Cucalorus Reflection

I really enjoyed Cucalorus and wish I had been going to it my whole time at UNCW. Many things were how I expected them to be and others were not. One thing that surprised me was how weird some parts of the festival were. There was this “mime” that showed up at the beginning of two of my blocks. At the first block, I and the crowd were very confused. I was not sure if some random person had just wandered off the street or not and had decided to perform. I meet a couple of the filmmakers. Most of them I was glad to meet but one of the filmmakers I wish I had not. She was weird which I guess is understandable since her film played in the block of weird short films but after hearing her talk and seeing some of her reactions to the Q and A questions it really soured me on her film. Besides that, I had a really great time and my favorite part was seeing the wide range of films that had very different styles and topics. One thing that I learned is that if you have an idea no matter how abstract or weird it may be that you should go ahead and make the film because there are always places it can be shown at. One thing that surprised me was how laid back the festival and all the filmmakers were. They all seemed very happy to share and talk about their work. If I was presenting, I would know now that how people perceive you during a Q&A can change how they view your film. I also learned that you should not do a Q&A if you are not going to answer most of the questions and have a mental breakdown if someone asks you a joke question. Besides that, one filmmaker I really enjoyed this festival. I feel like I learned a lot of new approaches to filmmaking. I also learned some interesting techniques about animation that I think will help me during creating my own animated films.