The day I lost a whole interview to a dead battery in Sedona

I was shooting a client testimonial up at a resort near Sedona, beautiful golden hour light, great setup. About 15 minutes in, my main camera just shut off. Dead battery, and I had left the spare back at the truck. I had to finish the whole thing on a GoPro I keep in my bag for B-roll, holding it by hand and praying the audio picked up. The client was patient, but I could tell they were nervous. The final cut actually turned out okay, but I will never pack a single battery again. Has anyone else had a shoot go sideways because of gear failure?

2 comments

2 Comments

garcia.miles6d ago

Dude, YES. That exact same gut-drop feeling when the camera just dies mid-interview. I was filming a brewery owner for a short doc, totally vibing, and my Sony just shut off. I had like 6% battery left and didn't even notice. Had to finish the whole thing on my phone propped up on a stack of pint glasses. The audio was awful, it sounded like a tin can full of bees. The client was cool about it but I could barely look them in the eye. Now I check my batteries like five times before I even leave the house.

lucaslane6d ago

Honestly I feel like people make this way more dramatic than it needs to be. @garcia.miles you filmed an entire interview on your phone and the client was cool with it, sounds like a win honestly. Worse case scenario you redo the interview next week or just edit around the bad audio. People act like a dead battery is a career ending moment when really it's just a pain in the ass for an hour.