Making 2067 was one of the best experiences I’ve had so far. It was intense and fun, relaxing and torturing all at once. I feel like I’ve become more comfortable with expressing my ideas as the semester progressed and I’ve learned that putting myself out there fearlessly was the only way to find like-minded people and I’m proud of myself for having the courage to get outside of my comfort zone. The whole communication part was a real challenge to me, but I think I’ve handled it well enough to save me from having those moments of embarrassment where I think about stupid things that I’ve said or done and experience that embarrassment again.
Even though this was not my first time collaborating with people to make films, it’s my first time contributing to a film on a creative level. It’s very different from the experience that I had in Nepal making a documentary this July. I was the producer in the group so my job was mainly coordinating and making sure everyone’s doing their job. I barely saw it a work of mine as there was little traces of my ideas. Compared to that experience, 2067 is much more intimate to me as I’ve spent so much time thinking about it and working on it. It’s something that I’m emotionally attached to and see as a child of mine and also the four of us.
The best part of making this film was having the opportunity to work with 3 amazing teammates. They’re all so understanding, smart and humorous. We got along so well and I couldn’t have asked for better teammates. At the beginning stage, we worked around our ideas and managed to combine them into a whole. That’s something I’m very proud of, because everyone was open-minded and willing to make changes to adapt to one another’s ideas better.
The BOX studio was unexpectedly fun and chill. I’d also like to thank Paul, not only for the snacks he brought us but also for his guidance, kindness and humor. I’d also like to thank him for his special way of telling us not to worry about ‘creativity’. I remember once Paul told us that ‘creativity’ was just a mystery and that we shouldn’t worry about whether the stuff we make was going to be good or not but just do it. And I remember one of the constraints in those exercise sheets said ‘It must be uninteresting’. Sometimes I set my expectations way too high that none of my ideas meet them so I simply CANNOT start doing things. I know it’s a bad habit but I couldn’t find a way to change it. And I used to be really harsh on myself whenever I couldn’t get the ideas flowing but I’ve learned to let go of that unnecessary burden and focus on what’s really important.