Speaker 1: Hey guys, Evan Borser here and you're watching vlog number 18 where I'm going to talk briefly about managing client feedback and just feedback in general and revisions on things. It's been about a month, it looks like, since I did a vlog last and that was one with Ben Consoli. And so I've been kind of doing a lot more blog content and stuff on Patreon but I kind of want to keep this vlog alive. Curious to hear your guys thoughts on the YouTube content and all of that. I also have my phone open and that's what's making this nice little color temp mix. So anyway, right into the vlog. For me early on in my career I feel like feedback is something that I struggled with because someone tells you I don't like this. What if we did that? I'm not a big fan of X, Y, or Z. It can be a hard thing to take as a creative and it can be a hard thing to give when someone says, hey you know they deliver you motion graphics titles or something, you have to give them feedback and you want to try to give intelligent feedback, don't want to be a jerk, how do you do that? So I've by no means mastered the art of feedback, but I do have a few quick tips that maybe can help you in how you handle those kinds of situations. Tip number one would be that the problem is almost always real. So if a client comes to you and says, hey, we don't like this, that is really how they feel. You cannot sit there and be like, oh well I'm an artist and based on being an artist, that's great. Because if people aren't artists, aren't digging it, they're not digging it regardless of how you feel about it. That being said, once in a while you do have someone who's gonna have a feeling that's like way off brand for the vision of the project. So you know, in the example, an example that I would give is podcast interview I had with Ryan Booth. He talked about, you know, client came over and said, hey that looks kind of dark. He was able to have a conversation with them about why it was the way it was and they were cool with it. And you can mitigate some of that by having those conversations ahead of time. But you will sometimes get someone who's like, oh, I just totally hate the premise of this, which is a different thing. But if someone says, hey, you know, I don't like X. They really don't like it. Now where the problem usually lies is that they don't necessarily have a good solution and a lot of times they think they have a good solution. So they say, I don't like X. Let's try fixing with Y. And often Y is not right. So let's say an example of one of my projects. If I'm working with say the Lazarus titles with Phil LG, who's did the motion graphics for those. He sent an original version and I'll try to identify my problem and give some general creative direction thoughts, but I'll try to not give a solution. So I, I don't even remember honestly at this point what the feedback was, but something along the lines of like, like this, you know, feels a little too clean for what we're looking for. Think that maybe we could go a slightly, I don't know. I'm blanking on adjectives, but that's kind of the kind of feedback that I'll try to give. I'll say thoughts and then allow him to provide feedback. But what I'll usually avoid doing is being like, what if like give really specific ideas? Sometimes specific ideas are great, but a lot of the times I find that it's better to offer those broader thoughts on, well, what if we made it feel a little moodier? Or what if we were to, you know, maybe add some serifs to the text? But, but more importantly than the adding the serifs is what are you trying to accomplish? And so I try to loop my artisan on what I'm trying to accomplish. So from a client perspective, when someone comes and gives me feedback, I usually take what their proposed solution is and try to dig into what they're trying to accomplish with that. So let's say a music video that I did last year. One of the first client notes was the pacing is too fast. And so they said, what if we change these shots and remove these shots? And I said, okay, hold up for a second. I can see what you're saying with the pacing is too fast. Let's dig into that a little more and then I can figure out how to best diagnose and fix that problem. So if you have a client come and say, hey, we don't like this. You should try to get into why and what they're looking for or at least what they think they're looking for so that you can then try and diagnose how to fix it. So maybe it's not that this is too dark, we don't like the grade on this or whatever, but try to get at what they're feeling and then use your knowledge of your craft to best turn that and create what they're looking for and be willing to check your pride at the door and to just go out there and facilitate what needs to get done. And as someone who gives feedback and leads people, try to be someone who, you know, number one, it helps if you're working with good people because when you're working with not as good people, you have to micromanage them a lot more. And so maybe say you're working with a grip who's just kind of a friend of yours who can move lights and you're like, put it exactly here and do exactly this with this light. But then as they get better, like as I work with better people or better at lighting, I'll be more like, hey, we want kind of a soft something kicking over here so that it feels like X and then I'll let them figure that out. So be willing to, as your people's skill sets grow, be willing to give them rope and give them broad creative direction so that they can execute what they're really good at and you don't have to worry about it so much. So yeah, those are some of my thoughts on creative feedback. Hopefully that is helpful and hopefully these vlogs are helpful. I like rambling to a camera. This is obviously a little different format than usual. I'm chilling on my couch watching a football game because it's winter in New England and that's what I do on a Sunday. But uh, thank you guys so much for watching. If you dig this, check out patreon.com slash ebores here. Check out the supersecretfilmblog.com. Website is just supersecretfilmblog.com and supersecretfilmcast.com where you can find our podcast and that interview with Ryan Booth, which should be coming out soon. But anyway, thanks for watching. Catch you guys soon. Bye.