Good question Grazie. The fact is, there will will ALWAYS be something you could have done differently - just accept that, and unless you have to, don't watch it again once it's "finished" !!

I heard a VP from Corning Glass give a rather long and excellent talk about quality. Among the many things he talked about, he said a quality product is a product that meets the specifications both the vendor and the client realistically agreed to.

There are two ways to improve quality. We tend to think the only way is to create a far superior product. But sometimes, the road to better quality is paved by creating a superior agreement. When your promised work is represented by the agreement of the client and yourself, then the quality is as high as it can be.

A reality in producing anything in exchange for money is the unworkable triad of 1) do it fast, 2) do it cheap, and 3) do it well. You can only do two out or three. So a superior agreement decides up front which part of the unworkable triad will be overshadowed by the other two.

It does not add to the quality to take more time than the client hoped for in order to do a better job than they needed. I try to keep my identity as an artist in balance with my identity as a person who works for a living. Since time, talent, and treasure are limited resources that will consume each other when they get out of hand, knowing this helps you to accept the inevitable abandonment of your project.

Good one Grazie. I find I can't watch something after it's "done." I start fretting about this or that and start to chase my tail at odd hours. I just save'em with media, burn a data DVD archive copy, and move on. Darryl

Someone once said ..."A project is done when you run out of time and/or money".

I agree with the watching part. We did a 45-minute program two summers ago. My producer has watched it, literally, 70 times. I've watched it twice: once to make sure it was "all there" and once at the NY Independent Film Festival (and I fell asleep during that showing).

There's a story about an exchange between Dan Akroyd & Mike Myers right after Wayne's World was premiered. Dan tells Mike to expect to be 70% happy with it when all is said and done. I believe that any art form matures and develops with the artist. I WANT to look back at something I did two years ago and know that I would have done some things differently (not necessarily always "better," but at least "different"). It's that perspective that tells you you are changing as an artist.

I'm normally done with a project after I give it to the client & then, for some explained reason, my partition/HD goes bonkers & I loose everything. :(

Seriously, I've done maybe 15 "big" projects over the past couple years & a windows malfunction, power glitch, hardware dieing, etc. always gets to my source files before I can. :) Except one time... :)

When you find the answer, Grazie...let us know. As was once said by Michaelangelo, "An artists work is never finished but merely abandoned." I don't think I've ever "finished" a project.

Good topic, a brain-twister type question, but definately not a silly one, Grazie. The editor, does anguish over what could have been, if peak creativity and genious could have coincided with a given project. Wouldn't it be nice to have 1½ months for every project so a range of ideas (possibly the perfect idea) could bubble up. One thing is certain, that revamp that can no longer happen, can lead to some great ideas on the next project. Just have to keep moving forward.

I am only finished with a project one of 2 ways:

1) "DAVID, it's 3 A.M. Come to bed and get some sleep"
2) The deadline has come upon me

I would agree with the "abandond" statement

A project is finished when you think it's absolutely perfect as though you looked at an egg and said: Hey, this egg has no hair! LOL

IMO, a Project is finished when I can put it down for six months, look at it again, and say, "Hmm, that's pretty good!"