From thin to thick skinned?

[Rob Featherstone]

I used to think the asc manual should have a check list for mistakes in the back pages.

 

Make a mistake, check it off the list and move on! (focus buzz, nailed that one! flashed mag ... well i won't say anything about that!)

 

When I was an assistant, a dp once told me a mistake was ok if you learned from it and didn't do it again.

 

As for people being critical of your work, you really need to believe in your vision.

 

Take the time to make sure that you feel you have the best you could do in that situation.

 

"hate me now, love me later"

 

also

 

Confidence seems to be contagious!

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I would love one of those "Dilbert" like calenders for DPs.. something with all the mistakes and tribulations one can go through so that when I'm on set, and I screw up, I can pull it out of my cinebag and remind myself, It's ok, today is "mag scratch Monday, March 27th" or something of the sort.

Back to the main question. I run the gamut. Normally, I feel wonderful about myself when I'm first reading a script and figuring out how I "see it," then I get back to reality and realize it's never as good as it was in my head, and that makes me feel rather bad. As David said, you become your own worst critic, which for me is also a bit of a problem, as no matter what the people around me say about how "good" anything I do is, I can't really believe it, and of course, when they say it's bad, the only answer I can muster is a bit of a downtrodden, "I know."

But, hey, we're alive, we have myriad technologies and techniques to bend to our cinematic ways, and we'll move onward and, hopefully, upwards.