Gone to the lowest bidder

I put up an ad for a two day camera job. One of the ads had this line:

“Due to the high number of applications you’ve had already, i’ll drop my daily rate to just £75!”

This makes me hang my head. Just because you’re in competition, don’t just drop your rates. It’s not going to look favourably on you. You’re doing yourself down. You should pitch your rate according to level of skill and experience. Of course, you’re always going to need to negotiate on price, because everyone’s being squeezed, as a production company our clients are always pressurising us to reduce cost. Just don’t cut your rate before you’ve even heard the starting gun!

 

 

 

 

Do you need a Degree to work in TV?

One of our Twitter followers asked us this:

“is it essential to have a degree to be able to get your foot in the door?”

Absolutely not. In my opinion, an inquisitive mind, the ability to self-manage and work independently yet know the boundaries of your skills are what’s more important to starting a career in media. You need a desire to learn. You need to be able to watch and learn from others.

Of course, the process of studying for a degree will help you develop research and writing skills and increase your knowledge. You’ll also be working more independently on a degree than when you studied for A Levels. However, a Degree in itself is not essential, and have  a ‘media’ degree is definitely not. Of course it will help, but you’ll be more attractive to employers if you’ve studied another subject as well, be it history, politics, English or geography.

Getting work experience is the most important part of finding work. Showing aptitude, making contacts, building your CV is how you get more work.

Seasonal variation in production work

I’ve exchanged a few emails with someone looking for an internship.

“I actually had a question for you too. You mentioned that the start of the year is your quietest time and therefore the time you need interns the least. I was wondering, is that true across the industry?”

Most of Napoleon Creative’s work is corporate. We find that January is quiet because people tend to rush to complete jobs before Christmas, so there’s less work in January, Also, one of our clients has their budget year Jan – Dec, which means that in January they’ve only just got their budget allocation and are working out how to spend it. We tend to get quite a few budget enquiries, but they’re not ready to spend till mid-February and beyond. It’s around Valentine’s Day that we find things pick up. It goes quiet again over summer, because people are on holiday, so it’s hard getting everyone in the same room at the same time. September is conference season and we see more projects come in for that. Then it builds to Christmas when everyone wants to get projects cleared off their desk before the holidays.

In television, there are similar seasons. There tends to be a big spend on TV in the build up to Christmas, especially in topical/live shows. January is often about new dramas, which have been filmed well before Christmas, so new production can be slow to get off the ground.

In terms of finding an Internship, you’ll still find places out there. It’s a question of finding a place with the right level and kind of work available. You need the company to have work on, or you’ll end up doing background logging and filing rather than working on live projects! However, at this time of year, plenty of stuff is in pre-production.

I’d love to hear from others when their peaks and troughs are through the year.

Stop asking questions. Find solutions yourself!

I read this post in the Shooting People bulletin about students simply asking questions. Here’s my response below.

> What is this sudden trend for students to send questionnaires
> out? I’ve had 3 emails this month from students asking “how do
> i get on, what’s the best kit to use, what was it like when
> you started out, who should i speak to, how do i create an
> impressive show reel?”. I like helping out as much as the next
> person but i can’t spend all day answering bloomin
> questionnaires! Is this coming from the teaching fraternity as
> a new gimmick? Is there a course in how to get on in life by
> asking lots of random ill thought out questions? anyone else
> experiencing this? (sorry rant over!)
>
There seems to be a shift from “finding answers” to “asking questions.” Instead of thinking of the question, then trying to work out where they can find the answer, ie going to a library, reading magazine interviews, or watching documentaries, it seems that instead of googling the question, they pick up the phone or email someone and ask them instead.

All the questions you ask above, it’s easy enough to find the information, or even work it out for yourself. I think courses also have to fulfil an industry experience tick box, so they have to show they’re interacting with the real world. Shame they do it in a hopeless way.

It doesn’t seem to end in the classroom either. When we get junior staff in, whenever they get a problem, they often just ask for the answer. I ask if they’ve tried finding the answer out for themselves. They say no. I tell them to go find the answer. Really, in the age of Google/YouTube/CreativeCow, there’s not much which you can’t find the answer to yourself, or at least have shown some kind of initiative first.

I’ve written about this and more tips on how to stand out as an intern/junior member of staff in the Internship Insider.

Internship Insider

If more graduates read it, they might get a better start in the industry.
Gavin
www.cv4.tv

Don’t ask for work, collaborate

We’ve just had this nigh on perfect email looking for more work. Now, admittedly, Andy has already worked with us, so it’s easy to start a conversation. But he doesn’t just ask for work. He shares some of his new work and cheerfully suggests discussing any new projects. This email feels like an invitation to collaborate, not just ‘I need a job’.

And actually, we do have a project that needs music, we’d been looking at a music library, however, now that he’s reminded us he’s available, I’ll give him an email with a brief, just incase he can do something on budget for what we’re after.

Here’s his email below – and he’s a great composer as well! Check him out at www.andysimms.co.uk

 

Hi Gavin,

I hope all is well, that you are all busy with lots of interesting projects!

Just thought I would drop you a line to let you know some highlights of what I’ve been up to of late:

Nike Football
Great British Chefs
Margaret Howell
De La Espada

Also just completed are more TV documentary series for Sky (although I hope that with more gangsters and serial killers I’m not getting too typecast….!). As ever, full details at www.andysimms.co.uk.

It would be great to discuss any projects that you have coming up that would benefit from some music, or to catch up in general.

Speak soon, all the very best

Cheers
Andy

“Hi, do you folks keep a database of Freelance Editors?”

We got asked this question by one of our Twitter followers. Fair enough question from someone who hasn’t worked with us before. The simple answer is no.

I don’t have time to maintain a database of freelancers online, and then call people up and ask availability for people I don’t know or haven’t worked with. It’s far quicker to put an ad in one of the recruitment sites. There are several, but Production Base is my favoured site. This is a little through habit, since I’ve used them for over 10 years. My experience is that they do have the best people, and I get the best response to my ads. They could do with streamlining what I see as an employer logging in, I seem to have to click on each application several times to see more details, but hey. The point is, by posting an ad, I get people to self filter as only those available will apply for the job, and they’ll also highlight what projects are most relevant to the job I have, if they’ve responded to the job ad properly.

After I’ve worked with someone, I’ll add them to my address book, making sure I’ve included their job role and a few key words. That way when I want “cameraman” who can do “ob doc”, I can type these into my address book search and see the list of people I know I trust to do the job. To be honest, this is my first port of call when crewing.

What’s the key lesson? Well, the old system of sending out CVs to be kept ‘on file’ is long gone. If you spend a day emailing your CV to twenty companies, that’s good for about 48 hrs. If they’ve not contacted you by then, I doubt they will. To win work with a new company, it requires polite persistence, and being available for work at the right time. You need to subscribe to one of the big recruitment sites, or you’ll miss countless jobs. Might seem an expensive subscription, but just one job will pay that back.

Get to the point

If you’re going to send a message to a potential employer, don’t beat around the bush. Let me show you a bad example I just received:

“I have a lot of media experience that I’d like to put to good use. I hope you find my background interesting. Let me tell you a little bit about myself…where should I start? I slipped in to TV – production by chance. This was the early 90’s and I rose quickly in the ranks, doubled my salary in 2 years and had my own show running on one of the largest commercial stations in Sweden, TV 3, with an average of 46% of the target group tuning in every week.”

To be honest, if I wasn’t so interested in helping people improve the way they look for work, I’d have stopped reading at “my background interesting” and deleted the email. Even then, I only got as far as the excerpt above. I still have no idea what this person does for a living, and to be honest, I don’t have time to find out. Neither does the production manager who gets these kinds of emails all the time. They’ll simple delete it.

Action Point:
If you’re going to send an email cold-calling for work, then make it quick and painless. “I am a [role] and you can see my current show reel here [hyperlinked to your showreel]. I’ve attached my CV for you. Just to summarise, my main experience is with…” and then start telling me what you do.

How to fail as a Freelancer Tip 2: Whine about kit

Here’s the second tip on how to fail as a freelancer.

Tip 2: Whine about kit
We were on a shoot with a limited budget. The cameraman had offered to bring his soft light. It would have meant he needed a cab to the shoot, fair enough but this was adding about another £60 to the budget, which was already capped by the client. I said no, let’s live without. After all, if you turn up to a shoot with bells and whistles when the client is paying a lower rate, they’ll expect the same kit for that price every time.

So we were setting up lighting. I suggested something. Loudly and clearly the cameraman said “Well, if you’d let me bring my softlight we could have done that. But you said no.” He then went on to say how stupid it was not to agree to the additional costs for the light, rather than suggesting a different shot that could be lit. Yes, I knew all of that. I’d made that decision on a financial basis. But I wanted to look at what we could achieve with what we have, rather than what we didn’t.

If you want to fail as a freelancer, moan about the kit. Say what can be achieved with kit that’s not available on the day. Make it sound like the day’s filming is compromised because not enough has been spent on lighting. Be negative.

If you want to succeed as a freelancer, by all means mention to the director that additional kit would have helped, but do it without making it sound like the project is in jeopardy. Then shrug it off and offer him something that can be lit with the lights you have.

How to fail as a Freelancer Tip 1: Complain about your rate

Here’s the first in a series of posts about how to fail as a freelancer.

Tip 1: Complain about your rate
We recently hired a camera person for a job. We had in the budget a fee that was below what the camera person charged as their usual daily rate. It was still a fair rate for the number of hours worked.

Anyhow, on the day, we called the crew an hour and a half before the interview to set up. Luckily, we got into the building easily then the lighting scenario wasn’t too complicated, so we were set up quite quickly, leaving time to relax.

The camera person was then heard talking to production staff saying “why was I called so early when I’m on a cut rate?” in front of the end client. Well, the point is we didn’t know we were going to be set up so quickly. And we had agreed a day’s work for the fee available, we had not agreed to fewer hours in return for the lower rate.

You can image that his comments made a great impression on the production team. So, if you want to fail as a freelancer, complain about your rates audibly, in front of everyone. It’ll guarantee you’re unlikely to get employed by that company again.

If you want to succeed as a freelancer, if you choose to set your rate at lower than usual, then work your day like any other, giving the best you can. By all means invoice for your full rate and add a discount so it’s clear you usually charge more. But make sure you accept your reduced rate with good grace.

If you know them, pick up the phone!

I’ve had two camera people contact me lately. Both I’ve worked with before, and both I’d happily work with again.

One emailed. Nice email. And I replied, hey, we’ve no work but you’re on our radar.

The other called, we had a bit of a chat, talked about our projects, talked about their projects, had a chat about Christmas, being the first time we’ve spoken since.

Which contact was more memorable to me?

Of course, the telephone conversation.

If you’re trying to keep a relationship with an employer alive, use the phone. Yeah, you might get a “he’s in a meeting” fob off. But if you get to talk to the person, the interaction with them will be so much more memorable. You’ll doubtless be able to fit in some talk about the project you’ve done lately. You’ll also, and more importantly, be able to ask about their projects, show some interest in them, and ask them about their upcoming projects. And of course, explain why you’d be absolutely perfect to help out on them…

Action Point:

In this world of fleeting tweets/bulk emailing/facebook friending, just go old school and pick up the phone.