Know When the Sunset Is Worth Fighting For

Do not fight everything. Fight for what cannot be replaced.

Years ago, we were shooting a commercial on 35mm film near the mouth of the Columbia River. We were on a Coast Guard trawler, filming a fishing boat. The weather socked in. The crew was exhausted. My 1st AC was seasick below deck. The producer pressure was obvious: take the foggy version and go home.

But the shot needed one thing we did not have: a punch of sun.

So we waited. An hour. Maybe ninety minutes. Then we got five to seven minutes of exactly the light we needed.

That is the difference between perfectionism and conviction. Perfectionism wastes the day. Conviction protects the thing the story cannot live without.