I don't know about you, but I seem to learn things the VERY hardest of ways. For example, I just spend a week in the field doing a remote project for a client of mine (that me directing the video shoot to the left). Why an audio composer would be directing a video shoot is a WHOLE different blog post, but suffice to say, I really like the exercise of using both sides of my brain (...in other words, it's fun).Anyhoo, the client was new to the whole video production thing, and had hired me to document their whole event with the idea that eventually I would make some kind of product for them to sell from the resulting footage. It would be true, and not at all unkind to say that they really weren't prepared for me and the video truck to show up at the venue. I also didn't get a complete schedule of what I was shooting until 20 minutes before the event began. What I had been told was a 12 hour day turned out to be an 18 hour day.
The point of this whole diatribe is that I hadn't asked the right questions from the client, and just assumed that since they had hired me, they had a clue. They didn't, and it wasn't their fault - it was mine. Bottom line, it was a hard week with lots of work, and we all learned from each other. I'm off next week to shoot another project for them, and this time I'm much better prepared (knowing that they probably won't be prepared) to navigate the shoot. I've asked pointed questions and most of the time, gotten specific answers. Most importantly, I've kept a good (valuable) client, and educated them to boot.
No comments:
Post a Comment