My Eisenhower Matrix

Introductions and Salutations

Trying to look glamorous at the Iron Man 3 premiere in Wilmington

Hello everyone! I am James Knoll and this is my first year working with Visions as a development assistant. I am a senior in the Film Studies department and I am looking to graduate here in the spring. This is actually my second degree at UNCW, my first being in English Literature. What really got me into film was when I moved to Wilmington and learned about working as an extra. After I started working on sets walking across camera I was more intrigued by what was going on behind the camera then being excited about actually being on. I was already going to UNCW but it wasn't until I nearly finished my first degree that I even realized that we had a Film Studies major or program in general. Cutting a long story short, I graduated with my first degree and after a semester away I came back and here I am! I am not quite sure where I fit in quite yet as a cog in the machine that is Film, but I am trying every facet possible until I find where I belong or just feel at home.

That is where Visions comes in. What I really hope to achieve by being a part of Visions is to learn what really happens behind the scenes and makes a film festival happen behind all the glamour of just attending. I was fascinated just getting to help out last year and knew that I wanted to help, especially after learning that it was a primarily if not almost completely undergrad run festival. Within my department I hope to do whatever I can to help raise money for the festival and bring my own experience and ideas to mix with my department. Not only that, I want to learn from everyone and just piece together the entire puzzle to create a complete picture of what is Visions. I can completely admit that I'm not qualified for even the position I have now, but I hope to obtain the skills I need to help make this years Visions a success as well as increase my ability as an individual in the world of Film Studies.

I was able to glean from the reading that I really do have a certain level of anxiety when feeling under-qualified or unprepared for a task or attempting to meet a goal. From the reading alone, I know that I really want to work on trying to break my tasks down into simpler strategies in order to lessen the stress on myself and feel a bit more at ease with the workload. As far as scheduling, I found the Eisenhower Matrix really taught me to break down and whittle away the distractions and really focus in on the important tasks, and showed me that it was much easier to see what's distracting as opposed to urgent. As far as using Google Calendar I felt it was pretty stream-lined and easy to pick up how to put together my schedule for the semester thus far. It was good to learn about how to file share because this will be my first experience with Google Docs as well as fire sharing as a bit component of a class.

TL;DR I am excited for a new experience with Visions. I am anxious at how it will push me but I am ready for the challenge.