Dirrrrty Dozen

Quoting Ms. Aguilera here when I mention the word "Dirrrty", but on a more serious note this post will be a case study on Dirty Dozens or 12 project management questions to ask me, myself and I.

Dirty Dozen Case Study: In Kind Sponsorship

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?

This project will not only spread information about Visions with the local community, but it will also hopefully build new relationships with them or further build on previously developed relationships.

2. Who is the customer?

This will cater to both Visions and Donators as this works to gain things from them that can help visions either monetary wise or through donations for like swag bags and prizes and exposure for smaller businesses.

3. How does this help my department?

As I'm heading the hospitality department, later i'll need to work on creating swag bags and so this helps me to start creating relationships i'll need to call upon later without having to go through the development department for introductions. 

4. How far are we going?

Looking at past Visions data shows that we've had better success at looking at more local and regional business instead of going much bigger. We could try and attempt that again if we want to be ambitious however I think it's best to stay with what works.

5. How long will it take?

Give Two weeks to start off before we throw our party and bake sale and could be picked up again afterwards.

6. What specific skills are needed?

Definitely communication skill, as well as the power of persuasion. We'll be trying to sell Visions to these people as a product that's something they feel no problem and excited about donating or sponsoring.  

7. What special resources are needed?

Maybe a collection of past visions trailers for newer companies to show what kind of films Visions puts on, as a means to show another element of our professionalism. 

8. Who is working the project? What is each person's job?

Of course this is a collaborative work of Adrienne because this is a job that her department specializes in. However having prior history in having done visions before. She could focus on finding potential new business while I work with past donors to keep up the relationship. 

9. What is the schedule?

1st Meeting w/Adrienne - September 23nd 

Pitch Potential Donors - October 5th

Start Canvassing- October 6th-17th

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

11. How will you communicate with your team?

The best option would be through Facebook and texts and last resort would be using gmail. 

12. How will you determine if the project is successful?

When we get a good pool of donors that will finance quite a bit for us and that the sponsors are completely satisfied about what they get out of this arrangement. 

The Eye of the Storm

So first off, I know I originally wrote that i'd be speaking to someone from the atlanta film fest and after being in a internet hole for a week there was no way to update that that was no longer happening. HOWEVER, that didn't mean I was without someone to turn to for guidance and advice. Enter Dan Partridge, the Production Co-Director of Full Frame. A festival most of us should be familiar because it's located in NC's very own Bull City. Dan was honestly so welcoming and got back to me very promptly. Many of the things Dan said kind of went together, so I think it's best to get the technical stuff out of the gate first. Dan got drawn to Full Frame because he himself is a former doc student who had always been around the festival before finally taking a job there. Full Frame got over 1200 submissions last festival but they usually only program 40-50. They work in teams similar to ours and they assign volunteers (they get about 350-375)  to each team about a month before the festival so everyone can get used to the venues and he noted that "the more you know ahead of time the more composed you can be in case of an emergency". I kind of liked the idea of meeting with the volunteers a month ahead of the festival because they'll be more comfortable and less like wandering babies later on. He mentioned that really the lack of technology was one of the biggest things that he felt they lacked early on because with updated tech they can prevent people from lining up for sold out films and blocks and even give them recommendations for similar programs. He talked a great length about dealing with sponsorship and donations and how that relationship works out in many different ways. Advising that we don't, in dealing with local business especially, don't ask for more than they can give and figure out what they want in the process.
And maybe with more high bar donors have films from past programs to kind of start the conversation. When it came to filmmakers attending, Dan really does his job for them, to make sure that they're having a good time meeting others, and seeing their films being shown. As well as to see and hear people discussing the films after they leave the showing. His final pieces of advice was to have excellent communication between your teams and to assure filmmakers that people are going to show up to their film and when they do show up it's going to look amazing for the both of them. I gained quite a bit from our conversation and I'm glad I now I have someone else to reach out to for guidance (he told me his email is always open to me now!).

Truly a Struggle..

So in our recent assignment to go forth and meet with experienced individuals in the fields of Festivals. I was already set up with a challenge, because the person assigned to me was dodging Shannon on all forms of communication, hoping I could be a little more successful, I found that I too was to be ignored. So saddened that I wouldnt be able to talk to this person, I've put my hope for now in to the Marketing Director of the Atlanta Film Festival. 
So! Lets dig into the research I found after looking into them a little deeper. The Atlanta Film Festival, started in 1976 (so celebrating their 40th year next year!), is held at Atlanta's Plaza Theater with a secondary stage at the 7 stages and will be held again April 1st to the 10th. Their missions is as follows: 
"The mission of the Atlanta Film Festival is to lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image. It works to bring filmmakers and audiences together through year-round screenings, events, and networking opportunities."
Which is a pretty broad statement honestly, however check under their history page and you'll find the following statement which might show a clearer view on what they look for. 
"We actively seek films that reflect and feature LGBTQ (Pink Peach), female (New Mavericks), ethnically diverse, or experimental themes" 
In this statement they even give titles of past films screened there that fit the description of what they look for specifically. When you then look at the page of past films they've screened they mean what they say, as the page is just a splash of subjects of different races and gender litter across the page. Now on to some nitty gritty details, they take submissions through Withoutabox and Film Freeway. Their deadlines are as follows: the early bird is June 20th (prices are 35 for feature, 25 for short, 15 for show pilot/experimental short/pupperty short/music video), regular deadline is Sept 18th (prices are 45 for features, 35 for short and 15 again for the remaining categories), their late deadline is Oct 23 (prices are 55 for feature, 45 for short and still 15 for the others), and their Withoutabox extended deadline is Nov 6 (prices are 90, 80 and still 15). There is no student category and for submissions they take either two dvds or a private vimeo link with a password. At their last festival they screened about 92 films with shorts blocks than ran from an hour and 145 minutes to two hours, with about 8 to 6 films per block. Guest passes are purchased through eventbrite with discounts available for students/seniors and military patrons. Their sponsorship varies from big industry and local art/cultural staples, but a lot of them are local staples that promote the city as a whole. With their puppetry section they definitely stand out by having an entire section dedicated to puppetry focused shorts and features. Also with it's second location this film festival promotes a bit of a walking tour of local atlanta watering holes for first time visitors of the city.
Now when looking at the page at self it's pretty bland and could use a more eye catching visual when one visits their page. It's however very easy to navigate and find what I need to find, I like how for their films page the image on its individual bio page fits behind the festival's logo. So I would take that idea and turn into an animated gif  of past films screened for the main page. And with that wraps up my research on the Atlanta Film Festival. 

Organizing an Intro

Greetings and salutations! My name is Shannon, and I'm this years Hospitality Director for visions. A little background on me, is that I think I don't talk very much but I'll probably do the opposite of that in class. I did use my talking skills last semester to try and pitch with the best in Winston Salem. Hopefully I can learn to use those persuasive skills and the dead but cheery attitude I perfected in retail to the best use in dealing with guests and filmmakers. I also would like to get a little bit of a grasp on how to work best in a team in an long term project like this one. So with that in mind I think the videos and reading are excellent new knowledge to have starting out. I was already familiar with the way Google Drive worked but it was cool to get a more in depth look at it. The google calendar as well, kind of an app that normally didn't get much use on my phone but now i know how to use it properly from my desktop and easily sync all the information to my phone! So I feel like an old lady discovering new technology. The former two having mentioned prior knowledge of were just a refresher on old information, however the quadrant grid was definitely a new sort of way to organize the formerly few happenings I had in my life. It doesn't seem very useful to me at the moment because there's not much for me going on at the moment, nevertheless it seems like it'll be something that'll help me breathe a little when plans and tasks start to pile on. So that way I can decide what I really need to do right now and what can actually be done a little later, or what doesn't need to be done by me at all. A refreshing thought going into this semester and I going to push myself to keep up with everything.