The Black and Blue

Filmmaking Tips for Camera Assistants

It's Always Your Fault, So Stop Making Excuses

It’s Always Your Fault, So Stop Making Excuses

Hey, you! Yeah, you. I need to have a word. We have to talk about some things. You're in denial. You're trying to skirt away from the truth and you're not taking responsibility for what happened.

by Miscellaneous Tips

I think it’s time you move on from the excuses and realize it’s always your fault, no matter how much you argue against it.

Remember those times when you:

  • Dropped that lens and it fell on the ground
  • Chipped the tripod leg and it couldn’t quite stand right again
  • Incorrectly calibrated a setting on the camera
  • Never checked those faulty BNC cables causing the monitor to have no signal
  • Or ran out of charged batteries because the charger got unplugged

Would you like me to go on?

All of these accidents, these mistakes, I hate to break it to you, they’re all your fault. You were put in charge of them and you failed to deliver. Nobody else was watching to see if the batteries were charged, nobody else was holding the lens, and it was you who gave the “OK” on those BNC cables.

Sure, the makeup person unplugged the battery charger for a hair dryer, and your 2nd AC said “Got it!” when they didn’t really have it, but those are excuses.

Where do excuses get you?

At the end of the day, the damage is done and no amount of “But… They did… I didn’t know…” will change the past and that it was your fault.

So stop trying to escape that. Stop trying to deny it. Your crumbling defense is chaffing my ears and making me never want to work with you again.

But there is some good news… There’s one thing you can do that will be a big step towards fixing the problem.

Do you want to hear it?

Whenever you’re done huffing and puffing, when your heart stops beating from what happened, and when you’ve got enough composure, just speak these words:

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

No, you’re right — an apology won’t repair a damaged lens or bring back erased footage, but at least it’ll acknowledge your slip-up, your mistake, your failure of responsibility.

In the beginning, that’s all anybody wants: to know you understand it was your fault. Even if you weren’t directly involved.

You have to take responsibility for the duties you were put in charge of in the first place. If that means you pass those duties on to someone else and they screw up, you screw up by default.

Don’t like that? Tough luck — it’s part of being a professional.

So repeat with me one last time:

It’s my fault. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.

Good.

Now let’s move on to more important things, like figuring out how to deal with the problem instead of yelling about it.