Mark Delonttinville on Allowing Yourself to Make Mistakes

Mark Delottinville is an award-winning producer and the founder of Big Pig Production Co. His short films, ‘Cruise’ (2022), and ‘The Door’ (2023), have played at renowned festivals all over the world including Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, Seattle International, and Hollyshorts.

Mark’s work has won a number of awards, such as a Vimeo Staff Pick for ‘Cruise’, and had his short film ‘Differently, Still’ premiere on Nowness.

Mark sat down with LBB to look back on the moment he realised the value in learning from your mistakes, and the importance of knowing you’re not expected to be perfect all the time.

You are going to screw up, always. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are. But now that you know you screwed up on something, don’t do it again, because you have learned from it.

The amount of times that people repeat the same mistake over and over is shocking. I remember once when I first started out, my boss pulled me aside and said, “You know what you did, but are you going to do it again?” Of course I said “no” (and I didn’t), and after that he said, “Great, then there is nothing to talk about.” The ability to screw up, let your employees screw up, and learn from a mistake versus chastising them is something you need to be comfortable with.

I was about 20/21 when I learned this, so it was a great lesson to take into my twenties. I was working on a Howie Mandel reality show called ‘Howie Do it’, and I was in the casting department with, admittedly, not enough experience.

I was just starting out, it was my first ‘big’ job in production, and I was so scared that every screw up was going to get me fired and I would never work in production again.

I believe I had to create some sort of casting information document for each of the talent that would be auditioning, and I just either didn’t put down the right information, or I didn’t include something that was crucial. To be completely honest, I can’t even remember – all I remember is whatever I did was wrong.

My boss was a man named James Beaton, and he was a lovely person. He would always introduce himself and somehow know exactly what astrological sign people were. And he was right almost all of the time. I think for James, I just felt like an equal. It felt like I was working together on something rather than as a subordinate.

I think this experience reinforced to me that I didn’t have to walk on egg shells all the time. On any production, the key points are honesty and trust, and when you are walking on egg shells or scared to screw up, most of the time, that is the perfect environment to have that happen.

I think all of this set me up for better success – just noting that not everyone is perfect, and that if something doesn’t work out and that person never does it again, they are good at learning from their mistakes. And, over time, this piece of advice has only resonated with me more.

People appreciate it because they don’t feel like they need to be perfect. This doesn’t mean they aren’t hard workers or they’re sloppy, just that they know if something happens they didn’t intend or wasn’t communicated clearly on either end – mine or theirs – it isn’t going to result in me shouting at them.