Pitfalls

[Andy Graham]

I was just giving advice on shooting ballets and it got me to thinking, with the endless jobs and senarios out there and a forum this big it would be good to have a sticky in this room about pitfalls. Every type of job has its unforseen dangers and schoolboy errors, if everyone pitches in with their experiences with any given job it would allow others to avoid them should they find themselves in the same situation.

For the sake of starting it off i'll re-post my ballet advice here aswell...

"A bit of advice, dont tell the dance director you can edit the video differently, the one i worked with didn't know the edit could be changed because the previous videographer just gave her the finnished product no questions asked, stupidly i said "are you happy with it because i can re edit parts".....well that spelled two months of her sitting next to me editing it to the way she wanted , seriously she wanted the wide shot for a certain leg movement then back to the close up etc etc.

Moral of the story , keep your mouth shut and just hand in the dvd."

Of course Chris is the man around here and ultimatley can make the descission, i just think it could really save us all some headaches.

Andy

[Tim Polster]

Andy, another take is to avoid doing "favors" in a business environment. Sure you can re-edit the video but if the client wants it they have to pay for your time. If they do not want to pay then it is not that important.

[Andy Graham]

Agreed, i just really needed the work and didn't want to risk loosing repeat business, that job secures around £2000 for not a lot of work ,a couple of days filming and a couple editing ...at least if i hadn't opened my mouth. The client sitting with me to edit kind of grew arms and legs when she discovered she could change the edit, i did eventually just tell her there is a limit to what im prepared to do.

I don't get paid directly by the dance school ,i have to sell the dvds to the audience myself with order forms, like i said its a good earner and didn't want to loose it especially in times like these ,so i kept her happy.

My point is i could have saved myself some hastle by not making that mistake but now that i have hopefully a thread like this can save others from making the same.

Andy