Visions Blog : 2014

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Week 14

So this week we had class because there was still so much to cover even though it was Thanksgiving week. I did the presentation on the Robert West Award and got some great feedback on who to contact. I also met with Shannon on how to send out mail outs and get the sheet filled out to make sure it all gets paid for. I will be updating that into the manual and I have also been working on my other updates for the manual that are due by tuesday.

Manual Update: 2 hours
Robert West Research: 2 hours
Meeting and Mail outs with Shannon: 1 hour

Week 13

This week has been a lot of trying to look for something to fulfill the Robert West Award. We have been struggling because there are a lot of guidelines as to what the film has to be about and since it also has to be by an undergrad it is hard to find. We are struggling to find anything and I have to present on this topic on Tuesday and I will just have to tell the class about what the Robert West Award is and why it is important.

Presentation: 1 hour
Time spent searching for a film: 3 hours
Blog catch up: 1 hour

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Week 11

November is just flying by and before we know it this semester will be over. Again since the CFE has gone out their hasn't been too much going on in the way of programming. I am working right now for Jonathan and Hilary to try and find a documentary that involves anything relating to the LGBTQIA community and so I have been doing research on that.

Research: 2 Hours
Blog and Catch up work: 1 Hour

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Week 10

After putting out the CFE last week there was not much going on this week. We had the bake sale on Wednesday and on Tuesday we had the Film Kid mixer so this week was focused more on that than anything else. Class this week was missing Shannon because she was sick so the director's led the class and we got through many presentations which helped us to feel more prepared for the coming month! Oh yeah its November now which is crazy and this semester is flying by!

Baking goods for Bake Sale: 2 hours
Film Kid Mixer: 1 Hour

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Week 9

This week has by far been the most time consuming of all. With CFE out and Invitationals going out this coming week there has been a lot of work that needs to get done in a short amount of time. Hopefully after this it will die down a little bit until everything gets going in January again. At this point it is just a waiting game as to who will send in their films and essays. While we are waiting though we won't be hesitating to fundraise!

CFE emails to master contact list: 2 hours
Contact information for Invitationals: 3 Hours
Blog post and meeting with team: Half hour

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Week 8

Wait seriously is it already week 8? I think December will be here before anybody is prepared. This past week was not too bad because we just came back from fall break and only had a three day week. Visions is starting to come together and we even have our website up and running! This past week was not so bad but this coming week is going to be a lot more work!

We had a meeting on thursday about upcoming assignments: 1 hour
Editing the master contact list: 2 hours
Creating prezi for invitationals for class: 1 hour
Finishing up the list for invitationals:1 hour

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Week 7

I am not sure where the time is going but October is almost gone I feel like and this coming week the CFE's will be going out.

This past week we had two meetings: 3 hours all together

I helped Jonathan to update the master contact list: Hour and a Half

Searched for Invitational's: 2 Hours

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Most useful festival tidbit

Best festival strategy I would like to use for visions if from Slamdance. Yay Slamdance! They utilize past filmmakers who have submitted or been part of their festival to be screeners for the following year. This makes the community grow stronger each year and those filmmakers that are alumni of the festival feel utilized and important because they have a say in who is part of the festival.

I think we could somehow incorporate this into Visions by having either past people who have submitted help or maybe even getting more of the department to be involved. I know everyone has a chance to apply and be part of the class but if they can't make that kind of time commitment maybe they can just be part of the screening part and help give a perspective the class might not have on a film. Just an idea because the bigger sense of community we create the more willing people are to come to the festival or help us out with favors we might need.

Just some food for thought!

Week 6

October is here and in full swing! Visions is definitely amping up and we keep talking about next semester! We are gearing up to launch the CFE and also getting ready for fall break this weekend.

Invitational research: 1 hour
Class prep time: 1 hour
Outside meetings 1hr and 30 minutes

Monday, September 29, 2014

Time Management problems??

Umm as told by the facts that it is 1am and I am doing this blog post I am going to go ahead and say yes I have time management problems. There are a few things at lay here. The first is that I am defintely overextended. I enjoy being involved in a number of things but I also know how hard that is on my school work. My priorities are often not in the correct order and it is because I have so many things on my plate I get confused as to what should come first.
The second problem I have is that I have a lack of motivation when it comes to school work. When I cannot find a personal connection to something I can convince myself I don't want to do it. I am often frustrated with myself for not doing stuff early and not prioritizing but then come next time I do the same thing. It is something I will still be working on, most likely forever…
I know that in order to help these problems I need to work on the art of saying no! It is hard for me to say no because I want to do things so I know they will be done to my liking but I need to trust others. Once I have less on my plate I think I won't be so confused about my priorities. If I start getting my priorities in order I can make a to do list and check things off as they get done. After I make the to do list the only other thing I struggle with is allotting enough time to do each task. I sometimes underestimate and if I just did things early then underestimation of time wouldn't be a problem.

Week 5

So this week has been not too crazy, but I can tell that visions is getting underway and I need to brace myself.

Sunday night Jonathan and I did the prezi for our CFE prezi on Tuesday: 2 hrs
Monday I had to miss a meeting for work but it was: 1 hr
Thursday I couldn't make a meeting for personal reasons: 1 hr

Class this week was chaotic because we picked a theme for this year of visions and we had a lot of discussion about CFE and potentially adding a screenwriting competition.

Thats all for now!

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Week 4

So I am not sure where the weeks are going but they are going. Here is the breakdown of my weeks activities!

Departmental meeting: 1hr 30 minutes
2nd Departmental meeting: 45 minutes
Blogs: 30 minutes
Research for invitationals: 2 hrs
Prezi for class presentations: 1hr

Interview with Sarah Smellie

St. John’s FF – Sarah Smellie, Executive Director

Established in 1989 to support and promote women filmmakers

1. How many entries did they get this year? For films make sure to ask them to distinguish between features and shorts.

· 500 film submissions and from those, we present a powerful program of international documentaries, short films and feature works.

2. How many films do they aim to screen each year? How many papers/presentations do they accept? Again, for films make sure to ask them to distinguish between features and shorts.

· Screen between 70-90

3. What is their pre-screening process?

· Board volunteer narrow down

4. How many pre-screeners do they have each year?

· 10 Board members

5. How do they score entries? Do they use a scoring template/rubric? Are there scoring guidelines?

· No scoring template just discussion on what board members think

6. How far in advance do they send out their call for entries? How do entries typically roll in? Early?  Late? In waves?

· Roll in all around the regular deadline and extended deadline

· January 15th, 2014 — Submissions open March 18, 2014 — Early Bird Deadline ($10CAD) April 15, 2014 — Regular Deadline ($20CAD) May 20, 2014 — Late Deadline ($35CAD) May 27, 2014 — Withoutabox Extended Deadline ($50CAD)

7. How many paid employees do they have each year? How many volunteers?

· 40 volunteers. 3 paid employees. 5 employees

8. Do you use specific programming, trafficking, budgeting software? Do you like it?

· Without a box. Works very well but is expensive

9. What community outreach do you do outside of your festival season to keep your event on the  public's radar and/or to raise funds? (Workshops, mini-festivals, fundraiser dinners, etc.)

· Monthly screenings. Framed film education series. Film making camps. Documentary camps. Mostly in the summer. Get those camps up off the ground. Cornerbrook in may in associastion with someone. Screening tour films on the go. Program of shorts and go present to venues across island. Contact individuals to host a screening.

10. Do you give out swag bags to visiting filmmakers? Presenters? Guests? If so, what type of items  do you include in those bags?

· Local businesses and ask to give swag to delegates. Industry film forum film and television industry to lead workshops. Filmmaker’s bursaries to come to festival. Lots of networking. Delegate bags (120). Guide to city so they come and spend money at your store/ restaurant ect. Liquor gives Newfoundland rum. Walrus magazine has event around festival time, and sent magazines to.

11. Do presenter/filmmaker pay registration to attend?

· No registration. Film forum they pay way to be there and filmmakers who do talks are paid for but just to see film screen they give them a few bucks to get over here. Recognize hotel as sponsor and get spornor perks.

12. Are you able to provide presenters/filmmakers with funds to cover travel or lodging?

· Work with local hotels and inns to provide lodging. Provide funds to travel to see Film festival

13. What "perks" do your filmmakers/scholars enjoy at your festival/conference? What else do you  encourage them to do while they're in town? m(Free dinners, tours, exclusive activities...in Wilm,  we'd try to take them to the beach, Screen Gems tour, etc.)

· Encourage them to attend film forum, which runs all day during the festival. Meet and Greek parties. Active introductions of filmmakers coming into town. Good parties.

14. Do you have special donor perks during the event? Or how do you thank them?

· Sponors perks on website, different perks depending on level of donor.

15. What do they wish they had done differently or better when they were first starting out? What do  you wish you knew then that you know now?

· Kelly Davis was there for 10 years but got job at nfc. Changes in attendance from past years but Sarah just took on the job so she doesn’t know exactly about the changes since the festival started.

16. Any other ideas or advice that we haven’t thought to ask about?

· Keep in touch, would be happy to promote our film festival.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

End of Week 3

Another week in Visions5 complete!

This week in class we did the google calendar which really made life so much easier because I am starting to feel more organized due to google calendars. Still struggling to remember every time I have to blog but I am working on that. Other than that we just had research and interviews to do this week as well as I had to work on my group presentation for Tuesday. Programming committee couldn't meet this week so I didn't have that to go to, we will be meeting tomorrow to get on top of things again. Jonathan gave Kevin and I a few assignments to be working on, I will keep my blog updated on these as I do them. Still need to work on crew evaluations which are due this coming Tuesday.

Interview: 30 minutes
Group presentation: 1hr
Research for film festival: 2hrs

SJIWFF Research

1. What time is your interview scheduled and who will you be talking with when you call/skype?

· My interview was with Sarah Smellie, the Executive Director, of St. Johns Film Festival on September 10^th at 9:30am.

2. Who started it and who runs it?

· Founded in 1989 by Alison Dyer with Noreen Golfman, Peggy Norman and others. The SJIWFF is a means of supporting and celebrating women filmmakers world wide. Run by a board, made up of 10 woman.

3. What is the mission of the festival/conference? (copy and paste the first paragraph)

· Increase the exposure of new works written and / or directed by women;

· Showcase the province to the Canadian and international film industry;

· Increase the national and international profile of St. John’s and the province as a vibrant cultural site and place to do business;

· Deliver programs to help develop the next generation of filmmakers (FRAMED, 2D in 2 DAYS);

· Offer outreach programs (Films on the Go, special screenings);

· Facilitate interaction among filmmakers and between filmmakers and their audiences;

· Provide local communities access to outstanding yet unfamiliar and limited-release works;

· Produce a unique cultural event that highlights our filmmakers, our province and our industry; and

· Support the development of the local film community through promotion, exhibition, market access, professional development and training opportunities and grants (the RBC MJEFA)

4. How does this compare with their actual programming choices from the past two years? Be specific  in describing what they program (mode, categories within mode, niche, Political? Global? Local?  Gender? Sexuality? Race? Any themes?

· SJIWFF is programmed as a festival “by women for everyone.” With this I believe they achieve the goal of increasing exposure of women film makers because they market the film festival in such a way that everyone knows that it is only women film makers. They utilize a lot of pink and feminine colors in order to emphasize the importance of women to this film festival.

5. Where is the event?

· St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

6. When is the event? (Give dates from last year if not current)

October 14-18, 2014.

7. How do you submit? Snail mail, online, withoutabox, through their site, etc...

· Submission copies must be NTSC format DVD or submitted online through Withoutabox or a password-protected Vimeo link. PAL format DVDs cannot be accepted. An English language track or subtitled version is required.

8. When are the deadlines to enter? Early? Reg? Late?

9. How much does it cost to enter?

· March 18, 2014 — Early Bird Deadline ($10CAD) April 15, 2014 — Regular Deadline ($20CAD) May 20, 2014 — Late Deadline ($35CAD) May 27, 2014 — Withoutabox Extended Deadline ($50CAD)

10. Who’s eligible, what are the guidelines to enter?

Must be directed and/or written by women filmmakers from around the world.

11. Is there a Student category?

· No, but there are camp workshops put on for students.

12. What formats do they except for jurying? DVD, Vimeo, Flash drives?

13. What formats do they except for exhibition/screening?

14. How many films screened at the festival last year?

· Around 70-90

15. How long is a typical shorts block or paper presentation block at their event?

· Really depends on the block you go to.

16. How many films or papers do they program per block?

· 3-4

17. How do people register to attend? Is there a cost to attend as a guest?

Ticket information unavailable on their website.

18. Look at sponsorship page and see what businesses. Grants and private entities give money to the  event. Figure out how many of each kind and note any leads that might be useful to us.

· Most of the sponsors are related to Canada and Canadian television, film, and arts. While some of those sponsors might not work for us, Sarah said to keep her as a contact and they would be happy to promote our festival in Canada.

19. What are their sponsorship levels and incentives for each level?

· Sponsors split into premiere sponsors, platinum, gold, silver, bronze and friends of the festival. List of specific incentives for each level are listed on the website.

20. Did they have a kickstarter or indiegogo? What incentives did they have for each level of donor?

· Listed on website. But incentives are greatest for highest donors and decrease as the amount the sponsor donated decreases. Some perks include passes, posters, logo displayed in trailers/ banners, tickets to gala.

21. What kind of non-traditional film/video events have they had before? Things like Installations,  'Visual Soundwalls,' VJing etc.

· Have things like FRAMED, Scene & Heard and Industry film forum instead of non- traditional abstract events. Also offer to screne past mvoies at different venues throughout the year.

22. Are there ways in which they have expanded the typical film screening event? How have they  branched out from sitting in a dark room in front of a screen?

· Industry Film Forum will bring some of the country’s leading creators to St. John’s for a series of panels, workshops, networking opportunities, pitch sessions and project consultations. The groundbreaking event will help bridge the gap between the local filmmaking and digital content industries, and strengthen those industries’ skills and connections to mainland and local creators.

· FRAMED Film Education Series offers free, high-quality filmmaking camps to youth in order to encourage, support and train them in the craft and business of filmmaking. Camps include FRAMED West, FRAMED Doc, a camp for documentary filmmaking; FRAMED Drama, a camp for fictional film; and FRAMED Animation, a camp that creates an animated film.

· Scene & Heard a week-long series of workshops, film screenings, performances and readings, as well as a an important networking opportunity for filmmakers to connect and build work relationships prior to the St. John’s International Film Festival and the Industry Film Forum in the Fall. Scene & Heard also offers hands-on workshops, such as full-day film editing and camera masterclasses.