Make It Right

I did a shoot for a guy a few weeks back. He was in need of a cameraman to help him shoot an event that he couldn't cover himself. So I offered to help.

Now that he has had a chance to review the footage, he sent me feedback on how he felt I did.

Turns out he felt I did a really shoddy job.

Looking over his comments, I can see why he says what he does, but I carefully responded to each of his issues by explaining my thought process and conscious choices that lead to those results. I am more than willing to admit I didn't get what he wanted, but I explained why that was the case. It wasn't because I had overlooked something, I just assumed I should be doing one thing while I was supposed to be doing the other.

Ah well, live and learn.


Still Learning

But I'm a professional. And he went as far as to say that he didn't get his "money's worth" from me.

So, what should you do in this situation?

Give him all the money back. Which is what I'm doing.

In fact, if I had received his email just a few days prior, I wouldn't have even cashed the check. I would have shredded it and that would have been that.

Because even if you can justify your output and explain why you did what you did, the fact of the matter is that the product he now has to give his client isn't up to his standards. So that reflects poorly on him.

I can't exactly go back and do things differently, so I must do everything else in my power to make it right. And, yes, this is a lesson we will be faced with over and over in life because we're imperfect (even if we are professionals). What distinguishes us from the layman is that we own up to what we did wrong and do what we can to make it right.

~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor