Awards Coordination/Development Update

Awards are moving along very well! For some reason, a lot of people decided to get back to us this past week that helped our progress IMMENSELY! We were able to fill in a lot of gaps in awards. All major awards (Visionary and "Excellence in...") have at least three items and Regional and Audience awards have two. We are really happy with the items we have for awards right now, but we are going to try to get a couple more things, like festival badges, to balance out and equalize the awards. Figures crossed everything goes well!

The only other things we have to do now for awards is buy things and gathering physical awards. Samantha and I worked on the budget for Awards and we need to buy gift bags/paper stuffing, print the awards certificates and instructions, and get a couple little decorations for the awards table. Samantha and I are going to be going to Southeastern Camera Co. to pick up a donated camera, and gathering all the awards that have been mailed to UNCW so that we can sort them and get them ready for the festival. Overall, I am really happy with our progress on awards and I think they are going to be fantastic this year!

Other than awards, I am mainly checking on my team to make sure everything is running smoothly. Kebba and I met with the owner of Hell's Kitchen to go over details about the After Party. They are really excited to have us there that night, so I feel really good about her progress and work on the After Party.

Since my job is slowing down a lot, I am also keeping an ear out in class for places that I can help other people. I don't want to intrude on other people's work, but I am still trying to stay busy and offer help where I can. It is a stressful time for everyone right now and if I can help relieve some of that stress, then I will!

Award Coordination Progress

My main goal with Awards is to get three festivals to donate 1 or 2 (preferably 2) badges as awards. For each award that needs a badge, I made a list of festivals that are either in their area, they would have personal interest in, or Visions has had prior contact with.

For the Visionary Award...
DOC NYC
- Contact name is Deborah Rudolph and Raphaela Neihausen.
- I have emailed each of them personally at their festival email addresses. 
- So far I have no gotten any reply, but I am still trying.

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
- Contact name is Lindsay Gordon-Faranda
- I emailed her at her personal festival email address
- She said they would not be able to donate this year

Austin Film Festival
- Original contact name was Samantha Levine, but I am not sure if she is still working there.
- Now I am contacting Fernando Martinez and Allison Kindred.
- So far I have no heard back from them, but I have two phone numbers for the festival that I will be contacting.

For the Experimental Award...
Strange Beauty Film Festival
- Contact name is Jim Haverkamp
- I emailed him on the general festival email, but I also have his contact phone number which I will be calling.

Altanta Underground Film Festival
- Contact name is Monet Rumford
- The general festival email is connected to his Google account so I am assuming he is in charge of this email.
- So far I have not heard back, but I am digging for a phone number to contact for the festival.

For the Scholarship Award...
Atlanta Docufest
- I have to email the general festival email because there is not a staff page or staff emails
- So far I have not heard back from them, but I am digging for a phone number or another way of contacting them.

Atlanta Horror Film Festival
- Same case as for Atlanta Docufest. Had to email general festival email, but trying to find another way of contacting.

RiverRun Film Festival
- Contact name is Amy Clemmons
- I emailed her personal festival email to contact her
- She told me that their festival is too close to our festival to give us badges.

Visions Work Week of March 14

Right now the biggest things that I have been working on are researching and contacting film festivals for awards, helping to finalize awards, nailing down advertisements for the program, and supervising the registration process.

My plan for the film festivals is to get two badges for winners of Visionary, Narrative, Documentary, Animation, Experimental, and Scholarship. For the festivals, I researched each award winner to see who they were, what they liked, and where they lived. From there I compiled a list of various film festivals in their general area that they might like. Some festivals were really hard to find because there were not ones in the winner's general area that they would actually like and that I would have a realistic shot of getting.

I have been working with Samantha to get the rest of the awards finished up. We talked to the Art department and we want to have the finished up by March 25 so they can have sponsor logos for the program. It is going to be a challenge, but both Samantha and I are determined to get it done well!

As for advertisements, I have three confirmed in Planet, Defy Gravity, and Luna Cafe. I am working on getting Nerdvana Comics and Rosendale Retro (an Etsy store) for advertisements as well. I am also trying to have that finished up within the week so that it can be ready for the program.

For registration, I am making sure that everything is being done and staying on schedule. Hayley was able to get the purchase page for badges fixed and has started compiling her list for comped badges.

Overall, I do feel stressed, but I think things are coming together well. My main concern right now is getting awards finished. I'm sure the closer we get to the festival, the more stressed I will be, so I am trying to contain the stress as best I can.

Indiegogo and Sponsorships

This week actually worried me because I feel like I do not have enough to do for Visions. I am used to having all kinds of work that I have to do, but right now it is slow. I am going to take advantage of this and use it for sponsorships. This week, I met with Simone and we talked about how we should go about sponsorships. We decided to focus our efforts on those that I mentioned last week, the ones that said no because of budget and those that did not answer at all. I have also received leads from other people in the class which may turn out to be useful. I sent out my first contact on Thursday and I am going to send out my follow up on Wednesday giving them 3 business days to see the email. I will also be visiting Groove Jet Salon and Julia's Florist on Wednesday to ask about sponsorships.

In other news, Indiegogo is going great! We hit our $3,000 mark with over 2 weeks left in the campaign so that is super exciting!! Zoe and I met today to talk about marketing our stretch goals. We talked about how we will market the tiers we are trying to hit and types of images and graphics we will use to catch people's attention.

Sponsorship Dirty Dozen

I am using the same Dirty Dozen I made last semester again, because my goal is still the same. I am still seeking business sponsors. 

1. What is the project supposed to achieve?
Raise money for the festival, form relationships and partnerships with businesses within the Wilmington community and nationwide, promote Visions with a wide audience.

2. Who is the customer?
We are targeting businesses in the local Wilmington area as well as some national businesses.

It is for the betterment of the festival in general and our guests.

3. What are the deliverables of the project?
Donations (monetary and in-kind), advertisement space, donated products (raffles, awards, food, etc)

4. What is the budget?
Will mainly consist of emails and me literally driving places to talk to people. 

We will be printing sponsorship brochures and letters which will cost money (that budget is still in the works)

5. How long will it take?
I am going to be doing this over the next few months and most likely into the spring. 

6. What specific skills are needed?
Organizational skills, timeliness, creativity, being persuasive, being outgoing, being sincere, being trustworthy, professionalism

7. What special resources are needed?
Contacts of local businesses the class thinks would be willing to donate. 

Printing paper for the letters and brochures 

8. Who is working the project? What is each person's job?
Shannon B. and me! Since development and hospitality have to work so closely anyway, she and I are going to tag-team the sponsorships. She and I will work together to go into the community to find our sponsors

9. What is the schedule?
Shannon B. and I have not talked about this in detail yet, but I have a rough schedule in my head.

9/23 - meet with Shannon B. to talk and plan out our attack strategy

By 9/30 - have a PDF version of an updated sponsorship brochure

9/30 - get contacts from the class of who would be willing to donate

10/1 - send out first wave of sponsorship emails

Shannon and I will create a schedule for follow-up emails, calls, and visits which is to come. 

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

• Large impact, likely: We don't get as much money as we need. 
• Large impact, unlikely: No one donates anything and Visions has to take place in a box.
• Small impact, likely: Our plans get delayed and we fall behind schedule with collecting money.
• Small impact, unlikely: I have no paper for letters :(

11. How will you communicate with your team?
Shannon B. and I will probably just text each other or Facebook message each other. We will call if it is an emergency or if I have a funny joke that can only be heard.

12. How will you determine if the project is successful?
If we are able to charm our potential donors enough that they think we are hella rad and they feel that they should give some of their hard earned money or products, and that makes Visions happen in April, then I will consider it a success!

New Year for Visions!

Welcome back to Visions! This week I mainly worked on making sure my team was in a good place. Since we added a new member to our group who is in charge of awards, I wanted to make sure everyone knew what was happening and what their timelines are. My main goals for this semester are going to be finishing Indiegogo strong and getting at least 2 more business sponsors. So far Indiegogo has done very well. The class came together well to make the campaign take off so now we are on a good track to hitting our $3,000 goal. I mainly spent this week brainstorming how I am going to get the sponsorships under control. One of the things I found in the fall was that some of the businesses either blew me off or they told me that they did not have anymore money in their sponsorship budgets for the year. My angle that I want to use is hitting those businesses that blew me off again to make them either say yes or no definitively. I am also going to go back to the businesses that told me no because they have no more budget and ask them because now it is a new year and that means new budget. I need to be more rigid about my scheduling and timing of my sponsorships. I need to be consistent with follow ups, phone calls, and in-person visits.