The 85% Rule

Is this a Rule? I don't really know. It was my intuition married with many years of low budget production to come up with this very accurate rule of thumb about how much time equates to how perfect your project must be. The rule is basically this:

For a normal budget, the closest you can allow yourself to achieving 100% of your vision is 85%.

The amount of money and time to get the last 15% will cost up to three times as much relative to the 85%. You should be happy to get 85% of the shots you were looking for on a given day. Maybe you wanted a few extra takes on a shot, or a little more time to light, but you keep the ball rolling. You still get close enough to reaching your mark to catch something that is Great, just not Excellent. I think good B-Movie directors are also good magicians by figuring out how to fudge that 15% and make those cheap effects or other attempts at a money shot look better than they really are.

The Show Must Go On
The fledgling TV show I worked on in the '90's, "Video Nation", had just enough money to put it on the air and pay for a couple days of editing. The show was ambitious, one of the first ever to green screen the VJ with wild animation. We had many cool ideas to add, but only got about 85% of them in the actual show. In the case of the 'no budget' feature that I am restoring right now, the film was originally finished after about 3 months back in 1997. The picture cut went smoothly and 90% of the location audio was usable. But the director wanted to fix all the bad dialogue reads during shooting. The main character (that is in every scene of the film) had all his dialogue re-recorded. Twice. If the director stuck to the 85% principle, he would've cut his losses and not spent another 9 months trying to fix everything. He ran out of money to pay for all the post-production sound costs and the movie was shut down.

Perfection can only exist in a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum.
The forces of nature will ALWAYS conspire against your vision from the first step of the process. Many people kill themselves for that last 15%, but for what? A rock band will tour for 10 years until they finally get that hit album, only to be burned out from the long and gruelling process. For me, I will always work that extra amount when it counts. Like yesterday, I needed to update my video editor Demo Reel for a job application, something that I could whip together in 4 hours. However, this DVD I was creating also represented how much attention I gave to detail. That extra 15% caused me about 12 hours more work.

Perfection is always a virtue, never a reality.
Moviemakers will spend $200 million dollars getting a movie just right, but will still wish they could've fixed a couple shots. Even when George Lucas went back to 'fix' his earlier "Star Wars" films, he still said that he never got to 'clean up' as much of the film as he wanted. Or, look at Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". His quest to make the perfect film nearly killed him, and he still was never satisfied with the ending. In these cases, you get 99% there, but chaos will always factor in the equation. Such as the Demo Reel I finished yesterday, I still notice minor glitches or slight imperfections (that hopefully nobody else will notice).

The 85% Balance of Life
So what the heck am I talking about? Take anything in my Bohemian lifestyle, I pick and choose the perks in my life, while letting other things slide.

- I own a 16 year-old car. It looks OK (not much rust), and gets me from point A to point B. It cost $2000. To get the dream car of my life, would cost at least $10,000. Indeed, I have tried to maintain nice old cars a few times in my life, but I never made enough money to justify the upkeep.

- I own a Digital Audio Workstation software called Logic. It is less well known than the industry standard - Pro Tools. However, I get (at least) 85% bang for the buck for thousands of dollars less.

Ying/Yang. Karma. Balance.
But there also is a balance in the world. I can see the 85% principle as a theme in my life. It's like going to college. Many know that to get to the PhD level requires up to three times as much school compared to a four year degree. I hear some friends questioning the value of killing yourself to get that extra piece of paper. When I was growing up, I was required to sit by myself in a room and practice the piano for two hours a day after school. Meanwhile, my friends were outside playing kickball or off on some adventure. The biggest issue I have with the hard work of reaching my Big Goals, is that I miss the rest of the world passing me by. I eventually quit the piano the same time I quit college. I would decline to work overtime at my job, to make time for such things as meeting my niece at a scheduled time to go walking with her dog. It was just as important as whatever critical issue was going on at work.

Live Your Life by Not Killing Yourself.
So my suggestion is to be content with getting "almost there", and understand the sacrifice it takes to actually reach the top of the mountain. Of course, do it when the momentum is right and it is one of the most important things in your life. I have accomplished much, and killed myself over making the grade in my film and audio career. But I also found the time to let other far flung dreams have a chance to express themselves. None of the other hobbies have ever made me financially successful, but that's not the point. I notice many movie stars like to record their own music and release albums. They probably don't expect to be able to quit their day jobs, but they get a chance to act out their fantasy. I spend a great deal of time recording my pop music, but only give out the CDs to friends, or post them for listening on MySpace. The balance rule works both ways. I find that I can let things slide too much in the other direction, like yardwork. There is a karma to the whole philosophy, and I don't realise the dividends that paying more attention to my yard will do.