Freelance work, am I being ripped off?

Taylor Rudd said:
I did one of these shoots. Just one. They googled my address from the W9 to the location and decided it was 3 or 4 miles shy of mileage reimbursement.

That's about all it took. Good luck.
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Yeah, I get a lot of shoots that are 22, 27 miles from DC to the shoot, and I get nothing for those. Has to be 30 or over. Mind you, if it's 27 miles from DC, it's 90+ miles from me.

I just did the quick math. 120 out of $1700 is about 7%, and I do everything except the initial contact and the final revisions, which are pretty much slapping titles on, which they have presets for, since they're all the same on all their vids.
 
They have a great scam going.

Dude, if i were you, Register an LLC, get some production liability insurance, and be your own production company. That $1700 can be yours. You worked for it.

Now if you do a bunch of those in a year, thats like $50K in your pocket. Doesnt that sound nice? Take the leap, do it. seriously. Build up your clientele.
 
TimurCivan said:
They have a great scam going.

Dude, if i were you, Register an LLC, get some production liability insurance, and be your own production company. That $1700 can be yours. You worked for it.

Now if you do a bunch of those in a year, thats like $50K in your pocket. Doesnt that sound nice? Take the leap, do it. seriously. Build up your clientele.
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I actually already do an occasional freelance shoot myself, but I don't have the contacts. I could start cold calling like they do, of course.

I just called and asked if I could alter the background color for the video where the doctor disliked that his lab coat was against a white wall, rather than driving to reshoot it tomorrow for $70. They said no, they wanted it reshot. I said I'd make nothing after gas, and they said to do the mileage from my home at $.15/m rather than DC for this specific one. Why they can flex on one but not all is beyond me. The difference between a normal DC-comped shoot and an actual home-comped shoot is 1/78 of what they make from these shoots (their income minus my pay and normal gas comp). And apparently they can't do that on a normal basis.
 
Dude, if i were you, Register an LLC, get some production liability insurance, and be your own production company. That $1700 can be yours. You worked for it.
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This should have been post #2 in this thread.

I've been silently reading this thread for the past few weeks, I feel compelled to chime in.

Stop working for this company. Just walk away. Do what Timur says. More importantly, if you can swing it, move. This seems like another one of those "I'm not getting any work, what's going on here?" posts. You live in the wrong place. Move to a bigger city, network, be professional, be a nice guy and you will get the work. Trust me. I'm not lighting the world on fire, but I keep plenty busy and I don't have to do any hardcore negotiating with clients.

Let me ask you this, because I'm just trying to get a beat for what you're looking for. What would be your ideal gig? Movies? Music Videos? Commercials? Corporate? You need to ask yourself those questions. (but I'm just personally curious :grin: ) Maybe someone on this board can point you in the right direction.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but when it reaches the point that your on a message board talking sh*t about a company & how you can undercut them, it's time to part ways. And don't get me wrong….they sound like scumbags.

There are plenty of clients out there who will buy you lunch. Ditch these "$120 a day" bozos and look harder.
 
Deepfocus88 said:
This should have been post #2 in this thread.

I've been silently reading this thread for the past few weeks, I feel compelled to chime in.

Stop working for this company. Just walk away. Do what Timur says. More importantly, if you can swing it, move. This seems like another one of those "I'm not getting any work, what's going on here?" posts. You live in the wrong place. Move to a bigger city, network, be professional, be a nice guy and you will get the work. Trust me. I'm not lighting the world on fire, but I keep plenty busy and I don't have to do any hardcore negotiating with clients.

Let me ask you this, because I'm just trying to get a beat for what you're looking for. What would be your ideal gig? Movies? Music Videos? Commercials? Corporate? You need to ask yourself those questions. (but I'm just personally curious :grin: ) Maybe someone on this board can point you in the right direction.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but when it reaches the point that your on a message board talking sh*t about a company & how you can undercut them, it's time to part ways. And don't get me wrong….they sound like scumbags.

There are plenty of clients out there who will buy you lunch. Ditch these "$120 a day" bozos and look harder.
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As I said, I do my own work when I can get it, but there's plenty of competition, and companies like this that seem to offer more (though they don't) get the contracts. I also live close enough to DC that moving any closer would cost more than it'd make me in extra work or gas saved. I've considered moving, done the math, and moving much closer just isn't worth it. Funds are tight enough as it is.

I'd like to be working on film, but it just doesn't pay the bills when I've done it, so I've been doing what I can with the same equipment doing freelance video.

I send literally hundreds of resumes a month, and my resume is pretty decent. I'm always updating it. It just comes down to getting work.
 
Frankly, it could be your location. If I had tried to do what I'm doing now in my hometown, I would have failed miserably at it.
 
Gary Huff said:
Frankly, it could be your location. If I had tried to do what I'm doing now in my hometown, I would have failed miserably at it.
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I'm close enough to DC to make the drive daily if need be, but without having to spend twice as much on rent. I can barely afford my current rent as-is, and working twice as often just to pay rent to live closer seems counter productive. If anyone is turned off by my location, it's out of pure ignorance.
 
pulp said:
I'm close enough to DC to make the drive daily if need be, but without having to spend twice as much on rent. I can barely afford my current rent as-is, and working twice as often just to pay rent to live closer seems counter productive. If anyone is turned off by my location, it's out of pure ignorance.
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If you were making anywhere near standard rates you would be making 4 to 5 times more then you are making right now. Double the rent is not so bad when your income increases exponentially.
 
I've been trying to figure out where you could live 2 hours from DC and not have work close. Being from WV originally that is my only guess. Even then if I wanted to there is Energy company work and High End hunting videos.

I also think you need to stop sending out resumes and start networking. In my 14 years in the industry I have use a resume twice and have never had a demo reel. Well, I had one in college because it was part of a class I needed to Graduate.

I do some similar work occasionally but it is 8 hour minimum $50 per hour and $1 a mile. At that rate I can deal with random cancels, long drives and incomplete pre production.
 
As far as being from WV, I'm in the panhandle, I can see MD from my window and VA is less than 10 miles. It's not really "that" part of WV.

This is it, I'm through working for them. The manager called and complained about a client who was unhappy with the video, saying it didn't include shots that he never asked for. I told her he never mentioned them, and she told me in a condescending, belittling tone that I need to be "on my feet and smart about it," and essentially get any shot the client might want whether they ask for it or not. I also am to include an extra minute of B roll shots (so a total of 4 minutes of B roll) for each video, whether there's enough there to shoot or not. I'm also supposed to do all this in under 15 minutes of total shooting done, and in 2 hours or less. Her tone and rudeness, along with her complete disregard for my polite email last week, is enough for me. I won't be shooting for them again. Good riddance.

I also see that they're looking for more videographers on Craigslist. I posted an anonymous warning of how low their rates are, how much work is entailed, and how unorganized the office is at managing their clients. I'm done with these losers.
 
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