OT - Pro's never make mistakes

vicmilt wrote on 8/7/2007, 8:19 AM

This is in answer to a comment on another thread, humorously put forth by Bill Ravens.

"I guess pro's never make mistakes"

Yikes - I wish it were so.

Now everything following is simply my observations of things the "way that they are", garnered from over 40 years in the business. I'm generally acknowledged as a "pro", and have never had a real job - I've been freelance only, and for a long time.

So first:
A professional is ANYONE WHO GETS PAID to do a job.
You can be a great pro or a lousy one, but if someone else is putting up their bucks for you to produce - well sir - you are a professional. Don't believe me? Ask the IRS.

Next -
to me a "real" professional is not one who never makes mistakes. It's a person who can gracefully get out of the mess he/she has created.

So here are some hard-earned tips to achieving that professional state of grace.

1 - Never say "whoops" [ or crap or s**t ]or ANYTHING to confer that a mistake has just taken place. Keeping your cool is not easy when the situation is collapsing around you. The best way to achieve that is to keep your mouth shut - silence. I've had cameras die, sound go blewy, actors choke and even big lights explode. I just smile and say, "OK let's move the camera there...", etc. to connote that Lights Exploding happens every day. Keep cool. Keep quiet.

2 - Be prepared. NEVER show up on a paid set with new - untested equipment or experimental technique. That is not the place to learn. Check out your gear before you leave and you'll never (or seldom) be surprised in the editing room.

3 - NEVER promise more than you KNOW you can deliver. In fact, I never promise anything. It's always better to have a happy surprise than a sad failure.

4 - LIE ABOUT YOUR DELIVERY DATE (huge suggestion here)
OK - you're on the set. The client sez, "When can we see the rough cut?" You KNOW that it'll be a piece of cake to complete it by Wednesday morning. DO NOT TELL THE TRUTH!!!
You simply say, "I should be able to deliver it on Friday".
Why?
Because your computer hates you. Your staff are human. Even YOU are human. Stuff happens. By my method you have an additional two full days to make corrections, revisions and completion to excellence with "no sweat".

REMEMBER:
No one EVER complained about a job being delivered two days early.
But if you're only a half hour late - you are a jerk - and certainly not worth the money you are charging.

By delivering early - you are FAST! And that translates to higher fees. "He's expensive, but we can count on him to deliver".

I am one of the fastest editors in the business because I NEVER tell the client what I believe to be true. I ALWAYS add a minimum of two days (sometimes more) to the schedule.

I have NEVER missed a deadline.
Usually I deliver a day or two early - ("he is SO Fast!!" )

People pay big bucks for reliablility and speed. Trust me on this, and you will go far in ANY business.

best,
v

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/7/2007, 8:56 AM

A professional is ANYONE WHO GETS PAID to do a job.

wait... let me quote that again...

A professional is ANYONE WHO GETS PAID to do a job.
A professional is ANYONE WHO GETS PAID to do a job.

that means even the kids who does video editing for $10 and "take business away" is a pro too!

sorry, just had to post that. So many people say that only THEY are pro's.

great tips though. Last one reminds be of Scotty from Star Trek: always double the time and you'll wind up being called a miracle worker. :)

p@mast3rs wrote on 8/7/2007, 9:18 AM

Vic, th other night we were talking about how all the greatest directors and teachers are leaving us for the after life. We were talking about current people and who we would hate to ever see leave us before their time and sure enough, you were the one I chose.

Not for all the wealth and experience you pass along with regards to directing and production but more so to the character you posses and teach. I dont think you have ever had one thread that I havent learned something from. The best ones are the character and professional threads. I have probably learned more about management and business behavior from you than I did from any of my college courses.

Your professionalism and knack for handling tough situations is unrivaled. You are always soft and well spoken but most important, you always appear to have the situation covered.

You sir will be missed severely by myself and many others when your time comes which I hope isn't for another 40-50 years at least. You not only inspire people to be better cameramen, editors, producers, and directors but more importantly, to be better people. IMO, that is your greatest contribution to this industry. I find myself wondering how you would handle situations before I make decisions. Call it "WWVD" (What Would Vic Do?) if you will and usually I make the wiser decision.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your wisdom, knowledge, passion, and most of all, your friendship. You are one of the greatest teachers. You may be the most famous person we have never heard of but you touch more lives than you my friend, will ever know.

Thank you.

mjroddy wrote on 8/7/2007, 9:33 AM

Re; Item #1:
I had the pleasure of seeing Vic at NAB 07. He was, I think, lecturing on Guerrilla Lighting (or some such)(I saw all of his lectures and I don't specifically recall which one).
He was up there chatting away and both his laptop and light stand were hassling him (and his assistant).
He said something to the effect, "Now, you can't help but notice I'm haveing some technical difficulties up here. But do I look nervous? I can tell you that right now my stomach is tied in knotts and I'm going crazy - on the inside. But do I come across that way? Or do I look confident and like I know what I'm doing?"
Indeed, he seemed completely unrattled.
It was a classic testament to what Vic does for a living - make his viewers feel he's in control of the situation.
Long ago, I adopted this philosophy, but I got it from the Apollo 13 astronauts: All hell is breaking loose and they don’t know how they’re going to make it home – from outer space – and their call to Ground Control was a calm, collected, “Huston, we have a problem.”
You listen to fighter pilots and professionals in high-stress jobs, and typically, they’re calm, cool and collected.
I love that.
I also love the Scotty reference. That's another one I incorporate into my work flow.

Ecquillii wrote on 8/7/2007, 2:26 PM

Difference between the master and the student? The master has made more mistakes.

Vic

I have a quote from you posted on my wall (part of a poem I wrote riffing on your advice) and a big sign that says Start right now! I refer to it repeatedly throughout the day.

Thanks for all the ways you gift us!

Tim

farss wrote on 8/7/2007, 3:25 PM

All of this is very sound advice no matter what business you're in.
I think one way to summarise a lot of it is to "Promise a little and deliver a lot".
As for keeping your cool, oh yes, if you don't act like you know what you're doing even when things aren't going too well everyone picks up on your vibe and then things can go irretrievably south.

Bob.

Paul Fierlinger wrote on 8/7/2007, 6:38 PM

I'll go out on a limb here to say that I have been a freelancer since 1958 and learned pretty early on to never lie to a customer and I have never regretted following this simple rule. Most of my work comes to me by word of mouth and I have had many, many repeat customers and that's because I never lie to them.

Bill Ravens wrote on 8/8/2007, 6:39 AM

It's a rueful fact that customers love it when I deliver early, hate me when I deliver late. My own inclination is to chronically promise an early delivery, then, much to my dismay, to deliver later, due to technical issues, which ALWAYS seem to crop up when working with HDV. As a result, I've finally learned to take my first estimate, then double the time estimated, before I promise a delivery date. Now, my customers love me,because I'm always early. Funny how that works. I don't really think it's lying.

rmack350 wrote on 8/8/2007, 7:36 AM

It's not lying, it's just a conservative estimate.

It's easy to tell a client what they want to hear because you want to please them, but it's also easy to forget to account for other people involved. You may have other clients that call in the middle of an edit, or you may have a couple of jobs in progress.

On the production side it seemed like the most common way to blow a schedule was to have the lighting and art departments working on the same set at the same time. Paint must dry!

Rob Mack

Ecquillii wrote on 8/8/2007, 7:45 AM

Paul, I would agree. Always tell the truth.

Bill, yes, I think Vic's use of the word lie is used with a wink, not to encourage us to be deceptive but to get at the deeper reality.

Rob, thanks for your translation. Glad you didn't call it a liberal estimate because that might have started a political argument.

Tim

rmack350 wrote on 8/8/2007, 8:00 AM

I'd don't think a professional is anyone who gets paid for a job. That's way too loose.

At a minimum, a professional is someone who draws a substantial amount of their yearly income from an activity. Or maybe more literally, a professional is one who identifies themselves by that activity. For example if one professes to be an editor and actually practices that activity substantially then I think they can realistically be considered to be professional.

That's a minimum. Many in the trade use the term to describe someone with years of experience and accumulated expertise.

Nit picking, I suppose. I am certainly not a professional editor.

As far a mistakes go, people often don't know you made a mistake until you show it. This especially applies to actors.

And of course there are mistakes that can't be glossed over. Setting off the sprinklers in San Francisco city hall comes to mind. I hear that torrents of watter running down broad marble staircases is quite a sight! Wish I'd been there and glad I wasn't.

Rob Mack

p@mast3rs wrote on 8/8/2007, 8:33 AM

The term professional should include all who are compensated to do a job. I agree with Vic that there are good and bad professionals. Just because someone doesnt make a "substantial income" or spend a "substantial amount of time" doing what they are professionals at doesnt make them any less a professional. To nit pick, where do you even draw the line with regards to "substantial"? 51% of their income? 190 days doing what they do?

Professionalism is WAY more that skills or income derived. Professionalism is an attitude and a way you do things. A professional always takes time to make sure the end product is the best it can be. Amateurs cut corners and dont care as much about the end product.

I dont think the term professional is too loose. If you derive income from any project, the IRS considers you a professional and you pay taxes just the same. I spend the majority of my time in a classroom teaching and the other time, editing, shooting, compositing, web designing, etc... Does that mean I am only a professional teacher and a hobbyist at the other things? Professionalism is a belief that shows in a persons actions and character and the way thing get things done.

Bill Ravens wrote on 8/8/2007, 8:43 AM

As I pull on my waders, I will make a comment that I've paid people plenty, and, received a less-than-professional result....foolish me, I guess. And I've gotten free work, with very professional results. IMHO, "professional" is more than whether or not you've gotten a paycheck. It's an attitude about the perfection of your product, and how much you're willing, or not willing to compromise on its quality.

OK, I'm going back into my rabbit-hole now.

rmack350 wrote on 8/8/2007, 10:21 AM

Maybe you're talking about the difference between a profession and professional behavior.

As far as the "profession" goes, I admit substantial income or time spent are fairly vague terms. When talking about income I might think of it as being enough income that it'd be a hardship to lose it. If talking about activity then maybe it's a thing you do on a regular basis. Maybe the opposite of professional is casual.

As far as the IRS goes, I've filed returns as a freelancer for more than 20 years now and I can tell you that they don't care in the slightest that you are a professional. All they really care about is that sombody pays taxes on your income. Sure, they ask for a classification code but it just doesn't matter much unless you are blatantly lying.

Professional behavior is another matter. Usually people mean work/business ethic when they talk about professional behavior, occasionally they also mean craftsmanship or skill level. You can show professional behavior even when the activity is casual rather than a profession. Conversely, I've seen plenty of instances of people practicing a profession who are either lacking a professional ethic or skill. Sometimes both, but often people just have strong and weak suits.

No, a professional is not "anyone who get's paid for a job". If I hire a neighbor's kid to paint a fence I'm not fooling myself that fence painting is that kid's profession, nor that he/she is professional. A paycheck just doesn't make it so.

But on the topic of making mistakes, Vic is right-on. You don't telegraph the little stuff, you don't hesitate to own the mistakes that are obviously yours, and you try not to put yourself in a situation where a mistake will blow up in your face.

Rob Mack

rmack350 wrote on 8/8/2007, 10:23 AM

Craftsmanship is one measure. Timeliness is another. Sometimes the twain never meet, unfortunately.

Rob

rmack350 wrote on 8/8/2007, 10:34 AM

Oh, and by the way, the issue of being a proffesional is the only thing I disagree with. On the rest of Vic's very good advice I totally agree except maybe on the characterization of conservative estimates as "lying".

But notice that he's not talking about craftsmanship.

Rob