Hey all, been a bit of a ghost or incognito :-/ sorry

[JustTakeAPebble]

Hey all

I have been so busy with films, final year dissertation and such like that I have just been a world of my own and I want to say sorry again, yes I have been on and off saying sorry and promised to stay on longer, but I keep breaking the promise.

I hope that you can forgive a fool.

Simon

[Alex]

xx123456

[JustTakeAPebble]

Hi Alex

Ive been so busy, but yeah it's great, done a short film last week and is being edited next week, I've also set up my business so that's been fun in itself All this plus doing uni work, has made my life very busy indeed

Hows things with you?

Simon

[Trigger]

You have been greatly missed Simon, what have you been doing during the holidays?

[JustTakeAPebble]

I think the question is what haven't I been doing? lol

1) dissertation
2) coursework
3) shooting short film, entitled Don (facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Don-Sh ... 5161984#!/ )
4) setting up my own business, www.takeapebbleproductions.co.uk

Thats just the start, theres also...

5) Been to two business courses (One in Cumbria and one in Liverpool) and have passed them both, even impressing a key figure in Vodafone (If I remember rightly, she's Head of Sales) for her to say I've got "It" as in the key thought pattern I should have in business.

6) I'm playing Over The Rainbow on Ukulele on my grandma's 80th in May 21st.

7) I am seeing It Bites live in May 20th, hopefully to get the LIVE dvd that I was Art Director for last year.

Need I say more? lol

Simon

[rice_pudding]

Simon,

Its good to hear you are setting up a business. Word on the town is that freelance is dead, and trust me its true. Unless you are part of a union, or have really good contacts freelance media work is a struggle, especially with all the half-ass media graduates undercutting the market with crazy prices.

I'm setting up two businesses at the moment while still running the gauntlet as a camera op. Producers pay out so little these days, so finding a niche as your own boss is certainly worth the effort. Media work is out there but you have to seriously re-evaluate the marketplace to find the cash, the old business model just doesn't work any more. You might feel daunted stepping into the void, I know I was, but for what its worth, you've got the right idea. Most ex-students I know quickly gave up their aspirations once they figured out it isn't easy. Those that do keep going lark about with DLSR's making shorts no one will ever see. I hope things go well.

Keep doing what you love Simon!

Rob

[JustTakeAPebble]

Hey Rob

Good to hear from you again, its been too long, do you have any evidence (websites, articles etc) about this "freelance is dead"? because its part of my assignment I have to do about why getting into freelance work can be difficult and I want to proove to my tutors it is true.

Well I found my niche, and it's something I have been doing freely for a while now and only discovered that there is a market for it (take a look under Tribute DVDs on my business)

I will keep filmmaking as a passion, but it will be a hobby, but the skills I have obtained will help towards Take A Pebble.

Simon

[Alex]

xx123456

[JustTakeAPebble]

Haha Alex Awesome! Well don't get me wrong, I love making films but the cost and the fact you have to get the right combination of cast and crew can be quite tricky and personally, I love the intimacy of a DSLR, a moment frozen, I love film also, but in other ways!

Enough of me going on lol

Simon

[rice_pudding]

Hey Rob

Good to hear from you again, its been too long, do you have any evidence (websites, articles etc) about this "freelance is dead"? because its part of my assignment I have to do about why getting into freelance work can be difficult and I want to proove to my tutors it is true.

Well I found my niche, and it's something I have been doing freely for a while now and only discovered that there is a market for it (take a look under Tribute DVDs on my business)

I will keep filmmaking as a passion, but it will be a hobby, but the skills I have obtained will help towards Take A Pebble.

Simon

Well, don't give up on the films. I want to be a camera operator on major feature films and I'm not stopping until I succeed. But in the meantime I have to pay the bills, hence finding a market for my skills. Truth be told most freelancers do a different job for at least part of the year. I met a successful cameraman once who runs a gardening business for half the year Even for the best, there is a dry season, usually in winter.

The industry is still finding its feet in the 21st Century. Like many, I am hopeful that the internet will eventually reach some level of balance and inject some cash back into media workers pockets. The truth is technology is having both great and terrible effects at the moment. For example; while cheap cameras let everyone make films, it also destroys structure. Everyone fresh out of film school is a "Director" with only 2 or 3 shorts under their belt. In the old days (before out time ) a prospective film maker would have to labour as a trainee and then slowly work their way up the camera/sound department etc. Ultimately this new structure results in two things; lots of producers with no money and little idea and film-makers who have no idea what quality entails. If you haven't worked with the masters, how do you know what real quality is? The public are also to blame to some extent having been desensitised by youtube and crap on TV.

But now i'm just rambling. To answer your question; there are no published articles I know of. I attended a lecture on the death of freelance at the Broadcast EXPO but cant recreate it However I can point you to very relevant sources, if primary info is ok. Are you a member of linked in? there is currently a huge debate among one of the groups about this very issue, and everyone commenting is an industry processional, I'd say that is a relevant academic source. I know its another site to join but it is quick, and it is a valuable networking resource. A quote from said debate;

Who are these guys?

Today I was contacted by a former client who asked me to do a one half day shoot. Ok, good enough. She then tells me she needs it done for $250.00-$350.00. I was so shocked that I literally did not know what to say, was she kidding me? I told her to call me back in five minutes so I could think of a diplomatic way to tell this person no without acting offended. As I thought about her statements, "producers know guys are starving right now." "We have a guy in D.C. that does it for $250.00, he's my favorite!" I became angry. Who are you? Who is it that keeps hurting ALL of us by accepting jobs at unreasonably low rates? Are you aware of what you are doing to others? Are you aware that by working for nothing you cheapen everything we do and yourself? This is the curse of cheaper and cheaper cameras and ignorance. I, like everyone else, am having to struggle, we are all hurting, but when you work for nothing you ROB money from my family and that is unacceptable. Please anyone out there accepting substandard pay to work in broadcast, find another job, or get educated about your competitors rates. If you want to compete, then under cut them a hundred bucks, don't tell a producer in essence, "oh please I'm so desperate I want to be your slave!" Have more respect for yourself than that. All of us who are seasoned need to educate these lost souls.

Another aspect of the argument is that there are simply too many talentless graduates who are willing to work for little or no pay out of desperation to make it. They undercut the market by offering to do things for silly money, then when the seasoned pro comes along and says "I'll make your wedding video/film/ corporate video" the client expects it for less or even free.

If you go on sites like mandy, talent circle, shooting people etc. and look at the jobs, they are all expenses only positions. There are some paid positions, but usually they are very low. BECTU has a document on their site that lists recommended rates of pay for different positions on a crew. The guide pay for a camera assistant is £200 per day. The most I've ever earned as an assistant is £50 per day, working a 12 hour day that's less than minimum wage! Why does this happen? Because someone will do it for less, it doesn't matter if they are crap at their job, producers think in terms of £££, quality is out the window these days.

Between BECTU's guide price, mandy job listings and linked in debates between pro's that should be all the evidence you need

Rob

[JustTakeAPebble]

Thank you Rob You are the shining star among universes

Simon

[rice_pudding]

Here are some job posts from today's shootingpeople film bulletin. Should give you an idea, you get these all the time and often worse when they want people to provide their own equipment. I've deleted member names out of respect ;

Crew needed (london)
From: ##### | Member Name: ####
Reply to member | Reply in bulletin | #####

Title: #####

Format: HD

Location: London

Number of positions being crewed:
2

What you need to know about crew position 1:
is looking for a talented sound recordist/Boom Op. I'm also looking for someone to do the audio dub.

Is crew position 1 paid or expenses only: Expenses Only

What you need to know about crew position 2:
Runner/Assistant. Looking for someone who is wanting to learn.

Is crew position 2 paid or expenses only: Expenses Only

Is this a student project: No

Budget for production: None

Will crew members receive a DVD of the final film: Yes

About the Film:
The film is called #####. check out rockus.co.uk for more information and to see some past work.

About the Filmmaker:
#####
Shooting dates: two days in June

Proposed release dates: July

Production company: #####

Production company url: #####

Is the project insured: Yes

Back to contents | Reply to member | Reply in bulletin
06
1st Assistant Director for feature (herts)
From: ##### | Member Name: #####
Reply to member | Reply in bulletin | #####

Title: #####

Format: HD (HD Cam)

Location: Stevenage, Herts

Number of positions being crewed:
1

What you need to know about crew position 1:
We need an experienced 1st to join us in making our first feature.

Is crew position 1 paid or expenses only: Expenses Only

Is this a student project: No

Budget for production: None

Will crew members receive a DVD of the final film: Yes

About the Film:
##### is a drama about a woman who inadvertantly becomes involved with the police, security services and terrorists.

About the Filmmaker:
We are a fledgeling production company based in Knebworth, Herts. This is our second film.

Shooting dates: May 9-25 (excluding weekends, except 15th)

Proposed release dates: TBA

Production company: #####

Is the project insured: Yes
The project is insured by: AXA

This is what people do, form a production "company", (I doubt most of them are registered business), then find equally naive people to do all the work for free, because they have no money... I've done a shoot like the above and I was the most experienced member of the crew, I had done more projects than the director and producer combined. What do you learn? How to do things badly. Do you get a DVD copy? Most of these projects are never finished.

Rob

[rice_pudding]

Simon,

If you join linked in you would have to join an additional group, but I can help you find it.

Other bits and bobs

BECTU rate card for Camera positions;
http://www.bectu.org.uk/advice-resources/library/337

More quotes from Linked in. I've edited out the names to protect privacy. http://www.linkedin.com

I've been in the business 30 years. This trouble started when producers asked for half day rates and got it. MTV, Instant film schools, Craigslist and cheap gear has only added fuel to the fire. I learned long ago that if you hang out with the bottom feeders, you'll never get to the top. I value my work and my time _ If a client doesn't well they are not worth working for. I still don't do half days and never will. If the industry continues to collapse I think a lot of us will be forced to work at something else that pays a living wage

Been doing audio for 50 years. You can see what at http://www.soundone.net. I am an advocate for quality work. In a lot of cases nowadays, doesn't matter. Gotta be quick and cheap. I lose a fair amount of work because I'm not willing to compromise on my work, or my rates. I don't know if there is a solution. There is always somebody who will "attempt" to do it for less. Hard to fight that. I guess we have to hang in, stick to our guns, and hope we find some clients who understand what it takes to get good production values

As an editor, I have noticed an interesting side effect of the current "state of the art". About half the work I get hired for these days is to fix what the last guy did... whether the last guy was some kid whose mom got them FCP for XMas, or a producer who thought he could shoot it himself on some prosumer HD camera with a funky codec. The project turns out like crap, and they're forced to find someone who has real experience and (in all modesty) the talent to make it all better. I try to impress upon these clients that the entire process would have cost a lot less, and taken half the time, if they'd hired professionals in the first place. Sometimes I think the lesson lodges in their brains... particularly if they've ended up paying my top rate because it's a rush job.

I think the ones with the potential to be REAL producers learn the lesson. The ones that don't... well, you don't really want to work on their shoddy nightmare projects anyway, do you? A lot of the "work" advertised on Craigslist is work you don't want, I promise.

Let's not forget that our viewing public no longer has a sense, or expectation of quality production values-- "Balanced lighting? Camera that isn't handheld? Why bother? Nobody watching this will care."

I blame cable for this. The massive profusion of available channels was supposed to be a boon to our industry. Instead, producing all that niche content just meant that roughly the same pool of production dollars (ad revenue) got spread over more hours of programming.

It may have taken 20+ years, but I don't think viewers today could even articulate what makes a production bad. Just as long as that flourescent green background looks sharp on their 60-inch, HD screen.

Teasing out all the threads as to why our business seems to be in decline while the demand for content-- any content-- is exploding could be a Ph.D. thesis. Or, at least a book. Or, at least a poorly made You Tube video

####, I absolutely agree that we have been party to, if perhaps unwittingly or unwillingly, our own decline. I'm not ok living in that world and doing what I can to fight it. Not simply out of bitterness about my declining dayrate, but because I understand the importance that quality media plays in our society.

####, I think you do misunderstand. You seem to have confused posession of the technology with expertise, and technological possibility with justification of the end product. I don't care if today's $1500 camera can generate higher quality images than the $225,000 (inflation adjusted) behemoths I worked with 25 years ago. Or, that Dances With Wolves could be edited today on a laptop in somebody's breakfast nook. Technology is no substitute for good craft. It's how we use the technology that makes the difference, and the old maxim of garbage in-- garbage out still holds true.

It gets said ad nauseum that our business is about storytelling-- whether it is a corporate training video, commercial, broadcast news, or feature film-- and good craft makes for better, and therefore more impactful stories.

I think most people in this discussion would applaud you for finding some way to navigate the troubled waters we are all sailing. But, for our part, we aren't just being negative. We are bemoaning the fact that our expertise has lost its value at a time when quality media has, perhaps, never been more important to our society. That's in addition to the impact it has on our ability to make a living after investing decades learning our trade.

#### is right though, you're not winning. I would guess you have less than five years before you are consistently losing the editing portion of your rate to a guy in Turkey with a black-market computer, a pirated copy of Final Cut, a sixth-grade grasp of English and no expertise at storytelling. The end product will be almost useless. But, some young "producer", with no sense of the value of craft, will have paid the rent by convincing a client that half a loaf is not just better than none, it's as good as the whole. (Except for those little end bits people just feed to the ducks anyway.) And you, my friend, will be frying chicken nuggets at your other job.

On another note, I am genuinely sorry that you are afflicted with Cubfanitis. Sox fan here. But, that's a different debate.

[rice_pudding]

One more quote that really sums it up;

The other thing is that the young folk don't know that they're not what we consider quality. My grandson was talent on a high priced shoot that was done essentially available light, no separation, modeling etc. And they all thought it looked great. They were very happy. I had to walk away from the monitor biting my tongue. The client was happy, He didn't know any better either. They would have thought my rates were impossible to pay and not necessary. They did a fine job without a DP or gaffer. What's the problem?

I've had camcorder shooters doing interviews without a headset tell me that everybody loses about 30% of their audio. But since that 's "standard". no problem.

Times change. You change. Or you can go down with the ship

Rob