24 Days and counting...

It's the last day of 2010 and I have 24 days left before the festival.

Things to do:

-lock in speakers
-lock in panelists
-lock in judges
-finalize trophies
-finalize prizes
-sell ads
-finalize design of poster/program/flier/tshirt
-order poster/program/flier/tshirt
-order color-coded wristbands (tickets)
-publicity
-update website/twitter/fb
-compile email list
-email email list w/newsletter
-finish screening vids
-select finalists
-announce finalists (press release/email all contestants)
-format so the finalists can be screened for judges
-screen finalists for judges/compile decisions
-work out deferred and late entries/payments
-follow up missing entry payments
-lock in bands for concert
-buy insurance for venue
-hire security for venue
-hire volunteers/interns
-buy food for greenroom
-reach out to food trucks
-compile screening formats for theater
-create projection images for rooftop
-hire DJ

29 things to do in 24 days. And work starts again on Monday. Overwhelm-o-meter = 8/9

o yeah and happy new year

25 Days and counting

...trying to pick up the pieces from yesterday. Decided I should spend the week-day/daylight hours pounding the pavement downtown to drum up more ad sales, since starting Monday I'll be back at work...

...then I'll watch the rest of the submissions and reply to emails and things in the evenings. Should totally work out fine. Not gonna be a problem. Definitely do-able. Right?...

Day 26...the lost day...

I dropped the ball yesterday. It didn't start well...

I haven't really been sleeping...can't seem to turn my mind off at night...I keep cycling through all the things I need to do the next day, calls to make, emails to send, meetings to take, etc. etc.

I'm a good sleeper normally and I'm not at all used to dealing with insomnia. It sucks. 

It took me so long to fall asleep that I allowed myself to sleep in a bit too late...and I woke up to pouring rain which can be fun sometimes, but after 10 straight days of rain and a flooded apartment last week, really dampened my already crumby mood. Pun intended. 

I did get a few things done--I signed the contract with the venue and paid the deposit. I drafted my ad-buy email, and forwarded some important info to my team for the week ahead...dimensions of posters we need updates on the festival status, etc. I got my hair done and simultaneously pitched the ad buys to the salon...I think (hope) they're on board...but really, of the 15 things on my to-do list I think I accomplished around 2 of them.

Something that was super frustrating about the business with the venue is that I've dealt with a bunch of different people there and they're all super nice but I think there's a bit of a lack of communication because the manager I spoke with yesterday had none of the information I'd gone over with the manager who'd been there the previous day when I went with the LAMVF lady. So I had to explain everything all over again, delineating all our logistical needs and such, and was a bit disappointed to discover some of the things I'd been told were possible (like syncing a DJ downstairs with the sound system on the roof) would be impossible...nothing catastrophic, just sort of the event-planning equivalent of stubbing your toe. Less painful than annoying, made more so because it was totally unnecessary and avoidable. 

Sort of sums up the whole day, work-wise...

27 Days and counting/"blogpost-pocalypse"

Where does the time go? Oh, that's right, it goes into me spending 40 MINUTES on a post only to have it DELETE before I can save it. So here's to picking yourself up when you get knocked down...I guess...

My grouchily abbreviated attempt to re-create the lost blog-post:

Had a super productive day, took Fuliane from the MVPA (our presenting partner, the Music Video Producer's Association) on a tour of the venue. Went over event logistics and was able to collect and deposit their fee, which is a HUGE WIN!

Then went around to local businesses to sell ad space -- got a bunch of promising leads...

Was planning on emailing them tonight with more info until my blogaster (blog+disaster?) held me up...

Finished screening all the hard-copy DVD submissions today as well so that's another big win. More to say but too tired...I'll try and catch up tomorrow...

Status Update: 12:54am

Too tired for words. These should give you the idea:

Status Update: 10:23pm

I am half-way through the DVD submissions. I wish there were more from students. We really need to kick up the outreach to schools next year. I thought students would be all over this--they're such a huge part of why I wanted to start the fest in the first place.

Not 100% sure how we're going to deal with the hard-copy DVDs when the judging panel gets involved for the finalists. We'll probably have to get the contestants to submit different versions or digitize them ourselves...or make copies and send to the judges. I don't want to think about it now. My butt's asleep. My back hurts. I have been staring at this computer screen for waaaaay too long and I have zero food in the apartment except for, appropriately enough, popcorn. Made a giant bowl around 8:30/9pm. Just some lonely kernels now. Thought it would wake me up a bit. It basically had the opposite effect.

If you're interested in my process, I take one of the mailers, at random, make sure they're registered on Withoutabox.com (our festival submission platform), make sure the payment has been processes, switch the submission over to "in consideration" and watch it.

Afterwards I make notes in a shared spreadsheet online that the other LAMVF team members have access to. I mark whether I think it is a YES, a NO or a MAYBE for its given category and then I write my reasoning and a brief synopsis of the video. Everyone contributes their thoughts and at the end we'll try and come to some sort of consensus. Is this the way all festivals narrow down their finalists? Damned if I know. That's the "fun" of it--figuring it out as we go..."fun" because sometimes it's fun. And sometimes it feels like banging my head against a brick wall. Overwhelm-o-meter = 6.5

How I learned to stop worrying and...wait. I'm still worrying.

This is what my dining room table looks like. It is now 6:49pm. I've turned my dining area/living room into LAMVF (Los Angeles Music Video Festival for those of you keeping score at home) battleship headquarters. This is my War Room. 

I have turned my classy accent-wall mirror into command control. (Waits for cell-phone photo to send through to webmail so she can share it with the blogosphere). 

Aaand there's no cell phone service in my apartment at the moment, apparently. You'll just have to stay tuned for the big reveal.

Wait! There it is!

To-do list! Calendar! Weighted to do-list (in order of urgency)! Unpaid bills and unopened mail! Behold, the glamour of the film festival industry, multiplied by your mid-twenties, divided by your day job.

28 Days and counting

 

I am procrastinating. I have 39 DVDs in assorted envelopes and boxes, staring me down. If you figure 4 minutes on average a video, that's 160 minutes-ish. Let's round it up to three hours, taking into account all the unpackaging and note-taking, etc. So I have a solid 3 hours worth of screenings ahead of me. It is a Monday night. I have exactly 4 weeks between myself, a person with zero experience launching a film festival, and my future self, a person with...some experience. It remains to be seen how useful/successful that experience will be. Overwhelm-o-meter = 5 (scale of 1-10).