We’re Resolving to Not Make These Mistakes Again...Just These New Ones Instead
A new year comes with new resolutions – including resolutions to not make the same mistakes made the year before. Here are three absolute failures that Emmalie and I are resolving to never make again in 2023:
Failure #1: Contracts, schmontracks
It was our first film and musical storytelling project. Before Art Beyond the Ink was born, Emmalie and I joined forces to complete our master’s capstone thesis project. We wanted to create an animated short film based on music. (Spoiler alert: the COVID-19 pandemic began before the project was completed, and we never saw it to completion. But the idea didn’t die, and we have since created an entire collection of musical stories, called Feather Pen Films.) We found a student-animator who was interested in the project and agreed to our payment offer.
Three months into the project, the animator shared that the project was much more work than they originally thought, and they wanted more money to complete it. It was true – the project was a huge amount of work, and our pay was very little, but they had agreed to those conditions. The problem: we had no signed contract – only an oral agreement (which we only later learned is binding!). Always, always, always have a contract. Because we didn’t, it caused a lot of tension and ruined our relationship with the animator.
Failure #2: Know the room, especially when said room is filled with six-year-olds
An Art Beyond the Ink workshop at NYPL
Emmalie and I taught a summer workshop series in partnership with the Harlem Dowling West Side Center in 2021. One of the classes took place in a large cafeteria for 30 six-year-olds. The first lesson was on dynamics, or how we teach it: lion loud, laughing loud, sneaky soft and sensitive soft. Wouldn’t it be fun if we played a game where Emmalie was one volume, I was another and after listening to a musical example, the kids had to walk to the person who represented the music’s volume? Actually, no. It wouldn’t be fun at all. The kids loved the game so much that they were sprinting between Emmalie and me, swarming and hugging us, and tripping over each other – at the height of COVID. Eek.
Maybe this game could have worked if we were in a smaller room, used sides of the room instead of ourselves, or it was a class of older children. But we had none of those things. This failure was a very helpful lesson on classroom management, indeed.
Failure #3: Communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication, communication
We were working on a silent film project and continued to run into trouble with the equipment needs. In our previous film projects, the DP (also acting as the videographer) arrived on set with a rolling suitcase and a backpack of equipment – cameras, tripods, and different lenses. So, when we told the Director and DP of the silent film project that they should get whatever equipment they needed (within budget, of course), we assumed it would be similar. There’s a failure right there: DON’T ASSUME ANYTHING.
Behind the scenes of one of our films inspired by music, Sketches of Love
When they learned that the set was in the apartment of a 3rd floor walk-up, they were concerned that they had too much equipment to carry up and down. Huh…how much equipment were they bringing? Soon after, they asked if we could get a van. A van? How much equipment could they be bringing?!
Talk to your team. And then, when you think you’ve said everything, say it all again. Ask tons of questions, especially when you’re like us and you don’t know anything about videography equipment. We should have shared from the start that (1) this was a micro-budget project, (2) the DP should bring only what was minimally necessary, and (3) when the DP said, “Ok, sounds good,” we should have asked, “Cool, so please tell us everything you are bringing and explain what its purpose is.” As a producer, we needed to know all of those little details so we could learn for the next film project and not continue being ignorant about it. Instead, we shrugged it off and assumed (there it is again) that the rest of the team was on the same page as us.
Were these mistakes at the time complete and utter failures that made both of us feel like screaming at ourselves? Yes. Yes, they were. But, we’ve learned so much and have used these lessons to bring us success in later projects. There are still plenty of new mistakes that we are going to make in the future – and thank goodness for that! That's how we’ll learn, grow and continue to improve our business and ourselves. Happy 2023! Here's to making a whole new year of mistakes. 🥂
Quick Links:
Read about another one of our failures and how we turned it into a win, here.
Check out our collection of musical stories, Feather Pen Films.
Learn more about how we collaborate in the pilot episode of Co-Composed, an audio blog series.
