On my second post: “My Story: My career into Film & TV” I told you how did I move into production and that since January I became a Freelancer.
As you know Freelance (or Freelancer) is a person who works on his own, he can choose where to apply and work in temporary jobs who might take days, weeks or moths. In other case he can also be called by a clients who found him trough websites, diary services and friends or previous colleagues he has already worked with.
The freelancer can choose his day to work, he deals his salary and network with colleagues.
So being freelance can be a good opportunity for people who like to be involved on various locations and working with people you’re not forced to see everyday. Be freelance is not a everyday life.
But be a freelancer can have a negative side too.
Of course I’m not here to demotivate you if you are willing to take this path. What I’m going to list are just personal experiences I had during this year as freelance Runner.
As freelancer you can choose your availability, but be unavailable can cost the job opportunity too. Many productions are required a period of days, weeks or months to work and you need to give your entire time, just missing a day could cost the job. Many times I’ve been rejected to work for personal commitments I had, especially for me managing more than 2 part time jobs and a social life.
As I used to say, be freelancer means having moments where you can be really busy, and other where you could be completely free and nobody contact you. Unfortunately time means money, so don’t work for a while can give you issues, especially if you need to pay your rent and needs.
Be freelancer is also about choice. You can find many moments where you need to choose between 2 or more jobs you’ve been called at the same time, matching the same dates. You always need to take one, and choose the wrong one can give you many regrets.
Be freelancer means finding the right clients. Is hard find an employee who gives you a contract or deals your salary and pay day, especially in small productions. Trusting is really hard when you work with new people. In my personal experiences I had many clients like that, producers and directors unable to satisfy my request regarding time and payment; be always careful when you work with new clients, be sure that you can find them if you think they might cheat.
Be freelancer means competition. When you apply for a job be sure that there are many more competitors doing the same. Even having a good CV, cover letter or references is not enough; some time you need to impress in an interview, and someone else can be more impressive than you for that position. If you don’t get a job, apply for another one and never stop searching.
As I said, those can be some negative things on being freelance, but of course is not always negative. If you are able to manage your time, have a base for surviving (like living with parents or having a part time job) and if you make lot of networking be sure that it can be a good experience too. It all depends on you.
In my personal opinion I knew that leaving my permanent job and be freelance can be risky, I’ve tried and I saw all the disadvantages and problems. I’m not sure if one day I’ll move to a full time job, maybe, but for now I can tell you that I’m happy about my choice: I met lots of people with same passion for films and TV, I’ve been in events and festivals I’ve never imagined to be involved, I’ve seen celebrities and I’ve been able to do something I’ve never imagined to do before, like this website I made on my own.
As I said this is just a personal experience, if you want to find more about being freelance I would recommend you to visit this page: https://www.screenskills.com/careers/freelance-toolkit/ Screenskills have more informations if you want to work in film or TV, so they can be more useful.
For now thank you for reading, and please don’t hesitate to leave comments.
