Mistakes You've Made In Your Career

W

wildstriker

Active member
I'm interested to know what mistakes you've made in your filmmaking career that you wish you hadn't made - that either made you look bad/amateurish/unprofessional, gave a client a bad first impression of you, got you fired, got you to lose a pay cheque, etc etc etc?

EDIT:

You don't need to give a whole list of mistakes. You can specify up to 5.
 
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Too many. But by making these mistakes, I've become perfect at everything I do.

And with more experience every day-month-year, your brain gets really good at multitasking and understanding production in ways that you could never learn in school.

[My worst mistakes were very hot audio (distorted) or out-of-focus interviews. As a professional, these are unexplainable for the most part.]
 
P.S. Some honorable mentions if you're looking for some specific examples.

- Overexposed
- Didn't hold shots long enough (for better b-roll and/or storytelling)
- Mediocre camera operating (mostly bad framing)
- Questionable lighting
- Incorrect camera settings (usually white balance and/or shutter)
- Ruined slow motion footage by filming 60p with a 1/50 shutter (produces choppy playback because you need at least 1/60)
- Been passive aggressive or argued because I didn't believe in the head person's integrity or vision when I should have kept my mouth closed
- Been late and/or didn't dress as instructed
- Didn't press record (or was recording and then pressed it to start but I really just stopped)
- Used the wrong tools for the job
- And more

Some of those you can blame on "creative direction", ha.

Others...I was young and a snob, and I didn't like the idea of being a "camera guy" (even though I loved filming & editing), or anyone telling me what to do for that matter.

I didn't have much respect for the business, but you live and learn.
 
I made three bad mistakes when I was 15 and 16... but that's what you get when you hire someone who's barely hit puberty.

1) I turned off all the information displaying on my monitor during the ceremony of a wedding. I accidentally wasn't recording for seven minutes. We were shooting two cameras for the ceremony. My boss, the other guy shooting, told me that he'd try to use his shot for seven straight minutes. Any time he didn't have a good shot, he would cut to footage of a river and "call it art." Great lesson to learn.

2) On the last day of a shoot, we were going to wake up at 6am to shoot a sunrise time-lapse. I woke up, showered, got ready for the day, and then decided to rest my eyes for a few minutes on the hotel bed before I needed to leave. I fell back asleep until 10am. To this day (12.5 years later), I still set three alarm clocks on work days and keep hitting snooze until I am in my car.

3) I was an electrician intern on a pretty big feature with a 2 million dollar budget and a big director. We were shooting an indoor scene with a tungsten 5K, and the DP told me to lower it. When I lowered the light, I blasted the 5K straight into the director's face, who was sitting only three feet away. Everyone nearby started yelling "MOVE IT!!! MOVE IT!!!"

Believe it or not, I didn't burn bridges with any of the people I was working for after making these mistakes.
 
Early in my career I was shooting for the local cable provider. My boss asked me to videotape the wedding of some top exec with Cox. I arrived at the venue early and had time to kill so I shot some exteriors of the church. I forgot to change the white balance when I went to shoot the wedding. This was back when cameras only had a black and white viewfinder image. I caught my WB error about a third of the way into the wedding, but was faced with the decision to leave the camera on 5600k or switch it to 3200k. I decided to leave it as it was rather than switch mid-ceremony. Needless to say I was devastated and spent the entire night fretting over it. I was certain I'd be fired and lose what at the time was my primary source of income. Long story short, the footage was sent to the muckety-muck exec and a few days later we got a call from him. Oh boy, here it comes. He's gonna read me the riot act. But he called to thank me and give me a pat on the back because his new bride absolutely loved the "romantic" look I'd gone with for the video.
 
Jim Feeley said:
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
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Early in my career I was hesitant to fix an issue (with a lav mic) and ask for another take for fear that having to stop and address an issue would reflect poorly on me, meaning I was incapable of doing it right the first time. I relied on the boom track and on alternate takes to save the shot. The reality is, it reflects poorly not to be willing to fix something on the spot, to react to a changing environment and address issues that sometimes pop up at inconvenient times.

Fast forward many years, I was working audio post on a project and having a hell of a time with the dialog due to scratchy lavs and a boom track that was too wide (barely any better than an on-cam mic). Alternate takes weren’t an option because one of the actors was so inconsistent in delivery - wording as well as tone and pace. One of the files captured a conversation at the end of the take where the director mentioned that the lavs were very scratchy. The response? “Yeah, but it’s clean on boom.”

Never be afraid to fix something as soon as it becomes an issue.
 
The only two issues I encountered when I first started to shoot professionally were...

1- Not paying enough attention to the green PAUSE indicator with my Panasonic ENG camera. ( I always wished that the camera would put a big green X across the screen whenever the camera was in PAUSE mode )

2- Not being careful enough to check for moire with my shots. Not really an issue now as none of my current cameras show moire at all, but back in the day I had to do a free reshoot for a bank because of some nasty moire on a bank president's jacket.
 
Alex H. said:
Early in my career I was hesitant to fix an issue (with a lav mic) and ask for another take for fear that having to stop and address an issue would reflect poorly on me, meaning I was incapable of doing it right the first time. I relied on the boom track and on alternate takes to save the shot. The reality is, it reflects poorly not to be willing to fix something on the spot, to react to a changing environment and address issues that sometimes pop up at inconvenient times.

Fast forward many years, I was working audio post on a project and having a hell of a time with the dialog due to scratchy lavs and a boom track that was too wide (barely any better than an on-cam mic). Alternate takes weren’t an option because one of the actors was so inconsistent in delivery - wording as well as tone and pace. One of the files captured a conversation at the end of the take where the director mentioned that the lavs were very scratchy. The response? “Yeah, but it’s clean on boom.”

Never be afraid to fix something as soon as it becomes an issue.
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I still struggle with this sometimes, especially since I do a lot of small crew / one man band stuff. People start breathing down your neck and getting impatient. It's easy to be pushed into just getting through the shots but you're right, it's always better to deal with it on set.
 
I paid close to $2,000 a year to put a quarter-page advertisement in a wedding magazine. I don't think I got a single call from it. All my jobs were by word of mouth.

Didn't press record (or was recording and then pressed it to start but I really just stopped)
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Oh, who has not done this? Thankfully the only time I did it for a job was for the cake cutting. For that segment, I inserted a short montage of the photographer's stills, who was kind of enough to sell them to me for $20. The couple mentioned that montage as one of the things they especially liked.
 
This thread is bringing back some painful memories. There are the obvious ones that many people on here will relate to: not checking WB/shutter speed/fps, failing to get the battery perfectly seated in the charger and showing up to a shoot with dead batteries, bringing the tripod but forgetting the QR plate (get ready to stack those books!), etc. I've forgotten to switch on phantom power before, and I definitely do not miss the days of 480P monitors and moire.

I have spent more than one panicked evening between shoot days skipping dinner with the producer and/or crew and running around a town I didn't know very well trying to track down some little screw or battery or adapter.

One time, I remember putting some brand new media in a camera without formatting it. Everything seemed to be going well. A few hours in, we tried to review the footage and NONE OF IT WAS THERE. I was really green at the time and eager to prove myself. It was one of the worst days of my life. To this day, I still record a test clip and play it back before shooting.

I still make mistakes, though not nearly as many. And modern codecs are so, SO much more forgiving.
 
One thing I note here is the camera not being your friend.

The roll/not role getting out of phase so your record everything you dont want!

Another reason that most cameras are not on our side.

--

My mistakes? Many.. mostly not rolling long enough.. its an ex still photographer problem!


My new motto is not to try something new on set in the grip department. Last week I was slow to rig a Discovery when the BMW we rig all the time was sitting right next to it.
The terrain did not require the Disco as I thought it would - I failed to flex to the actual conditions, not the ones I had mentally prepared for.

Also I MUST start ensuring there is a 5min 'expectations' chat before every shoot day, even if the director/AD does not initiate it as they should.

Aslo I need to watch more playback. Even if the director says the take was good it might not have been.
 
I second the waste(s) of money on "advertising". I learned that great work and personal relationships go a lot farther for small business than ads or sponsoring etc...

Also second the idea of staying calm and alert on jobs to be able to notice the small details. Clients will often push too fast or distract and you literally have to learn how block a lot of what is going on out to focus on the important stuff. This is the largest area for "mistakes" imho.

What I always tell new folks in the one man band industry is to show up early - like 30 min. to an hour. You can't fix any problems if you do not have time...
 
The usual:

1. Like almost all of us, have thought I was recording when I wasn't, missed the first half of a touchy, hard to get interview, at least I got a clue and recorded the second half
2. Have probably been too vocal about my intense hatred of the unions, especially in LA, but also in NYC. It's okay to hate the unions, they deserve it because they completely suck, but I should have been less vociferous in my verbal condemnation, has probably cost me business.
3. In the early years of my career, I bought way too much crap equipment. Bogen/Manfrotto tripods and heads, cheap audio mixer that gave me some grief on a high profile job, crappy Lowell light kits instead of Arris back in the Tungsten days, etc. Buying crap equipment is short sighted and ultimately much more expensive than buying "costly" good equipment. I still own both of my Sachtlers I bought nearly 18 years ago. Quality isn't expensive if you amortize how much it costs you per year, how much you charge for it in rentals to clients and how little it breaks down. Crap equipment is just money down the toilet and frustrating.
4. Didn't always check the gate when I was shooting film. Nearly had some projects melt down when we would get a hair or lint in the gate and it would be there, dancing around on the edge of frame for the world to see. Gate check must ALWAYS be done when shooting film and I didn't always do it when we were in a hurry
5. Got into a pissing contest with a corporate client who called me into their office and told me to my face that he was going to stiff me on $45k owed on canceled shoots, shoots I hired crew for, had to pay crew so I charged client. Had always done business on a handshake/honor system wih them, told this client that I would no longer do any business with them without a highly vetted contract and ANY changes would be subject to review from my attorney. This client had it out for me and as a high executive in the org, ended up black balling my company from the organization because I dared to NOT let him screw me out of $45k. In hindsight, I should have swallowed my pride, ate the $45k. Losing this client cost me over a million dollars in one year and millions more in subsequent years. It's hard to let someone screw you out of tens of thousands of dollars, but in this case, it would have easily been worth it.
 
I was filming a corporate video and had to film an interview with the guy who's in charge of a hearse company. I knew I wanted a hearse in the shot, but I didn't have a composition in mind. On the day I had limited time to decide the best camera position before he resumes his job from downtime. Time was running out and I was in a lot of stress as I couldn't make up my mind on composition. The guy grew impatient, to the point that he just moved the tripod to a spot which happened to be a good spot for the camera. I was embarrassed.
 
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I had one when I was first breaking into sports. I was operating a roaming camera for the in house broadcast of an NBA team. HD wasn’t a thing yet, so back then the roaming camera was a little fixed lens camcorder hooked up to a wireless unit. Basically in the NBA timeouts are where the money is made for the in house broadcasts, everything is sponsored. In this particular time out there was some sort of game, I don’t remember, but probably something corny like karaoke. Anyway, I’m standing there with the contestants waiting for my hit and I notice that the battery is on low, but I think to myself, “it hasn’t warned me so I should be fine until after the hit.”

The timeout took far longer to happen than I expected, and by the time they take my camera I think I got about halfway through the intro before the camera died while I was live. They backed up the shot with another hard camera, but we had a particular director who was the type that won’t drop it. So for the rest of the game when he had a chance he would berate me. Come to think of it, F%*# that guy lol.

Anyway, I worked for that team for like 13 years and ended up becoming one of their top operators. I never let that mistake happen again, and now as an ENG op I’m always conscious of battery life.
 
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This is a great thread!

I'm guilty of not holding shots long enough after taking stills for such a long time, perhaps still till this day.
Overpromising on unrealistic deadlines is a dangerous one.
My favorite silly/stupid mistake is on two occasions almost two years apart recording on an external recorder with the camera info and a focus box burned into the recording.
 
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