I pulled a short editing gig recently that has me fixing someone else’s amateur mistakes. Based on the many comments regarding my frustrations over not being paid properly from my “What Price Pro for Hire” post, I found that many producers feel they have also been unfairly and improperly paid. They had good advice and suggestions on how they dealt with possible clients that didn’t want to pay for the value of a good product. It’s nice to know I’m not alone, yet, isn’t it so frustrating to realize so few understand the amount of work that goes into even the most simple production? Our elusive skills really are comprised of smoke and mirrors!

I always tell people video creation requires both right-side and left-side brain activity: one side for the artistic and creative, the other for the problem solving and technical details. Aren’t we special?

So, what was my “fix”? It was so simple; I almost didn’t want to take their money! They made three mistakes: the first one had multiple cuts of the on-camera talent bumped back-to-back without any B-roll to cover the jump cuts. These cuts also were very tight together, so the talent appeared not to breathe between takes. The third amateur error was full of the talent on scene saying “um..” and “ah.”. So, I just took out those “audible pauses”, added room tone in their place, and put some B-roll bridging the jump cuts together and gave the too-tight shots some breathing room. A 45-minute piece that took me about 2 hours to fix. They loved it. Said I was magical.

I’d love to hear how other magical producers impressed their clients with easy tricks of the trade. Care to share?