Your first video handoff is too big

From the Arsenal: You breathe it. They might not yet.

Story Of The Day: The whole room went dark.

We were already filming...

Naturally I went to check on what happened to the generator.

The generator overloaded.

I traced backwards.

The power was not routed right.

Backwards...

The light was not in the right place.

So I called out:
"Johnny!"

Let’s call him Johnny.

Johnny was newer to the lighting side of things.

Straight out of film school,
He has probably done it a few times in class.
Or on a thesis film when he crewed for other classmates.

But have done the work.
is different than doing it everyday.

Oops.

Nothing crazy happened.

We recovered.

That is just part of being on set.

But it was a good reminder.

Just because you know how to do something
does not mean the new person does too.

Johnny was not trying to mess it up.

He just didn't know.

He was probably not comfortable
asking every question either.

The workflow was not broken.

Give that task to someone who knew the process
and it would have worked.

The handoff was too big.

Before that point,
Johnny should shadow someone more experienced.

Or we should have given the work to someone
who already knew the setup.
(At least count your paper amps)

Same thing happens inside teams.

A new editor gets handed an entire project.

Footage.
A vague brief.
A deadline.

Then everyone acts surprised when its all wrong
or the edit comes back heavy.

Now people think the process is the problem.

Maybe it is.

But sometimes you just gave someone ownership
before they had the context to carry it.

Takeaways: Delegating isn't just saying "you do it".

How to Apply It Today:

1. Build The Runway: Let the new guy/gal shadow, prepare, or own one smaller piece before they own the full thing.
2. Protect The Live Work: New people should not learn your standards on the deadline.
3. The Big Handoff: Look at where someone is being asked to make a real decision before they should even be making it.

Pro tip: Decision and judgment transfer waaaay slower than the job title.

As promised: dialing in your video workflows 1% at a time.
That’s what we do inside the Arsenal.

If you're struggling with video... we should talk.

Start small win big.
-David

P.S. Every month I host an open workshop, where you can come in and quite literally ask any questions you have about video operations bring your biggest bottlenecks if you just want to make better video decisions with your team.

David Yang
​Co-Founder & CCO
DenimStitch Creative
7486 La Jolla Blvd #1012, La Jolla, CA 92037