Week 15

Looking back on this semester I really have no idea where all the time went. I am truly proud of all the work we have done in the programing department this year. We are currently at 60+ submissions and have yet to reach the early deadline cutoff. At this rate we might have to rework the jurying framework because it is very likely that we will reach 100 film submissions. We are still having a problem getting in papers we are currently at 9 papers for the festival so far. Its not a lot but I am sure there are more to come. I believe once we send out the paper push e-mail we will definitely see an influx. With finals coming up it is has been time to crack down on those manuals. Making the list of talking points in class and going over the blogs have been a lot of help when it comes to editing. I feel like we will make a lot of worth while additions to the manual. I feel that we have definitely added to the programming framework this year and it will help Visions grow in popularity. I have also been editing the video for indiegogo. I want this video to wow people into supporting undergraduates. It is important that the video is technically sound and not amatuer or we run the risk of looking like a joke which is the last thing we want. We as directors decided to get together today and create our directors manual. Everyone is to come to the meeting with notes and we will go over them and compile them into a cohesive manual for the next directors to come. I feel this manual will be of great benefit in the future and I am happy to have a hand in it. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. I have a lot of preparation for the coming semester. I plan on getting a head start on setting up blocks for jurying over the break. I have also been responding to e-mails and sending e-mails to those who have submitted illegally. Some of which have resubmitted via the right category while others are still trying to get around it. I made sure to put in bold to delete the scholarly papers category next year to save the next programming director from this headache.

week 13

This week has been a tough one for me. Monday my Grandfather was moved to the ICU with pneumonia and he ended up passing early wednesday morning. On top of that I had exams in other classes but I got all of those squared away. To be honest if I wasn not taking Visions I think it may have been worse because I would not have the time management skills I learned. I also would not have the awesome support system that has rallied behind me in this time. this week I had Jack post about paper submissions to our facebook page. We did this in hopes of drawing in some of our students and past presenters or their friends into submitting their own papers. We also set definitive goals in the programming department. Chris and I are going to try and wrangle 7 papers each I know it may be hard but I think it is possible. Especially once everyone goes over the draft for the second push e-mail and I can send it out. As of my video submissions I am at 17/20 which is great! Im well on my way. I am still waiting on those that submitted illegally to resubmit. If they all do it will put me at 28 total not including the invitationals. With my Grandfather passing I was not able to attend the video shot but I have decided to take over as head editor for it so that I did my part. I would have loved to be in it but I had to take care of my Grandmother and help get the arrangements squared away. But this upcoming week looks to be a good week. Zoe is currently drafting up an e-mail for our professors that teach scholarly classes to have them encourage their students to submit. So yayyyyy for papers.

Cucalorus Blog

Man oh man what can I say about cucalorus this year other than it was freaking awesome. Since working in Visions I have began attending festivals as a director. The first thing I noticed about this year was the marketing techniques they used. This being Cucalorus's 21st year they played a lot with the we are legal. They had the reusable solo look-a-like cups that you see at a lot of 21 year olds college party. Even the bumper seemed to go along with the idea of the monsters turning 21 and waking up kinda drunk. When it comes to programming I greatly enjoyed Cucalorus way more than I enjoyed Virginia. I did not realize how many Shorts blocks Cucalorus programmed until this year. I love the respect they pay to shorts from all different genres. From animation to doc to narrative every form is represented. The first shorts block I attended was the Trinidad Scorpion Shorts which was a part of convulsions this year so it was a later screening 9:45-11:45. Here they showcased the grittier more young adult oriented films from horror and gore, to comedy and even post apocalyptic life this block reached out to touch the hearts of millennials deeply. I also enjoyed a works in progress that same evening and I love the idea of at some point us being able to do that type of thing if not this year maybe at a later time. The next shorts block I went to was friday morning The Scotch Bonnet shorts. Here I saw a block that was pg to pg-13 that most moms could bring their children to with no regrets. Here they showcased docs, narratives, and experimental film all of which were very youth friendly so much so Hoggard High School attended the block. I went to many more screenings but I think I have laid enough framework. The biggest thing I noticed about Cucalorus's programming this year was how well they organized the blocks and the types of films they programmed. The selection was so diverse and really made it impossible not to come across a film from every genre and I love it. They had directors of all shades and types and sizes and I would love to see the same thing with Visions. Cucalorus is not just a "film person" thing. It is truly a community, regional, and international festival all in one. I love the welcoming environment and how the filmmakers and actors are so easy to network with it seems everyone is so open. That also could be due to all the comped alcohol but hey whatever greases those gears right. But the biggest thing I found out actually Big Rob and I found out is that you may end up making a contact that seems to good to be true and most of the time that is the case. But I will give that story in person.

Blog 12

This week started off kind of bad. Monday was my birthday but it being a Monday and me also being sick kind of made it hard to celebrate. On top of the fact that I had a couple of exams. However the good thing about this week was it was time for cucalorus!!!! So that was a big motivator for me to get better. One thing we made sure to get done early this week was the addressing of the envelopes for the Visions6 Call for Entries posters. I am excited to get them out to schools. I believe they will lead to a lot more submissions. When they see that awesome logo and poster composition they won't be able to help themselves. I also started drafting my second push e-mail to send out to schools as well. I am hoping that this leads to more paper submissions. For some reason we have received a lot of films and somehow not as many papers.  I am wondering if the submission change is part of the reason. I do not know why that would be the case because its is definitely easier than the old method. I have started talking to Zoe about other ways to market to bring in more papers. We will be meeting to talk about it more in depth. Another great thing about this week is that I am creeping closer and closer to my goal of 20 submissions I am currently 14/20. Only 6 more and I will be there. I also would not mind if I went over. You can never have too many submissions. But the big goals are to get a larger push on those papers so we can actually jury them rather than have to program what we get. We wont a diverse array of topics this year.

Week 11

This past week was pretty hectic. We established that we need to be sure we remove the papers option off of Filmfreeway because it is still causing problems. One a positive note we have gained some new submissions I am excited about. Chris has started to make the spreadsheet for the entries and that is going well. I e-mailed Ms.Chesler from GMU and established a time to meet with her at the Virginia Film Festival as well. I made sure to check and see how many paper submissions we had received. They are definitely coming in a little slower  than the films but hopefully it will pick up. I thoroughly enjoyed going to the Virginia Film Festival I learned so much. The first thing I learned was that it is important to know your way around town before you go. We had trouble when it came to getting to campus for screenings. The trolley system is not one which you want to be a victim of. While there I met with Ms. Chesler and some of her students and talked to the about Visions. They all seemed very interested and a few of them have already submitted to the festival. We went to their Best of FAVS block and there were some great short films all of which could be great to show at the festival. I also got to network with Kevin Everston an experimental documentarian and talk about his process and his interest. We exchanged information and I might be helping him when he comes down to shoot in Salisbury. I also met a few actors while I was out and about. I did not realize that the VFF was such a mainstream hollywood festival. There were barely any shorts blocks which kind of bummed me out but hey we got industry passes so I can't complain that much. The venues had really good food and the comped drinks were a plus. I was amazed at the demographic they managed to reach both old people and college students. Whatever means they use to market are very efficient. All in all it was a great experience. The best part was bonding with the team. We all really had a blast and would love to do it again. (cough cough SXSW)

Week 10

Where to start man this past week was so crazy. I am glad to say that the party went wonderfully and we had a great time. We had a ton of people come out to show their support. From the visions newbies that came to the fst students and even the random people from the street I think I can honestly say everyone had a great time. As a team everyone did great lending a hand in setting up and breaking down. We did not have any trouble with people fighting or arguing and everyone participated in making sure the launch party went well. We did great on the raffle this year there were alot of great prizes that influenced everyone to participate. The bake sale also went well even though it was the next day. I know many of our teammates were exhausted but they still pulled together to work hard and sell those baked goods. I was amazed with all the awesome treats we had. We did have someone who did not show up and that was frustrating but there is not much that can be done about that. Other than that the bake sale was a dream. I wish my stomach was feeling better so i could have ate some treats but I could not. I am excited to see we are already getting entries from not only invitationals but also paid entries. I also sent out the finalized version of the CFE e-mail. Im excited to see all the entries. Some of the e-mails auto responded saying they are out of the office but I will resend them e-mails in correspondences to the dates of return. We have also got some weird emails from Iranian students trying to get around paying that I will have to go over with Shannon. This is also the week of the Virginia Film Festival. Its going to be a great time.

Week 9

This is a big week. We are getting all geared up for the opening of FilmFreeway and our CFE launch. One big thing for this week is finalizing the e-mail that will be sent out for CFE. In order to do that I sent out a draft CFE e-mail to Shannon and Andre so they can evaluate how it looks once it is sent in e-mail format. It seemed a little long so hopefully we will find a way to break it down so it does not seem as long. Chris has already began to court individuals for invitationals and it seems like they are excited to get their films and papers in to us. I know Shannon said we have had problems with invitationals in the past but I do not see that as as issue this year. Michelle and I also got together this week and made sure the links in the e-mail and on filmfreeway look good. Shannon wanted us to get rid of all the gobbledy-gook and simplify them. I am very excited for our launch party because that also means I get to take a breath. Me and Rob plan on making a wonderful "Don't shoot the baby" game with alien targets. We also are getting together to make some great pumpkin maple bakies. Im going as Doc from Back to the Future for the party seeing as to how it fits not only the theme of the party but its also 2015. Its going to be a busy but fun week.

Week 8

This week has been very eventful. Having fall break allowed for a lot of time to work on all of the work I needed to get done for Visions. One big thing I did was met with Michelle on the website. We got together and the first thing we started to edit was the format and design of the squarespace page. We wanted to keep the space theme cohesive and went with similar space pictures for each different category on the page. We also found a new font to better embody Visions. We also made sure to see if the links and address were correct. We also began to try and create the e-mails to connect to the domain name. This is where we ran into a problem. In order to set up aliases I needed to use google apps we needed to verify the site and in order to do that we had to post a html link and ect. Even after doing all of those things we still could not do it. Some of the positives of this week where the quotes we received from postal may allow us to send out 70 CFE posters on the other end we could ship 40 CFE posters. Grace and I decided with this years design we can fold it because the design will draw the eyes away from the slight crease. This week i also received the preliminary FilmFreeway and Facebook banner. There are some resolution problems but that will get fixed. I also found out I have been freaking out about CFE launch being on the 17th because that was the old date. Somehow I forgot we changed to launch with the party. I feel we also did a great job hacking away at the database. I am excited to truly launch.

Week 7 Blog

It has been a very eventful past couple of weeks. There have been a lot of meetings with various departments to get everything ready for call for entries. We had to do a lot of final editing for all the information to go on our various websites. Its been a task to stay on top of everything. We realized quick enough that we were behind on the master contact list but we quickly got to it. My team has definitely been in a heavy transition with Rob moving departments and Chris deciding that he will not be back in the second semester. I have also decided to do further research into invitationals as the opening date approaches. Having Fall Break was a big help. It gave me a chance to meet up with Michelle and really tackle the website. I am also excited to have my new banner to put up on filmfreeway. We really seem to be shaping up I love the visuals we have been seeing the Art department put out. I plan to have everything done by thursday this coming week. From filmfreeway update, to the new e-mails, and one last look through to make sure all of the links look good on the website. This coming week is going to be a big one but I feel good that my course load will not be as heavy once we get past call for entries. I am really anticipating how receptive the student body is to our campaign. Well Im about to get back to doing other Visions stuff so yeah.

Week 5 Response

This week was a big week for my department. After being informed of our duties we knew we had a lot of work in front of us. The first task I decided to tackle was editing the film freeway blurb from last year. I really liked the verbiage in it for the most part I just tried to add a little bit of a student voice to it. After that I edited the Call For Entries e-mail. After that I began to prepare my presentation about the FilmFreeway roll out details. I am very excited to present my big project for the year. This time is very important to Visions because we need good entries to program a good festival and the earlier we open the more submissions we can receive. I believe this year can be big and I want us to grow as a festival. I also met with Michelle and Zoë to talk about changing the design of film freeway but we found we do not have all of the materials we need yet. We have to get our logos and banners formated but before we can do that we need to finalize posters and logos. I do know we will get it done soon. I still haven't received a response from any festival directors I guess everyone is dealing with there festival. I will try to reach out to festival directors that just finished their festival. That seems like it would be the best thing I could do to guarantee response.

Dirty Dozen

Film Freeway Roll Out

1. Objectives: To foster awareness for our call for entries. We want to get our films for jurying in as soon as possible as well as raising money for spring semester.

2. Customers: FST students, non-FST students around the world.

3. Results: Will not only bring us films for jurying but entry fees mean money for Visions.

4. Budget: It shouldn't cost money to put up all the blurbs and new graphics

5. How long: It should take 2 to 3 weeks.

6. Skills: Organization, networking, time management, Writing, Editing

7. Needed Resources: Call for Entries forms, submission forms, invitational and noninvitational mail outs, new graphic, new logo and Call for Entries poster

8. Team: Kevin- reworking verbage on page and call for entries mail out
Chris: Reworking invitational emails
Zoé : proof reading and editing verbage
Michele: Helping put art on film freeway and layout

9. Schedule:
9/22 – Brainstorm verbage with class

9/23 – Meet with Shannon B. about Pictures for Film Freeway

10/5 – Upload Backsplash and Logo from Michelle

10/27 – Film Freeway Up and Running

10. Risks: Not getting everything together in time

11. Communication: Meetings, text, Facebook , email

12. Success?: If we can get film freeway up and running on time and start receiving submissions.

Week 3

This has been a rather crazy week for me not just including Visions. My department met with Shannon last wednesday morning and she informed us of all of the duties we are responsible for. I know we have a lot to do but I believe in my team and I know we can get it accomplished. We have a lot of documents to go through and revise before we can send out our invitationals. One good thing about this past week was figuring out the roll out dates for Film Freeway. They will be pretty much the same as last year except a day earlier but thats no big deal. I plan on finishing the blurb for film freeway this week when we have our departmental meeting. I also have already established a meeting time after this weeks Visions class to meet with both Michele and Zoe so we can redesign the look of Film Freeway with our new logo and theme for the year. There is a lot of work coming up but it will all be worth it in the end. I also am sad to say after all of my constant reaching out noone wants to let me interview them. Im guessing everyone is to busy to talk to a fellow film festival director. I of course plan to continue to be a nuisance this semester so hopefully it works out. I also read my manual again this past week to refresh myself with my duties. I also plan to contact Jonathon this weekend just to talk random visions programming stuff.

Research Assignment

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

He has not contacted me back. :-(

2. Who started it and who runs it? The Chicago Underground Film Festival was founded in 1993 by Jay Bliznick, a Columbia College film student who was fed up with the exclusivity of the existing film festival circuit. He enlisted partner Bryan Wendorf to work with him and create a festival for the kind of films they wanted to see, primarily films that the established film festival circuit – increasingly dominated by distributor product – refused to show.

3. What is the mission of the festival/conference? Founded in 1993, The Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF) is a year-round organization dedicated to the work of film and video makers with defiantly independent visions. Unlike many other “independent” film events our goal is not to imitate old guard, market-driven events such as Sundance but Instead to focus on the artistc, aesthetic and fun side of independent filmmaking. CUFF promotes works that dissent radically in form, content and technique from both the tired conventions of Hollywood and the increasingly stagnant IndieWood mainstream.

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 that you see? etc...)

5. Where is the event? The event is in Chicago, Illinois.

6. When is the event?The event date is May 13-17th.

7. How do you submit?Preview copies must be NTSC DVD or region free Blu-Ray or online screener. Foreign language work must be dubbed or subtitled in English. All that is necessary to send is a clearly identified DVD and, if you like, a synopsis or contextual statement about your work. These are the only items that the programmers will see when they evaluate your submission.

8. When are the deadlines to enter? Early? Reg? Late? October 1st, December 1st, January 5th, and January 18th are the dates from early to extended.

9. How much does it cost to enter? Theses are the costs for entries..

• Early Deadline: October 1, 2015 – Entry Fee: Features $35 (Students $20); Shorts $30 (Students $15)
• Regular Deadline: December 1, 2015– Entry Fee: Features $45 (Students $25); Shorts $35 (Student $20)
• Late Deadline: January 5, 2016 – Entry Fee: Features $55 (Students $30); Shorts $40 (Student $25)

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

The Chicago Underground Film Festival exists to showcase the defiantly independent filmmaker. Our mission is to promote films and videos that dissent radically in form, technique, or content from the “indie” mainstream and to present adventurous works that challenge and transcend commercial and audience expectations…if you suspect your film is “underground,” it probably is.

A completed entry form and an entry fee must accompany each film or video submitted. Preview copies must be secure online screener (Vimeo, Film Freeway, Withoutabox, etc.), NTSC DVD or Blu-Ray disc. Foreign language work must be dubbed or subtitled in English. Please do not send elaborate presentation materials, press kits, binders, etc. with your entry. All that is necessary to send is a clearly identified screener or disc and, if you like, a synopsis or contextual statement about your work. These are the only items that the programmers will see when they evaluate your submission. We don’t want you to pay for unnecessary materials, and they generate a lot of waste. If your film is selected for the festival we will contact you about images and press kits. Or better yet: put these materials online and type the URL into your entry form.

11. Is there a Student category?

There are student categories for every type of film you can submit. Narrative, Doc, Experimental, Features, Shorts no matter what there is a student's category.

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

Preview copies must be secure online screener (Vimeo, Film Freeway, Withoutabox, etc.), NTSC DVD or Blu-Ray disc.

13. What formats do they except for exhibition/screening? NTSC DVD or Blu-Ray

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

110

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

A typical shorts block is 87 minutes and they don’t have paper presentations here at this festival.

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

They program about 8 films per block

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

You can register online at filmfreeway or on their actual website and guests do need to purchase a pass.

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.

IFP Chicago, Jameson, Lagunitas Brewing, The Illinois Film Office, Cinespace Chicago, Fandor, Perrier, SAG-AFTRA, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Tribeca Flashpoint College, and a few local film companies support them. I know Rob and I would love to pursue the Jameson sponsorship for visions this year lol. All jokes aside I see a lot of support from local film companies and art societies so maybe we should reach out to the ones we have near us.

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

I could not find this every link just brought me to their sponsorship with the IFP.

20. Did they have a kickstarter or indiegogo? What incentives did they have for each level of donor? Yes they did have a Kickstarter and indiegogo 3 years ago . The incentives are $10USD

• supporter
• Thank you in the the program book and on www.cuff.org and a CUFF button
• 44 claimed

• $25USD
• Attendee
• Free admission ticket to one screening at the 2013 festival, thank you in the the program book and on www.cuff.org and a CUFF button
• 41 claimed

• $50USD
• Enthusiast
• A Chicago Underground Film Festival T-shirt, free admission ticket to one screening at the 2013 festival, thank you in the the program book and on www.cuff.org and a CUFF button
• 29 claimed

• $100USD
• Truly committed
• A Chicago Underground Film Festival T-shirt, two free admission tickets to any screenings at the 2013 festival, festival poster,thank you in the the program book and on www.cuff.org and a CUFF button

• $250USD
• Big Shot
• One All Access festival pass, A Chicago Underground Film Festival T-shirt, festival poster, thank you in the the program book and on www.cuff.org and a CUFF button

• $500USD
• Superstar
• Custom made CUFF award designed by a local artist, two All Access festival passes, two Chicago Underground Film Festival T-shirts, thank you in the the program book and on www.cuff.org and two CUFF buttons

21. What kind of non­traditional film/video events have they had before? Things like Installations, 'Visual

Soundwalls,' VJing etc.

From what I could find it seems they stick to strickly screening films.

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?I feel like from looking at the programing from last year they have a wide array of film styles they program. They have alot of controversial and gritty films that alot of mainstream festivals would never play.

23. Is the layout easy to navigate? What makes it easy?

Yes but only because there is not much information on the website.

24. Is the layout difficult to navigate? What makes it difficult?

There aren’t really good headings so its kind of a pain in the ass to know what you are really about to look at when you click a link.

25. Can you find the information you are looking for on the homepage or via a link on the homepage? Some stuff I could but I googled alot and found out most of my information from film freeway.

26. Aesthetically, what catches your eye? What's cool about it?

I like there little banner at the top but for the most part the site is pretty bland. I think our V5 site navigated and looked better aesthetically.

27. Aesthetically, what doesn't fit in? What makes it look bad?

The sponsorship band down the whole left side of the screen is stupid its a huge eye sore. They put the social media of in the corner over the huge sponsorship theme. Its very meh I don’t feel like the website designer tried hard at all.

28. Should there be more information? Is the page too bare?

YES OMG YES I had to search so hard to answer the questions.

29. Should there be less information? Is the page too busy?

No they definitely need more information.

30. What would you do differently if you were to redesign this website?

I would add more color, move the sponsorship stuff first. I would also add more tabs with information on the festival for potential entrants as well as make the site more user friendly. It seems like they have been running the same template from when they first made a site and they just need a total revamping of the site. They should also consolidate the screenings page so there are links to each block rather than having them all on one page.

31. What would you keep the same if you were to redesign this website?

I would not keep anything .

Eisehower Matrix

Bio/Tutorial Response

 Hello everyone that will be reading this. Im Kevin Smith I am a film and psychology major in my senior year at UNCW. I love watching all types of film and being active whether its film related or just going to the gym. I was the Visions 5 Hospitality and Outreach Coordinator and this year for Visions 6 I am the Programming Director. I am excited to get going with this semester. I am looking forward to learning how to find presenters and organizing the call for entries. Im also excited to work with Rob and finding a good keynote. I am also looking forward to meeting with my fellow directors and figuring out what image we want for Visions 6 and how we are going to market it. I know I will learn valuable skills that will help me run another film festival when I graduate. Since I have been in Visions I have grown so much and I know this year will help me take it to the next level. I greatly enjoyed the readings and the tutorials for this week. I found the reason I tend to procrastinate is due to faulty assumptions. I often stress myself out before I start some tasks because I feel like they will be more difficult than they actually end up turning out to be. I like the idea of breaking "large" tasks into smaller ones that can be tackled one at a time with breaks which will reduce the anxiety that typically leads to me procrastinating. I also enjoyed the Google calendar and Google drive quick start tutorials. I used both systems last year but it was definitely a great refresher. Navigating both systems can be tricky at times so it helps to have a descriptive explanation to how the system works. All that being said I know this semester is going to be great.

Visions Reaction Blog

Visions was everything Shannon told me it would be. It was demanding, fast-paced and very hand on. I jumped in not really sure what to expect even with the in depth conversation I had before I applied to the class. I was immediately thrown into the class in a position I was not completely sure I had the training to do. I learned early on that the tasks I would be called upon to do would call for me to learn while in the process of doing. I learned how to correspond efficiently through e-mail and how to coordinate a trip and presentation. As hospitality outreach coordinator it is important to remember to take a deep breath and remember freaking out only makes it worse. Sometimes you have to suck it up and do what has to be done to make everything run smoothly. It is also important to help out others when you don't have alot on your plate. There is never a time when someone else in the class could not use your help. Visions has its separate departments but we are all one family that has to come together to create a wonderful undergraduate film festival and conference. I started out the week leading up to visions pretty tightly wound. I had a paper due and a test in another class so I was ripping and running everywhere between my different responsibilities.  Wednesday Jean-Jaques came into town and me and Ally showed him a good time and we hung out at my house and talked about his film. We also talked about series and films we liked and had a few drinks. It was really fun to hang out with him. Then Thursday arrived where all my pre-visions anxiety arose. Welcoming all of the people into town and shepherding was also a great experience. I enjoyed how awesome and down to earth everyone seemed to be minus the few troublemakers everyone was a delight to be around. I feel at Thursday night dinner is where those initial connections were made. It was great to see undergrads networking together and sharing ideas in such a fun and open environment. I feel Dig and Dive was a great place because it was fun and it encouraged us to interact with each other. That could also be due to the drinks some of us had. After getting everyone back to the baymont I went home to prepare for the next day. That night I didn't get much sleep because I was so nervous about Visions. I was up at 6 and at the hotel by 7:00 that morning to help guide UF to Visions. Everyone seemed very excited. Once they were settled in at Sharkys I jumped right into helping with whatever I could. It was amazing how smooth everything ran, nothing seriously impeded screenings or speeches and Q&As. Everyone was active and engaged, the video race helped bring the crowd together and by the end there was a genuine sense of comradery. My to favorite parts of Visions this year would have to be Caroline Roberts and her keynote address and all the networking at the Thursday night dinner and the after party. Caroline really acted as encouragement and inspiration for me to continue to strive to be the best as well as to take advantage of the opportunities available to me. I can't wait for next year to do it all over again as Visions 6 programing director.

UF Trip

This spring break was a very eventful one for me. Being the hospitality and outreach coordinator it was my responsibility to plan a trip and presentation to our partner school at UF. I had a great group of people to help me with it. Adam, Luqi, Hiliary and I left for Florida on Wednesday morning and arrived at 5:30 pm. We were greeted by our host family the Haydens. Having just rode 8 hours we of course had become ravenous. We decided to go get some mexican food up the street and come back to go over our presentation. We made sure we knew our talking points and our transitions so the would be smooth in the classes. After we practiced a little Maisie the student who's family we where staying with took us on a quick drive around campus. We realized how closed off our campus was as well as the difference in the size. After our tour we went home exhausted and went to sleep. We woke up early in the morning and got ready for breakfast with Dr.Mennel. She took us to a cuban resturaunt for a traditional cuban breakfast and it was very delicious.  Over the course of breakfast we talked about our film programs. We found out they are technically english majors with film concentrations. From there we went to the University and it was time to present. We gave presentations to 4 upper level film classes. Our first two classes where very receptive to us and showed a good amount of interest. Our third class didn't seem to be to interested there where a few people that payed attention but some of them where stuck with their head in their laptops. Our last class was a Pizza party of which i had none. Sarah Bean one of our successful scholars was a part of the class. Everyone there participated and it seemed like they all really enjoyed the presentation. We gave out alot of past Visions DVDs and Visions 4 shirts. We fostered a great amount of interest in the festival and made a good impression on Dr.Mennel. All in all I think we did a great job. We also all formed a good friendship on the way down in back. I couldn't have done it without my team.

Pre-UF Trip Update

Oh man has this been an eventful week. I have done a lot in order to prepare for this trip coming up during spring break. I have emailed Maisie Hayden the student we are lodging with to make sure the logistics are still squared away and haven't changed. I also corresponded with Barbara Mennel as well to see how many students she would be bringing with her to visions. She informed me that she had to speak with the dean because there are so many students interested it has to be run by them because they want to bring in a charter bus from Florida. She also informed me that last week was a busy one for her so she will finalize logistics about the trip with me this week. Thursday night was amazing. I arrived ahead of time to help set up for the Masquerade and to get a feel for the event. I greatly enjoyed being the MC for the party. I feel like we really threw an event that is guaranteed to bring people back next year. I would like to motion myself for lifetime Visions party MC. I have never been out on a thursday my whole time being in college and it truly changed my view on thursday night parties. I feel that that party really helped to boost team moral. I also met with Adam my tech guy to work on a refined presentation. We went in condensed some stuff added some links and put in some pictures to make it more fun. My initial presentation was kind of bleh so i think we really made some progress. I put myself on the syllabus to present to the class on tuesday to get some info from them. Last but not least I helped with the Visions table outside of the Birdman screening to help drum up some interest.  Olivia, Hilary, Adam F., Adrienne, and I had a great time and it was awesome to look at all the old merch from previous years.

Weekly Update

This past week I had a lot to do. Me and Adrienne met on wednesday to brainstorm ideas about the film kid mixer that I could present to the club and organization presidents in the meeting we scheduled for thursday. We also had our manditory department meeting this week and talked about the upcoming video race. I also informed Adrienne of the finalization of the UF Trip. We came up with some great ideas and I made some edits to the previous documents for the film kid mixer. I was trying to make a budget for the film kid mixer after I met with the club and org presidents. Thats where I ran into some hiccups. The main hiccup being only one person showed up (Kevin Bahr) to meet me even though this meeting has been planned for a whole month and people said they could come and then ignored my messages.I was in Randall Library from 10:30 until 4:30 waiting. Its kind of disheartening and stressful but I will get it handled. I am finishing my presentation and budget for the UF trip and it will be done by class on Tuesday. I also took time this weekend to go back by Yellow Dog Discs and Gravity Records to check on the positions of the sponsorship packets. I wish I could say they decided to make a donation but according to the staff members I spoke with, their bosses haven't made a decision on whether or not to donate. The boss at Yellow Dog will be there today so I will go back by to talk to him personally. That was my week I hope everyone else had a good week.

UF Trip Update

Im proud to say we have figured out lodging for our spring break trip so no one will have to come out of their pocket to pay for it. We will be staying with one of Barbara's FST students and she is excited to have us. I e-mailed Barbara this sunday and she is up to date with all of the details and she gave me her phone number so we can correspond over the phone as the date approaches. I am currently putting together the presentation and it should be done by next week so that I can share it with the group and everyone will be able to help make adjustments if there are any things that I miss that would be beneficial to the presentation. Me and Adrienne have established a meeting time to talk about FKM and I will be meeting with the club and organizations leaders this coming thursday. We established a projected date of March 25th for the FKM. That date is not set it stone it is just tentative until we figure out what date would best accommodate the groups and organizations in order to get the greatest turn out. We have heard back from most of the presidents but a couple have not concretely responded. I made another post to our FKM group on facebook. I have also accounted for those who might not be able to meet this thursday and have opened correspondence to set a different meeting time for those that are unavailable. In our meeting this week me and Adrienne can create a concrete budget for the FKM this week.

UF Trip Presentation Dirty Dozen

UF Tour Trip: Spring Semester

Dirty Dozen

By:Kevin Smith

1. Objectives: To create a lasting relationship with our sister school as well as spread the word about Visions to their students and encourage them to participate.

2. Customers: FST students, non-FST students(Communication, Computer Science, English and Theatre majors), anyone interested in undergraduate film

3. Results: Have fun while presenting about our beautiful film festival, give out free Visions gear and flyers and spark interest in the students.

4. Budget: $300: $300 for gas, Lodging will possibly be with fellow students if thats not possible we will use airbnb.com and food will be our responsibility as well.

5. How long: It should take almost one month to plan.

6. Skills: Organization, networking, time management, leadership, social skills, public speaking

7. Needed Resources:Flyers, T-Shirts, Visions DVD, Stickers, Presentation, Laptop,HDMI cord, Visions 4 programs, Script

8. Team: Kevin- Coordinator, secure and purchase rooms if needed.

3-positions are up for grabs

9. Schedule:

Febuary 6th-9th: Create presentation for Trip

Febuary 15th: Have presentation finished and go over it with group members.

Febuary 25th-28th: Refresher for the presentation

March 11-14:Go on trip over the course of Spring Break

10. Risks: Not everyone can have money for food, we can't lodge with students last minute because there is a technicality. Try and collectively bring together funds for the trip for emergency food and lodging.

11. Communication: Meetings, text, Facebook , email,

12. Success?: If we create that everlasting bond with our sister school and spark interest with students at the university.

Dirty Dozen

Noted this is just the first draft it will be revised as the trip is planned.

Spring Break Trip Event: Spring Semester

12 Steps for Success "The Dirty Dozen"

Adrienne And Kevin

1. Objectives: To foster a relationship with our sister school to encourage them to continue this partnership. As well as spreading the word about Visions5 with our sister school in Florida and hopefully encourage people to participate.

2. Customers: FST faculty/students, non-FST faculty/students that attend our partner school.

3. Results: Create a strong relationship with the University of Florida and to spread the word about Visions.

4. Budget: $300+ :300 dollars for gas, we need to discuss where we are going to stay and the sleeping arrangements to establish the price for rooms . I feel we can all bring money for food and if we stay somewhere with a kitchen I am a good cook so we could do communal diner. (airbnb.com)

5. How long: It should take one month to plan.

6. Skills: Organization, networking, time management, leadership, social skills, public speaking

7. Needed Resources: Presentation: to explain the purpose of Visions and all the opportunities that are avalible. Lodging: Somewhere to stay.

8. Team: Kevin- Kevin- Coordinator, secure and purchase rooms and establish contact with partner school,; ______- assist Kevin with everything, create event timeline

Kevin/______- driving and building presentation for the classes as well as presenting

9. Schedule:

-Jan. 20-25:

• Contact Barbara to get specific deatils about the classes we will be presenting to.

-Feb. 5th:

• Start working on presentation for classes and have finshed by the 12th

-Feb 25-Mar. 1st:

• Reserve rooms for the trip
• Make sure presentation is perfect edit anything we need to change

-March 7-15,

• ·         Its time to go on our trip
• Present to the classes
• Build the lasting relationship that will keep this partnership going

10. Risks: Not enough money for food. Not enough rooms at the hotel. Presentation crashes. Solution: Have back up presentation, hotel, and emergency fund for money.

11. Communication: Meetings, text, Facebook , email

12. Success?: If the trip is successful we will have created a strong partnership between our schools. And they will encourage there students to participate in Visions and foster interest in film festivals.