Ultimate Responsibility

I often feel as though my success as an AD--or as many other things--has come more from a sense of ultimate responsibility than from a particular natural talent. Ultimate responsibility--you know, that thing that makes you jump in and fix a situation, even when it's not technically your job. The thing that empowers you to speak up about framing a shot better or telling the story better or giving an actor a note to make the performance better, even when that's not technically your obligation. The feeling that the outcome is a product of your own making, even when you are surrounded by people far more accountable for that product than you are supposed to be. Ultimate responsibility.
 
What's interesting about ultimate responsibility is how separate it can be from job titles and pay scales and just about any other objective measure of a workplace. Ultimate responsibility is about a state of mind, a willingness to take on ownership of things you don't really own, and a feeling that you can make a difference, and that you should. There have been days when I worried that my feeling of ultimate responsibility was misplaced--that I was taking on far more than my obligation, and taking far too much weight off of other people's obligations. That's just how it is when you act from a place of ultimate responsibility. But when I think back, and when I think forward, I wouldn't have it any other way. Ultimate responsibility is what makes me sure of my contribution--to any job on any project--and it's what makes me good at and satisfied with what I do.