When the Actor Isn't Hitting Their Marks and Your Distance is Off

I recently had a tough experience with a jib shot where the actor consistently missed their marks, and the jib operator was having trouble consistently hitting the exact same height and arc. My initial approach was to rely heavily on my Cinetape and pre-marks, assuming once the actor got it, we'd be golden. What I found was that the Cinetape, while great for initial setup, became a hindrance when micro-adjustments were constantly needed, and the actor's 'miss' wasn't truly consistent enough for me to just shift my follow, it was a moving target.

What didn't work was trying to 'chase' the actor with the Cinetape live, as the readings were too jumpy with subtle body movements, especially with depth-of-field wide open on an anamorphic lens. I also tried to anticipate by 'splitting the difference' on their marks, which sometimes worked but often left me soft. What did work, surprisingly, was reverting to a more old-school method, using a tape measure for every single take and re-marking the floor based on their actual end position for the subsequent take, even if it was just for one line. This, combined with careful visual estimation and focusing on specific features on their face, allowed me to stay much tighter. My AC was a lifesaver with the speedy re-marking. It wasn't elegant, but it was accurate. Have others found that sometimes the 'best' tech makes it harder when the human elements are inconsistent?