October 1, 2013

Hello! And welcome back to the Carleton Film Studies blog!

This is my second post for the blog, and just to recap: my name is Alex Haggert, I’m an upper year student in Film Studies also learning French and Sign Language, and I drink a lot of tea / watch a lot of Netflix. That’s pretty much me in a nutshell. Oh, here’s a picture as well! If you ever see me around campus (I pretty much live in St. Pat’s building) and want to talk film, just say so!

To start this job off the right way, I thought I could tell the details of last weekend: over which I slept 5 hours a night, walked probably 10 km a day and watched almost 100 short films and about 3 features in just a few days – and loved every single fleeting minute of it. I and two other Carleton students were doing our practicum with the OIAF this year, and were each assigned separate jobs for the festival.

One of us was sent to TAC – The Animation Conference, held this year at the Museum of Nature, which acts as a professional industry-specific addition to the festival, where people can network, pitch ideas to producers and executives, learn more about recent advancements in the business and enjoy getting to know their competition.

Myself and the third student ‘intern’ were assigned the role of Jury Coordinators – a wonderful upper-year student named Caitlin was given the Feature Films Jury, and I was given the Short Films Jury. The entire festival was going to be more stressful for the juries and the staff for two reasons: one of the highest film entry counts ever seen and selected from by the OIAF, and the closing ceremonies were moved up an entire day from the usual Sunday evening to the Saturday evening, meaning the selection of winning films had to be finalized by Saturday morning! This was of course due to the second last episode of Breaking Bad airing on Sunday evening. Just kidding! Or am I?

Since we didn’t have other responsibilities on Wednesday before 5 pm, Caitlin and I also got the opportunity to run a “Fast Track” networking and pitching session at TAC all day. This consisted of setting up stations where the executives and higher ups that had agreed to participate would sit and be approached by earnest animators and storytellers who were trying to get their ideas out there. Mostly our responsibilities were: ringing a bell every 9 minutes and making sure those eager creators got a move on so the next nine minute session could take place. It was a lot tougher than it sounds! In return, however, we had an incredible chance to watch a pitching session first hand and see a bit more of the business side of film.

Now, on to the role I played for the rest of the five days! The juries each consisted of three wonderful animators with varied tastes – which led to some interesting discussions about the prize winners… Our jobs as Jury Coordinators essentially consisted of taking these six out to breakfasts, lunches and dinners (and drinks and desserts!), calling cabs, giving walking instructions, setting meet-up times for the screenings and of course, attending said screenings with our juries. There wasn’t very much pre-festival work to be done, aside from setting up binders in which the jury could take notes at the screenings, so the real work was over the entirety of the festival.

Caitlin and I met our jury members for breakfast each day at the hotel, and planned the rest of the day. In the Short Films Competition, there were 5 separate screenings to attend over a 48 hours period, from Wednesday evening to Friday evening. This sounds daunting but it was nothing compared to the Feature Films Competition, which had 9 features to screen (meaning 1 film Wednesday, then 4 on both Thursday and Friday!). Then you add in deliberation time to compare notes and choose winners, as well as other interesting festival events, talks and meet & greets, and a wild party each night, and you’ve got a VERY packed weekend!

It was so rewarding to see the inner workings of a festival play out – how the competition is structured and how the jury works together to select the best of the best. Both juries were chalk full of insightful commentaries on the films they saw, both in their merits and downfalls. I had never before been exposed to that much animation and artistic talent all in one place. The size and structure of the OIAF makes the entire weekend feel like one big family laughing and watching films together.

I definitely think that this experience opened my eyes to the world of film festivals and I now realize just how important the festival atmosphere and programming can be to the world of Film Studies. If you like being a part of the discourse in your classes – if you enjoy seeing films and hearing or reading about the filmmakers who made that happen – if you find yourself dreaming up (or actually hosting) themed nights or weekend movie marathons and getting really excited about choosing the perfect films to screen, then thinking about a career in the realm of film festivals might be a great place to start!

If you have any questions about the festival or the practicum I completed, feel free to send ‘em my way and I’ll do my best! Tweet me! https://twitter.com/allyoxenfree

Other great places to continue your “cineducation” or even get started thinking of careers in film studies:

• The Carleton Film Society: holding weekly screening and planning great group events
• Carleton’s MA Film Studies Program: now offering two streams, a thesis stream and an intensive stream with internship!
• The Ottawa Film Society: a place to widen your network of cinephiles past the Carleton U boundaries!
• The Independent Filmmakers’ Cooperative of Ottawa (IFCO): if you want to take some neat how-to classes, network with local filmmakers, or gain access to equipment rental – check out IFCO’s membership options

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September 25, 2013

Welcome to the official blog for Carleton University’s Film Studies Program! This blog will be updated weekly and is intended for Film Studies students whether it’s a major, minor or simply an elective). I hope to write about various topics that are affecting the Film Studies community here at Carleton, within the Ottawa area or simply events that have affected ‘cinepheliacs’ worldwide.

To start with, I’d like to use this first short post to introduce myself and the Film Studies department. My name is Alex Haggert, I’m a student at Carleton majoring in Film Studies, with a minor in French. I also enjoy sign language, Netflix and my 7-8 daily cups of tea. I grew up in Windsor, Ontario until 17 years old when I picked up my life and thought that the capital would be a great place to study politics. I was dreadfully wrong – not about studying politics in the capital – but about myself, studying politics. Thankfully I took Introduction to Film as an elective and by the time the winter break came around, I had already changed my major.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of studying topics ranging from film technology to national cinemas (I’ve taken both Mexican and British) to genres of film (example: horror, musical and science fiction) to the act of spectatorship and the role of a filming location. Carleton’s Film Studies Department makes sure that there is a course for an extremely wide array of interests.

This year I was able to partake of a fourth-year practicum, which is a sort of placement/internship done locally that you can receive a class credit for here at Carleton. I’ve just completed my practicum with the 2013 Ottawa International Animation Festival. It was an incredible opportunity for me to get more involved with the local festival scene as well as meet filmmakers and artists from around the world.

Over five days the festival consisted of 9 feature films and 98 shorts, all various styles of animation. If you have never been to the festival before, it is extremely worthwhile and an eye-opening experience. A great way to see it on a student budget is to become a volunteer, which gives you access to all screenings and workshops!

In my next blog post I’ll be discussing how exactly a practicum works and telling you in much more detail all about the 2013 Animation Festival! Stay tuned! To keep up with me personally and to get updates about this blog and its posts, follow my twitter account: www.twitter.com/allyoxenfree

Things to watch for in the coming weeks:

• Power of the Arts National Forum: happening at Carleton this weekend, a large conference discussing the use of arts to inspire social change! Registration is closed BUT it looks like you can tune in via webcast! www.carleton.ca/fass/power-of-the-arts-forum/
• One World Film Festival – happening this Thursday the 26th to Saturday the 28th, an amazing festival designed to showcase filmmaking centred on human rights and environmental issues. www.oneworldarts.ca
• Laurence Kardish – an informal talk about film curating and programming with a Carleton Graduate and former senior curator at MoMA! http://carleton.ca/filmstudies/special-event/