I'm shooting a TV advert next weekend and it's going to be hard. Pre-production process is as important as production and post-production, and it is great when clients are as involved as possible in all stages. However, it is not always the case.
To better explain the role of a client in making a film, I will go through the production stages first.
This is when the idea of the film, the style of it, the script, shot list, casting, location scouting and crew and equipment booking is done. It's a lot of work and it requires many people to finalise this process. We had trouble with the client because they were very slow replying and didn't have an opinion on things. It is hard to understand for me, but if I was a client, I would care about every detail of the film as it is supposed to promote the product and increase the sales. Being late with feedback means that even though we prepare the list of actors, by the time client gets back to us, they are no longer available. So we need to start fro scratch. Then, we found the locations but couldn't book them as the client needs to confirm them. Once they said go for it, the locations were booked for someone else. Once we in some magical way went through this, the client came up with an idea to have a child in the scene. And having children on a shoot is a big and expensive deal. Hiring a child actor is super expensive and we need extra people on the set to take care of the child. We don't mind that but it should had been decided earlier.
You may say "just charge the client extra". Yes, we are charging them more but it doesn't mean the stress decreases. It's just not how it works.
As we haven't progressed to the production stage yet, I have no idea what to expect. Oh and we still need to sort out lunch. A long way to go but it seems it's gonna happen. I hope it ends soon. Oh but there's post-production which will take ages knowing how fast the client is replying their emails.
And I just got an email saying that the shoot needs to be postponed :D Hahahaha.
As a bonus, here's a picture from the previous shoot. I just assisted, didn't film, but that was awesome. The client was great and the video is superb! If you want to see more of these kinda photos, follow me on Instagram, I am not afraid of stalkers! :D @gretazabulyte
