MIFF

Over the weekend I spent my time volunteering in Melbourne International Film Festival. I learnt about this festival in 2007 when my lecturers encouraged us to watch some films in MIFF. It was only after speaking to a friend (studing media in Melbourne Uni) whom I met last month that got me interested in volunteering. Since it is related to my studies and I got to meet new people so I thought it would be fun. Also, I can do some networking there and that I can put that in my cover letter in my job application in the future.

I started helping in the lead-up week to the festival, doing work in the office for two days on my last week of winter holiday. That was about 2-3 weeks ago. It was a boring job, I just got to admit. I spent hours sitting on the chair sticking barcode stickers onto admission tickets. I think I did more than 3000 in two days! My other task was to deliver tickets to some nearby hotels and pubs. Some of the pubs are located in very dodgy places but they are VERY beautiful on the inside. This one particular in Chinatown called Long Grain (if I'm not mistaken) has got really nice setting and ambience with dim lights all over. And the furnitures are very antic. They serve food as well, to me it's more like a fine dining restaurant more than mere pub.

For the weekend, I worked at Greater Union Cinema on Russel Street. My tasks are very simple - scanning tickets, ushering, answering questions, opening exit doors at the end of each session and last but not least collecting rubbish and prepare for next screening session. It's just like job of the person that collects ticket from you at the cinema entrance. Anyway, the benefit is that I got to watch 4 films for free as we're allowed to stay in the cinema for the entire session that we're placed on duty. On top of that, we're given a 7 session free passes to watch any film out of our duty time. And ironically, my schedule was so packed that I didn't even manage to watch a single film with my pass. To make myself feel better, I actually offered my pass to some of my friends so that they could use it for me. =p Anyhow, in the end, Wong managed to use it once, which means I've wasted 6 sessions which is equivalent to about $13 x 6.

It was a great experience I would say, something that I haven't done before. Make quite a few new friends and chit chat a bit in between sessions. I'll consider to volunteer again next year if I'm free.