Studio Work pt.0: The Rant, The Flow and The Motivation.
By Mary Grace 18:58 PreProduction, Producing, Self-Evaluation, Studio WorkMaybe I am a shit producer ( Anne, I am really sorry for the language, but this was building up ) or maybe we just need more free time,...
Maybe I am a shit producer (Anne, I am really sorry for the language, but this was building up) or maybe we just need more free time, more time in general to find the workflow of the team.
I think I have made tons of mistakes:
- feeling down in the beginning of the project and being absent pulled me away from my role for some time and I couldn't get back on track, because I wasn't confident enough. I felt like I am not allowed to do certain things I have to do as a producer. May be it's silly, but I couldn't help it at all.
- misunderstanding and lack of communication with the second group. That wasn't the case in the beginning of the pre-production, which lead to mis-connection during the building sessions. I had to establish a channel of updates and talks with Katherine way before, but I didn't because of my selfish idiocy.
- I literally can not give orders to people and make them do stuff. My natural wish is to create a friendly creative atmosphere on set, but it seems to not be working, because some individuals simply do not care. May be I should've been strict, I don't know.
We have done a lot, we have done shit tons of work, we are ready, we are organised, but I will always be stressed and feel like I am not doing enough...
But that's all about the feelings, about stress, frustration... It's all not that important to people who read this blog.
The Flow.
In the beginning we signed the group agreement that was quickly broken. Someone was reassigned and someone got extra job on top of theirs. It was really hard to make people to get things done.
And it still is.
Right now it is really hard to explain what was happening, because we experienced pure chaos. That's why Rosie and Anne suggest blogging twice a week, not once in two weeks, but where should we get the time...
On the first 3-4 meetings we decided on the synopsis and script. We changed it multiple times, so that everyone's happy. Natalie ended up researching some films and writing the script that we all agreed on.
The next step for us was the treatment. While Natalie, Preston and me tried to make team work and figure out the details of the Treatment, Arturs created the 3D model of the set design that went into our treatment. We were meeting pretty much 2-3 times a week, at least the working part of the group was there all the time. Yes we did and still do have problems within the group, that unfortunately made the entire project much more difficult and stressful. But we are keeping it low because a) not our problem, b) we found the way to share responsibilities between the working people. There is no reason for us to bring it up. At the same time TJ and Arturs created a storyboard in the space of 2 weeks. By the way Ivan had to help with sound and Rufaro helps with set design and props.
So when the storyboard, synopsis, script and treatment were done, the team started concentrating on the lighting plan and shotlist.
At that point my responsibility was to keep everything together, control the budget and make it work smoothly, but unfortunately I also had to go through prop list, breakdown the costume plan with Tilly, go through the building materials etc only because we had to share all the jobs between each other.
On a side note, we all shared the google drive folder, so we all had access to it and could easily see who's done what.
But that's all in regards to the group work and team workflow.
Individually I tried to make more and more and more... I had at least 3 sleepless nights, when I was figuring out the budget, preparing the call sheet plans, trying to be prepared for anything. And pretty much I am not sleeping now, you can tell. Not because I'm not ready for the shit tons of to-do lists that we got at 12am, no. I am just making sure that we've done 100% of everything we could at this point of the production. If I fall asleep on a sofa in the studio, I am not sorry.
I will tell more about the process of making call sheets when we are done with the second one today, as I need to talk to TJ about that.
Anyway, we will keep it up no matter what's going on and no matter how misunderstood or misheard we are, because we are strong enough. Nothing will keep us down. Even the confrontation with the second group which, by the way, was calmly resolved as soon as the problem was left only between both of the producers without other people trying to help.
Keep fighting, team ~
And, good luck, Group A.
Mary out.
