AIW for yelling at my roommate
My roommate (20M) and I (19M) are both film majors who have experience with editing. We were approached by a mutual friend to edit an hour long film he made. He pitched the idea that me and my roommate split the work and edit it together. On paper, it seemed like a good idea since the film would be done faster. I would edit the first half and he'd edit the second half.
I assumed that my roommate had a lot of experience in editing from the way he talked about his skills. However, a bit later, I saw some of the scenes he edited and they were not good. He didn't just make small mistakes, he made so many big/rookie mistakes, such as audio being out of sync, scenes ending too early or too late, and more.
I decided to be patient and help him out, giving advice on how to improve. He seemed eager to learn, though I was irked by how he always had an excuse for his mistakes, such as "the audio isn't good" or "the acting isn't good" etc. Besides that, things seemed to be looking up.
Unfortunately, I was too patient with him and he was taking forever. I finished my scenes within a few weeks, but he took nearly 2 months. He told me he is very busy with other stuff, but him spending a good chunk of time on YT shorts and IG reels definitely had me unconvinced. His editing also wasn't improving, since he was making the same mistakes over and over. I started telling him he should give me some of his project files, but he always insisted he'd get it done.
Eventually, we did submit a first draft and the director gave us some changes to make. I started heavily insisting my roommate to give me a few of his project files so we can speed it up and he finally caved in. I began making the fixes to his scenes, but then I found out that he left out at least 20+ shots from the film, a lot of which were important scenes. I confronted him and he started making excuses, saying he "genuinely didn't notice" which is crazy since we categorized every single shot into folders. With one of the scenes, he told me he INTENTIONALLY cut out the shot because he thought it'd be better without it, which means he intentionally cut out an entire monologue that was important to the film. To me, it seemed like he said that in order to save face, when in reality it made him look worse.
After that I lost it and began yelling at him. I didn't hold back one bit. I told him he is a shitty editor and is half-assing this project and it would have been done way earlier if it wasn't for him. I listed off all the stupid mistakes he made and how he refuses to take accountability. I yelled at him for about 3 minutes. He was silent the whole time and seemed pretty ashamed. After this, I kicked him off the project.
It's been a bit awkward between us ever since. I did apologize to him for being harsh, which he accepted, though it didn't really change the awkward feeling. But even then, I don't really regret saying those things, I only regret being so harsh about it. Some friends said I shouldn't have said some of that stuff, but I feel like he needed a reality check. I wish I didn't give him the benefit of the doubt and kicked him off way earlier.