I declared 2018 as the year I’d start becoming a filmmaker. Fortunately for me, The Austin School of Film has a wonderful program where one can intern and for every 30 hours worked, qualify for a “free” class. That’s how I like to think of bartering my time for classes. Normally, I help to keep the facilities clean and do whatever tasks need to be done to support film students and coworking members. Since I’ve been interning, the biggest event I’ve worked so far has been the Transform Fest, created by women, featuring women filmmakers. The night before the event, I helped clean the facilities. One of my on-going pet peeves is the dirtiness of the carpets. Lucky me chose the broken vacuum cleaner before being told that the OTHER vacuum cleaner was the one that worked.
Since we set up a temporary VIP area, I was determined to make it look more presentable than it currently did; so I ran the working vacuum cleaner over the two carpets again. Just then, one of the resident filmmakers, who use the coworking facilities, plopped down on the couch, reminding me of why I don’t live with anyone: if I’m cleaning up, then everyone in the house should be cleaning up! Nonetheless, the area was tidier and he had a terrific nap.On the day of the event, I arrived three hours before the doors officially opened. Of course, I left my apartment late, drove on empty and didn’t have time to gas up. So as I drove with the gas light on, I thought about how I’d have to gas it up after the event, which I don’t like doing after sunset. (Well on my way to little old lady-hood!)
Fortunately, one of the co-organizers asked me to go the nearby grocery store to pick up ten bunches of flowers and tampons–she was real specific about the brand and kind of tampons. I thought about how both items were fertility-related. Before purchasing a variety of flower bouquets and the exact box of tampons requested, I happily gassed up my car at the nearby station. After viewing two trailers and sixteen short films, which all fell within one of several categories, the winner from each category (narrative, experimental, animation and documentary) was revealed by the industry expert woman who judged it. The audience voted for their overall favorite film: a documentary about the senior Ms Texas pageant. I counted the ballots and saw that the most popular films involved mothers.
I finally took a picture with the other usher after the event was over. We’d greeted everyone after they cleared the ticket area, showed them the layout of the facilities, pointed out the vendors and escorted VIPs to their designated area. As a matter of fact, for the first couple of VIPs, I mixed drinks for them because the front of the house hadn’t gotten into an organized groove and I didn’t want to entangle myself. The plan worked.
Another thing that worked out as well was the decision to allow the Sunday volunteers to clean up after the event! Win-win for all because we were tired and often times, there’s not enough work for most of the volunteers outside of special projects.