WHAT WENT WELL
The pre-production phase went smoothly and was far better than the pre-production from last year's (AS level) project. Firstly, there were not many times when we needed to postpone or delay the work to another day. As the director and the leader, I always tried to solve the problem within a day or two and checked every plan a day before it took place. For instance, knowing that every member, including me, will be busy during the Tet holiday (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), I decided to postpone the pre-production to completion before the Tet Holiday arrived (5th Feb.) Furthermore, members were excellent in their work as they finished the assignments on time (sometimes even before the deadline), which enabled us to boost our productivity.
Secondly, I believe that I have done a great job at writing, getting feedback, and fixing the script. Although the script's first version was somewhat of a mess, I managed to create a new one that was interesting and terrified the reader (this is the first time I have written a light-horror movie). In addition, because of detailed and straightforward feedback from the members, I have realized where the problems were and faced them. Thirdly, regarding teamwork, thanks to skill-developing tasks, I had a chance to work with them beforehand, so we got together pretty fast. With the experience from past work, we know what others want, and we can understand each other quite well. There was no conflict between us, and I enjoyed the time we spent with each other - it was tiring but fun at the same time.
Fourthly, I learned the lessons from the AS-level project; the documents, such as the props list, shot list, and mood board, were much more well-designed with detailed and relevant information. I am satisfied with almost all the documents and planning we created during this pre-production phase.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER
However, as a leader, I wished for more communication between us. The topic on the Messenger group chat was all about the assignments. I also wanted to expand the discussion topic to other stories so that members could bond with each other more. Stronger bonds will positively influence our performance as a group. Our cinematographer Messenger is usually offline, so I can not contact her most of the time. On the next occasion, I should have more than one way to communicate with the members (other than Messenger), either by phone number or any other social media. I should have taken their contact information in case I needed to call them.
Another mentionable problem was that because the script was continuously changing and fixing (up to 3 versions), other documents such as props list, character appearance plan, or mood board also needed to be updated. This creates extra loads of work for members. A solution could be to wait until the whole group agrees on a "finalized" version of the script and then start doing the other documents surrounding it. This will help us save time, and we could do more relevant research.
Finally, another mistake I committed during the pre-production phase is that I spent too much time researching the editing aspect but underestimated the importance of research on script and screenwriting, which can enhance my script to be more engaging and well-time-controlled. Due to the lack of inspiration and knowledge, my script still has some discontinuity in the flow that could have been much more logical and natural. A way to tackle this problem is to brainstorm what I needed to research right at the beginning of the project and then note down some famous movies (with related themes, topics, and genres) I could learn from. That is not to say the research I have done on "Searching" (2018) is useless. In fact, without that research, I would not be able to write the chat conversation between Annie and Fish n Chips as well as the name "Fish n Chips" for my character (as an easter egg - signing that my character is also the "one who stand behind the curtain").
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I believe that we have successfully carried out the pre-production of this project with sufficient and practical research, documents, and plans. There are still some problems lying around, but it is essential that through this evaluation, I learn my lesson on how to improve next time!
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