can i vent about a writer / producer / director here???

[stank killa]

Anyhow. sorry to need to vent. and here as my first post. but any how. I'm an editor / videographer / and producer at times.

I've been working for the last 3 years with a script writer / director / producer. Any how she always produces a script/shot list/storyboard for videos that we shoot together for a mutual client. (client hired her to produce/write, me to shoot/edit). This last video, she gives me the shot list from footage we already shot. I do the edits as per her sheet of paper. She picks all shots, VOs everything. I typically do as the sheet of paper says - shes's the writer, thats why they hire her right?

we were on a deadline... so Anyhow I'm rushed with 5 other projects, so I do as her script/shot sheet says. For this project im hired to be an editor... not a producer/director, thats her job.

Now her shot sheet says to do edit ABD - now im taking crap cause i wasn't a mind reader and didn't realise what she really wanted was it to be edited ABC.

I get an email chewing me out... now we are missing the deadline, and she's basically putting me out to hang. Saying its all my fault. If you give me a verbatim script, and tell me to follow it and I do... then why am I getting in sh*t and now threatened that i'm going to loose my contract with my client???

Totally pissed at the situation.

Part of the last email she sent me... "Don't be an edit-by-number guy. I'm perfectly capable of editing these myself but, instead, I have to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN (every single in and out...) to get you to do it. And then you don't even pay attention to see that it works."

[Midnight Blue]

Do what I want not what I say, Classic. "You should have known I didn't want it like that just because I said I did". There is no winning when you come up against that sort of attitude.

[Stripe]

Sounds like she is saying that she doesn't need you and wants your work for herself, is money tight for her?

The client hired you both, as opposed to her hiring you, so I suspect the blame game is to get you fired, so she can take your work and wage.

[Zero]

Pay attention! Part of the editors job, besides blindly following instructions is to see that 'it' works. No matter how busy, If you viewed the final edit and it clunked at certain points, you should have queried the plot. If she'd have been wrong, then you could have loaded the invoice with the extra work. If she still insisted it was right, then master the project as required. Her say so of the 'iffy' edit would then have backfired on her, not you. If you'd have saved her reputation from imploding then you'd have reaped the glory too.

[Midnight Blue]

Perhaps this is true but I'm not sure he wanted to hear that, at this point in time. He just wanted a rant and an understanding shoulder.

[Zero]

Perhaps this is true but I'm not sure he wanted to hear that, at this point in time. He just wanted a rant and an understanding shoulder.

Tough! She sounds like the one worthy of a rant. We can all play the game letter by letter just to prove our point. Sometimes though you need to take it on the chin and not look for when you don't deserve it.

[Midnight Blue]

I'm sure your right and this could be why I'm not making it in this business, I'm just not tough enough.

[Bpotter908]

It's unfortunate, but there is an important rule :

"If what you do can be written down, They'll find someone else to do it cheaper"

I as an editor do not just follow a script word for word, If I see something that can be improved, I raise it in an appropriate manner...and if client disregards me, I make a point to have a written record of that, normally via email, so if client decides to blame me for their " creative moment" I've got my ass covered if it all blows up.

Just a question: Was there a proper typed up script, that the main client had been given in addition to you? Or was it genuinely hand-written scripts?