17: Development Meeting(1.5 hours)
2/18: Reading UNCW papers (2.5 hours)
2/18: Revisiting Films (1 hour)

The Un-filmable Lightness of Being

A pro to this paper would be that even though there is a lot of substance and research, it is extremely coherent and intellectual. It really challenged me to imagine the the intentions of the author versus the director, which was surprisingly easy given the descriptive imagery. A con of this paper would be is that it is prominently longer than the other papers and would need to be cut down if programmed. 

Cinema du Corps

A pro of this paper is that the structure of this paper was well organized and informative. I enjoyed it more so than the other Gaspar Noe paper. A con about this paper is that it lacks challenging material and would make for a long presentation as well.

Boys Will Be Girls

A pro to this paper is that it was well written and not a widely-known topic. A con to this paper was that it felt more like a biography than a topic of scholarly research.

The Active Viewer

A pro for this paper was that I liked the topic and I thought it was extremely thought-provoking. It was well researched and again, well structured. Something I found very interesting was about the means of storytelling multi-screen projection allows. It was along the lines of giving the projectionist creative control over displaying Andy Warhol's film that made no two screenings of the film alike. A con about this paper would be grammar but otherwise I think it would make for an interesting presentation.

13 Ways of Looking at Bill Murray

A positive for this paper is that it plays with humor and exploring audiences' infatuations with actors and their on/off-screen personas. I think that it is engaging and would definitely be a crowd pleaser. A con for this paper is that it was lacking in the research department which is ideally the main objective of a scholarly conference block. 

Gravity

A positive for this paper is that it is quite descriptive (almost overwhelming at times) but would make for some stunning visuals. I like the exploration of future cinema reverting back to initial ideas of cinema of attraction. A con to this paper was that it was filled with excessive jargon. I had to re-read sentences a few times to truly understand what point the author was getting at. 

Japanese Ghosts

A pro to this paper was the organization of thoughts. I liked the references to WWII in one of the films but was left confused as to what it had to do with the thesis, or the topic of the paper. A con for this paper was that it lacked insight into the background of the films described. 

Irreversible & Techniques of Looking

Still to this day I am left confused as to the last sentence in the introduction. "Noé challenges us to imagine what a representation of rape from a sympathetic masculine position might look like." No where in this paper does he go into detail or attempt to defend this claim. I was really quite curious what the author was getting at. I watched parts of Irreversible to try and understand the context of this paper and after doing so, I do not believe this film diverts from the generalized masculine gaze. A pro about this paper was that it was well-written.

Blues Brothers

Pro for this paper was that it was an interesting concept to redefine a film under a different context of genre from another country, however, it fell short of my expectations. It wasn't very well-written and I think that the presentation would be very scatter-brained like the paper. I wish the paper dived into it's thesis a lot sooner into the paper.

Orson Welles

A pro for this paper was that the paper gave adequate background into Welles' life and perspective and it is well researched. A con to this paper would be that I feel like the topic of Orson Welles is so overdone and it gets talked about. 

Murders Unavenged

This paper was very informative (about general police procedure) and you could tell the author was interested about this topic. A con of this paper was that it felt a bit repetitive at times and boring. 

Pied Piper

A pro for this paper was that it was well written and organized. A con for this paper was that it still seems more like a gender studies film analysis than a proper film analysis. The paper used a lot of plot summary and lacked research.

This Week In Visions 2/5-2/11

This Week in Visions:
2/5: Meeting with Audra to discuss In-Person Contacts (1 hour)
2/5: Visions Class (7.5 hours)
2/6: Emailing Businesses (2 hours)
2/7: Researching more Businesses in Wilmington/Sponsors of Regional Film Festivals (2 hours)
2/7: Director Meeting (1.5 hours)
2/8: Sending emails (20 minutes)
2/8: Printing Packets (1 hour)
2/8: Visiting Businesses in person with Zoe (1.5 hours)
2/7-2/10: Watching and Grading Films (4.5 hours)

This week I was so excited to be contacted by a business that wants to sponsor Visions at the Supporting Sponsor level! When I received that email I was so thrilled that my hard work has started to pay off. The countless hours that I have spent researching local businesses as well as grading films has been so rewarding. I really enjoyed watching the remaining films for round 3 also and there are definitely films that I will fight for.
This process has taught me a great deal about time management. Through this hectic semester, I still have found time to enjoy my work and look at it from a different perspective, but hey at least my roommates are jealous! (They're science majors) I learned to appreciate that although the work for Visions is time-consuming, I genuinely enjoy doing it! I would much rather be watching films than studying for chemistry because that sounds awful!

Weekly Tasks 1/29-2/4

Weekly Tasks:
1/29: Putting together presentation for Snow Day (1 hour)
1/29: Google Doc Snow Day Assignment (2 hours)
1/30: Watching films (2 hours)
1/31: Director's Meeting (2 hours)
2/1: Researching tactics for talking to businesses (1.5 hours)
2/1: Finish watching films (2 hours)
2/3: Development Meeting (1.5 hours)

Development's Dirty Dozen for Contacting Potential Sponsors

Development's Dirty Dozen:

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?
This semester, my goal is to raise $1,000 from contacting local businesses and private donors. I believe that if I am persistent I should be able to reach this goal.

2. Who is the customer?
This semester I will be contacting local business owners as well as individual contacts (family members, friends) that the Visions Staff knows. My goal is to get them interested in Visions and encourage them to donate money to the undergraduate festival and conference.

3. What are the deliverables?
The deliverables for this project can range from money to In-Kind donations. I am excited to already have a potential in-kind donation in the works this early on for the semester!!

4-5. What is the budget? How long will it take?
The budget for mail-outs this semester is $25.99. I have in place a schedule for contacting sponsors that spans over 6 weeks. Each week there is a new task to focus on, from forming the spreadsheet to the number of times we contact that individual.

6-7. What are the specific skills needed? Resources needed?
The specific skills needed for this project are organization, motivation, time-management skills, and patience. Resources that are needed for this project is time and the money spent for mail-outs. I will try my hardest to always make time for Visions. It is easy to get wrapped up in other schoolwork and stress out. A way to prevent this is to not procrastinate, otherwise, problems are more likely to occur.

8. Who is working on this project? What is each person's job?
Jill: Director of Development and liaison to fundraising and awards. Responsibilities include: contacting private donors and businesses as well as managing the 50/50 fundraisers and overseeing the contacting of businesses for awards donations.
Audra: Development Assistant and Fundraising Coordinator. Responsibilities include: assisting in contacting donors, contacting businesses who donate for raffles, organizing 50/50 raffles and planning the Valentine's bake sale.
Nathalie: Awards Coordinator. Responsibilities include: contacting individuals and businesses for donations in the form of awards for filmmakers and scholars.

9. What is the schedule?
1/27-1/31: 1st contact (emails)
2/1-2/4: organizing 2nd contact--mail-outs (sent out on 2/4)
2/5-2/10: follow up email (3rd contact)
2/11: emails go out
2/17-2/21: fourth contact--phone calls
3/10-3/14: update website with donor info

10. What are the risks?
Small impacts: (likely, low risk) Includes misspelling someone's name on an email or a package. (unlikely, low risk) having a spelling error in a letter that has been proofread multiple times or forgetting to put a stamp on a package.
Large Impacts: (Likely, large risk) Not raising enough money to fly in filmmakers or provide them with activities to do or having a delay in mail-outs due to sickness. (Unlikely, large risk) A potential sponsors putting the wrong organizing on the check they fill out or a check gets lost in the mail. These larger impacts are detrimental to the success of Visions and should be prepared for and avoided if possible.

11. How will you communicate with your team?
I will use various methods to communicate with my team. I will be using facebook, the class to-do list, email and also texting. This will help assure that we are all on the same page when it comes to development.

12. How will you determine if the project was successful?
I will be able to determine if the project was success if I am able to reach my project goal of raising $1000. Also I will also determine how successful my project was by the attendance of this year's festival and conference!

Weekly Tasks: 1/22-1/28

Weekly Tasks
1/22--Visions Class (6 hours)
1/22--Development Meeting (30 minutes)
1/23--Graded films (30 minutes)
1/24--Whole Foods Request Form for In-Kind Donation (20 minutes)
1/24--Directors' Meeting (1.5 minutes)
1/24--Meeting with Nathalie to discuss Awards (1 hour)
1/24--Researching businesses (1 hour)
1/24--Grant Research (30 minutes)
1/25--Grade remaining films (1.5 hours)
1/25--Finish collecting contact info for spreadsheet (30 minutes)
1/26-1/27--Grade abstracts (2 hours)
1/27--Development/Hospitality Meeting (1.5 hours)
1/28--Work on Presentation for snow day (1 hour)

 For this upcoming week of Visions, I plan to have completed the first round of contacts for donors and I am excited to watch more student films and read more student abstracts. I will also start printing packages and have those ready to be mailed out the week of February 3rd-7th. I am trying my best to keep up with the schedule I have made for myself. I have to say that I have learned a lot already from last semester. I have become more comfortable with creating my own schedule and keeping up with it. It is also a plus to know what worked and what didn't work out last semester with contacting businesses. I feel that I have learned new ways to adapt and account for these problems so that I will not run into  issues with mail-outs. I hope that we hear back from business owners before the event and that they are interested in donating to our amazing undergraduate film festival and conference.

This Week In Visions 1/10-1/21

Weekly Tasks:
1/10--Directors' Meeting (1.5 hours)
1/12--Put together syllabus for Development calendar (1 hour)
1/14--Directors' meeting (1 hour)
1/15--Began brainstorming ideas for media contacts (1.5 hours)
1/15--Visions Class (5 hours)
1/15--Development/Hospitality meeting (30 minutes)
1/16-1/20--Grading abstracts (2.5 hours)
1/17--Directors' meeting (1.5 hours)

This week was slightly relaxed but was filled with a lot of planning surrounding the development calendar. We are back in business and need to hit the ground running so that this semester's prep for the event goes smoothly. That entails everyone keeping up with their to-do lists and schedules. I am super excited for this semester and all that it brings. I am trying my best to hold myself, as well as my team, accountable for their work and tasks. Knowing how to manage yourself and others around you is going to be a great skill to take away from this experience because it is applicable to work that is done in the field. 

I am excited for the newbies to experience Visions and by the looks of it, our staff seems like they will rock our event! For the upcoming week my main focus is to start gathering contact information for more local businesses as well as potential private donors for Visions. I am excited to review the abstracts in class and see if we had any more submissions!