The editor vs. the director take 138...mark.

I guess it was about 3 weeks ago, that I decided to take on this music video project. I remember asking what is the deadline? The answer was like asap. To me that is like an open deadline. So, spring break rolls around and I'm planning to shelve the music video to work on something else.

I email the director and he informs me that he needs another cut in 3 days. That pissed me off so much that I whipped out another cut in hours.

Here is the thing, every time I email him, I get a short deadline. I am trying to tell him, that I have school work, and dropping school work is not an option. I even tried to edit with him in the same room, but he was not having that, and from what he told me, it appears that I'm not getting what he wants. I'm getting frustrated, and by now I have told him in an email to give notes, tell me what works, what does not.

3rd email about the project comes around. I tell him that I forgot my hard drive at home, and that I got sick, and I ask him, "After the corrections, is it good enough for picture lock?" He responds, by saying it is far from done. Great, he was telling me he liked it, which sounded like it was almost done, I could get onto the next step of color and effects, it looks like not. So then I notice final cut by this week. I guess I ignored that in which I should not have, and that is where things get crazy.

Now in the last email, he is saying that I was not communicating to him. I thought I was, but at the same time he was not communicating to me. Like deadlines, how fast how slow, what he would like to see more of. On the flip side, I was not treating this as a high priority, so I would get to him within a day. He says that the thing is that it is a lack of communication. For me it is not clear communication. He would say one thing and I would interpret something else, visa versa.

You can say we were not on the right page from the beginning. So the life lesson I learned was get things written out, deadlines, goals, expectations, etc. Sign a contract if need be, they do in the 'professional' world.

Until another time...