Client: The start of the video needs to be changed.

Me: That’s no problem, but may I ask why? We’ve been working on this video for a month and a half and you never said anything about it.

Client: Because it’s black. I can’t have a video that starts with a black image.

He had expressly asked me to make the images and text appear after a few seconds, which is the reason why I started the video like that in the first place.

Me: Um… Ok, though I still don’t understand what’s wrong with it, I thought we were on the same page about this.

Client: You know what’s wrong? When I upload it, it’s going to look just black, and no one will click on it! I thought you were a professional.

At this point I realized the client had never been exposed to the concept of “thumbnail,” and the fact that the first frame of a video is not, in fact, the preview, at least not on the sites where he told me he’d use the video.

I felt a sadistic satisfaction in explaining it to him after being condescended as an “unprofessional.”