Week 5 Reflection and Improvement Article

Now that I have a better handle on my department, thing have definitely improved. However, that does not mean that I am not struggling. In being Art Director, I am tasked with organizing and utilizing my team efficiently so that the festival can be promoted and artistically sound. This week in particular taught me how interconnected all of the teams are. Kevin, Zoë, Adrienne, Shannon and there teams need me to function timely so that they can complete their assignments and jobs timely too. Communication is key in this and I have definitely checked up on my team more after noticing this important detail. I'm still trying to figure out the balance between dividing the responsibilities and following up on them, but it is a learning process and only time and dedication will make me better.

As far as my team, after Friday's meeting I immediately divided Devin an Tyler up so that they could accomplish more work before Tuesday's class. Tyler handled the logo while Devin created the CFE poster designs. Both of my team members performed excellently, delivering above and beyond my expectations. Tyler designed several CFE posters on top of making several solid logos. The work that Devin turned in was very high quality and even included dates/information showing how she intercommunicated between teams (with Kevin and Zoë) to accomplish her task. Overall, my team is really doing well.

For this weeks reading, we were asked to read Top 10 Tips for Successful Event Management. The article presented ten tips, two of which stood out to me. Assign Responsibilities and Remain Flexible both called me out and made me continue to consider how I can improve in these areas. Change is inevitable and I cannot let it keep freaking me out. I stress a lot and if I accepted that somethings are out of my control I could calm down and probably handle the new issue better. This past weekend, I threw a lot of stuff at my team and they showed me that they can handle it. I have to keep relying on them so that I don't become overwhelmed myself and so that the work gets accomplished quicker. The other reading about Budgeting was also extremely helpful. A lot goes into budgeting and it's not really an area I am familiar with. The main thing I got from it was that you need to do ample research so that you can predict spending better. There are a lot of things to account for and if you don't take them into consideration, your whole budget its inaccurate and therefore meaningless. 

My current task ahead is designing the website. In order to make an effective and professional site, it is important that I research what goes into accomplishing that. The following article:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/
gave me a lot of insight into this. For one thing, the article goes into considering how web users think. With our core audience being 18-25 year old filmmakers, it is important that we consider how

they will interpret information presented on a website. A block-wall of text would not be received as well as it would if it were broken up into sections alongside a picture. We do not want our site to bore our audience; we want it to draw them in so that they become apart of V6. This idea tied in well with the following principle, "Don't make your users think." The interface of a website should work for the user, feeling navigable and user-friendly. I specifically remember hating how I could not navigate MSPIFF's festival page during the research period. I wanted to find out simple information that should have been in their "About." However I had to look on their parent site to the festival site to find out anything about the festival. Logically, you would assume that the festival about would be on the festival's personal site. While I am making the website, I want to specifically make sure that the site itself makes sense and does not require users to search high and low to find basic information.

Week 4 Reflection

So Week 4 was my wake-up week. 

After the Art Department's meeting with Shannon, I had a lot to think about. I have been in such an artistic mindset for this role that I have not been giving enough attention to the administrative aspects of being Art Director. Budget, scheduling, finding out printing information; all of these things and more go into the Art Department's job and are extremely important (despite feeling boring in comparison to creation aspects of the job). I used this to guide my preparation for what I accomplished this week for V6.

First off, I cleaned up and updated Trello in preparation for my team to get on board with it. I actually found it to be helpful in visually seeing how I was dividing the work amongst my teammates. Dividing up the work was also something I struggled with this week. I have come to terms with the idea that I won't be able to supervise my team all the time. I'm learning to trust them and to let them help me, something that has to happen if I want to make deadlines and not hate my life.

The biggest thing I accomplished this week was learning more about the website. I feel very confident that we will be using SquareSpace for our website this year. I looked into other providers like Wix and Website Builder, but SS offered a better design/look as well as interface. Ultimately I will present this to the class, but all signs say SquareSpace. 

Dirty Dozen: Website

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?
Inform: The website will let everyone know what Visions is and how to get involved in a more assessable way. 
Entice: The website has to be informative, but it also has to look good at the same time. The aesthetic has to make people want to be apart of Visions6. 
Archive: Having a Website will also allow for a online archive of Visions past so that everyone can see/understand Visions in terms of what its history. 

2. Who is the customer?

The customer is anyone and everyone that needs/wants to be connected to Visions. This includes filmmakers, film enthusiasts, film students, sponsors, and pretty much anyone really. The core of our customer base will specifically be filmmakers 18-25 who live 2-4 hours within Wilmington.

3. What are the deliverables of the project?

The final product of this project will be a fully functional website. 

4. What is the budget?

The website provider Squarespace costs 18$/month plus the amount needed to keep the website domain. 

5. How long will it take?

I have predicted that it will take about a month to get the website up to a launching point, just in time for the Call For Entries starting date. It will about another month to transfer previous Visions Conferences and other information such as staff bios, FAQs, ect. It will take until March for final touches to be made to the website such as the Schedule and Film lists. 

6. What specific skills are needed?

Website Design: The person making the website will have to be/become familiar with the design structure of SquareSpace.

Asthetic: It is also important that the website reflects V6 and is consistent with the overall theme and design of V6.

7. What special resources are needed?

The website maker will need access to the Visions 5 website so that they can transfer information. They will also need to compile other aspects needed for the website such as schedule information and staff photos/bios. 

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

I, Michelle Glahn, am handling the websites creation and design. Other information for the website will be gathered from other team members (ie. Sponsorship Info from Adrienne). 

9. What is the schedule?

The plan is to launch a function version of the website by Call for Entries, so that submission and other basic info can be accessed by those interested in the conference. As more information becomes decided and relevant, it will be added to the website over the span of time before the festival (ie. we cannot determine the schedule until we have decided on films; we cannot post the film list until all films have been submitted).

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

Small Large

• website is difficult to navigate, harming festival attendance/message clarity
• not very likely because we will actively check on website to make sure its functioning well
  
• website is hard to update quickly due to mass amount of information needing updating
• this risk is definitely possible, but I will ask for help from my team or any team with breathing room to assist in updating the website in order to avoid this issue

11. How will you communicate with your team?

I am in constant communication with my team via a group text. However, we also have Google Calendar, Trello, and Facebook for reaching out and making my team knows their tasks.

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

I will determine if this project is successful if festival-goers are easily able to use the website (we could look into sending out a survey after the conference). I will also consider it a success if its artistic design is consistent with the entire theme of Visions6. I would also consider how many hits the website received and compare that with years previous to see if Visions presence has continued to grow. 

Week 3 Reflection

Week 3 Reflection

Everything is crazy. 

But that's okay. After being thrown into the waters that is Visions6, I am finally starting to swim. Right now, the Art Department has a lot on our hands with the upcoming Halloween Party, Call for Entries starting, and the launch of the new Website. My team and I met twice this week and managed to design the final logo (thank you Tyler and Devin for dealing with my crunch-time deadlines). 

I am super pleased with it and I cannot wait to throw a few color pallets on it and create the CFE poster this week! Once we create the CFE poster, we will be able to use the parts of it for the smaller poster (for the email) as well as the Party Flyers and Handouts. My goal is to have all of the designs (CFE Poster, Flyer, Handout, Email CFE) ready for approval and printing by Oct. 6th, which will give us plenty of time for approval and printing! Everything is coming together and even though I am stressed, I am happy with the content and with my group. We should have no issues having everything ready on time (probably before it's due honestly).

This also means that the website is going to be launched on time as well. I have already started working with Wix and have been familiarizing myself with the program. As fas as I can tell, there should be no issues with using Wix for Visions6 and I have already begun organizing the page.

MSPIFF Festival Research and Reflection

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

I emailed and called Jesse, who is in Toronto for a Film Festival and won't be back until the 21st. I will contact him again then.

2. Who started it and who runs it?

Frances Wilkinson started it and Susan Smoluchowski runs it currently.

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

To foster a knowledgeable and vibrant appreciation of the art of film through a commitment to exhibiting the very best of contemporary and historical independent, local, national and international cinema to Minnesota audiences. In doing so, we inform our audiences about the cultures, histories, cutting-edge news and filmmaking artistry from countries around the world.

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...)

I think that their mission correlates well with the films shown in their festival. There are a variety in their Voices genre such as Art in Pictures (intersection of music, art, film) and Travel the World (travel pieces). They also reach several audiences by showing Family Friendly films, LGBT, Disabled, Jewish, and other Religious films.fghjkl.;lkb v  

5. Where is the event?

Minneapolis MN

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

April 3-19

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

Withoutabox and Film Freeway (Online)

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

Early: July 1st - Sept. 1

Reg: Sept. 2nd - Oct. 15

Late: Oct. 16 - Nov. 15

Extended Nov. 16 - Dec. 15

Withoutabox Extended Dec. 31

9. How much does it cost to enter?

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

• Films completed after July 1, 2014 are eligible for submission.

• Feature length films that have previously publicly screened in Minnesota, or that have been broadcast, televised, or are available in their entirety online prior to their exhibition in the Festival will not be considered.

• Please note: Short films are exempt from any premiere requirements and may be available online. However, this will be taken into consideration for selection and films available online are not eligible for juried competition.

• Foreign language (non-English) submissions must be available in their original language and soundtrack with English subtitles.

• Feature length submissions must be available for exhibition in DCP format. • Short submissions must be available for exhibition in either DCP (preferred) or ProRes file formats.

• Films that have been submitted for consideration in previous years are eligible for submission for the 2015 Festival only if they have undergone extensive changes and reapply as a new submission.

• MSPIFF accepts film submissions in the following categories: Narrative (all lengths), Documentary (all lengths), Music Video (Minnesota Made only), Animation (all lengths), and Experimental (all lengths).

11. Is there a Student category?

Emerging Filmmaker Category?

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

Online: Vimeo and HD uploads

Hard Copy: Ship 3 DVDs, each marked with: Film title, Tracking number (if applicable), Run time It is advised you test each DVD in a standard DVD

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

Same

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

225

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

N/A

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

N/A

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

Tickets are ordered online.

Individual Tickets:

$12 General Admission, $10 Film Society Members, $6 Students with ID

Passes:

Gold: $425 General, $350 FSM

Silver: $375 General, $300 FSM

18. Look at sponsorship page and see what businesses, Grants and private entities give money to the event.

Different levels of Sponsorship:

Presenting: StarTribune (1)
Foundation Support: The Academy... (8)

Consulate Support: SRE...(15)

Producing: CS...(6)

Premier: US Bank....(5)

Supporting: Condor...(12)

Gold: Whole Foods...(71)

Figure out how many of each kind and note any leads that might be useful to us.

Lots of lower level support to acquire funds easier (local business, smaller companies)

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

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

Neither

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

Organizing Movies by Voices:

“Whatever you’re feeling, we’ve made it easier to find a film in the fest that matches your tastes.  In addition to the Festival’s traditional categories and programs, we’ve organized all the films into nine groups we’ve called Voices. Find the Voice categories under “Genre”, or find all festival  films arranged by Voice in the Festival’s newsprint magazine.”

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?

Nothing comes across as extremely unconventional.

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

The layout is clean and has a lot of links and divided tabs that organize the layout slightly.

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

The layout is a bit confusing because the MSP Film Society is the main page and the festival itself is a tab or portion of it. There are also tons of broken links which might be due to them changing over to the 2016 pages for their upcoming festival. Some things also need their own separate tab and are thrown in with something else. I honestly think that issues stems from having one website do too much. They should link the MSPIFF website from the Society website so that they could divide the festival information more precisely.  

25. Can you find the information you are looking for on the homepage or via a link on the homepage?

Some of it, but not all. It’s impossible to find out somethings unless you email or call them (ie. Sponsorship prices)

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

The colors (Teal Blue, Black, and Pink Red) compliment well and allow for the white text to pop. The film camera icon also works well and looks nice.

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

Some of the images are too low res and look cheap. Some of the words are too small.

 

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

There needs to be more information on sponsorship and about the history of MSPIFF. There also needs to be more about the block lengths and the number of submissions per block.

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

The pages themselves are too full which stems from the earlier issue of not having a separate website.

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

I would make two websites and I would have updated the information for the upcoming festival the moment we were accepting submissions. I would also try and make it match the mission of the festival better. MSPIFF is all about cultural appreciation and learning so I would incorporate that into the website design (photos or more emphasis on different cultures).

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

I would keep the Icon because it works and would be a staple of the festival that people could recognize. I would keep the font and colors as long as it fit the theme and mood of the festival.

Reflection:

In doing this assignment I now have a better understanding of what information should be accessible online to filmmakers, sponsors, and pretty much anyone associated with a film festival. Because I will be taking on the website creation for Visions 6 I realise that I want to make it user-friendly and easy to navigate. The MSPIFF website was really too cluttered and difficult to navigate in terms of finding out vital information about the festival. I also had to “research” in order to find out any historic knowledge about the festival. I think if a festival is over 30 years old, there should be a better account of its creation and notable events. Visions is a young, but important film festival to Wilmington as well as festival history. In particular, this assignment has pushed me to had a history section to the Vision 6 website. It will help strengthen not only our mission, but also our standing in the Film Festival world.

Bio

My name is Michelle Glahn and I am passionate about film. I’ve lived in North Carolina for most of my life and found my calling for film after a fateful videography class in high school. Since then I have been apart of several film projects, my most notable being Cosplay: Behind the Con, a documentary I had a large part in (DP, editor, Cinematographer) and went on to show in two film festivals in 2015. My other loves include Video Games and Reading, two things that also have a funny way of weaving into my film life. I am currently a senior at UNCW with my major being (in case it wasn’t implied) Film Studies. This year I am the Art Director for Visions 6 Film Festival and Conference.