Film Festival Reflection

week 4

Student Name: Yating Shi

Student Number: s3614117

Week 4 has been really focused on how to launch our film festival. So, organizing and planning have been the most important thing for us this week.

In these two classes, we have been writing, planning, and making to-do lists. But I don’t think it is a really happy activity because when people were discussing what are they good at or what are they interested in, I have no idea about what can I do. I feel embarrassed and depressed. I wonder what I can do for this festival through my own strength? However, under the guidance of my teacher and my classmates, I realized that maybe I could do something related to my majors, such as photography or editing. Although pre-production is a burden for me, seeing that our works are maturing, I noticed that I fell in love with the process of working together and discussing.

“Before you start with the actual hands-on work, you need to plan thoroughly what you will need in terms of manpower, materials, and money (or, in most cases, how much money you can spend and what you will realistically be able to get with it). Do this planning well in advance, as it is probably the most important stage of festival preparations” (Kuhn 2015). This passage seems to sum up what we have learned this week.

Pre-production is a result of collective effort, when we make plans, we divided everyone’s roles. Someone do graphic design or film programming or marketing coordination and so on. When we distribute the content of these tasks, it becomes much easier for us because people can choose what they want to do through their expertise. It makes me feel hopeful to produce our entire film festival.

Finally, after hours of preparation, we can see that the product is developing. I am looking forward to what challenges and difficulties we will encounter in the coming weeks, and how can we overcome them. Personally, I’m getting more and more excited about this film festival.

Reference:

Andrea Kuhn, “Who Is Organising It? Importance of Production and Team Members. Links to an external site.” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 71-83.