"Deadlines" that I've missed always seem to have come from a last minute change to a basic element from a client's client's spouse. "So-and-so thinks that the narrator sounds too old. I know we've bought air time and were slated to ship tonight, but I think they're right and we really should change it."

However when it comes to late deliveries, my early days of political ads take the cake. Last minute script changes in response to an attack ad for a politician three time zones away has resulted in more than one courier catching a plane because we missed the airport drop off for FedEx.

Fortunately most of my clients these days schedule with enough lead time... (knocks wood)

I mix a investigative journalism show (kind of Canada's version of "60 Minutes") and we were always running up against the deadline in a near miss fashion. Once I was still finishing the mix of the second act's story while the first act was on air. Luckily now it has to be close captioned before it can go to air so the mix has to be done by the morning of the air date. So that just means I mix until 3am the night before most of the time. They did an episode on the earthquake in Haiti that was really down to the wire, so it could air in time to lead into a telethon fundraiser, that it first went to air "unmixed" (basically a realtime mix pass was done that relied waaaaaaaaaaay too much on the L1). Then A proper mix was done for re-airings later in the week.

The worst missed deadline I ever nearly caused was when I starting out and I once put a label sticker on the data side of a CD (back when each disc cost $35). I had to make a new disc so it could be laid back at the last moment and make its air time. Yikes! I can say I never made that mistake again.

I've missed some deadlines. Mostly back in the day when I was younger and stupider. If I miss a deadline now, it's for the same reason Steve mentioned. It's because of the client. I've had clients give me a very short window of time to do something, and I can usually pull it off. But this is often what happens when I show it to them:

Client: "That's not the way I wanted it"

Me: "This is what you asked for though"

Client: "I know, but I didn't mean it like that. I wanted it a bit different"

I used to get caught in that all the time when I was starving for work and taking no-lo pay stuff left and right.

Anymore, though, I do everything in my control to not miss a deadline. If it looks like I might miss the deadline for a legitimate reason, I'll let the client know ahead of time. If they are fine with it being a day or two late, then we're cool and the client really appreciates the communication. If they absolutely can't afford to get it late, I'll try to find someone to pull in and help me finish the work, or just pull an all-nighter or two to get it done.

OK... my personal "last minute horror story"...

Infamous Animation Director/Producer... I'm due to start final mix and layback on the show at 9AM Friday morning for a Monday Broadcast (ship out by Fedex to LA by 7PM). Director actually shows up with the show at 9PM after a day of "He'll be there in a hour!". So after waiting around 12 hours, mixed the show, laid it back, then ran it to the Bus station (after a snowstorm) to put it on the red-eye to LA, so it could get on air. Played that Monday!

Oh ya... had to get to a music video shoot at 7AM that Saturday! Ouch!

I've never missed a deadline... I have, however, admitted that I couldn't finish one.

I usually give myself a two-week deadline, if the project allows for it. If I can't get a musical idea, or a sound design direction, I'll contact the person hiring me and break them the news.

If I'm paid up front, I'll leave that money untouched for that two weeks, so I'm able to return it in full.