Failure

I don't mean you make a film and it fails financially or critically. I mean you put a huge effort into a film shoot and the footage sucks or you missed some key shots or the actors were off, etc. Anyone experience failure like that? Did you abandon the project? Abandon that particular scene? Redo the whole scene despite the expense and effort?

I suppose I'm fishing for encouragement. lol
 
First, or early, effort? You’ve mentioned in some of your posts that you’re a newb.

Shit happens, dude, and that’s part of the learning experience. Giving up and walking away should be a last resort. Is it salvageable? Can you reshoot the parts you need? If yes, even though it’s a massive pain in the ass, do it. Time to form the habit now of doing what it takes to see your project through.

Besides, you can wrangle a little more time from your cast and crew and fix the issue, or you can walk away and turn all the effort to date into a massive waste of all their time.

Save the “what went wrong” analysis for later, and use that to do better on the first shoot for the next project.

I had to run pickup shoots on some early projects. Didn’t go out with shot lists, got hurried and didn’t really pay attention to everything in the viewfinder, made sloppy mistakes because I was frustrated. It’s not uncommon in the beginner world, so roll with it.
 
The answers you're looking for depend a lot on your specific situation. You have to figure out what went wrong & why. Think what you can do better next time.
-Rehearse more? Explore the story & characters more with the actors?
-Do more prep with shot lists? Storyboards?
-Coordinate better with everyone? Delegate?
-Do test shoots with non-actors to figure out lighting & sound recording so you have a better idea how it will turn out?
-Change the location so it costs less to do?
-Write a new scene that costs less?

Or can you save the film without reshooting?
-Can you change the scene into something where we don't see the actors & we just hear them talking?
-Can you incorporate the information from the bad scene into the other scenes?
You know the details better than us.

As far as encouragement, you can look at this as a learning experience, just like everything in life. If you can learn something, no matter how small, that will improve how you do things next time, you'll grow as a person, not just a filmmaker. You can look at mistakes & bad results as a chance to learn & try to do better.
It's a life long journey. Keep growing & learning everyday.
Imagine Arnold's voice:
Come onnnn! Do iiiitttt! I'm hyaahhh! Come onnnnn!!!
 
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I once shot on 16mm film and a hair was in the gate and on crucial shots. I actually did abandon the project. Also the audio somehow got erased so it would have to be ADR. ADR, and a hair... out!!! :lol:
 
For the record mine was in film school. Too many errors to complete. It's still "in the can". One of these days? :lol:
 
You either win or you learn (not my quote). If you've learned something from the experience, then you've not failed. The point of short films is to make mistakes, many of them and get that out of the way.
 
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