Thousands of people work in the music industry and of course, not all of them are 100% reliable. We thought we’d set the record straight and share our experience of a video project in July 2024 that went horribly wrong in the hope that sharing may help others avoid the predicament we experienced.
We engaged a local videographer in Muscle Shoals to film a one-hour live band performance from different angles using two camera operators. The deliverables were to be five song videos for use in artist festival applications plus a sizzle reel for the artist's social media content. The artist arranged to have the band show sound recorded at the sound desk to be able to sync the live music in the videos.
The videographer was briefed by the artist before the show on 18 July and the project required a fixed camera and two roving cameras with editing and post-production to match videos previously provided to the artist by Slightly Gigantic Media and Blacklist Productions. The videographer wanted payment upfront and this was duly paid. The payment included funds to cover the cost of the second camera operator. The videographer “guaranteed” delivery in a week - an ambitious deadline but the videos were required ASAP for festival applications.
Directly after the band show, the videographer revealed that the 2nd camera operator had not turned up. We were livid to be told this after the show because, if we had known, we would have stepped into that role and videoed the show just as we'd done on many occasions in the past.
Six weeks after the band show - on 26th August - we emailed the videographer for an update. After a few days, she sent via Dropbox, a 14-second sizzle reel that was unusable – it did not meet industry standards in terms of duration, memorable content, number of clips, and color grading. Specifically, it was too short, it featured only 10 clips and these included irrelevant imagery such as upside-down merchandise and unflattering clips of the artist and other musicians, and it didn't include relevant imagery such as key moments during a performance, audience reaction, and the artist's name. It appeared that the sizzle reel had been cobbled together very quickly, with little consideration of creating quality social media content.
At this point, we were very concerned about the main deliverables of the video project. We asked to see the raw footage to ascertain whether the project could be salvaged. The videographer sent a link to three videos of raw footage of the band show taken from one fixed camera in front of the stage. These videos were unusable due to the camera angle – specifically, nearly half the lower part of the frame was taken up with ads affixed to the hoarding at the front of the stage.
We asked the videographer what had happened and instead of hearing from her, her mother rang us and suggested that she could get her editor to salvage the video project. However, this suggestion that was never fulfilled and we received nothing from either the videographer or her mother. It was clear that neither the videographer or her mother understood that it it was a video project with specific business purposes and implications.
We've done multiple similar projects in the past and, as we'd seen some of the videographer's previous work, we believed that we could rely on her to do the job. We were so wrong! In hindsight, we should have noted the red flags as they came up and stepped in to salvage what we could of the project. An initial indicator was the videographer's lack of punctuality; she consistently turned up late to meetings. Tardiness can be a key indicator of a lack of professionalism and with this project, it was just the tip of the iceberg.
Red flag #1 - Lack of adherence to the client brief. The videographer didn’t take notes about the client brief at meetings and instead talked about her preferences for the project. The videographer simply ignored the client brief.
Red flag #2- Demanding full payment upfront. Instead of a 50% deposit, the videographer demanded full payment upfront. That’s risky for a client because if the project fails, they may have trouble getting their money back. The normal practice is to never pay in full up front and 50% deposit upfront is the industry standard.
Red flag #3 - Empty promises about an unrealistic delivery date. If a delivery date sounds unrealistic but is “guaranteed” - beware! As it turned out, the videographer didn't disclose that she had multiple other jobs that week plus a wedding and our project was one of many.
Red flag #4 - Poor communication. The videographer failed to consult with us about several key aspects of the project. She didn't advise us on the day of the shoot about the absence of the 2nd camera operator and then obfuscated about that as well as her reasons for changing the client brief without consulting us.
Red flag #5 - Delayed delivery. We heard from the videographer after the event but when six weeks of non-delivery went by, we discovered that she hadn’t started the project! She gave a misleading reason for the delay - that she needed to discuss editing with the artist - however, she did not reach out to the artist at any time to discuss editing or post-production issues. It was clear that she had simply failed to start the project.
Red flag #6 - Poor quality videography. The fixed camera footage was totally unfit for purpose and unusable: the resolution was poor, the bad camera angle meant that nearly 40% of the frame was taken up with stage hoarding and advertising, and musician's heads were cut off at several points in footage. The footage could not be cropped or used in any way.
The videographer didn't allow us to view the roving camera footage but did supply a 14- second sizzle reel. While the videographer said “I loved the sizzle reel I created because I thought it captured (the artist's) energy and passion onstage”, we will never use the sizzle reel or the fixed camera footage due to the poor quality of these.
Image credit: Still photograph from a video project filmed by Lily Holly Retherford.
Red flag #7 - Watch out when the story keeps changing. We found that the videographer we hired kept changing her story to the point of literally lying to cover her tracks. Several small lies were easily revealed to be untrue and the extent of lying became problematic in our case when she began spreading false claims that we were to blame for the failed project and that we were trying to “steal her intellectual property”.
Red flag #8 - Liaise with one key person only. The videographer we hired passed communications over to her mother. As a result, communications became more convoluted and time-wasting in the weeks that followed. The videographer's mother kept insisting that the project would have been finished if we hadn't asked for a refund. However, it was clear that the videographer had no intention of starting the job given the poor quality footage. A full refund was eventually paid by her father ten weeks after the band show event.
We asked the videographer for an explanation about the failed video project and one was never provided, nor was an apology. Three months after the band show, we walked away with our money back but no videos for what had been a great band show. It sounds harsh, but we felt scammed.
Plans for a music video that was to be subsequently filmed by the videographer for Lucie Tiger's single ‘Everybody Knows Your Name’ had to be shelved due to the fallout from the video project debacle. As a result, the opportunity to make a music video for this single was missed.
Update - We were initially discreet about the videographer - local Muscle Shoals content creator Lily Holly Retherford - and her mishandling of the video project because she lives in a small town. However, it became clear over time that Lily opted to cover for her professional negligence by spreading the rumor that we wanted to steal her intellectual property, a false claim without any basis in truth. Lily's rumor prompted us to get legal advice and she was sent a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter by our attorney.
This post was initially uploaded when we received our full refund. It was amended with an update after our attorney sent a Cease and Desist letter to Lily Holly Retherford.