Being detail-oriented doesn’t mean I never make mistakes

Today, I want to talk about paying attention to the details. 

Years ago, I had the opportunity to work as a producer on a family history film. Our team was making a film about a survivor of the Battle of Okinawa during World War II and her grandchild. Looking back, I learned an important lesson from that experience: sometimes, success comes from tracking the smallest details, and sometimes, someone else’s attention to detail saves you from a big mistake. 

Let me start with a time when things didn't go as planned.

First, I should mention that our budget was very limited. Our filming location was Okinawa, a southern island about two and a half hours from Tokyo by plane. Okinawa is a tropical island, and most people fly there to enjoy its blue ocean and white beach. We went and came back to Tokyo without putting our feet in the ocean at all, because we had to finish our filming in just a two-day trip with several locations. 

To make that possible, we had to catch the earliest flight. 

We had four crew members traveling to Okinawa. My responsibility as the producer was to keep us within budget. Since none of us could make the early flight if we traveled from home that morning, I needed to find a hotel near the airport for the night before.

I booked the cheapest hotel that I could find online. Then, I sent the information to my camera crew. 

A few minutes later, I received a phone call from one of them. 

“Ah, I got your email. But I don’t think this is going to work very well.” 

“I’m sorry I have to put you guys into a cheap hotel,” I said. “But our budget is very tight. Would you be able to manage that?” 

She continued, “No, no, no. I understand the budget. But this accommodation says it has bunk beds. I think it is something like an Airb&b, and we’re worried about our camera gear. There may not be a safe place to keep it, and we don’t want it to be stolen.”  

Oh no. 

I thanked her for catching my mistake and immediately arranged another hotel. 

I had done a good job watching the budget, but I had failed to look closely enough at the details of the hotel.


Here’s another story about a detail I missed. 

As I mentioned, we only had two days to film. Our return flight was scheduled to leave at 6 p.m. on the second day. We finished the main filming with our featured person, but we still needed additional footage of Okinawa and several war-related locations. 

So, we got up before dawn and drove south to film some scenes. We drove around the island trying to capture as much footage as possible. 

After lunch, we split into two teams. One of the camera crew members and I went to Kokusai-dori, the most popular shopping street in Naha, to capture modern-day Okinawa. 

We arrived at the airport just in time to catch our flight to Tokyo.

After I picked up the luggage at Haneda Airport, I felt my shoulders were very light. 

Then I realized why. 

I had left all the cameras and tripods with the other crew member! 

It was too late. I realized that he had to take all the equipment with him on the plane. I wondered whether he had to pay extra to check all that gear. Moreover, I worried about whether he would be able to carry everything on the train back to the office. 

I usually don’t handle the camera equipment, but I had been asked to carry it because one of the camera crew had gotten sick before the trip. After running around Okinawa all day, I was exhausted, and I lost track of the responsibility that I had been given to me. 

The silver lining was that I hadn’t left the equipment at the hotel or somewhere else, but with my crew! 

I had written the video brief myself, but I hadn’t checked every detail. 

Now, let me tell you a success story. 

The person we featured in the film was a survivor of the Battle of Okinawa. We had a storyline and script, but we hadn’t done any location scouting. Remember, our budget was very limited. 

As the producer, I wanted to make sure we knew exactly what we needed to cover because our time in Okinawa was so short. I asked my boss to let me fly to Okinawa for location scouting. 

So I went. 

I visited several of the places included in our storyboard. One of my important jobs was getting permission to film because some of these locations were national memorial parks. I sensed that we wouldn’t get permission simply by sending an email. I needed to talk to the people in charge in person. If that didn’t work, I would have to find someone local who could help us through. 

This task was checked off the list. 

Another important place I visited was the museum where our featured person worked. She was there as a survivor, sharing the story of herself and her classmates. I didn’t know much about the history of the Battle of Okinawa at the time, so, visiting the museum and experiencing the exhibition helped me understand our main character better. 

She wasn’t there the day I visited the museum. But I told her what I had seen and how I had felt while walking through the exhibition before filming began. 

That simple conversation touched her heart. She was generous with her time and very helpful throughout the interview, even though it was a long day of filming.


Looking back, I learned that tracking every detail doesn’t mean trying to control everything and make yourself look perfect. Being detail-oriented doesn’t mean you never make mistakes. It means you learned to build systems that catch them and make sure that the things you are responsible for don’t get lost in the rush of the work. 

That is a lesson I still carry with me.