1.What is your role / contribution to the film in each phase?
For the pre-production phase, I’m the writer. Basically, each member of my group comes up with one idea, then we vote for the best one. So eventually, I’m responsible for developing that idea into a story.
2.What have you learnt in each phase?
For the second AFP project, I learnt that…never go on a holiday during the short term break unless there is free wi-fi! Lol. It was hard for me to communicate with my team members when I was in Malaysia during the break, so I couldn’t get feedback for the script and to work on subsequent drafts. Furthermore, my director was in California, and my only way of communicating with him is via the internet. Then, luckily for me, I found out there is wi-fi in the lobby. Despite having to walk all the way there from my room to use the internet, I had to do so. Then…just when I thought I could finally communicate with my members, my director could not get internet because an animal had bitten the internet cable! =.= So…eventually, some of the paperwork got delayed.
The more major thing I’ve learnt is that we should always send email at least a week in advance for permission to shoot in a school! I sent an email to a school to ask permission if we can shoot in the school field about 2 weeks before the shoot. Days went by and the day of our shoot draws near, yet, there is no reply. I decided to call them up…only to be told to send the email again with the word ‘urgent’ in the subject. Okay fine, so I sent the email again. And three days later, I finally received a reply from them – REJECTED. Although it was heartbreaking, on a positive note, there is still time for us to find another location. So Zoe and Winnie helped me to email other schools. The same thing occurs; unreplied emails or rejection. We then decided to book the Kismis field. Well, at least, better than no location. But then, fortunately, ‘miracle happened’. Woodlands secondary school granted us permission to shoot in their field. Thank god!
Besides that, I also learnt that having contacts is very important in this industry. We had a hard time trying to find a suitable actress to play the role of the mother in our story. It was quite hard to find a Malay woman in her 40s who fit the bill. We couldn’t get anyone from AADB and we can’t get a professional actress due to her tight schedule and our budget constraint. Due to this, we changed our story to a Chinese one since it is easier to find a Chinese woman. But then, we felt that the story would work better if it is in Malay. So…thankfully, we had an efficient casting director, Afiq, who finally managed to find someone who really really really fit the bill!
So after all the drama during the pre-production stage; uncontactable writer and director, rejections and casting problems, we could only hope for the production stage to be a more smooth-sailing one.
