I’ve been making movies for a while now. Along the way I’ve seen some things:

• An $800 wireless mic destroyed in a sword fight
• Horribly early mornings
• Relentless traffic
• No vegetarian options except fried cheese, four days in a row
• Self-doubt
• Lawyers and threats of suits
• Layovers and missed flights
• Sickness, not limited to: colds, the flu, vomiting and food poison
• Exhaustion
• Yelling and screaming and hurt feelings

I say this not because I believe myself to be some kind of martyr. I am certainly not. For the most part, I sit at a desk these days, going home each night to my wife and dogs. Others have given far more.

I write this because in the end, your production problems are hurdles. Unless of course you’re Warner Herzog and you’re trying to move a river boat over a mountain. But for the rest of us mortals, these obstacles are a footnote. They are obstacles we endure to get the job done. And there will always be obstacles.

At the end of the day, there is really only one question worth asking–only one that your audience cares about–did you do everything possible for the sake of the story?