In Visions this year, I hope to learn basically how to manage a film festival. Since I will be working in the hospitality department, I want to better my people skills and my organizational skills. Since my ultimate goal is to become a producer, I am hoping this will better prepare me for the work that goes into being a producer. People skills, organizational skills, scheduling skills, time and money management all go into skills I need to sharpen to be a producer. I know Visions is going to be a great experience for me and I am really looking forward to start work on it.
I actually really enjoyed the two articles that we were to read. My favorite of the two was From Art House to Microcinema. I thought the concept of a microcinema was very intriguing. I liked how people were creating these small community theaters out of basically nothing. They would place them in whatever kind of structure they could find like old store fronts then charge people an inexpensive fee to come and see movies that they would not otherwise see in a multiplex. What I really loved was how laid back and makeshift these places seemed to be. One story was how an audience member was short on cash and paid for their ticket with baked goods. I feel like we need more of these kinds of places. This kind of cinema outlet is how you get movies out to the masses. Most people don’t want to pay $10 for a ticket to go to a multiplex, but when you are paying $5 to see a unique unknown movie and get the added bonus of community involvement, it is much more appealing.
I liked the other article Festivals of Their Own but not in the same way that I liked the microcinema article. I thought Festivals was more informational rather than inspirational. I liked learning the origins of the internationally recognized film festivals such as Venice, Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance. I also liked how it went into explaining the different knock-off festivals such as Slamdance, Slamdunk, No Dance, and Tromadance. I thought this one gave a better idea of the vast number of different film festivals around the US and the world, as well as the variety of different material and genres they cover.
