Reflection 3

Before this week’s class me and my group had a meeting to show what we done now and what we can do better, and plan the filming and editing time of mini trailers. We exchanged our opinions and decided to finish some of mini trailers before next weekend. To compare with last week, we have a big progress in filming and the script.

The guest lecture of Mia Falstein-Rush let me get know film festival deeper and made me have more thoughts about film culture, she mentioned film festivals is a catalyst to changing the landscape on and off the screens, and adds value beyond other types of film screenings to meet a demand not otherwise fulfilled. Those viewpoints made me realize how superficial I know about film festival culture. However, these also made me feel excited about what we doing now ( a film festival!).

At the weekend, we are going to filming the mini trailers as Chinese trailer group, we also join the film submission group to watch the Chinese films and may give them some our opinion when they screen out final films. Those works are make me feel involved and exciting.

For films submission viewing, if I want to give some help to them, I think I have to focus on the purpose of our film festival but not random, and what I learn from the reading is, focus on the meaning of the film, not the film. ‘The film is a piece of art that reveals its meaning in the context into which it is placed. If your festival is comprised only of non-confrontational, glossy films, it will be boring and less thought provoking than a varied selection that surprises and disturbs the audience with unexpected types of films.’ (Bartosova, Kulhankova & Rausova 2015, pg 27)

Reference:

Kateřina Bartošová, Hana Kulhánková & Zuzana Raušová, “Knowing Yourself and Your Audience: Programming a Human Rights Film Festival (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 27-46.

Refection 2 – Week 5

For week 5’s class, we discussed the budgeting stuff together and our group made some progress about shooting and editing. I noticed that many people in our class have leadership, they would inspire others and lead us to promote the progress. However, I think I’m too shy to share my opinion, or I even didn’t have my own opinion in some aspects, when they think out an idea and talk together, I’m just agree with that idea, not to think about the better one or add some new thoughts.

Cerise as an experienced leader, gave us many help and inspiration to us. When Tessa got a great idea that me and other Chinese students can think about some short promotion videos of Chinese, so that may attract some Chinese audience to come, which is an excellent idea. I appreciate that I’m in that group, they are so nice to explain what’s going on at that moment, and always give me a sense of participation.

‘As a new festival, you should aim to have coverage in print media, radio and on the Internet. There is one more very important communication channel called “word-of-mouth”; this refers to the free advertising that comes from people talking to their friends, family, and colleagues about your festival. If you can build excitement about your festival enough so that people will spread the word for you, it will be a huge asset to your promotion. This is simply because a personal recommendation is always much more persuasive than a corporate-sponsored message.’ (Rambousková 2015)

As Rambousková mentioned, a new film festival need ‘word of mouth’, need to be recommended by friends or families, what I need to do is to make the short promotional video be in this mode.

Overall, what I learned in this week is more than I thought, as a group member, I need to be more active to share my idea, and to help the leaders to have a better project.

Reference:

Bohdana Rambousková, “How to Successfully Promote Your Festival (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 97-114.

Reflection1

In week 4, we started to organize our film festival, which made me feel so excited that we are going to have our own film festival!

‘And that’s exactly what the production department is for. Production gives a “face” to your festival by integrating all the work that everyone is doing in the background into a smoothly running whole for the public to see. Production creates the look of your event and makes sure that everything is where it should be, when it should be there. It is the link between your festival and its audience.’ (Kuhn, 2015)

A Kuhn describe, everyone had chosen what they want to do, and some people took several charges. At beginning I thought that would be very difficult for us because we never done this large festival before. However, when I see people and the teacher were so excited and have a clear idea and method to prepare, I start to join in and have the confidence in my own position.

In the end, I see the production forming, that’s very surprise to see a promote in few hours, which are inseparable with all people in this class. I’m so appreciate I have this chance to be a part of this festival, and I’m looking forward to see future challenge and creative promote.

Reference:

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