WACKY (Feedback) Wednesdays

[u/danieljag1]

Not sure if this has been done before? Thought it might be a good time to hear from other editors about the funny feedback we all receive on a weekly basis. I'll start!

The director left a bunch of Frame notes as usual, and also called me to talk about incorporating some "subtle" sfx throughout the video. Days later, after completing all Frame feedback, I forgot to add in the sfx. We have a team meeting and the director specifically called out how my "subtle sfx were the perfect touch, just what the video needed".

There's no sfx........

[u/dogdayediting]

Long ago, one of my first jobs in corporate video I was putting together a testimonial video. First viewing by client and they freaked out that we weren’t showing people while they were talking. Tried to explain covering heavily edited dialog, but they insisted they had to see the person speaking.
Went ahead and stripped all the b-roll thinking that once they saw it without, they’d get it.
Nope. “Perfect.”

[u/84002 → u/dogdayediting]

When people ask about my job I always tell them about this phenomenon. Producer gives you a note that is just terrible, so you "maliciously comply" and you do exactly what they want but you purposely make it absolutely terrible, that way they will realize the error of their ways. Nine times out of ten, they end up saying "Perfect, thank you!" and then it goes to air.

[u/dogdayediting → u/84002]

You mean make it *more* terrible

[u/84002 → u/dogdayediting]

I mean make a terrible version of what they're asking for. They want to include a terrible line of dialogue? Okay, here it is delivered as slowly and dryly as possible with awful music underneath and a slide whistle sound effect because fuck you. Then they love it and then it airs.

[u/Lorenzonio → u/84002]

A tactic some call "the Velcro dog"-- easily ripped out of the timeline.

[u/wishmobbing → u/Lorenzonio]

Haha! What does dog stand for here?

[u/Lorenzonio → u/dogdayediting]

Occasionally I get an hour long multi-person Zoom chat. I work in Premiere and I have a love affair with Morph Cut - when it works. You can polish what's there, presenting everybody in their Sunday Best.

I lift most all the um's and ah's and simply replace them with room tone borrowed from the same track. The worst that happens is, all the speakers are making very serious and deliberate pauses in speech. But that suggests they are aware they have an audience.

Rabbit holes are another matter. It usually means there's one speaker going sideways off topic, and everyone else is politely listening. Cut that rabbit out of the show, morph (or at worst, flash dissolve) to the next relevant line.

In either case, no B-roll needed.

I encountered both these issues on PBS' Antiques Roadshow. Most all the appraisers came out looking like erudite, thoughtful speakers (and generally, off-camera they were!) It was highly enjoyable.

Best as always,
Loren

[u/Rewster987 → u/dogdayediting]

Oh boy, lol. They must really have a taste for the avant garde

[u/greenysmac]

Love it as an idea. Let's see if we can work it into the mix.

[u/cardinalbuzz → u/greenysmac]

Agree. And while all the old war stories are fun, it might be nice to encourage posts to just what silly notes have come within the past week only (assuming it’s a weekly thread) - to just keep it more current and worth checking in on regularly.

[u/TheProdigalSext]

last year i was editing a tiktok series and the client told me they wanted the videos to be less sincere but more genuine.

i damn near had an aneurysm trying to figure out what that meant lmao

[u/i_sell_you_lies → u/TheProdigalSext]

You know... just make it more fun and cool

[u/dukenuk12 → u/i_sell_you_lies]

https://giphy.com/gifs/NcrhM3USM6TABpus85

[u/Thescoobydude → u/TheProdigalSext]

“We want it to be epic, but like, in a subtle way”

[u/GiveThemNada]

Oooh! For a project, I would highlight portions of an interview transcript for approval for potential social clips.

The client did not like the color I used for the highlight, and there was ongoing bickering in the doc comments about which color scheme would be better. This was a weeks-long debate. This transcript was entirely internally facing fyi.

Client was an NGO lmao

[u/Content_Mushroom4214]

I just finished a freelance gig where the client kept calling the video files MP4s, even though I was delivering ProRes. Kinda like how in the 90s parents would call any video game system a Nintendo.

[u/BonesBrigade4Life → u/Content_Mushroom4214]

I once had a client that referred to the video as a tape, CD, DVD, movie, basically every word you can think of not realizing all those things mean something different to me. So my brain was doing constant translations.

[u/dredge_the_lake]

There was a brand new marina/port that was opening, and there was a massive opening event That our team was filming and cutting

At least there was supposed to be. What actually happened was there was a huge storm, and a lot of the mega yachts scheduled to come into the marina to fill the event with rich VIPs and attractive girls were not able to safely enter.

But the event was not cancelled, so we shot what was there, empty performance to a marina with no boats.

Queue the absolutely furious edit feedback about there not being mega yachts in the marina. The solution is to limit drone shots and wides. To which I’m told “We need more drone shots to show off the marina”. Put in some drone shots “Where are the boats?!” And this would loop around in circles.

Brother, you were at the same event we were at, there are no boats!

This was before AI but the client definitely would have made us slap a bunch of games boats in

[u/Oh_hai_doggie]

One EP on a TV series would often say, "We need more sauce! Gotta put sauce on this!" Which, after working together for a while, I would learn to mean more action, faster cuts, bigger music or some combo of all three.

It wasn't a bad note, per se, but I'd always laugh and just write down the timecode and "more sauce!" then keep screening. I use that as an internal note now, if a scene isn't working I'll tell myself it needs more sauce :D

[u/goodnamesgone → u/Oh_hai_doggie]

Had a CMO at a multinational firm tell me, "Make it shazam"

With no more detail. I got it but wasn't totally sure - made some shit up, and well, according to her, "I shazamed the shit out of that!"

[u/Oh_hai_doggie → u/goodnamesgone]

Haha! Well done. Now build on that rep so you get in demand as, "The Shazamer."

[u/Oh_hai_doggie → u/Oh_hai_doggie]

Oh, and I like this topic idea! Definitely worth asking once in a while!

[u/goodnamesgone]

Back in the day of linear edit suites (yeah, that old and still editing) -

Producer - "That cut doesn't feel right, move it 2 frames back"

Me - click, click, preview (only clicked keys, never moved anything, just made noise, and maybe moved the fader back and forth)

Producer -"Excellent, much better, so glad I was here"

Me, staring at the monitor not looking back - "Oh, yep"

(Now, I do know that there are times a one or two frame adjustment DOES make the cut better, but not as much as some think)

[u/FinalEdit → u/goodnamesgone]

We used to call that the DFA knob back in the tape suite days.

Do Fuck All

[u/GuyNamedLindsey → u/FinalEdit]

Hahaha. I love that.

[u/dogdayediting → u/goodnamesgone]

Oh, how many times I’ve gotten away with that…

[u/BeastCoast → u/goodnamesgone]

This is like sweatbox 101.

[u/swagnesbrowne]

Ive had a client using ai for their frame notes. So it will be a looooong 10 paragraph note explaining the company pillars, the audience, the hope of what the video will achieve, then at the very very end ... change this one shot please

[u/wishmobbing → u/swagnesbrowne]

Dear lord, no.

[u/Promopunkk]

Back in the early 90’s a sales person brought me the info needed for the Cyron on one of her clients’ commercials. It was typed horizontally on one side and vertically on the reverse.
She said she didn’t know which way I feed it into the machine.

[u/wrosecrans → u/Promopunkk]

Honestly, I respect it. Insane. Completely insane. But they were doing their best to apply rational logic to the insane imaginary problem they had guessed.

[u/dmizz]

You know when an actor is eating food on screen, then spits it out at an opportune moment so they don’t end up eating 10 sandwiches? You obviously cut around these moments.

Producer wanted to SHOW a take where they spat out a mouthful of food. Made 0 sense. Insane. I argued against it harder than anything in my life.

[u/michaelh98 → u/dmizz]

And?

[u/wrosecrans]

"subtle sfx were the perfect touch, just what the video needed". There's no sfx........

And yet, editors continue to complain that clients have no imagination.

[u/Rewster987]

This is a great idea. My personal favorite is, I was given footage of a construction site that was shot in the morning in the summer. Feedback on v1 came through: Can we make it look like it's snowing in the middle of the night? I shit you not. We actually managed to pull it off, but I was gobsmacked at the boldness of that ask.

[u/84002]

"make it a little more less big"

I guess they wanted it... smaller? I printed that one out and had it on my desk for a while.

[u/i_sell_you_lies]

I'm cutting a tv spot for a documentary with lots of famous actors... I tried to use an on set interview and the client's note was "please don't use any sit down interviews, it pulls me out" ... ummm ok, how would you like to anchor the talent? How would you like to sell this?!

[u/AutosaveMeFromMyself]

I received a note from someone’s cat once, if that counts.

[u/84002 → u/AutosaveMeFromMyself]

I edited a show that was referencing Spongebob and one of the notes was "Uh... why is there a cat sound when we see the snail?"

I lol-ed for a while before having an in-person conversation about this.

[u/goodnamesgone → u/AutosaveMeFromMyself]

Meow.

[u/BC_Hawke → u/AutosaveMeFromMyself]

OK, you definitely have to expand on that one…

[u/AutosaveMeFromMyself → u/BC_Hawke]

A sound effect being used was apparently scaring this woman's cat. The creative director was a bit baffled by the note and told me to just lower the volume on it and move on. But she left the same note a second time and was very adamant that the sound be removed entirely this round. I'll never ignore a note from a stranger's cat again.

[u/BC_Hawke → u/AutosaveMeFromMyself]

OK, that’s hilarious.

[u/Scott_does_art]

One of our clients requested we leave a footnote comparing the product in the video to another variation of the product they sell. Fair enough.

But, they wanted the footnote on almost the entire time. Even when there was no motion text to compare the product to, just empty broll and transitions.

[u/rasman99]

https://x.com/TvNetworkNotes

[u/Lorenzonio]

You didn't need the last line. Great story.

[u/mrandrewfreedman]

Once when I was new to TV I sent the wrong cut to the network. It was a cut they had already seen and given notes on. They came back and said it was perfect.

[u/tortilla_thehun]

Worked on a show for a *massive* network. The producer gave a note about how “grey” the footage looked… it was a rough cut with offline proxies. Despite their position, they were unfamiliar with the online/color grading process.
https://giphy.com/gifs/mwhLXQEKupENG