Week 11

This week was totally awesome. I was lucky enough to travel with a group of Visions directors and staff to Charlottesville, Virginia, to attend the Virginia Film Festival. It was the second major festival I have attended, and the first time I have attended a festival at an all-access, industry level capacity. It was an amazing opportunity for learning festival management tips and techniques, as well as for enrichment of life and cultivating future career opportunities. I was lucky enough to meet the director and actors of a particularly funny short film and hang out with them over the weekend, as well as learn from Billy Ray, an Oscar winning director. We also attended a secret screening that turned out to be a pre-premiere of “Secrets In Their Eyes,” and a Q&A afterwards that was amazing. One of the best aspects of the festival was the filmmakers and sponsors lounge. It was in a bar called the Whiskey Jar that was just my kind of place. We had the opportunity there to meet many festival workers, other filmmakers, and patrons of film. The food was also really good too. Some things I noticed for my job as Operations Director involved transportation and technical things during exhibition. Some off-site screenings were very hard to get to, and there were some occasional issues with mic’s and subtitles that my team will prepare for.