When I was first presented with the film festival idea, I was very excited. I was going to be able to create a film which would be viewed in public. At that time, I had NO IDEA what-so-ever of the work and mini-projects involved in creating this film festival. Brochures, artwork, flyers, advertisements, invitations and much more had to be completed. My topic was Cultural Diversity and Equity. My group and I focused on gender equity and sub-focused on diversity and the joining together of different races. I was glad that my topic was Cultural Diversity and Equity. I've always had a strong opinion on gender equity. Even thought I was excited to be working with TIG, I along with so many other classmates doubted that we would and could actually finish this HUGE project. We were slowly proved wrong...
My group memebers weren't exactly the best people to work with but they had their qualities. Kevin and Thivasanth both take orders and listen very well so that was an advantage of having them as group members. They would allow me to take charge and they would listen to the assignments I approached them with. There was a lot of research and planning to do. I didn't have much help most of the times so my group and I progressed slowly. The research was interesting. I learned more facts and statistics and a lot more about how women suffered inequity. The planning and putting all my information together was hard! I didn't know what information would fit my movie best and where to put it. Fortunately, I had a lot of guidance and advise from Mrs. McDonald and Ms. Roliff and many of the TIG staff. My group and I didn't cooperate very well. The two guys wouldn't work a lot and I was stressed often with the workload that hasn't yet been completed. There have been some tremendously difficult times. The first draft of our movie was HORRIBLE! When Mrs.McDonald reviewed it and said she was "disappointed", I was so worried and let down. I editted my movie and changed 95% of the film. The second review was much better and I felt more assured. I worked to modify my film and enhance it with more flash and special effects. While I was working on that, my group members worked on our brochure. It was a total DISASTER! They practically just copied and pasted all the text! That's when the teachers came in and saved our brochure. They editted and re-editted and then editted some more and maybe just three more times to finally...*drum rolls* be able to call it a "finished copy". After maybe a whole month of editting, we finally were able to photocopy it and turn it into a brochure! While the brochure was on its way to completion, so was our film. With help from our class flashmasters, Anson and Alex, I was able to add much more flash conponents to make my movie more "attractive". At the same time, I didn't want my film to look dramatic and over-used of special effects that I kept the flash scenes simple. I wanted all my scenes to blend and flow. Once everything was perfect and even the advisors said so, I began to decorate the display boards and put in the finishing touches to the entire project. The boards were a piece of cake and very enjoyable. They were, along with learning flash, probably my favourite aspect of the last 6 months. I disliked the editting of my film the most. But boy am I glad I don't have to edit anymore. The most exciting part of the project was probably receiving letters and mail from organizations in another country. I have never received mail from out of Canada before so that was really cool.
After months of work and tons of stress-attacks, I can only say that it has been a journey to remember and a project to reminisce back at years from now. I have learned so much through this project. Not only how to work and use programms like FlashMX, Photoshop and Windows MovieMaker but the importance of teamwork and cooperation, patience and tolerace and most importantly, how to balance and plan out work so everything would not be cramped. I definitely think I can take on another project like this if the opportunity ever appears again. I'm so proud of my work and everyone else's as well. The night of "Globalize This!" went extremely well and it was the perfect ending to months of hard work. Through so many complications and obstacles during this time, I don't regret working on this film festival. I survived with no regrets but with more knowledge and skills. Thank you TakingITGlobal, HP, RBC and Mrs.McDonald and Ms.Roliff for this wonderful opportunity to explore the issues that really matter. It has been a stressful but wonderful 6 months! It all works out in the end....=D
