2017 Visions Film Festival Response

This years Visions Film Festival was one I will remember forever. I was so excited to see Felix Thompson’s film King Jack (2015) and have the opportunity to meet the director. The fact that his film was picked up by Netflix is so wonderful for an independent filmmaker. I thought the film was very refreshing. The coming of age story can relate to many of us, especially those in rough surroundings. I think what I enjoyed most was knowing that I could meet the director and see what he says about his approach and conceptualization. I’ve only worked with one other independent filmmaker before, so having the opportunity to see the director in person is rare, and I wanted to make sure I got the most from his responses.

Unfortunately, I had class and work that Friday so I was only able to attend two blocks on Friday, but they were the blocks I was looking forward to most- the video race screening and the visionary panel.

This was my second year attending visions so I was looking forward to seeing this year’s video race submissions. I was so entertained by what my fellow students could make in a short amount of time. I didn’t want to critique anybody’s work because of the limitations they were given, but as a viewer, you can absolutely see the stylistic differences between the groups. I am always interested in seeing my classmate’s productions.

I think what stuck with me the most was the visionary panel. To think each panel member was in the exact same spot as me was very encouraging. It is hard not to get a little nervous when you think about the vast future ahead of you. But some of the questions they were given really humanized them in my eyes. If they can get where they are starting from where I am, then I can do the same. They even told us about how they got there and who helped them along the way, some of which were professors that I have had and were in the room with us.

Each panel member was in a different place occupationally. One was a VFX editor for Disney, Felix Thompson recently directed his first film, and others were either currently working on productions, involved with distribution or freelance. I think what I took away from the 2017 Visions Film Festival was knowing the opportunities I have that are at my fingertips, and the drive it takes to get there. I see from the visionary panel that no one got where they are without hard work and making sacrifices. It is the same reaction I got from the 2016 festival, I am so motivated to see what I could do with my life and where the future would take me. If I don’t make it on the visionary panel in the next few years, I have a feeling I would know a former fellow student who would be.

As we finish up the semester, looking back at the last four weeks of our project I am so proud of all we have accomplished. From the start, we only had a small concept of what we wanted with our film, and it wasn't until the final weeks that everything started coming together and gave our short doc a true meaning. Weeks 12-16 were much slower than the other weeks because at this point, we had all of our footage (minus the voiceover) and all we needed to do was get in the editing lab and start piecing our doc together.
We went to the sound booth to record Chris's voiceover, and it sounded good from what we recorded, however, I'm not sure how it will fit in the doc. But, we made sure to be able to cut out any extra narration if it goes on too long or is overlapped by the next sequence.
Now that things are coming to a close, our main focus now is the distribution plan. We split up the work for our in class presentation so we can all be involved with the next steps of post-production. Submitting into festivals, creating websites and Facebook pages, and even printing out the postcards to get the word out. As for now, things can only get better for our doc. I am so proud to be apart of "Fighting Words".

While we continue into weeks 8-12, we have started to get a better flow of things. Figuring out the next step started to get easier, and requesting equipment went smoother because we all knew what we needed and how to get it done. After failing in trying to get on different campuses, we managed to get interviews from students from UNCC and UNC Chapel Hill to speak with us about our topic. The interviews were conducted via Skype, which I think will give us a nice change in format for our doc, that it will keep the viewers invested in what we are trying to do with the doc. There were some sound problems with one of our interviews, but luckily we recorded it on a separate device so we didn't lose the interview entirely.
Now that we have all of our footage, we are moving into post production. All we need now is to record narration by the director, and place it precisely in our documentary. This will give the doc a personal feel, and an artistic merit. I am looking forward to what our documentary has in store for us and the viewers. All that will be left is the marketing and distribution, but with our doc finished I believe it will help us figure out the next steps. 

Moving into weeks 4-8 was a bit more challenging. We started our first interviews and now we are able to actually see where we are going with our documentary. One set back we faced is not being able to get the permission in time to schedule shooting on Chapel Hill's campus. We were strongly suggested to include more campuses in our research on hate speech but it took over a week to get in contact with the person who was in charge of UNC's on campus permissions and when I finally did, we couldn't do it over spring break like we hoped.
After talking to my group I think we can still make a powerful documentary if we still focused our attention to UNCW. These next couple months will either make or break our doc. We still have interview subjects we need to schedule and possible on-campus rallies, or public speakers we can shoot to get more of a feel for the "free speech" aspect of our film. Overall, there still needs work to be done but I think we've come far enough to be able to finish strong. We are used to having to make changes to abide to our schedules and production, so we should be able to stay on track

I think the first four weeks of preproduction were the most taunting. We had our idea of what we want our documentary to be but it was just a matter of getting the right subjects and the right b-roll to convey our message. We got a lot of help during the class discussions on how we should approach our doc, and a lot of helpful feedback on our b-roll, although it was shot on our DP's personal SLR and not the URSA Mini like we want the film to be shot on. But we were still able to know what we wanted and how it should look.
We have contacted as many people we think would be good experts but getting back from them and scheduling interviews seems like it might be a challenge. I think as far as equipment goes we should be set, as the sound mixer I believe I know all the equipment I could use from LAVs to boom mics and I'm familiar with the H4Ns and H6s. Me and Chris were able to get out and shoot more b-roll on the URSA which allowed us to get a feel for the camera and how it can be used so that when Sean gets back we could help if it is his first time using the URSA Mini.