Re: Shooter only pricing dispute

The real issue here is the mix of business and friendship and the inherent conflict that has created for you. Answering your question from a strictly business standpoint is fairly easy, but you have a relationship with your friend that needs to be considered first. How important is this friendship to you? Do you value the friendship, or are you willing to lose it?

Keep in mind that more relationships are destroyed over issues regarding money than anything else. A person's value as a human being is often on the line in situations like this, making the issue not so much about the money itself, but about self-worth. This tends to place a high emotional value on the matter, making discussions difficult and creating a good likelihood for fractured feelings and thus fractured relationships.

Your friend is obviously concerned about offending and possibly losing the client. Meanwhile, you're a professional, you acted professionally and you think you're entitled to customary professional treatment and consideration. There's a conflict of interest between these two points of view that probably requires compromise.

Acknowledge your friend's POV -- see if he will acknowledge your POV, and then explore all the possibilities of compromise. The best result will be that you end up with most, but not all of what you want, and that positive feelings about maintaining the friendship will override all else.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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