Hey reader!
Personal update: Semester is still hard; upcoming midterms are stressful. But the peak of my stressfulness right now is registration. Trying to tetris all the classes that I NEED plus the extra classes that I just really really WANT into perfect little non-overlapping blocks for the next two semesters is starting to feel extremely overwhelming and almost impossible. I have a couple of drafts that I'm hoping will work... but wow: registration has never punched me this hard before. Also, spring break is almost here, which is terrific! I think we all need a break.
Volunteer update: I'm about to launch the campaign! I had some fun this weekend drafting a little google form for the volunteer application. It was an interesting process, because it started as a very basic and simple thing that evolved into what I think is a more complete glimpse into their personalities! See, my job is not only to wrangle some volunteers, but to cast them appropriately. I feel like what I ended up with is a reasonably brief form that can give me a nice sample of what my applicants' interests, skills, and personalities are like. In our departmental meeting this week, we also talked numbers on the volunteers the Operations department will need, which was a very helpful process to be a part of. On the docket: I definitely have some emails to send to the ACE leaders and the 201 teachers. Might also consider putting together some social media things over spring break to attract interest.
I guess I can't really do programming updates anymore, but as a general Visions commentary, it's starting to feel kind of more imminent than it used to. I think that we'll all really start to feel it after spring break.
That's all for now. Happy March!
Ashley
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
A Triple Twosday Update (2/22)
Greetings reader!
Personal update. So many things happen every single week. Like, a month's worth of things happen in the span of 7 days this semester. It feels very surreal to think that it's only been a single week since my last blog post. I took on a third job, just for this weekend really, doing a literary review for a Geography professor. I don't know, it just really flatters me and I'm just so bad at saying no to people who ask me to work on their projects. I also had my second official sleepless all-nighter of the semester a few days ago. I feel miraculously fine for how bad I am to my body on a pretty regular basis. Also, the Oscars are tonight! I'll try to call it: while I'd personally probably vote for Birdman, I think Boyhood will take home best picture. Now that this blog is published though, I probably jinxed it.
Volunteer update. Not a lot has changed since last week. I'm excited for the week when I can stop saying that (spoiler alert, it's really soon!). Google form is in the works. Hoping to attract more volunteers at upcoming events. I plan to arrange to talk to the 201 and 205 classes about Visions and volunteer opportunities because I personally think that they are one of our most important demographics. I don't know, I have a kind of special place for giving advice to young film majors and I would be really thrilled to think that I present them with an opportunity to get involved in this festival and it does something for them in the long run. On a similar note, I'll also be helping present during our Moviemakers and Scholars thing, so I'll give the same blurb there!
Programming update. It is finished. It was extremely difficult battle and I really can't deny how invested I was in the entire process. Final programming day was such a rollercoaster: ecstatic to devastated, full of energy to purely exhausted in a matter of minutes. It was sometimes confusing and sometimes frustrating, but we have a final list and I'm pretty proud of us. And now, I can't WAIT to meet these people.
Now, off to do more research and watch the Oscars! Signing off for now--
~~~~~~~~Ashley
Personal update. So many things happen every single week. Like, a month's worth of things happen in the span of 7 days this semester. It feels very surreal to think that it's only been a single week since my last blog post. I took on a third job, just for this weekend really, doing a literary review for a Geography professor. I don't know, it just really flatters me and I'm just so bad at saying no to people who ask me to work on their projects. I also had my second official sleepless all-nighter of the semester a few days ago. I feel miraculously fine for how bad I am to my body on a pretty regular basis. Also, the Oscars are tonight! I'll try to call it: while I'd personally probably vote for Birdman, I think Boyhood will take home best picture. Now that this blog is published though, I probably jinxed it.
Volunteer update. Not a lot has changed since last week. I'm excited for the week when I can stop saying that (spoiler alert, it's really soon!). Google form is in the works. Hoping to attract more volunteers at upcoming events. I plan to arrange to talk to the 201 and 205 classes about Visions and volunteer opportunities because I personally think that they are one of our most important demographics. I don't know, I have a kind of special place for giving advice to young film majors and I would be really thrilled to think that I present them with an opportunity to get involved in this festival and it does something for them in the long run. On a similar note, I'll also be helping present during our Moviemakers and Scholars thing, so I'll give the same blurb there!
Programming update. It is finished. It was extremely difficult battle and I really can't deny how invested I was in the entire process. Final programming day was such a rollercoaster: ecstatic to devastated, full of energy to purely exhausted in a matter of minutes. It was sometimes confusing and sometimes frustrating, but we have a final list and I'm pretty proud of us. And now, I can't WAIT to meet these people.
Now, off to do more research and watch the Oscars! Signing off for now--
~~~~~~~~Ashley
Sunday, February 15, 2015
A mid-February update (2/16)
Greetings reader,
Personal update: school and homework-wise, this is the least busy weekend I've had since the semester started! I started this week extremely sick and extremely stressed, recovering from a late Sunday crash. I powered through my 3 heavy class days, slept for 12 whole hours on Wednesday night, and woke up on Thursday still a little sniffly, but feeling overall amazing. I had a wonderful little weekend. As of right now, as I type this blog update at 2AM on 25 degree Sunday night, I feel spectacular about classes and life in general. If you're reading this, I hope that you do, too.
Volunteer update: The Valentines Bake Sale, which was last Wednesday, was a success! We made almost $400. In other, potentially objectifying words, we made a whole person. I worked for a couple of hours in between classes at the Cameron tent, and we got some pretty good business. I put out a volunteer interest sheet at each table and got one signup per table, plus a third signup from Emma's friend. I'm glad I have a few names already, because I wasn't expecting too much at the bake sale. The film kid mixer is really where I hope to hook some interested volunteers.
At our departmental meeting, Adam also suggested that I consider creating a facebook volunteer page that I could invite interested parties to, and post updates on when I'm sending important emails, opening the google form, etc. I think it sounds like a good idea, and I don't think it can hurt anything even if it doesn't attract much interest, so I'm going to put it on my agenda for next week. Also on the agenda for next week: prep a google form for volunteer interest. I'll have at least my department, if not the whole class, approve it before launching it in early March.
Programming update: this week is final decisions, and it's gonna be an absolute doozy. And I'll leave it at that for right now.
Signing off for now,
Ashley
Personal update: school and homework-wise, this is the least busy weekend I've had since the semester started! I started this week extremely sick and extremely stressed, recovering from a late Sunday crash. I powered through my 3 heavy class days, slept for 12 whole hours on Wednesday night, and woke up on Thursday still a little sniffly, but feeling overall amazing. I had a wonderful little weekend. As of right now, as I type this blog update at 2AM on 25 degree Sunday night, I feel spectacular about classes and life in general. If you're reading this, I hope that you do, too.
Volunteer update: The Valentines Bake Sale, which was last Wednesday, was a success! We made almost $400. In other, potentially objectifying words, we made a whole person. I worked for a couple of hours in between classes at the Cameron tent, and we got some pretty good business. I put out a volunteer interest sheet at each table and got one signup per table, plus a third signup from Emma's friend. I'm glad I have a few names already, because I wasn't expecting too much at the bake sale. The film kid mixer is really where I hope to hook some interested volunteers.
At our departmental meeting, Adam also suggested that I consider creating a facebook volunteer page that I could invite interested parties to, and post updates on when I'm sending important emails, opening the google form, etc. I think it sounds like a good idea, and I don't think it can hurt anything even if it doesn't attract much interest, so I'm going to put it on my agenda for next week. Also on the agenda for next week: prep a google form for volunteer interest. I'll have at least my department, if not the whole class, approve it before launching it in early March.
Programming update: this week is final decisions, and it's gonna be an absolute doozy. And I'll leave it at that for right now.
Signing off for now,
Ashley
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
2/10 Update
Hey reader. Here's a short update.
First, on a personal note, it's starting to hit me. "It" being this semester. I'm honestly in a great mood: overall, I'm having a great time in my classes and and even better time outside of classes, but sometimes I give myself a little too much credit in terms of what I can handle commitment-wise. Usually I can power through everything, and usually it hits me somewhere around the 3-week-before finals mark. It punched me in the face very late this Sunday night, after a full weekend on set and a lot of homework yet to do. I passed out for 3 hours and woke up with a stuffy nose, no voice, and jello muscles. So I need a couple of days to get it together, but that's where I'm at right now. It'll be fine though. It always is.
Volunteer updates. I emailed Luqi a revised version of the website blurb I let the class edit last week, and she got it up within a few hours of when I sent it to her! The volunteer page looks great and I can't wait until I can put a form on there.
The bake sale is this Wednesday. I'm gonna bake some flavorful cookie pies and hopefully attract some interested volunteers!
Programming updates. This is the 3rd week of programming films. As always, I have some really strong opinions on this bunch of films. More than anything though, I am very anxiously awaiting the class where we discuss the UNCW films. That is going to be an extremely contentious debate, and I think it will be a good challenge for all of us to try to stay neutral, since we have personal connections with so many of them.
That's all for now. Until next week,
Ashley
First, on a personal note, it's starting to hit me. "It" being this semester. I'm honestly in a great mood: overall, I'm having a great time in my classes and and even better time outside of classes, but sometimes I give myself a little too much credit in terms of what I can handle commitment-wise. Usually I can power through everything, and usually it hits me somewhere around the 3-week-before finals mark. It punched me in the face very late this Sunday night, after a full weekend on set and a lot of homework yet to do. I passed out for 3 hours and woke up with a stuffy nose, no voice, and jello muscles. So I need a couple of days to get it together, but that's where I'm at right now. It'll be fine though. It always is.
Volunteer updates. I emailed Luqi a revised version of the website blurb I let the class edit last week, and she got it up within a few hours of when I sent it to her! The volunteer page looks great and I can't wait until I can put a form on there.
The bake sale is this Wednesday. I'm gonna bake some flavorful cookie pies and hopefully attract some interested volunteers!
Programming updates. This is the 3rd week of programming films. As always, I have some really strong opinions on this bunch of films. More than anything though, I am very anxiously awaiting the class where we discuss the UNCW films. That is going to be an extremely contentious debate, and I think it will be a good challenge for all of us to try to stay neutral, since we have personal connections with so many of them.
That's all for now. Until next week,
Ashley
Monday, February 2, 2015
Groundhog Day Update: 2/2/15
Hey reader,
A brief update on the Visions life in Ashleyville. (For the necessity of contextually irrelevant time-capsule information, the Patriots just won Superbowl XLIX. As I unapolagetically write at 4AM this fine morning, it's cold, rainy, and all around yuck outside. I know it's an unreasonable hour to feel good, but I feel pretty good. Hope that you all do too.)
Still hanging in there and patiently waiting on the upcoming social events so I can interact with potential volunteers. Right now, I'm especially looking forward to the Valentines bake sale! The Film Kid Mixer will also be a wonderful opportunity.
The only other new thing I have, that I haven't discussed preemptively in a past update, is the idea of heading up a short promo video to attract volunteers. Inspired by the work of our animators and artists, I think it would be a fun idea to produce a quick, casual video that we can post on the Visions facebook page, generating hype for the festival and simultaneously aiming to attract some potential volunteers. I think there are a lot of fun opportunities with the superhero theme! I'll talk a bit about it in class during my presentation.
Programming stuff. We just watched round 2 of films. This week of programming is gonna be FUN (and if you think I'm being sarcastic, you're wrong! 8 hour classes are tough, but I'm not at all kidding when I say I love this stuff.) Not only do we have 20 BRAND NEW films to talk about, but we tabled all the reeeeaaaaal contentious ones from last week. I'm becoming increasingly surprised by how much I like arguing about these films and papers, or how attached or defensive I get about some of them. It's... kind of an adrenaline rush, though. I think this week has some obvious no's (more so than last week!) and a couple of obvious yes's. There's some middle ground that I anticipate will spike some really conflicted and weird arguments, though. We'll have to see.
Happy February, reader! Until next time,
Ashley
A brief update on the Visions life in Ashleyville. (For the necessity of contextually irrelevant time-capsule information, the Patriots just won Superbowl XLIX. As I unapolagetically write at 4AM this fine morning, it's cold, rainy, and all around yuck outside. I know it's an unreasonable hour to feel good, but I feel pretty good. Hope that you all do too.)
Still hanging in there and patiently waiting on the upcoming social events so I can interact with potential volunteers. Right now, I'm especially looking forward to the Valentines bake sale! The Film Kid Mixer will also be a wonderful opportunity.
The only other new thing I have, that I haven't discussed preemptively in a past update, is the idea of heading up a short promo video to attract volunteers. Inspired by the work of our animators and artists, I think it would be a fun idea to produce a quick, casual video that we can post on the Visions facebook page, generating hype for the festival and simultaneously aiming to attract some potential volunteers. I think there are a lot of fun opportunities with the superhero theme! I'll talk a bit about it in class during my presentation.
Programming stuff. We just watched round 2 of films. This week of programming is gonna be FUN (and if you think I'm being sarcastic, you're wrong! 8 hour classes are tough, but I'm not at all kidding when I say I love this stuff.) Not only do we have 20 BRAND NEW films to talk about, but we tabled all the reeeeaaaaal contentious ones from last week. I'm becoming increasingly surprised by how much I like arguing about these films and papers, or how attached or defensive I get about some of them. It's... kind of an adrenaline rush, though. I think this week has some obvious no's (more so than last week!) and a couple of obvious yes's. There's some middle ground that I anticipate will spike some really conflicted and weird arguments, though. We'll have to see.
Happy February, reader! Until next time,
Ashley
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