The first time I experienced the Arts Fest was by complete coincidence. I was living in Denton at the time and I took a Sunday afternoon to drive around down town Dallas hoping to kindle adventure. ADVENTURE was exactly what I came across that sunny Sunday afternoon in 2006. I was driving down main and as I was approaching deep ellum I noticed the road was closed. Baffled, I decided to park the car near by and scope out the scene.
The next year I replied to a post in search of video interviewers for a local arts fest. I applied, drove to Dallas for my job interview and landed the gig! Lo and behold the festival that I would be covering was the Deep Ellum Arts Fest. This was the year I truly learned more about the fest, their purpose, history and the community. It was an exciting time, 2007 to be a part of this fest! There were bands like Spoonfed Tribe, Joint Method and Forever the Sickest Kids. There were bands on the verge of signing into a career boom and bands looking to further connect their ties with DFW. There were bands looking to perform an all around artistic set to bring their audience to higher consciousness and others just ecstatic to be a part of the festival. It was also the year it snowed on Easter Weekend!
For part of the project, I was able to bring on board the entire film crew and gear. I scheduled about 7 of my fellow film student classmates from different parts of DFW for shifts to man the technical aspects of the production. I served as coordinator, liason, reporter, camera girl, and make shift gaffer for all 3 main days of the festival. I drove back and forth each day to my home in Denton to make this happen. It was a fun experience. It was a project that provided 7 of us aspiring film and television professionals a chance to live it for reals. The rush of lining up interviews with artists and dealing with their managers, and setting up our rigs for the interview space was exhilarating and let’s not deny it, a bit stressful too. There were about 4 other women also conducting interviews, because all together we have about 20 some bands to cover in just 3 days.
As a very unfair result, we never got to see the compilements of the footage we shot. I forgive, I know things happen and sometimes editing work can be overwhelming- I know, I’ve been there. But I also believe it’s better late than never. And the bands most importantly, were looking forward to the coverage we produced.
I know that one day those tapes will come up and surface some how. And oh how embarrassing, my first year of being a reporter… you’ll see mistakes, and awkward moments since after all we never had the chance to edit any of it.
I learned so much from this collaboration and it left me feeling proud of what I could accomplish and bring together. In this case I busted my butt for the company that hired me, but it made me realize the value of my network, talent, ability and will. I pulled through on my end. I got it done. We learned so much and have since improved our skills and traits, and I would totally do it all over again for a fest anytime. Afterall, now, I have the formula down. ;)
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