Taken Freelance Insanity Plunge.......

[Jim Brennan]

Natob2, I'm wondering if any of that had to do with your age as a college student. Certainly everything you said in your post is true: freelancing is tough to get established in and people are creatures of habit. But some places are reluctant to hire someone so young.

I had a lesson underscored to me today about personal contact and making an impression. I needed a cemetery for an upcoming film. One near my house is ideal. It's very established and picturesque. I was warned however to not even try. Other filmmakers I know had asked and been summarily turned down. I went in anyway, making sure I looked as professional as possible (which can be tough for me) and prepared with both a copy of the script to show nothing about it was disrespectful or inappropriate and with a standard waiver that I use absolving them from any responsibility for injury etc. Aftet 5 minutes of chatting with vice president she was about ready to give me the keys to the place.

My only guess about why I was treated differently was the way I presented myself. One of the former attempts that someone made involved only a phone call, which doesn't really allow anybody to get a true impression of you. Another attempt was made by someone who, while nice enough, can be a bit rough around the edges.

So do more than mailings and phone calls whenever possible. Pop in to a few places and shake some hands. Read a few books on salesmanship and establishing rapport. So few people make that effort, or if they do they come across as slimy used-car salesman. Be sincere, honest and enthusiastic and it can work wonders. It's a numbers game, but you can increase your odds tremendously with a personal touch.

 

[Alexa]

good luck, toilet.

I'm confused here..
you are freelancing for the agency ( the church job)??

and working on setting up your own prod. co?

regardless--one thing I can think of is to really watch your expenses when you try and figure out what you should be charging and how much to be making. i am was/am horrible about that. elements like production music costs and storage space were totally unforeseen expenses for me--but they are particular to our future plans...I've recently lost days of rendering work, because I was not backing up work-in-progress projects.

yah, marketing is pretty key..dvd biz cards? ask around and see how effective that would be with your potential clients. I know I have some mini-dvd produced by a real estate business that I have yet to put in my 4 DVD players..

you can google "promotional products" promotional items and check out all the schwag there is for getting your name out there. I don't know the details of what you will be offering, but one thing that is easy to fall into is doing everything everyone wants...have a good idea of what kind of work you want to do and get good at that, provided there is a decent demand for it. ...not just everything that comes your way..at least until you can afford to turn some ill-fittting jobs away.

best of luck!

 

[natob2]

Natob2, I'm wondering if any of that had to do with your age as a college student. Certainly everything you said in your post is true: freelancing is tough to get established in and people are creatures of habit. But some places are reluctant to hire someone so young.

Yeah, this is really my main point. Presentation was not a problem for me, and I'm told constantly I look and act older than I am...and my work wasn't a factor, my work was definitely as good or better than what was competitive in the market. My biggest problem was a byproduct of being young, I just was not known in the industry so I did not hold much credibility. Here in Chicago the production and post industry is very close and very social. You work for a couple years for a company that is well respected in this industry and your going to get out there and people are gonna know who you are. My biggest recommendation is work for a company in a market for awhile, get a name, then freelance. Freelancing straight out of college or fresh to the industry is a disaster.

 

[Zim]

You should be ok if you don't have drinking or drug habits to support. Or if you like to eat and have a roof over your head. Someday when your sitting by a road with a sign asking for money, for something to eat, you will at least know you tried!!

No really Bob you will be ok. Do it before you can't. You can always get other job. But you will probably wonder why you waited. Good Luck

 

[Isaac_Brody]

It really helps to find other people just starting out and if they have similar equipment, help each other out and pool each others resources. But don't do it for free. If you need an extra shooter call on that person and pay them a little bit, that way it's serious.

I shoot with a friend of mine and whenever we need help from each other we'll hire the other person for a 100 bucks. It may not sound like much, but there will be weeks when you have a ton of gigs and weeks when the other person does. Those kinds of connections can really help you when you're starting out.

Another good thing about those connections is that they build trust. It's nice to know that I can trust my friend's shooting style. If you don't have those connections and need to find someone, you'll post an ad, get hit with a bunch of responses from freelancers, and you won't know who to trust or what their shooting style is like.