Post-Production! Thank god you survived. And your footage is intact. And your crew didn’t mutiny. And you didn’t rip out every hair on your head. Hooray! Now it’s time to bring it home, baby.
#9: Make deadlines clear, then don’t freak out when they aren’t met.
If you don’t let people know exactly when you’d like to have things finished, they might forget you need it at all. People are busy and I’ll say again, everyone is working for free or almost nothing. They’ve got day jobs and their own projects to take care of. Set your deadlines clearly and send them out. Then deal with the fact that they probably won’t be met. If they do, then that’s awesome! But, again, when you aren’t paying people you have to deal with the fact that the people who do pay them take priority. However, if you’ve set clear deadlines, then your work should be finished in the ballpark.
However, keep in mind what your own boundaries are. If you’ve lost your confidence in someone’s ability to actually do the work, then you need to decide what to do. Generally, it’s best to have a backup plan in place before you talk to them about it. Tip #6 applies here as well. If you strongly feel you may have to replace someone, have a few potential backups up your sleeve. Then go to the person who’s not delivering, and discuss it calmly with them. “Things are moving slowly, what can I do to help? How can we solve this?” It’s possible they may need to be replaced, or it’s possible they don’t. You won’t know until you talk to them rationally. Either way, you want to keep the relationship intact while moving your project forward.
JESSICA MILLS
Creator and star, AWKWARD EMBRACES
