April 9th 2014 Visions4Reflection

     So, I'll be honest. I tried my hardest to have absolutely no expectations going into Friday's activities. I was actually hesitant to look at the schedule too much because I didn't want to start fantasizing about how each block was going to go. All I knew before Visions4 started was that we had all done a great job preparing, and that no matter how it all turned out I was going to be happy! I had to be; we had worked to freaking hard to be disappointed.

     Even though I had minimum expectations, I was still surprised by a few things. One thing that surprised me was my reaction at the end of the festival. I thought I was going to be sad, and longing for more festivities, but I really was as satisfied as I could have been. I watched as all the filmmakers and scholars left on Saturday, and I was not disappointed to see them leave. They told me that they had a wonderful time and that they would love to be a part of Visions5. That was enough for me. Visions4 gave them an experience that they will never forget. I don't know how I could have asked for more than that.

     About the festival specifically, I was surprised by the amount of respect given by each attendee. Everyone listened to each other, and, even though there were groups from the same school in attendance, I never felt like cliques were created. That was really nice. When we were at meals, or even at the after party, I saw that everyone was mingling and truly listening to one another. This was probably my favorite part about the entire day.

     As a whole I was more than content to go to bed that night and not feel the need to change anything. But as I continue to look back and reflect I realize that there is one thing I want to change for next year. I want to talk to the filmmakers and scholars more! I really tried to communicate with them as much as possible, but being involved in the activities and blocks actually distracted me from getting to know them... as weird as that sounds. I think the best way to do this, and the main piece of advice I would lend to the staff of next year is to really study the people that are coming before they get here. KNOW THEIR FACES, and of course know their names. The people I knew the most about before they even got here were the people I felt closest to from the very start.

     That said, I think that any of the changes I can suggest are so minuscule that even if they weren't implemented I would still be completely satisfied. I think where we succeeded the most was with our audience. I heard so much great things from people who came to Visions. The people who weren't even staff, filmmakers, or scholars just had so much to say that was really high praise. This is not necessarily something that can be recreated next year, but I think it is something to shoot for next year. This means that Visions has passed on the passion and the sense of ownership on to the Wilmington and surrounding community.

Yeah... I guess that's it...

April 2nd 2014

Wow!!! Visions is in literally 2 days! I can't believe it! I don't even know what to do! I am so excited and nervous at the same time. I hope that everyone gets here okay... Oh my god.... Everyone gets here tomorrow!!!! I will get to meet all the people that we have been talking so much about!

That was so many exclamation points. But I really am excited. And it's pretty relaxing to be on website right now, because I am not scrambling to get anything done last minute. I guess really there are only two things left to do. We have the live feed to get up on the site Friday morning, and after that it is really just figuring out how to leave the Website after all the festivities are over.

That said, I don't want to stop thinking ahead to the festival and conference! I am SOOOO pumped for our early morning on Friday. I guess all we can do is the best that we have to offer. Let's do this, and show all these filmmakers and scholars what Wilmington has to offer!

March 26th 2014

Things are starting to become simpler now... I think. We got all the sponsors up and formatted to the page. And all the conference pages have gotten cleaned up. I received the parking map, the venues info, and a few other things from people this week; all of the changes for those people have been made. There are now only two pressing tasks. The first thing that is really important is to finalize all the changes on the schedule online. This needs to be done ASAP, and should not be too hard. I am having trouble fitting the locations on the image without it starting to look crowded. The second task is less pressing and more based in aesthetics; Channing and I are working to reformat the film pages. Right now they are blocky and not very pleasing to the eye. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have sorted this out and made it easier for the website people next year to just model future film pages after our carefully coded example.

March 21st 2014

This week is all about getting the sponsors, films, and conference pages ps to date and synced on the website. This has been a challenge because we are still waiting on stills and descriptions for some of the films and papers, and I also was still missing some of the logos and sponsor levels information until just recently. Also the sponsors page is really hard to format neatly but as soon as I figure that out we should be looking a lot better. The last thing on my mind right now is the question of whether we should make "Current Sponsors" and "Become a Sponsor" two separate pages. I think that's it. It's a lot of work, but I'm sure we can get it done.

March 13th 2014

This week has been interesting to say the least. We are making a lot of changes to the website this week and the to do list was pretty long. The biggest thing is a restructure of the menus and the site map. We are revisiting everything in the tabs and pages to ensure that nothing is confusing. We also are going to look really hard at the homepage to make it as inviting as we can. There may be a few aesthetic changes to come in the next week. And then lastly we are deciding exactly how to handle uploading blogs to the website, and even whether the 'Recent News' Page is even necessary at this point.

The Dirty Dozen

Identify the "what".

1.  What is the project supposed to achieve?

I am to help develop a theme for the advertisement campaign, and update the website accordingly.

2.  Who is the customer?

Anyone who is interested in Visions is the target audience. We want this campaign to be clear and constant through all out media so that anyone who sees it immediately associates it with Visions4.

3.  What are the deliverables of the project?  (These are tangible and intangible.)

The biggest delivery will be a peak in interest, and hopefully more views on the website. We also will gain an ease of use because the website’s interface will be cleaner and more inviting.

Identify the "how".

4.  What is the budget?

There is no budget as far as my specific job is concerned. I have the laptop and the programs to design some really great stuff. The only budget I can really deplete is battery life, and personal creative energy.

5.  How long will it take?

Longer than I expect, first of all. But overall it will take the entire weekend. I expect that I will be working with my team on the campaign for about 4-6 hours in meetings, and then I will spend around 6-10 hours of work just on the website… plus any other things that pop up unannounced.

6.  What specific skills are needed?

We need to be creative with the visuals, while also keeping them clean, simple and recognizable. I personally need to know exactly what I’m doing in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver to be able to troubleshoot the website and I reorganize it.

7.  What special resources are needed?

Just my laptop and the programs

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

Channing – Team leader

James, and Kyle – Graphics

J’aime – Website manager, and designer

9.  What is the schedule?

Simply… the website and campaign are due in a presentable form by 1/29/14 at 3:30.

Other considerations.

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

Really the only risk we take with making this many changes so quickly is that we will walk into Visions meeting on the 29^th, and no one will like the campaign that we have worked so hard to develop.

11.  How will you communicate with your team?

We have Google docs, and we all have each others’ numbers. We will be texting back and forth whenever we are not in meetings, and will keep a constant eye on the FB page for our specific departments.

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

It will be hard to tell this right away. First we want the approval of all the people in Visions. But after we have taken feedback on the campaign and website it becomes trickier. The only true determination of a campaign’s success is whether or not people understand our intent and are pulled in by our visuals, advertisements, and website. And I suppose we won’t see those results for a few weeks.