It’s Always Your Fault, So Stop Making Excuses

Miscellaneous Tips 11 Comments

It's Always Your Fault Finger Point

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.

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.

About the author:

About the author: Evan Luzi is the editor and founder of The Black and Blue as well as a freelance camera assistant.

You can learn more about him or follow him on Twitter and Google+.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7717548 Lawrence Marshall

    In your experience, once you and the crew are backing to drinking buddies after the long day, shoot, week, or month, have you had people admit it was *really* their fault?

    Also, the shit doesn’t roll downhill on the film set?  As a 2nd AC, I would never expect my 1st to take the blame for me dropping a lens.  Yes, he may have been the one to recommend me for the position, but I sure hope that when I make a mistake that is clearly on me, the 1st doesn’t have to apologize for me!

    If the Producer/AD is going to fire you for the batteries not being charged, and the situation was one that you described about makeup unplugging your battery charger, have you anything to lose if you tell them it was makeup?  The thing I can see you losing is getting hired again since you don’t admit you were wrong, even if you’re not, but who cares when they won’t hire you anyway due to the batteries in the first place?

  • http://www.theblackandblue.com/ Evan

    In my experience, people usually won’t talk about mistakes made on set unless it’s in a joking manner. Nobody likes to be reminded of times they were upset or angry, so unless it can be funny, it’s not worth revisiting.

    It depends on the working dynamic. If you’re a good 2nd AC, then yes, you would say to the 1st AC, “No, I’ll go tell the DP, it was my fault.”

    But if the 2nd AC was shy, or upset, and the 1st went up to the DP and said, “HE dropped this lens, so its his fault we can’t use that prime anymore,” the DP would probably be annoyed at the 1st for not taking responsibility.

    I think, Lawrence, there is a subtle difference between accepting fault and explaining what happened. If I was about to get fired, yes I would tell them that makeup unplugged the batteries, but I would explain how that was my fault. Something like:

    “The batteries weren’t charged because makeup unplugged the chargers and I hadn’t checked them recently. So, I’m sorry I let them die, it’s my fault I was unaware of the situation.”

    In that case, you’re both accepting responsibility and explaining why it happened in the first place, but there aren’t any excuses.

    Excuses are formed when you try and place the entire blame away from you.

    It’s all about tact.

    But you’d be surprised the kind of mistakes people are willing to let slide as soon as you say, “I’m sorry” and nothing else.

    There have been times I’ve wanted to argue, but I just bite my tongue, say I’m sorry, and 10 minutes later everything is fine again.

  • Aliking444

    I found myself in this exact position recently.

    I was asked why the battery charger was unplugged and not charging correctly, when IT WAS MAKE UP!

    It was my fault for a, not checking regularly and also b, for not placing a note on the plug which reads “Do Not Unplug”, which I do from now on.

    I can hear myself using the make up excuse and saying that it won’t happen again, so maybe I did the right thing anyway. The lesson I learnt was more to do with the checking of batteries as opposed to shifting blame. It’s a hard one to gauge when you are positive that you checked that they were plugged in. It seems unfair to have to take the blame. Something’s are unavoidable and aren’t always your fault. 

    Everyone is human at the end of the day and I will be the first to admit when something is my fault, but it shouldn’t mean allowing everything that goes wrong to be blamed on you.

  • Adam Richlin

    I was working with a young electric who was cleaning up a set during a location move. It was a small gig, and he was the only electric on for the day. He did all the setup and takedown for lighting gear, but was not exactly experienced enough to be calling the shots for gaffing. 

    So that afternoon, he picked up a Joker 400 or 800 HMI with interchangeable lenses, not knowing the lens was not secured on the front of the head. Lamp comes up, lens crashes down and explodes in a fine mist of glass shards like an expensive firework. He stands there for a second. The whole set is staring at him, *dead* silent. He’s alone in the middle of the room. He puts his hand on his chin, thinks for a second. Stands straight up, puts one hand on his hip and points at the remains of the lens. He loudly proclaims (with a sense of humor)”That! That. Thaaa-ooooh dear… Not it!”We all busted out laughing at it. He got a laugh, too.  Later he got his ass kicked by the producer, admitted his mistake hat-in-hand, and the day went on.

    Still works for me all the time, too. Only now I have someone else carry the Jokers. 

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  • http://www.theblackandblue.com/ Evan

    I love this story, Adam.

    Am happy to hear the guy handled the situation with a bit of humor and grace.

  • http://www.theblackandblue.com/ Evan

    I think placing too much focus on who is being blamed is the wrong route to go. Nobody cares whose fault it was, really, they just want somebody to take responsibility for it so the situation can be dealt with.

    At times it will seem unfair, and there have been more times than I can count where I’ve had to bite my tongue and spit out “I’m sorry” even though I didn’t feel that way.

    It’s all about moving on and moving forward. I’m sorry goes a long way, a lot further than people realize.

  • http://twitter.com/dpimm Dave Pimm

    Great article. I think this is good advice across the board, not just on a film set. However, I would say it’s even more important on set because what we do is largely about efficiency. When someone says ‘why are all the batteries dead and the charger’s unplugged’, no-one wants to hear uncertainty either because it’s slow. They want to hear who is responsible and for it to be corrected so things can carry on running smoothly. So, I think a lot of the time, it’s not about whose fault it is, but about how to get the production back on schedule quickly. For that to happen, it’s best to just put your hand up and acknowledge you let something slip.

    Aside from all of the above, I personally find it very annoying when people do not accept responsibility. Furthermore, if you accept responsibility on behalf of someone else’s negligence (which is sometimes appropriate, as you’ve explained above, Evan) I think it only serves to highlight your personal level of maturity and professionalism, while simultaneously teaching the person whose fault it was and who didn’t own up, a valuable lesson. I bet they don’t do it again and if they make a mistake in the future, they’ll be vocal and accept responsibility that time around. 

    Sometimes it just has to be done. I was spark on a production recently and the 2nd AC looked really worried, so I asked if she was alright. She explained that she had exposed one of the reels by mistake. Fortunately, it hadn’t been used yet, but she asked me if I thought she should tell the DP. I just nodded. She didn’t need to hear my response, but for a moment she was in denial about it and thought it would upset him. She was forgiven because owning up to the fault then and there was better than finding out later on when everyone thought there was one more roll of stock to shoot on, that that reel didn’t exist.

    Great post, Evan, as always. 

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  • http://www.theblackandblue.com/ Evan

    Thanks Dave. And great comment by you as well. No wonder I love reading your blog!

    It’s a tough hurdle to overcome — to put yourself in a bad position like that — but it only gets worse as time goes on.

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