Be candid

"I thought you'd work well as a producer… you're honest, but you knew how to communicate"

Prawta Annez on Camilla Kjaernet

Prawta complimented her producer Camilla for her honesty and communication style. It can be very difficult to communicate honest opinions for fear of offending your colleagues. Ed Catmull suggests asking for their candour rather than their honesty (2014 Catmull). You can be candid about what the film needs without causing offence.

Towels (Annez 2019)

Katharine Nicholls Actually I was going to ask Camilla. What you what it was that you liked about the project when you first saw it and what was your first reaction to it, because I know you kind of sort of headhunted it in a way. Didn't you, to be the producer? Or there was a sense of that.

Camilla Kjaernet I had never thought about producing before and Prawta's sort of been slowly being like 'oh you're really good at organising and you're really good at these things.’

Prawta Annez I sensed it

Camilla Kjaernet Oh you'd be really good. I'm like no! I'm here for the visual effects. That's all I'm here for. And I saw the pitch and I already know it's Prawta it's going to be amazing. And I saw the pitch and it was a style I had never seen before. And I really thought I was like, oh, if we get this done, it will be an amazing film just because of the style and also knew because of working with Prawta, who's you know is an insane worker that does like 12-hour shifts every day to get stuff done. If anyone was going to finish a film in our year, it was going to be Prawta. So it's also kind of a little bit strategic, as I wanted a finished film, but I knew that me and Prawta could get that done.

Prawta Well, I knew it the moment I saw your journal. Your journal was so organised and your notebooks. I knew it. And I was like, if anyone can organise the chaos Camilla can!

Camilla I get to do all of these tedious tasks and is actually productive. And it's not just me loving to colour coordinate stuff. It actually has a system to everything.

Prawta And you know what was interesting, as well, was that you, I'm pretty sure one of the other things, notebook aside like I'm pretty sure one of the other things that I thought you'd be you'd work well as a producer as well, also because I think it was it was also the fact that you're honest, but you knew how to communicate. Do you know what I mean like? We weren’t actually that close at that time. I mean, now we're a lot closer. But like, I remember just being like, OK, this person, if I if I mess up, if I do something, she will be able to be like, no, you got to stop, hold off. But there was also like you had a way of doing it. I was like, yeah, no, we can communicate honestly, like I've been honest with you and you respect honesty as well. And I was like, like, if anyone can like because I definitely I think watching the previous films of the third years as well, I saw that one of the big cruxes of a director and producer relationship that sometimes ends up being a downfall is when communication or things get bit too personal and so on, because like in the end of the day, it's it's a job of a sort.

Camilla Yeah, we became really, really good at one thing and. It was.. so one thing we're really good at is that whatever happened at uni or at like work, it stayed at work and we could still, like, go out. And I remember we were not fighting, but like arguing a bit in the studio and it hit like five. And we were going to go into town to Spoon's. And then when we left the door. We were like best friends again. And you know what everyone's like, "what just happened?". And we're like "oh no it's work".

Prawta Professionalism!

Camilla Yeah, we're like we'll just leave that there and then whatever happens outside, it's like friendship and not like a professional side of it. And I think that really helped.

References

Catmull, Ed. (2014) Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (p. 83). Transworld. Kindle Edition