How to recover from a blunder?

Lucas Ferreira Gesser · September 8, 2015

I'm a young (22 years old) AC/Cinematographer working in Brasilia, Brazil, a city which has very restricted job offers, even though it its the country's capital city.

About a month ago I received a offer from a respected Executive Producer to shoot a pilot for a documentary webseries. The pilot director would be a well respected cinematographer, on his first directing gig.

I saw this as a opportunity of having a nice break into the industry here, and tried to prep as well as I could. However, I totally screwed up a couple of important shots and showed some insecurity on my relashionship with the director.

I'm now nervously waiting for the pilot to be edited to do some color grading on it, but I fear I may have blown up a big shot for my early career ...

How do you guys think I should position myself on a situation like this?

Tyler Purcell · September 8, 2015

Ohh I wouldn't worry to much about it. Building good working relationships can be very challenging, especially if there are two people on set with the same skill set, but one with a higher ranking. I'm a trained cinematographer, but I also direct. So if I get a paid gig as a cinematographer and I'm working with a first-time director, it can get very challenging. Good working relationships can be very hard to maintain in those situations. One part of you wants to make the project look great, the other part of you wants it to be watchable.

I shot a pilot end of last year for a docu/reality game show (yea odd mix) and I'd say it was the worst thing I've ever done. That was mainly because the director/producer couldn't find a bucket of water if it was right in front of their face. Neither one had any experience directing and we were on a tight budget/schedule, which made things even worse. NO money for proper equipment or personal, like a gaffer or grip truck, two things that are important for any show in my book. I can't even watch the footage, but the producers were very happy with the results, and it's good enough for a pilot.

So yea, I don't think you can ruin a career by doing work that you would consider sub-par. A lot of things are brushed off and you move on with life. Even if you did an awesome job, it doesn't mean you'd ever get hired again. You will learn from your mistake and next time around, you'll figure out what you can do better.