“I have better things to do than worry about a case!”
“Yeah, but you still need a case,” I tried to reason with the producer of the documentary. “You can’t just distribute this thing in a… cheap, pinkish… demo-looking case. It’s a professional production, or at least that’s the message we want to convey to our sponsors. Think about it, they just paid between 50 and 100 euros and then they receive this nice DVD in this shitty, afterthought of a case? That’s not right.”
“I really put a lot of thought into that case! It’s different from all the other DVD cases out there, with their photos and text. Who needs that anyway? It’s about the content, not the case!”
“True, it’s about the content… buuuuuuut, the case makes the first impression and this gives the impression that it was made by a high-school student for an elective course. Is that how you want to represent yourself? After all, this DVD is a kind of business card for you. It’s the fruit of your labor. When people see this, they see you! Is this what you want to look like?” As the words left my mouth, I realized why his hair was never washed or combed. Perhaps he really doesn’t care what he looks like. It explains the half-shaven peach fuzz on his chin and his generally shoddy appearance.
“I have better things to do!,” he insisted. “There are limits! Do you know how much time it takes to design and print and cut and fit a case? And how much money each case costs? At least a euro a piece!”
“Oooooooh,” I sneered. “So this this actually about the money? Okay, then we’ll pay for it. We’ll buy the cases and pay for the printing… what, something like 200 euros in total? I think we’ll survive.”
“… but this is my vision!”
“Oh, so this is really important that it looks like a half-cooked production? Because that’s how it looks. All the time and energy and people involved to produce this and you can’t be bothered to spend an extra day to make a case? Your vision is ‘half-cooked production’ then?”
“There are limits!” he wails, after a short pause. “There just only so much that I can do! I’ve invested enough time as it is. I’m not going to spend even more time and more money. There are limits and I’ve reached them!”
“Can we please clarify this? Is it a question of time and money? Then, we’ll take care of it. You won’t be bothered.”
“But this is my vision! This is how it should look. There’s nothing wrong with it!”
“You’re… you’re proud of the way it looks? The cheap, demo-looking… 10 cent case with no inlay, no photos, no text… just a translucent pink case. You’re proud of this? You stand behind it?”
“Yes! There’s nothing wrong with it!”
Man, this guy is difficult. I suppose producers/directors have to be stubborn and he has been stubborn enough during the last year. During the filming, during editing, during everything. He’s very defensive and can be very nasty. But here we are, after two years, the damn thing is finally finished and all we need is a nice case, with the regular stuff: title, photo, credits, etc. But this is just too much for him and if we offer to do it for him, he insists that the current (lack of) design is crucial to the overall picture. Yeah, right. You’re lazy and you’re too stubborn to admit it. On top of that, you’re embarrassed that we would point out how childish and unprofessional the damn thing looks, so you pretend that this is your grand vision. There is no vision, you just forgot to design a case and when we offer to do it, you get defensive and throw out stupid excuses about time, costs… and then back to the “vision.”
But this cheap, crappy case doesn’t just make him look bad, it also makes us look bad. How can we, with a straight face, hand this thing to our sponsors… or to important contacts… or to possible customers? It looks like a half-cooked production and it’s such a shame because the film is really good, the recording, editing, everything is really good! Why would you come so far, just to quit? Why would you run the entire marathon, just to stop 10 feet from the finish line? Lazy? Stubborn? Embarrassed? Why?
Why would you seriously think to place your baby, your blood and tears of the past two years, why would you place this diamond, this cherry, this most precious work of art… in the cheapest, ugliest case you could find? And then why would you defend this action so vigorously?
Leave a Reply