I forgot to do this during the most important interview of my career

I remember the moment I nearly ended my career in documentary before it began.

I was a runner. Young, exhausted, juggling everything. And I had just made a catastrophic mistake during one of the most important interviews we were scheduled to shoot.

It was 6am

We'd been up the night before filming late. We were running on nothing. The crew was small, the schedule was tight, and we were doing what every lean documentary team does: pulling every role ourselves. Cameras, lights, sound, and managing the relationship with the talent, all at once.

The journalist we were recording with was well-known. Serious. And he had made it very clear before we started that he was short on time.

We were halfway through. The conversation was going well. He was giving us exactly what we needed.

Then I felt it.

That specific, cold-sweat feeling. The one where your body realises something is wrong before your brain has finished processing it. My heartbeat moved to my ears. My face went hot. My vision narrowed. My palms went cold and wet.

I had forgotten to press record.

The worst few seconds of my career

We had wasted this man's precious time. We had been nodding along, the lighting was right, the sound was set. And not a single second of it had been captured.

We would have to ask him everything again.

I tapped my director on the shoulder. Pointed at the monitor. He clocked it immediately. Without missing a beat he turned to the journalist: "We're having an issue with one of our cards. Can we pause for a moment?"

A few moments passed. I caught my breath. I frantically scanned every piece of kit on the floor.

Is this fixable?

I traced the boom cable. An XLR running to our B-cam, which had been recording the whole time as a safety net.

Thankfully, we had sound.

What that morning taught me

There are two things I learned that day that I carry into every shoot.

The first is logistical: always bring a second cable. Always have a safety net running. Whatever your A-camera is doing, your B-cam should be watching.

The second is harder to solve with kit alone. And it's the reason I built something to help with it.

When you're running solo or with a small crew and managing everything yourself, it is almost impossible to keep a clear head about whether you've actually covered your brief. You're in the room, you're managing the energy, you're watching levels, you're thinking about the next question. The transcript of what was said only comes later. And by then, it's too late to go back.

What Earwig does now

Before you shoot, Earwig lets you enter your brief or script. The thing you actually need to come away with, in plain language.

At the end of your interview, it reads the full transcript, compares it against what you said you needed, and tells you what's missing. What you could push further. Where there's a gap that, if you ask one more question right now, you won't need to come back for.

It gives you follow-up questions while your talent is still in the room. While you still have the chance.

It is, in short, the second pair of ears I didn't have that morning.

Earwig costs a fraction of the cost of shooting pickups or calling someone back in. And it runs on your phone, on set, in the moment.

Coming soon!

Try it free at www.earwig.io/free