Frustrating?
 

What is the most frustrating thing you have to deal with as someone who films events/weddings? A client wanting changes a year after you deliver the product? Doing taxes? Late phone calls, ect? Or what was the most frustrating single event that happened to you this last year? Lets hear them!

-Will

This job may offer you beautiful moments and yes, very frustrating ones. Let's see...

-The random photographers and videographers (cousins, uncles etc) that believe they have to be on your way during the couple's reception entry.

-This guy (priest's assistant) in a church that insisted and yelled at me that I shouldn't put lights in the church because... he didn't like the lights being turned on! And we're talking about orthodox church, and that means, dark. I tried to explained politely that this should be a problem, but he kept yelling. When I explained (not very politely now) that the couple paid me a lot of money to make the job as they wished and that he should explain to the couple why they can't see many things in the video, he stopped. Ok, I didn't tell him only that, but anyway, the lights were turned on after the incident.

-The little kid that thought the super-huge candle near me is a good toy. So, the kid, pushed the candle (with a weight of 25 kilos) which fell on my left foot's fingers. Little finger broken on the spot, but I kept shooting until the end, and nobody knew that it happened. I love kids, but at the moment, I felt like Herodes. I am talking about real pain. We have the funny video recorded with the second cam. Pure enjoyment.

-That groom that after signing the contract, starting bothering us with details that we never agreed, not on paper or words. Finally, during his wedding day, we had agreed to go to the bride at 4pm but he called us at 2, yelling that we weren't at the bride at the moment, and we should go at once or he wouldn't pay us! Of course we laughed and we told him in a very direct way, that if we are to have this kind of relatioship, we will not come to your wedding at all and let the courts settle the things up. Lately, when we delivered the job, he was delighted, and every time he comes to the studio, he is a gentleman, like an old friend!

-The christening in a town outside Athens, where the poorest house costs more money than I will ever make in 20 wealthy lifetimes. We're talking about people that you would never have the chance to see in front of you if it wasnt for a job like this. Businessmen, tycoons and members of Royal families from around Europe, were all there. Amazing house (you wouldn't believe it), with pools, golf area and other luxuries. And where is the frustration, you'll ask. That nobody (besides the waiters and the little kids) seemed to have knowledge of our existence. We actually were not there for them, and I mean that. If there was a chance for someone to notice us, that would mean that we did something horribly wrong. Amazing material, amazing feeling of alienation.

-The fact that no matter what we do, we rarely have a table to sit at the reception.

Weddings
being in some orthodox location, and getting all the rules set out, and locking off locations to shoot from, being told "You will not Move during the cerimony/service" "You should shoot from here everyone does" "do not disrupt the service/cerimony" , and then one location gets Badly blocked, by someone who is moving ALL over the place, completly disrupting the service the entire time. Gee wonder who that would be :-) no its not the 4 year old.

a kid who decided to use my $400 microphone as a jungle gym, on a job that only paid 2times that. cover that under a warrenty :-)

"NO, You Can't do that" during , , , "Why didnt you Get that" after? uhhh because i was specifically told not to.

Orthodox Bat-Mitzvah.
You shoot from ---------------> back there, and dont work on saterday :-) ok pick one, if i am back there its going to be a Lotta work :-)

This one always puts me off. Somehow DJ/Band has a table, photog has a seating and video guys don't. It happens from time to time, but I always mention to the couple when signing the contract that we need seating and place to put equipment away.

I have yet to encounter a wedding where I have no seat.

Frustrations.

1. Parents who let their kids loiter the dance floor during First dance.
2. Relatives of the Bride/Groom who gets away with stepping on the altar when I cannot during the ceremony.

During the dollar dance while running with the glidecam kids are running on the dance floor as well. I actually knocked one kid on the head by accident as I tried to evade him completely. Almost had a wipe-out. :/

http://www.quincevideo.com/glidecam.mp4

Having a 2nd shooter that was hired two days before the wedding (original shooter's brother died, so it was an emergency) not follow directions that well, get drunk, flat out refuse to get shots I repeatedly told him to get because "they all look the same and it's too dark anyways", and finding out third hand later he had been hitting on one of the guests (okay, so this particular guest was a really attractive professional ballerina... but she also goes to my church. Not cool). Thank goodness I'm pretty good friends with the couple and they loved the video =P

VAT return one full day every quarter - though why I have the temerity to complain is beyond me - in the pre-computer days I had to pay a full time employee to do this!

The trouble with a thread like this is that it makes us all sound like a gloomy bunch of losers. OK, it's the unpredictability of human beings that makes this job so fascinating and different, but we do it because we know we're good at handling these situations, we can overcome problems and we can deliver the product that will genuinely surprise and delight the couple.

So just to say there are few other jobs where you get to attend a big and happy party every weekend, where everyone is togged up in their best kit and it's actually encouraged that you film the kids. Love it.

tom.

Good for you Tom!!

Yep I actually love my job too!! It's something we enjoy doing, we almost always get a good meal and free non-alcoholic drinks and we meet ton's of interesting people. However you must encounter a few problems that you can laugh about later!! I used to stress out when they didn't give me a table but now going with the flow is much easier. This way problems become minor!!

My last wedding before Christmas the B&G were invited to sit while the bible readings were done and the groomsmen carefully placed a pair of chairs so the back of one was actually touching my lens hood and the groom's hairy head filled the LCD !!! I really had to laugh about it as I just couldn't believe that someone could be so stupid!!! (the readings were done with my second cam..handheld for a full 15 minutes and it's mid Summer here!!!)

However it's good to see that frustration is global!!!

Chris

My scariest moment was using a Sony PD170 after a long time using a Z1. The light slides in from the front of the shoe, not the back.

I was up on a ladder getting high shots of a dance when the light slid right off and bonked a guest on the top of the head! I guess you could say that was a frustrating moment for him...I nearly had a coronary in panic that I had hurt him, but he turned out to be okay.

Nice moments are when you get those unsolicited emails or phone messages thanking you for the great video and telling you how much it means to them and their families. Makes it all worth while.

Tom, not only is your general comment correct, but you've hit on the one major benefit of working in this type of programme production; no-one ever goes to a wedding to be miserable. I remind myself of that every time I drive home at 9.30pm with legs on fire!

9:30pm? Lucky you. We tend to do 16 hour days, so I'm happy to get back at 1am!

1.B&G changing the terms of the contract 2 days before the wedding to add another 1 hour ceremony.

2.Kids that run around the dance floor during the first dance.

3. An open mic during speeches, lasted 2 hours..

The only frustration I face is my own kids busting in the office in the middle of the edit.

Every thing else for me would only be whining, not frustration.

Vito, bonking a guest in the head is about my worst fear, and exactly what the liability insurance is for. If anyone out there does not have liability insurance, you are just inviting financial disaster.