Monday morning, 3 April 2023. A last-minute brief: seven masters, each with its variations, due the following Monday. Which meant approval by Friday.
Briefs like this rarely arrive fresh. The previous editor had walked away when the job got overwhelming, and the agency was left holding someone else’s mess with a week on the clock. There was one other problem. I was booked in for surgery on Friday.
- 01
Took over the inherited footage, cleaned it up, and got the edit to a standard the agency was happy with.
- 02
Built out all seven masters and their variations. By Thursday everything was locked, with 120 deliverables ready to go.
- 03
Then the late feedback landed. A “small” change on seven masters means reworking all 120 versions, so I handed the changes to a sister studio before going in.
- 04
The changes overwhelmed them, and the only person left who could finish the job was me. I came out of surgery, sat back down in bandages, and worked through the fixes over the weekend.
Delivered on Sunday, a day ahead of the deadline. By Monday the client was happy, and I could finally rest.
There’s no such thing as a small change on a campaign. One note on a master touches every version cut from it, so build every job expecting it to change at the last minute.
