“The strength of the team is each member,” said Phil Jackson

“The strength of the team is each member,” said Phil Jackson

“The strength of the team is each member,” said Phil Jackson. “The strength of each member is the team.” From October 8th to October 13th, I was at a festival with a group of five individuals, including myself, and I’ve learned a large number of lessons from the event. Each of us had a unique role that helped put the entire event in place. From picking an idea for our five-minute short film to dreading to send in the final work a minute before the deadline was a nerve-wracking but an enjoyable educational experience of filming.

When I was in high school, I didn’t get myself involved in activities, especially opportunities at my school’s theatre and drama club due to my social anxiety at its’ strongest. When I came to Virginia Wesleyan University, I promised myself to get involved in the theatre and the performing arts program and to communicate with fellow students that have the same interests as I do. Earlier in the fall semester, I went to a theatre lab that was for a grade to attend at least three labs for credit. The lab consisted of a great deal of information about the Proteus Festival by a former actor named Sibel Galindez that is apart of the festival. She explained that the Proteus Festival is a multiple-day celebration that mainly focuses on three creative arts which are theatre, film, and music. I’ve always been interested in filming, which led me to become engaged in the discussion. I wanted to volunteer at first to see what the festival had in store but instead joined a group of talented people that was interested in the one particular creative art, which is film.

The Proteus Festival took place at Zeiders American Dream Theatre, which most people call it “The Z” from Tuesday, October 8th, to Sunday, October 13th. Sadly, I didn’t get to attend the first day due to stomach pains, so I missed out on the enjoyment and excitement of the festival and to get the creative team prompt. The next day I came, the team that I was with told me about the prompt which we had received for our five-minute limit short film. The ideal focus of our prompt was to not be the old mediocre wake up from a dream plot, which made me happy to have creative team members. Although our team was a perfect creative match, there were still problems with the way of completing our film.

Amazingly the Proteus Festival has over forty artists perform throughout the six days of the event besides the creative teams’ performances and presentations. As things turn out, the group and I sure didn’t make it to any of the events that occurred during our time here due to filming. Throughout the festival, we’ve traveled from place to place to film scenes that take place at certain times of the day to put the film together. I’ve noticed that throughout the entire experience, there were difficult challenges that our group faced, such as deciding who is doing which with roles, filming, and editing the short film. One thing that I’ve noticed was different ideas that each member of the team provided for the main plot and difficulties picking which one to use.

In a matter of two and a half days, there was a significantly large amount of stress, sweat, and tears to just turn hours of footage into an exact five-minute film. My part of this film project was the camerawoman and head editor, along with the help of two of my fellow teammates. Traveling to locations within certain times of the day to make the plot have a sense of what timeframe is in and being able to have it filmed as quickly as possible was the most fun experience for me because I would love to do something that involves traveling around the world and shooting what I see. The most challenging part of completing the five-minute film was to send it to the judge by the deadline, which was eleven o’clock at night. I accidentally sent from my school’s email, which needed authorization for me to send, and the time was precisely ten fifty-eight o’clock. Right at precisely eleven o’clock, we all managed to send it to the judge by the other teammate emailed, and we were all relieved and proud of the work we have done. As our film seems superior from the other films due to not having the same wake up from a dream plot, we’ve lost to a movie that had a plot twist ending. Although we lost, everyone did such a fantastic job with their creations, and it was exhilarating to see not just films but saw amazing theatre acts and musicians.

In conclusion, I’ve learned so much throughout my experience at the Proteus Festival and valuable lessons about working with a team. Each of us had a unique role that helped put the entire event in place. From picking an idea for our five minute short film to dreading to send in the final work a minute before the deadline was a nerve wrecking but an enjoyable educational experience of filming. This experience showed me a great deal of what I’m actually interested in doing what I want to do in life that has to do with film and traveling around the world. I am feeling cheerful in learning more about what my skill sets are thanks to the Proteus Festival and for making life-long friends that were my teammates.