Reflection- Week 10-12

Over the last three weeks, everything has been well. Looking back at the three-week course, the film festival has reached the final countdown, and we are also very excited and nervous. It’s like a nurtured by our hands then we watch it grow up gradually. Although at first, I had doubt that it was impossible to hold a film festival because it was too difficult; and also we experience some setbacks, but it is undeniable that we all had overcome them one by one. Now, our trailer was posted on YouTube and everyone could search and watch it; brochure has also been printed and can be distributed to anyone interested; tickets have also been presold. All this means our film festival- MIYFF is slowly on track. From the trailer, social media content, logo, sponsor and even interview, I feel the strength of the team. Nothing is impossible when everyone is involved in their roles and focuses on their own tasks.

I think this course is a valuable experience and lesson. It made me really understand the importance of teamwork and how to practice it personally. In this activity, we have a clear division of labor, everyone has different areas of responsibility. Although I’m only responsible for the trailer part, maybe a little easier than what others are responsible for, I did my best to keep up with the progress of the festival, not just the trailer part. Last weeks, we went to the venue with some lovely girls because we need to consider where to put snacks and drinks, where to put MC platform, where to check tickets and will it block important passageways. Lots of works need to be considered, and even some details, such as the microphone have to be put in a place with power supply. It makes me proud of other teams and I feel that everyone is working for our common goal.

In the future courses, this experience will certainly bring me more skills, such as how to cooperate with the team, how to communicate with others. I hope I can apply this experience to the next teamwork and can give the team something to be proud of.

Criticism Session Reflection

Right now, our film festival-MIYFF has entered the final countdown stage. For our class in week 9, we need to prepare a small informal presentation to tell everyone and special guest Rohan Spong and Erin Rosenberg about each team’s progress. In the “criticism session”, we showed our Chinese trailer to everyone. We were nervous on that day. After all, this is the first time that we have invited everyone to watch our works which we spent much time. I don’t know if it will be accepted by the audience and feedback from them and Rohan also made our nervous. So, the whole of our team knew the importance of this ‘criticism session’, every bit of advice and feedback was absolutely crucial.

Fortunately, everyone was interested in our second trailer and we also got useful advice from Rohan and Erin. For example, the first international trailer shows the two male figures almost disinterested so might not be a wise choice whereas the second international trailer shows two people genuinely interested in going and putting their phones, and use social media away and connecting over a social event. So, first one may need a bit more editing to feel more upbeat like the second one. At the same time, Rohan also made some valuable suggestions on the main trailer, like the main trailer is not as inclusive and may alienate people who are not mega cinephile or who are not as well versed in the cinematic side of things, so should show different people of gender, age, race.

In addition, another great idea came from Rohan. We should test all the equipment one week before the event. Although everything was normal at the time, it was likely that this was not the case on the day of the festival, so testing equipment was a very important priority.

I think I am very lucky to get valuable advice from Rohan and Erin this time because we are all students, we don’t have these extra experiences, so it is invaluable to get such detailed face to face advice from industry experts.

Reflection

Week 10

What impressed me most was last Thursday’s fundraising activity. As you can see from the teacher’s email, the fundraising campaign was very successful. I’m very excited that we succeeded in attracting so many audiences and it makes me feel that everyone’s efforts have paid off. So, when I saw the layout of that night, I was pleased that the scene was as warm and comfortable as possible, the lights, music, and snacks all made out fundraising activity more distinctive. Of course, there are a group of cute team members to make our film festival go smoothly.

Ben and Tessa are absolutely capable of leadership. I know hold it’s difficult to organize this event, they need to identify the theme and contact some film producers. Maybe there’s more complicated content. Including the design group, I was shock and excited that day when I first saw the short sleeves of our festival logo. I saw all the work going in an orderly way, everyone working in their own position and doing well.

But for the effect of the final film festival, I think we still need to work hard. Especially how to publicize our film festival on social media to attract more and more people, because social media is our biggest and fastest way to get more support. So, I hope to contribute to this activity to have a more active and lasting interaction with the audience through social media.

In the part of our trailer, when our first trailer was rejected because it wasn’t invested enough, we filmed another interesting one, and we hope it can be accepted in the next class. So, when we encounter difficulties, we greet it with battle effectiveness and do it better because it is not our individual work, it will affect the whole team and the whole film festival. I must cooperate with the whole team with a serious and dedicated attitude.

Overall, in the next three weeks, screening and categorizing movies, MIYFF t-shirt, promotions, also including details such as scene layout, drinks or snacks, should be considered thoroughly. Through such a large team, I am confident in our film festival.

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Film Festival Reflection

Week 8

This is the first week after a short holiday, and I can feel that everyone seems more energetic. Everyone has presented new content and works so that our film festival can go a step further. For me, it’s important to continue to improve and strengthen our trailer this week. Our team members made some suggestions to our trailer, like fix the background noise and separate the subtitle color from the background color so that the audience can see it more clearly. At the end of the holiday, everyone is more engaged in their work.

Actually, we weren’t satisfied with a mini trailer. It didn’t show our theme, and it was too brief to attract people’s attention. So, we are hindered in terms of creativity and inspiration. Like, an inspiration we rejected before the holidays: we sat on the grass and talked freely. Suddenly, a lot of paper planes flew in and we found that it is posters of our film festival. But because the lens is too difficult to control, such as wind speed wind direction, paper plane flight trajectory and so on, so after we tried, we found that the effect did not reach our goal. This also made me understand that my ability is insufficient and the actual effect is often different from what I think. This is what I need to strengthen in the future.

In addition, fundraising activities are also under intense preparation in class. Although we missed some of the class because we were out shooting, I was also very interested in it. It gives me a professional feeling. I hope I can follow up on the fundraising activities at any time in the next weeks. Maybe I can also learn some skills, such as how to communicate with people, how to implement programs and how to organize members.

In this week’s reading, I learned about the classification guide for movies. I learned six classifiable elements in movies which are themes, violence, sex, language, drug use and nudity (Guidelines for the Classification of Films 2012).

Reading:

“Guidelines for the Classification of Films 2012: Classification (Publications, Films, and Computer Games) Act 1995 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” on Federal Register of Legislation website, accessed 28 April 2019.

Film Festival Reflection

week 7

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

As time goes on, we are getting closer to the date of the film festival, and I can feel everyone’s attention at this phase. Although with the increase of pressure, we did feel the pleasure of this course. Watching some results unfold slowly, I can’t wait to know what interesting and exciting things will happen on the day we hold it and how the audience will respond to our film festival. It’s meaningful for me because it’s my first time I’ve personally hold a film festival.

This week, we finally started making trailers about Chinese people. However, it’s not as interesting and simple as we thought, it’s a long process. On the day of the shooting, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but when we edited it on the laptop, we found that some of the shots were not stable enough, some of the backgrounds were exposed and some of the noise was very loud. We can only try to fix it or re-shoot it. It took us nearly a week. It’s a challenge for us not only to highlight the theme of our festival but also to make our trailer nature and interesting. However, my team members give us a lot of help. Through their shooting draft, also let us have more inspiration. Through our online communication and meeting outside, I am still confident and looking forward to our works.

In my reflection last week, I mentioned that the most important thing about a film festival is its content. What kind of movies we need to think about is what we want to present to the audience. Marco Muller says that film festivals should ‘reveal what the markets hide (Cousins, M 2019). So, when we lock in a movie, we should consider whether the content of movies is innovation, interesting, or controversial, but the pressure will follow. Finally, I hope that the trailer we made will attract many people in the end. And I also hope I can be fully involved in this process, and even put forward some ideas to help others relieve stress.

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Reference:

Mark Cousins, “Film Festival Form: A Manifesto (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” on “The Film Festival Academy.” website, accessed 12 April 2019.