15 Years of Production Lessons: Learn from My Mistakes & Avoid Embarrassment on Set!

In video production, there are some mistakes that keep repeating on shoots and I wanted to make a video to share the most common mistakes I've seen in 15 years of production. Hopefully, you can avoid some of these in your video shoots.

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[robert_starling]

Great tips Saj! I hate hearing someone say, "I'm just a PA" when the PA position is truly one of the most important positions on set. Frankly, I'd rather have a great PA team than a mediocre producer. PAs are the lube and glue that keep everything running smoothly. While their assignments may appear to be mundane tasks, they are not! It takes a team and the team is only as strong as the weakest link. Whatever your position on-set, you are there for a reason and be honored and proud someone thought enough of you to trust you'll be an asset to their project.
As for punctuality, in the last 43 years filming projects all over the world, I've let more people go (or simply took them off the A-list) for being late, a/k/a unreliable, than for any other reason. Like you mentioned Saj, there's occasionally a valid reason for it, but that should be the rare exception. A 7am call time, means being there are ready to work at 7am, not showing up, chatting up and eating your meal. Also, showing up early gives you a little time to meet the crew, learn a little about their jobs and visit a bit before everyone is scrambling to do the first setup.

[andrewwhite]

Your videos are excellent thank you for the advice.

[aryan_gupta]

I have made the very first mistake you told tripod plate 😂😂

[bobw]

Mistakes I've made: Letting a rock guitar player be sound man ("I've made lots of audio recordings.") and not understanding what he meant when he said "I've made sure to leave lots of headroom on the audio". (One actor was used to being miked and spoke so low I had to ADR every scene he was in.) Failing to double check all my camera settings (I.E. reset my camera after recording straight to my computer without a card.)