By Marriya Schwarz
Originally published in Dog Street Journal's February 2020 issue.
The Global Film Festival is an annual program run by William & Mary to engage students and the Williamsburg community at large on films and the film industry. This year’s Global Film festival ran officially from January 30, 2020 - February 2, 2020. As a graduating senior looking to enter the entertainment field, this program is an incredible opportunity to meet alumni and learn some tips. Follow my anxious, soon-to-be-entering-the-real-world energy (and my iPhone camera) as I walk through a bunch of the events offered through the program, like competitions, screenings, and workshops.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24th:
For William & Mary students, the Global Film Festival kicks off with Swem Library and Reeder Media Center’s 24 Speed Filmmaking Competition. In this competition, student and alumni teams are presented with a prop, a line of dialogue, and a genre to produce a 3-minute video in 24 hours. This year’s prop was an “I Voted Today” sticker and the line of dialogue was “I don’t want to roar.” Each team gets to choose from two randomly selected genres. For my team, Morton 3rd Floor, we had to choose between War (Non-Fiction) and Adventure (Non-Fiction). We ended up choosing Adventure (Non-Fiction) and writing a mockumentary of the making of a 24 Speed video.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29th:
At the student films screening for the 24 Speed competition, five teams out of twenty picked up awards. Winning the Audience Award for Best Film was “How to Solve a Conspiracy: Justice Behooves” by Team Low Noon Productions for the genre ‘Speculation.’ For jury awards, “Jolene” by Team Babies Only for the genre ‘Adaptation’ scored the win for Best Interpretation of Genre. “16th Annual Adventure” by Team Morton 3rd Floor for the genre ‘Adventure (Non-Fiction)’ took Best Use of Dialogue. “Becoming a Provost” by Team Nevada for the genre ‘Training’ won for Best Use of Prop. And overall, “Nut Job” by Team The Presidential Suite for the genre ‘Film Noir’ took the Jury Award for Best Film.
See the student films here.
See the alumni films here.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 30th:
For my first workshop, I attended “One Weird Trick for Literary Success” by Kate Reed Petty ‘06. Both a William & Mary and Improv Theatre (I.T.) alum., Petty’s creative writing work has appeared in Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Her upcoming debut novel, TRUE STORY, will be published on August 4, 2020 by Viking Books. Her workshop centered around how the publishing industry works and how to get your name out there. She recommended sending out work regularly to literary magazines and other venues instead of waiting for someone to pick you up to write the next great American novel. In her words, “commit 500 little things instead of waiting for a lightning strike.”
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31st:
At 1 PM, I attended “The Media Landscape Isn’t Shifting, It’s on Fire Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Marketing” by Jess Novak ‘06. Currently, Novak works as an “editorial director, content marketer, and SEO expert [and] works with clients ranging from Ghost Democracy to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.” Her workshop centered around what people are looking for in this ever changing industry of media and entertainment. One of the biggest takeaways was when she stated “F*** grad school, you guys.” She later explained that people really didn’t care that she had an MFA in Creative Writing. Occasionally people might say, “Don’t you know a lot about poetry?” And she would say, “I do,” but that was the extent of it.
At 2:30 PM, I attended “Producing Your First Play with a Limited Budget” with Elliot Wegman ‘12. Recently, he wrote and directed an original play, Unbecoming, at the Coalition Theater in Richmond. His workshop centered around how to write a script that would be more low-budget to produce and how to market a play. One of Wegman’s biggest points of advice was to make sure that your play has as little special effects, intense costuming, bizarre props, etc. as possible. In his words, “Nobody’s gonna be coming in on a wire.” His big takeaway was “for the love of god, get press photos” to use in marketing.
At 5 PM, I attended a screening of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which was free for students at the Kimball Theatre. The Russian Music Ensemble opened the event with traditional music before an introduction by Professor Rich Lowry. Following the screening, there was a Q&A with Production Designer, David Crank ‘82. Upon being asked about Chris Evans’ famous sweater in the film, Crank said, “Nobody talked about his sweater at all [during filming]. But it took on a life of its own.” One of his favorite details about the film is a large dollhouse that is in the background of a few of the shots. The set designer had taken extra care to “[make] every little window a murder scene. There was a guy hanging out of the attic on a noose.” Although not fully seen in the film, they had turned the dollhouse into a bar (“Worst thing you can do with a children’s toy,” Crank commented).
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1st:
At 10 AM, I participated in “Working in Late Night and Finding My Career Path” with Alanna Wildermuth ‘12. Currently, Wildermuth works as a production secretary and intern coordinator for the late night show, Desus and Mero on Showtime. For her job, she works on ensuring that the cast and crew has everything that they need to be successful, whether that be office supplies or La Croix. (“If you’re into La Croix, don’t worry. It’s in the office, and it’s gold.”) She describes the show as “the most illustrious show on late night,” and it is mainly improvised. On one momentous occasion, Wildermuth got to experience the great Lin-Manuel Miranda up close. Alanna Wildermuth said she “got him his Earl Grey tea. I don’t think he took any honey or sugar... He nodded [at me]. His eyeballs matched with mine.”
At 12:15 PM, I had a 15-minute networking session with Kate Reed Petty from my Thursday workshop. These networking sessions are something new from the Career Center and students could sign up for these meetings prior to January 30th. It was a great opportunity to meet an incredible alum one-on-one and get information that was particularly tailored to my situation. Petty was incredibly helpful and clearly willing to help me out in any way that she could, even offering to send me a future email with even more resources.
At 1 PM, I attended “Documentary Storytelling - The Art of Interviewing” with Catherine Orr Giovanetti ‘05. Giovanetti is the co-founder of StoryMine, which is a production company that “creates documentary-style videos for mission-driven organizations.” Her work has been featured in The New York Times and National Geographic. The workshop focused on the idea of using interviewing for storytelling and how to ask the questions that form a full story. When defining story, Giovanetti commented that “a story is something where you’re listening and want to find out what happens next.” You also want to capture emotion and conflict to create an engaging documentary, which can mean any kind of conflict. Giovanetti related this point to ordering her lunch from the Cheese Shop earlier that day. “Do I want focaccia [bread] or do I want French [bread]? It’s a little conflict. It’s not going to win you an Oscar, but it’s a conflict.”
At 2:30 PM, I sat in on “The Producer Life: Making a Career in Digital Media Production” by Aaron Barksdale ‘13, who was able to connect with us over Zoom video technology. Currently, he is an associate producer at VICE Media where he produces documentaries, celebrity interviews, and short-form videos for social media. From the view of his apartment in Brooklyn, Barksdale walked us through the changing world of digital media and how to use various platforms to engage with different audiences. According to Aaron Barksdale, “the goal of a media company is to be everywhere your audience is.” Towards the end of the workshop, he led us through a pitching meeting where we got experience on serving in a producer role. For those who were interested in a career in journalism or just in creating content, Barksdale suggested working on projects in the Reeder Media Center, joining the Flat Hat, and he even suggested joining our own Dog Street Journal!
For the past three years, the Global Film Festival has been my favorite William & Mary tradition. From playing my own evil twin in a 24 Speed Video to meeting a real-life showrunner who was willing to provide me with an internship in the industry, this annual event is perfect for people who want to make it into the entertainment industry… or are just really passionate about Chris Evans’ Knives Out sweater.