A Period Of Absolutely Nothing Done 

Later on, as I entered university, I regret until today that I did completely nothing regarding filmmaking for around 3 years. 

I wanted to go to a film school. Despite lots of arguments with my dad, I gave in and did a Computer Science degree. I was so occupied with the single goal of getting a higher GPA for a master's degree, therefore I gave up my time on many other things. 

When I think back, I realized nothing is important enough to make you ignore other aspects of your life. 

Setting Up A Filmmaking Club - A heartbreaking experience

Despite that, my filmmaking dream was always at the back of my mind. 

Later, I transferred to a Canadian university. When I entered the school, I noticed that there was no filmmaking club. So I thought, why can’t I start a new one? 

My idea was simple - gather a group of friends to practice filmmaking regularly. Soon I realized the clubs in my university had a bunch of predefined rules and roles that were far too complex.

With my passion, I quickly attracted many co-founders. However, I really had no sense of leadership. Just like when making my first short film, I was a driven individual but a very bad leader. 

At that time, all I wanted was to push my agenda, FAST. I wasn’t considerate of my coworkers’ schedule and capacity. I didn’t take the time to find the right person to take the right position. I didn’t know how to encourage a collaborative discussion… I completely messed up, a big time. Slowly, I couldn’t help but feel so helpless. It seems like no one in the core team was behind me anymore. 

I still remember one day, I opened up to one team member -- I asked for some feedback on what I did wrong. Later past midnight, he wrote an essay of at least 1000 words recounting all of my mistakes. What’s more, on another day two core team members (out of 5 in total) quit the team. Not only that, before quitting, they also left some horrible criticisms publicly in the group chat. Basically, it expressed something like “bye and screw you.”

All of the criticisms made me completely devastated. On top of that, 2 months after the club started, COVID hit. How can I do a filmmaking club when there is a worldwide lockdown?

Feeling beaten up, I resigned from the leadership position and someone else in the team took it. It was quite humiliating. I always joke to myself - Steve Jobs also got fired from the company he created.

When I got the time, I sat down and carefully thought about all the mistakes I made. I looked up all the resources about “leadership” and realized if I were to do it again what I’d do differently. 

Later on, despite not having the title, I still stayed in the club and pushed it forward. We invited one of the directors from the Boys to speak at our club, did a panel with industry professionals, and created online screenwriting workshops. In the end, I couldn’t believe the school even gave this club an award.

Even though this was not ‘filmmaking’, thinking back, all of these experiences made me a much better film producer in the future.

Lessons Learnt (not really about filmmaking):

• Delegate effectively. Let team members have a sense of ownership for their work. 

• When making any team, always take the time to find the right person to take the right position.

• Careful planning and a clear definition of duty with the team is far more important than blindly moving forward.

• Never micromanage. “Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with the results.”- Phil Knight (Nike founder)

• People and tasks are all important. Find the balance when the team is happy and the job is also getting done.