If you haven't assumed by now, the NINE DAYS (which is LESS THAN
TWO WEEKS) leading up to the Festival can be... let's just say, 'quite
involved'. There aren't too many figurative chickens running around
with their figurative heads cut off yet - after all, we try to save that kind
of spectacle for the main event, right? - but there is still lots to be done.
That said, there is lots BEING done!
I'm usually stuffed in a room working on Marketing this and Marketing
that until my blinking has coordinated with the clicking of my mouse
button (she says, somewhat prone to exaggeration at times), but I do
hear tales of the 'outside world' on occasion.
So today (tonight?), I bring you an exciting preview of... the FUTURE!
Do you know where you - and your children! - will be on Sunday,
March 29th at 5pm? Here's a hint:
Thank Allison and George in the Outreach and Education department
for the video! Looks like an awesome event - so don't miss out!
To learn more about youthFEST this year and purchase tickets, please
visit: http://www.sarasotafilmfestival.com/2009/festival/youthfest/
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
I'm thinking of a word that starts with 'V' and ends in 'olunteer'
Wow, it's Monday morning again. I need to go to sleep so that it's... later on Monday morning.
We had a decent turn out for a Sunday volunteer orientation. I wasn't sure if I was expecting much more than crickets chirping in the corners of the room. (And let's just say I would NOT recommend the use of crickets as film festival volunteers... I won't say they'd be a bit lacking in interpersonal skills or a horrible nuisance in a darkened theatre or create an awkward situation when you have to fill out a form explaining how your volunteers have been fatally stepped on...)
But we have volunteers - and more volunteers! But we would still love to have more volunteers! More volunteers!
Volunteers!
Non-cricket volunteers!
That's all.
You should volunteer.
-Wendy
We had a decent turn out for a Sunday volunteer orientation. I wasn't sure if I was expecting much more than crickets chirping in the corners of the room. (And let's just say I would NOT recommend the use of crickets as film festival volunteers... I won't say they'd be a bit lacking in interpersonal skills or a horrible nuisance in a darkened theatre or create an awkward situation when you have to fill out a form explaining how your volunteers have been fatally stepped on...)
But we have volunteers - and more volunteers! But we would still love to have more volunteers! More volunteers!
Volunteers!
Non-cricket volunteers!
That's all.
You should volunteer.
-Wendy
Friday, March 13, 2009
Artist's Oaf Is Mall Fave*
The cat's out of the bag. The jig is up. Uh... All's well that ends well...?
What I mean to say is - the Sarasota Film Festival announced it's line-up last week. So now everyone knows everything that they absolutely can't miss (160+ films! Parties! Tributes! 160+ films! Events! Special Guests! Let's not forget the 160+ films!) - and it was all wrapped up in a neat little press release. (You can read all eleven neat little pages of it here: http://www.sarasotafilmfestival.com/2009/news/latest-news/ )
Now I'm no journalism expert, but where's the fun in that? Who on earth wants to just SIT and READ all the information they want at precisely the moment they want to know it? After all, the suspense is in the waiting! (Am I right or am I right? You can tell me I'm right; it's okay, I can handle it.)
So what would I do? Why, release all the information in a press release of course.
Except.
In aggravating anagram form!
You don't really want to know all the stars who are coming... because once you do know, it just ruins the surprise of not-knowing. But a press release full of anagrams that you have to tediously solve keeps the surprise alive longer - at least, for a few infuriating increments of precious time!
I mean, what if I told you that the Sarasota Film Festival special guests would include Known Acids, Honorary Dowels, or even Newsroom Ninja?
I can tell you're excited.
'Who are these people?!' you would say.
You would wrack your brain. 'Who? Who!'
You would lose sleep.
(And I'd be really sorry about that. You really should get a decent night's sleep.)
And you would get to the Festival and say, 'Ohmygoodness! Nick Dawson! Woody Harrelson! Norman Jewison! I should have known!'
But like I said, I'm no journalism expert. So you go ahead and look forward to seeing Steve Buscemi, Illeana Douglas, Bill Paxton, Richard Schiff, Jon Voight and all the rest. You know they're coming. How exciting.
(No, seriously. That's pretty exciting.)
-Wendy
*Let's see you come up with a better anagram of 'Sarasota Film Festival'.
What I mean to say is - the Sarasota Film Festival announced it's line-up last week. So now everyone knows everything that they absolutely can't miss (160+ films! Parties! Tributes! 160+ films! Events! Special Guests! Let's not forget the 160+ films!) - and it was all wrapped up in a neat little press release. (You can read all eleven neat little pages of it here: http://www.sarasotafilmfestival.com/2009/news/latest-news/ )
Now I'm no journalism expert, but where's the fun in that? Who on earth wants to just SIT and READ all the information they want at precisely the moment they want to know it? After all, the suspense is in the waiting! (Am I right or am I right? You can tell me I'm right; it's okay, I can handle it.)
So what would I do? Why, release all the information in a press release of course.
Except.
In aggravating anagram form!
You don't really want to know all the stars who are coming... because once you do know, it just ruins the surprise of not-knowing. But a press release full of anagrams that you have to tediously solve keeps the surprise alive longer - at least, for a few infuriating increments of precious time!
I mean, what if I told you that the Sarasota Film Festival special guests would include Known Acids, Honorary Dowels, or even Newsroom Ninja?
I can tell you're excited.
'Who are these people?!' you would say.
You would wrack your brain. 'Who? Who!'
You would lose sleep.
(And I'd be really sorry about that. You really should get a decent night's sleep.)
And you would get to the Festival and say, 'Ohmygoodness! Nick Dawson! Woody Harrelson! Norman Jewison! I should have known!'
But like I said, I'm no journalism expert. So you go ahead and look forward to seeing Steve Buscemi, Illeana Douglas, Bill Paxton, Richard Schiff, Jon Voight and all the rest. You know they're coming. How exciting.
(No, seriously. That's pretty exciting.)
-Wendy
*Let's see you come up with a better anagram of 'Sarasota Film Festival'.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Box Office is Open!
The Sarasota Film Festival Box Office opened on March 2nd. Visit in person* at 1991 Main Street (Main Plaza), adjacent to the Regal Hollywood 20 Theatre. Or - buy your advance passes and tickets to events online at www.SarasotaFilmFestival.com !
*Please note that the Box Office is currently open from 11am to 6pm (weekdays) and 12noon to 5pm (weekends).
Thanks for your support!
*Please note that the Box Office is currently open from 11am to 6pm (weekdays) and 12noon to 5pm (weekends).
Thanks for your support!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Magic of Thinking SFF
The most glorious thing in the world is to have an email inbox page entirely of messages from one day of work. On a Friday. ALL about work-related things (nothing frivolous here!). And to wake up to more on both Saturday and Sunday.
I don't mean that facetiously (or sarcastically, or...) - Honest. If you think I do mean it that way (which I know can be difficult to tell over the internet), then read it and reread it - again and again - until it sounds sincere. I'll wait.
Finished?
Good.
You know what's exciting about all those emails? They mean that people are getting things done, working hard, making progress - not settling for a 9-5/Mon-Fri to make this film festival thing happen. People doing their best to create the best ten days of entertainment that they can. How cool is that?
I'm impressed.
And as much as I try to live away from my computer on the weekends, I felt compelled to check my inbox a few times - because I knew the energy was there (and thus, emails would follow). I knew there were things to be done and the SFF staff never seems to stop!
("Magic 8-Ball, do they ever sleep?"
"My sources say No."
"Never?"
"Very Doubtful."
"Never ever?"
"Are you kidding? It's only 26 days until the festival!
...I Mean... Outlook Not So Good.")
So, all I can do is keep in it, keep up with it, and keep checking if there's something in my inbox that I can help out with...
And I was right. Something's there.
It just keeps gaining momentum.
Wendy
I don't mean that facetiously (or sarcastically, or...) - Honest. If you think I do mean it that way (which I know can be difficult to tell over the internet), then read it and reread it - again and again - until it sounds sincere. I'll wait.
Finished?
Good.
You know what's exciting about all those emails? They mean that people are getting things done, working hard, making progress - not settling for a 9-5/Mon-Fri to make this film festival thing happen. People doing their best to create the best ten days of entertainment that they can. How cool is that?
I'm impressed.
And as much as I try to live away from my computer on the weekends, I felt compelled to check my inbox a few times - because I knew the energy was there (and thus, emails would follow). I knew there were things to be done and the SFF staff never seems to stop!
("Magic 8-Ball, do they ever sleep?"
"My sources say No."
"Never?"
"Very Doubtful."
"Never ever?"
"Are you kidding? It's only 26 days until the festival!
...I Mean... Outlook Not So Good.")
So, all I can do is keep in it, keep up with it, and keep checking if there's something in my inbox that I can help out with...
And I was right. Something's there.
It just keeps gaining momentum.
Wendy
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Trouble With Time Travel
Dropped the ball on this blog thing for a couple weeks it seems ("Seventeen days, to be exact," says the snooty voice of my blogging subconscious) - Whoops.
Well, imagine a flurried-hurried montage with fast-forwarding noises for a soundtrack, and the past few/several/many/lots of days that I haven't blogged about look something like this:
Fight with myspace. Fight with myspace. Hate myspace and profess love of facebook. Re-learn some html and CSS and fix myspace. Tolerate myspace again. Make random updates to social sites (EXCEPT the blog, mind you). Read over website copy. Read other marketing copy. Write copy for the SFF marketing department. Rewrite copy. REWRITE copy. Website training. Skip off to Cape Canaveral for a few days (just me, not the rest of SFF). Valentine's Day (a whole other crazy story). Staff meeting that doesn't last eight hours. Marketing copy. Copy. Copy copy copy.
So... What's new with the Festival, you ask fervently.
Tons!
And I still can't tell you about it just yet.
(I might just be being mean at this point. You'll never know.)
Instead, I will tell you one of my goals for this year's Festival. By which I mean to say, the goal my sister wants me to have. Which is: high-five William H. Macy. Which is a problem. Because Mr. W.H. Macy was a guest last year. So that means my goal for the 2009 Sarasota Film Festival is actually to build a time machine - which is a bit time consuming on top of all this proofing and copy-writing.* So we'll see how it goes.
Wendy
(*Secretly, I succeeded with the time machine goal - and I'm actually getting all the completed marketing copy and proofing from my future self.** I would turn it in sooner, except I usually talk to my future self for a few hours,*** trying to weasel information about the festival's success this year. Unfortunately, I'm much better at keeping secrets than weaseling out information.)
(**Don't tell Michele. She thinks I've been working hard!)
(***I can talk to my future self without disrupting the space-time continuum since I've had years of preparation - due to my aforementioned twin sister. I don't recommend anyone else take the risk - not without consulting Back to the Future, at any rate.)
Well, imagine a flurried-hurried montage with fast-forwarding noises for a soundtrack, and the past few/several/many/lots of days that I haven't blogged about look something like this:
Fight with myspace. Fight with myspace. Hate myspace and profess love of facebook. Re-learn some html and CSS and fix myspace. Tolerate myspace again. Make random updates to social sites (EXCEPT the blog, mind you). Read over website copy. Read other marketing copy. Write copy for the SFF marketing department. Rewrite copy. REWRITE copy. Website training. Skip off to Cape Canaveral for a few days (just me, not the rest of SFF). Valentine's Day (a whole other crazy story). Staff meeting that doesn't last eight hours. Marketing copy. Copy. Copy copy copy.
So... What's new with the Festival, you ask fervently.
Tons!
And I still can't tell you about it just yet.
(I might just be being mean at this point. You'll never know.)
Instead, I will tell you one of my goals for this year's Festival. By which I mean to say, the goal my sister wants me to have. Which is: high-five William H. Macy. Which is a problem. Because Mr. W.H. Macy was a guest last year. So that means my goal for the 2009 Sarasota Film Festival is actually to build a time machine - which is a bit time consuming on top of all this proofing and copy-writing.* So we'll see how it goes.
Wendy
(*Secretly, I succeeded with the time machine goal - and I'm actually getting all the completed marketing copy and proofing from my future self.** I would turn it in sooner, except I usually talk to my future self for a few hours,*** trying to weasel information about the festival's success this year. Unfortunately, I'm much better at keeping secrets than weaseling out information.)
(**Don't tell Michele. She thinks I've been working hard!)
(***I can talk to my future self without disrupting the space-time continuum since I've had years of preparation - due to my aforementioned twin sister. I don't recommend anyone else take the risk - not without consulting Back to the Future, at any rate.)
Monday, February 2, 2009
Waving the White Flag of Retreat
The white flag of 'Staff Retreat', that is.
I have been in a staff meeting all day. And I mean that literally - well, very nearly quite literally... just about. Essentially. The SFF Staff Retreat (held very conveniently at the SFF Staff Office) was scheduled from 10am to 4pm today. A few people had to leave earlier in the day - but the rest of us soldiered on. And then some. I didn't get out until 6pm - and even then, the rest of my fellow SFF compatriots were still in the thick of it. (They said to me, 'Go, Wendy! Be free! Let us live vicariously through you!')
But it was a good meeting - plenty of interesting, useful things going on. (No, that's not code for "boring". It was just more of a 'sitting-in-chairs' kind of adventure, rather than the obvious moment-to-moment, day-to-day, thrilling-action-adventure that you might expect from the SFF.) We went over (very nearly quite literally) everything that would be happening or needed to happen from now through to the end of the festival.
You know what that means? I now know what EVERYONE is doing - and WHEN and HOW and WHY. Did they not realize they were giving a mere intern that kind of power? ("Knowledge is power!" Because the inspirational posters in my fifth grade classroom told me so!) The SFF secrets are mine! All mine! [insert diabolical laugh here] But I can't tell you all about it yet, dear readers... But not because "then I'd have to kill you!" or anything. No, more because they'd probably kill me - cement blocks on my feet, conveniently falling off a yacht into Sarasota Bay, that kind of thing. So the most diabolical thing I'll do... is blog about it some more! [insert slightly-less-diabolical laugh here] You know, when they tell me I can.
Until then.
Wendy
I have been in a staff meeting all day. And I mean that literally - well, very nearly quite literally... just about. Essentially. The SFF Staff Retreat (held very conveniently at the SFF Staff Office) was scheduled from 10am to 4pm today. A few people had to leave earlier in the day - but the rest of us soldiered on. And then some. I didn't get out until 6pm - and even then, the rest of my fellow SFF compatriots were still in the thick of it. (They said to me, 'Go, Wendy! Be free! Let us live vicariously through you!')
But it was a good meeting - plenty of interesting, useful things going on. (No, that's not code for "boring". It was just more of a 'sitting-in-chairs' kind of adventure, rather than the obvious moment-to-moment, day-to-day, thrilling-action-adventure that you might expect from the SFF.) We went over (very nearly quite literally) everything that would be happening or needed to happen from now through to the end of the festival.
You know what that means? I now know what EVERYONE is doing - and WHEN and HOW and WHY. Did they not realize they were giving a mere intern that kind of power? ("Knowledge is power!" Because the inspirational posters in my fifth grade classroom told me so!) The SFF secrets are mine! All mine! [insert diabolical laugh here] But I can't tell you all about it yet, dear readers... But not because "then I'd have to kill you!" or anything. No, more because they'd probably kill me - cement blocks on my feet, conveniently falling off a yacht into Sarasota Bay, that kind of thing. So the most diabolical thing I'll do... is blog about it some more! [insert slightly-less-diabolical laugh here] You know, when they tell me I can.
Until then.
Wendy
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