Week 3 Hours

Week 3: January 26-February 1

Total = 14.5 hours

January 26th: Department meeting at 9:30pm (2 hours) - discussed progress with indiegogo and the awards contacts. Bulk of the discussion for my work centered on my presentation for class and the Friday night dinner. We came up with a really awesome theme and a few different possible places to look into on campus to host the dinner. The only thing that I need from the class is the budget, which I guess I have to wait a few weeks for. We also brainstormed what to do with the fundraising lapse, but that was figured out by Shannon.

January 27th: Class from 3:30pm to 11:30pm (8 hours).

January 30th: Meeting at 3:45pm (1.5 hours) - discussed the awards that we've already received as well as the other contacts that I am trying to work with at the moment. Discussed in great detail the Friday night dinner and the Thursday night dinner with Adrienne.

January 31st: Watched and graded the second round of films (3 hours).

Week 1 and Week 2 Hours

Week 1: January 12-18

Total = 10.5 hours

This week I didn't do much because it was the first time I was in Visions class and I was trying to get oriented with everything.

January 11th: 7pm Department meeting (1.5 hours) - discussed the manual positions and the goals that I have the semester and how to go about doing my job. We mostly discussed business sponsors, indiegogo, and the bake sale.

January 13th: Class from 3:30pm until almost 9pm (5.5 hours).

January 17th: Reviewed the first round of abstracts (2 hours) - I read through and took notes and answered the survey for all of the abstracts.

January 18th: 7:30pm Department meeting (1.5 hours) - discussed my timeline and who I was going to be contacting as well as brainstorming new awards ideas. A lot of the focus centered around the new bake sale idea and the art that Kyle created for it.

Week 2: January 19-25

Total = 15.5 hours

January 19th: 7:30 Department meeting (1 hour) - discussed my progress with the awards contacts, briefly overviewed the Friday night dinner, the bake sale, and indiegogo.

January 20th: Class from 3:30pm until 11:30pm (7.5 hours).

January 24th: Watched the first round of films (2 hours).

January 25th: Researched and emailed previous in-kind donors (3 hours), and worked on blog and second round of abstracts (2 hours).

Awards Dirty Dozen

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?
Acquire appropriate awards to be given to recipients at the end of the festival.

2. Who is the customer?
Talented filmmakers and scholars.

3. What are the deliverables of the project?
This is primarily for the top filmmakers and scholars in each category as well as audience choice and raffle prizes.

4. What is the budget?
$6000 worth of awards is my goal. 

5. How long will it take?
I would like to have everything in 2 weeks before the event, so I have about 5 weeks. 

6. What specific skills are needed?
Organization, time management, staying on top of timing, professionalism, aggressiveness, gratitude, etc.

7. What special resources are needed?
Personal contacts and previous contributors.

8. Who is working the project? What is each person's job?
Me and possibly the development department. However, if anyone in the class has special resources and can get awards that would be helpful as well. 

9. What is the schedule?
This week - await responses from previous donors. Email new potential donors. 

Next week - follow up contacts.

By the beginning of March - need to have everything. 

10. What are the risks? (Small vs. large impact, likely vs. unlikely)

• Large impact, likely: Will not receive responses or donations or enough of them. 
• Large impact, somewhat likely: Digital gifts will not work or I will not receive the gifts in time.
• Large impact, unlikely: Donations get lost in the mail or do not work.
• Small impact, likely: Gifts will be similar for each award (which, is okay, but I'd rather them be more personalized). OR I break a donation.
• Small impact, unlikely: Bags and certificates won't be perfect. 

11. How will you communicate with your team?
I will work with the Art Department to create the certificates and with my team to keep them updated on all of our progress with awards.

12. How will you determine if the project is successful?
If everything is delivered on time and the gifts are significant and meaningful. 

"Festivals of Their Own" Response

I find it interesting that the festival experience in America mirrors the progression of Hollywood in the sense that festivals began as a way for experimental and independent films to gain rapport within the film community, but after the premiere of a major film, the festival personality moved more toward big name films with bigger budgets and crazy distribution schedules. I think this sucks. As much as I do love some of the bigger films that I have seen at film festivals, I think it sucks that even though these higher-budget, big-name films go to festivals and steal awards from other potential winners that wouldn't get recognition, or as much recognition, otherwise.

It's amazing how much of an impact film can make on any given person, town, or culture, so much so that Atlantic City hosts one even without having a single theater in the entire town. That's pretty cool to me.

Yet, with the festival circuit's obsession with making money and not really showcasing quality "small" filmmaking, I think that it's phenomenal how Visions sets ourselves apart by showcasing undergraduate work and scholarship.

UHMMMMM, I definitely will be taking a trip to NYC to experience the Monday Night Shorts @ Freight Film Salon and/or starting something similar!

Development Department/Awards Coordinator

I am so looking forward to and equally terrified of getting together all of the awards this semester! It is most definitely going to be a challenge, but I believe that it will prepare me in so many ways to go into the professional world. I hope that I can learn the best way to keep in contact with professional businesses and build both personal and professional relationships with them.

There is a lot more to the development process than I anticipated; however, I am extremely appreciative of the amount of detail that the previous awards coordinators have put into updating and organizing the manual and excel documents.

This past week I have mostly been brainstorming new ideas that I can pursue for potential awards in addition to the prior awards that have been donated in-kind. I am most excited about pursuing my ideas of Go Pro and Criterion Collection. I think that Go Pro would be awesome for documentary filmmaking, while the Criterion Collection would be really cool for the academic scholar award. So, this current week I will mostly be focusing on contacting our previous donors as well as contacting and gathering information on the new companies that I am interested in pursuing.

My plan is to get all the emails out by Thursday, so that I can contact them a second time by next Wednesday or Thursday. I am also going to be assisting Josh in whatever he needs for the bake sale and Ally with contacting businesses (in person, I believe).