By Charles Hue Williams

Always re-read the brief

An important lesson continuously pushed by the SCA faculty, is always read the brief and then re-read the brief. This doesn’t just apply to advertising school however. This is an important life lesson in any scenario when faced with a problem, as I learned on a recent cinema trip to see 1917. An epic war tale providing a slight insight into the unimaginable horrors experienced at the front, during World War One. 

We enter the cinema and I find myself in charge of the tickets. Not a responsibility that I usually jump too, but on this occasion one that I believe I can handle. We make our way through the checkpoint and onto screen selection. After a short amble my friend shoots me a reminder, ‘what screen?’ I quickly glance down and reply with a confident ‘six!’ We enter to find the film has already started and scramble to find our seats. The room is pretty full however and at first we struggle to find our seats. Like in the attempt to avoid gunfire, we scurry up and down the stairs. After concluding someone else was in our seats we set at the next most obviously available and amble over. We take our time to get comfortable, removing our uniforms, one companion in particular who even has to be asked to sit down. Finally we settle in, ready for the highly anticipated spectacle. My friend then turns to me and says, ‘you sure you got the right screen?’ I look down and see six. Seat six. Shit! Printed centrally and slightly above was screen twelve. I immediately darted out of the room. I was out of there so fast, I might as well have teleported. Only a trail of smoke left in my wake. My mates a few moments later, were on my tail. They did have to work out however the reason for my swift exit, as I didn’t even stop to explain. I was mortified. We went into the correct screening and the film hadn’t even started. I felt bad for all the people we had disturbed, especially for such an intense film. What made matters worse, as we watched our undisturbed rendition, we realised that we interrupted (spoilers) the most emotional part at the very end. I felt awful. At one point we nearly asked some people if they were in our seats. Imagine they just turned round and said, ‘I don’t think so you fucking idiots, there’s ten minutes left on the film.’ I think we would have died. What are the chances that the mistaken screen just happened to be the same film? 

This experience taught me an important lesson. When faced with a problem, check it and then re-check it. I certainly never want to feel like that again and this is especially true for the workplace. My Job will consume the majority of my life. Just from the fact that the average working days consume seventy one percent of your week. This is not an area where I intend to let people down from my own incompetence. I’ll definitely be re-reading my briefs.