Hello all,

This past May 10th I hired my friend (a ten year vet) to be my second shooter at a huge 250 guest wedding. We agreed he would be paid pro money, $35 an hour for ten hours and would recive half on day of event and the rest a week later. This was our first time working together and his demo reel was good.
Day of the wedding I hand him four tapes and say "Shoot,Shoot,Shoot" everything. End of the night he passes back my tapes and we go on our merry way. A few days later I begin capturing his tapes and find that he shot 2 hours and 10 minutes of footage, in which he missed many shots or had out of focus footage. He missed the bride and groom enterance at the reception!!!
Now mind you I shot almost 4 hours of video and most of that time i would happen to look over at him with his PD-170 up to his eye and headphones on, he must be recording right??? Wrong:(

So to make a long hellish story short. What would you guys do? Pay the $200 bucks that I have'nt payed him or pay him what I think his footage is worth. Because I feel he was not working. The bride wanted a to camera shoot a got 1 1/2..

Whats the professional thing to do??
I hired a pro and got an amateur!!!

Hersch

Well, I would definately have a conversation with him about the problem. Have him come by your place and look at the footage and ask him t oexplain what happened. Then you can come to a settlement with him.
I would tell him the since the footage is out of focus and shots were missing that you can't pay hime the amount you talked about since you didn't get what you had told him to get.
It's a tough position to be in as you don't want to ruin your reputation either but when you bring someone on that you've never worked with before it's always a gamble.
Good luck

Don

If this was your first job together I'd have said you should have done this one at a reduced rate, then sat down and discussed what you did/didn't like about his shots then build on it from there.

You agreed a price before, so I'd say you have to honour that. Did you spend time with him to walk him through your gear?
That said, I would then say in a nice/constructive way to him what you thought could be improved upon for next time.

Sloppy!

I guess it comes down to whether he's more of a friend or more of a hired help. I wouldn't screw a friend, they're more important than a little money, not to mention you agreed on something and it's not good publicity to go back on it. Pay him, but have a little chat about what you expect if he ever works for you again.

Unless your conversation included instructions as to specific shots he was assigned to get, activities he was expected to cover, or the quantity of footage he was to shoot, you are basically obligated to pay him the full, agreed upon amount. It would be argued that absent specific instructions he couldn't be expected to be a mind reader as to what you had in mind for him to do. Your option now is to decide whether or not to use him again. If you do decide to use him again, you need to have a chat as to your performance expectations. But as long as he stayed on the job and you didn't pull the plug on him and send him home halfway, you owe him the full amount. Just because you handed him 4 tapes and said "Shoot" doesn't mean he knew he was expected to fill them up unless you explicitly told him to. With very rare exceptions the stance of "I'm not paying you [all or some] because your work doesn't meet my standards" doesn't fly. A judge would say you should have done a better job of screening him before hiring him as well as more closely supervising him and monitoring his performance throughout the day so you'd have time to take corrective action if needed.

My unprofessional opinion is that your contracted him for X hours of work, not X hours of usable footage. Even if he had ruined 100% of the footage, if you contracted him as a hourly employee, you owe him the salary.
strictly my opinion.

I think you should punch him in the face and then give him his money......hehe

I agree with paying him the rest of the money but that doesn't mean the guy has any excuses for what he did. yes, he was going to be pay by an hour rate but to do a job and the job was to shoot a wedding. If he says he is wedding videographer and is even charging pro rates he should know he has to get the bride and groom and at least be in focus...don't you think?

an option I see is to bringing over, show him the footage and talk to him in a good manner, maybe he'll see his mistakes, be humble and agree with receiving less money. but go thinking that you have to pay the rest jut in case.

I believe mister house is right,if previous standards of what should be shot
were not disgusted then the set price should be paid. Contracts in writing for
who what were when and how are critical in the wedding business
good luck thats a tuff one.

I hired two camera operators for a three camera shoot and had a similar problem with footage from one camera. Hardly any of it was usable. I paid him and put it down to experience. He had been recommended - I'll be more careful next time.
My bet is that legally you don't have a leg to stand on for reasons stated in other posts and you should pay him the balance.

My unprofessional opinion is that your contracted him for X hours of work, not X hours of usable footage. Even if he had ruined 100% of the footage, if you contracted him as a hourly employee, you owe him the salary.
strictly my opinion.

I agree. It may well stink, but you must observe the terms of your original agreement. I had a similar situation a couple of years ago. Camera person convinced me he knew what he was doing. turns out he didn't know what a ND filter was, and had it turned on for interior recording. He ended up boosting gain to +30db. Took me the better part of a week to work around his bad reception footage!

Next time ...

you should pay him because you already made the agreement, just dont hire him next time.

If this was your first job together I'd have said you should have done this one at a reduced rate,.....

Not that this is any help or anything, but in my area $35 an hour for 10 hours is unheard of for anyone who is a well accomplished shooter & would be considered a much reduced rate to begin with. That would be considered close to training pay out here. I understand it's always going to be a regional thing but always notice these things in posts.

First, $35/hr for 10hr is on the very low end of a seasoned shooter WITHOUT gear. Many freelancers actually want 9 hours with a paid 1 hour lunch. You did supply food and breaks for you worker, right? Anyhow, you both agreed on price so let's move on to the issue.

I would sit the shooter down with a cup of coffee and the footage and professionally talk over the issues you have with his work and find what he thinks is fair. You might be able to work something out as gentlemen that is fair for both parties.

Do you have anything in writing? If not, you will have to pay him. Consider it as "Unexpected Business Awareness Training Session" and call it a day.

Communication is the key, to just about everything. I would bring him in, look at the footage and ask him if there were any problems with the gear (focus issues etc) and have an open and frank discussion with him. He is your friend, right? You two should be able to talk about what was expected and what was received, and if not I would re-evaluate your "friendship."

I agree with the majority. You hired him at $35/hr regardless of what "quality" his footage was. Think of it this way...if you had looked at the footage and it was PHENOMENAL would you offer to pay him more? Not likely.

BUT...don't hire him again!

I think that Steve House has hit the proverbial nail on the head. Being handed 4 tapes and being told to "shoot, shoot, shoot everything" could really have a number of different meanings among several different people. A 2nd camera might presume that he's shooting B-roll material, and that he's been given 4 tapes to make sure he doesn't run out... not necessarily that he's expected to fill them.

When I use extra camera operators I always meet with them well in advance and give general and specific instructions (i.e. "I need plenty of coverage, so you'll want to be rolling nearly continuously. I'd also like you to conentrate on mid-to-tight shots, as I'll be covering the wider to mid shots. Make sure when person X is getting ready to speak that you lock off and frame him from the waist up, and watch your headroom... etc etc).

If I'm using new people I assume that I will get nothing usable. That way I'm never disappointed, reagrdless of pay. A couple of months ago I needed to tape a 15 minute one-time event, so I brought on 2 additional camera operators. One of them who has his own Canon GL2 (the same cameras I have) gave me footage of which not one frame was usable. The other Op who had never shot with a GL2 did an extraordinarily good job, and I actually used more of his footage than my own when cutting the video together.

It takes time working with other people to learn what their styles are, and how to mesh them with your own. But I have to agree with the others that the man is owed the fee you agreed upon, but certainly you'll want to commiunicate to him very specifically about your needs before you hire him again. And it may well be a good idea to review his footage with him to get his take of what was going on in his head.

I would agree with the others - you need to pay him - that's the professional thing to do.

Then, I'd suggest looking to the future ...

Can you see yourself working with him again in the future despite his mistakes?

If so, then I'd sit down with him and chat professionally about the footage and how he can improve and shoot to suit your style etc ... after all, you're paying him to do a job for you and regardless of his experience he needs to shoot the way that you want him to shoot.

If you can't see yourself working with him again, then pay him and write it off as a learning experience.

However, if he's a friend then it becomes more complicated. You still need to pay him but it really comes down to whether you'll be working together in the future. If he's a friend then your friendship should be more important than the money.

Communication is the key - and it's even more important when working with friends. Next time, (either with this guy or another 2nd shooter) don't assume anything. I'd be meeting with them well before the wedding and coming up with a plan for the day of the shoot, and showing them your videos and clearly outlining your expectations for the footage that they'll be shooting.

At the end of the day it's your butt on the line. You're the one that has to answer to the bride and groom, not your 2nd shooter.

Don't leave anything to chance. That's what I'd be doing next time ....

Good luck ... and let us know how you get on.

Cheers,

Matthew.