The Mad Freelancer Scramble

J

Josh Bass

Veteran
I don't know, maybe some of you will find this mildly amusing. I am in Houston. This year we are hosting the Superbowl. What this means is that pretty much EVERY freelancer in town is in demand that week, even peons like me.

I had something booked for pretty the whole week back at the beginning of November. So, of course, the day before yesterday, my client's client basically says "oh, yeah, whoops, sorry if our message that we totally definitely sent and definitely super totally did not forget to ever send didn't get through, but we don't need Josh anymore."

I've turned down at least 5 and more than likely double that many gigs 'cause of this booking, some of which would have been way more fun or paid more.

So, super pissed, I start emailing and contacting everyone I can think of trying to see if anyone needs a guy like me. Picked up something for one day, had something else promising almost happen, but my lack of credentials (which I would have needed to get back in November) proved too big an obstacle, but I THINK another thing came through that would be this coming Thursday through the next Monday.

People like me (lower end, peons, etc.) are never this in-demand or busy EXCEPT when something like this happens in town.

So, uh, I don't know what the point of any of this is. It's just weird and annoying.
 
Didn't you have a written contract?

- try to find out why they cancelled, (not mailing, but on phone, or visit them.). Ask them how they can make up their mistake. Make them your best clients.
- don't market yourself as a peon. If you don't take your work or skills serious why should your clients do?

cheers
 
think theres been some misunderstanding.

No, no written contract. I am not really a producer like some of you guys, just a crew guy (camera, grip, teleprompter). Written contracts are not the norm with these kinds of gigs.

It wasnt my client (a local crewing company/rental house) that cancelled, it was THEIR client, so they were as put out as I was. Me contacting their client directly would be a huge no no and a good way to never be contacted by these people again.
 
That sucks. No other way to put it. Cancellations happen all the time, and it's kind of always been "the norm" if the cancellation was more than 48 hours out then you were just screwed, between 24 & 48 1/2 day cancellation fee and 24 or less, they owed the whole day. I've been cancelled ON THE WAY to a shoot, before. But it was a GOOD client(six figures a year), so that got a pass. You have to look at the big picture.

I've often thought about making a 'double hold' rule, especially for non-regular clients. Basically someone calls and asks for a hold, I'd accept it, but if someone else called for a hold or firm booking for that day/dates, the hold gets right of first refusal as always, BUT if they don't release me, they are on the hook for the money regardless of a cancellation from that point on. In a situation like yours, knowing that a HUGE event is coming to town, I would have put it in writing that there would be no cancellations within maybe two weeks out(maybe four) of the dates without penalty of being on the hook for the entire shoot(full rate, all days booked). Hotels do similar things when big events are in-town, usually 14 days out for cancellation without penalty.
 
Perhaps I will try next time (if there's a next time) but it's not like you can enforce that, they can just say "no, sorry" and find someone else. Of course if I'd known there would be that many offers I might have waited longer to commit myself. But oh well.
 
With this sports related stuff, there is no charge them anyway. You can try, but often just getting paid for the events you really do work is hard enough. That's one of the reasons I stopped doing freelance sporting events TV... It just wasn't worth the BS I had to go through to get paid.

That was almost twenty years ago, they tell me things are better... But I'd have to kill someone with lesser skills to get back into it now. Even the guys I know that are still in the system are starting to look at the BS as not worth the money. One of them works (freelance) for the inhouse stuff. Makes half the money but can complete his regular day at work, show up an hour before the game starts, do an easy production, and be home before the other guys have the cameras put back on the truck. He works three or four days a week at this during the fall/winter, a couple a week during the spring.
 
Greg_E said:
With this sports related stuff, there is no charge them anyway. You can try, but often just getting paid for the events you really do work is hard enough. That's one of the reasons I stopped doing freelance sporting events TV... It just wasn't worth the BS I had to go through to get paid.

That was almost twenty years ago, they tell me things are better... But I'd have to kill someone with lesser skills to get back into it now. Even the guys I know that are still in the system are starting to look at the BS as not worth the money. One of them works (freelance) for the inhouse stuff. Makes half the money but can complete his regular day at work, show up an hour before the game starts, do an easy production, and be home before the other guys have the cameras put back on the truck. He works three or four days a week at this during the fall/winter, a couple a week during the spring.
Click to expand...

What? There are nets that are slow payers, but I've never seen one completely stiff someone.

On some crews, you are right, someone literally has to die for a spot to open. As far as BS now, it depends on the network. I have a friend who has been doing this for a long time on the live side. Has been a loyal guy to one of the cable nets and he said in the last 1-2 years it has become BS. Guys will get a package(sign on for a whole season) on a sport and now they are yanking large chunks out from under people, if not the entire season and waiting to do it so long that they can't get on other sports or crews because it's too late and they have already crewed it for the season. It's become the corporate mentality of people are just a number: not valuable and they are replaceable at anytime, if they even choose to replace someone they cut.

BUT, there is still a LOT of money to be made in pro and college sports if you get in with the right company.
 
yeah i am not a fan of the sports gigs either. I should mention I have only done teleprompter for them (thats what this fustercluck would have been). Its during halftime/talk show parts of the sports broadcasts and always very unfun cause youre completey ignored in a production trailer for hours (sometimes the whole day), and when you do work the sportscasters improvise heavily and you never know whether theyre actually using the prompter or winging it, makes it next to impossible to follow. Also everyone in the trailer is shouting all the time because sports. Never really had issues with payment other than taking forever. But these gigs are a couple days, not a season.

LOOKS LIKE (wont totally know til tomorrow) I picked up a Weds-Sat gig shooting celeb interviews and red carpet stuff. So...win?
 
One of the guys I work with makes over $60k a year, does producing, some directing, and EVS. Mostly EVS because ESPN made everyone decide what position (above or below the line) they were going to contract into and EVS made more sense (cents) for him. He used to produce a pile of the ESPN 360 stuff and some of their bigger games as well. Now they are doing a lot of stuff with small trailers and Tricasters, well except when the Tricaster goes down just before the show and the engineer can't get it running again. And with these lower end shows (which they expect to have the same level of production as a full truck) they are back to paying around $250 a day for the skilled positions. $450 depending on what you are doing on the bigger shows, which might be part of the reason they are jerking people around again.

But yes back in the 90's it was common to have at least one show a season that you worked for free because they never paid you. ESPN was one of the worst at this because they crewed through a third party, and you were paid through that third party. A few local guys were on cash up front terms for a while.
 
Can't speak to most of that. . .on the few sports things I've done, there's usually some weirdness where because of the union (that I am NOT part of), I get a way HIGHER rate than I normally do. Maybe I've never worked for ESPN. Fox sports and some other folks, yes.
 
No way around it, freelancing is tough. The double hold might work but in reality, the person who does not value your time would probably balk at the double hold and go find somebody else to hire and cancel on. Which leads to our only forms of protection - vetting the people who you take work reservations from and communication up front.
 
The big problem with sports is that games are televised based on the team rankings. Lose on Saturday and the game the network was going to cover is now different and different location on Thursday. So the people that were crewed for Thursday with the original game are now out of work because they committed to a specific event, and now that event isn't happening and they probably don't have time to find another event to work.

That said, the superbowl has no excuse. Doesn't matter who is playing, the game is happening one way or another and the location is known for at least a year.
 
Josh:

I don't do sports gigs, (that would be torture for me, I really dislike shooting any live events, it's not my forte, but do a few a year typically when it's slower) but I would suggest a soft hold/hard hold system for future gigs. It's exactly what the other guys here were alluding to here. Soft hold is "save the date", other potential clients can challenge a soft hold if they want to book you, so you let your soft hold client know that someone else wants you for that date. So the soft hold client either puts up or shuts up. If they put up, they are booking you for that date and standard cancellation times and fees apply, you sign a deal memo with most, or you just have an oral agreement with clients who you REALLY trust (I have a few who I have worked with for decades all over the world, I wouldn't make them sign a deal memo, they know if they cancel within 48 hours, they will receive an invoice, it'a happened a few times).

None of this is foolproof, you will still always chase getting paid as a freelancer and even as a producer. I have a writing gig and one of my clients declared bankruptcy two years ago. They owed me close to $12k. I went to the bankruptcy court hearings, filed metric tons of claims and paperwork, did not see a dime after perhaps 60 additional hours of work to claim. As usual, the only people who saw any money were the lawyers for both sides. There were almost a dozen other writers who all were screwed to the tune of $2k to $12k. I had a good write off last year, it sucks to be screwed out of money but that's life. I even had contracts and was still screwed. It isn't worth it to take legal action unless you have lots of free time and lots of money. As for me, I would rather devote the time and money spent pursuing legal action on making more money, it's smarter.
 
Well this is the first time in 8 years that I haven't worked on a Super Bowl commercial. So no reason to watch this year.

And I can honestly say I don't miss being an A1 at games like this. There always ends up being RF issues with radio and TV stations walking on you signals.
 
Josh Bass said:
Can't speak to most of that. . .on the few sports things I've done, there's usually some weirdness where because of the union (that I am NOT part of), I get a way HIGHER rate than I normally do. Maybe I've never worked for ESPN. Fox sports and some other folks, yes.
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Because they pay everyone at the union rate, regardless. At least in my experience. I was on a long-term gig(~10 months/year) and some of the events were on a network that was union. Even though I was not union and I didn't have to join the union(was still under the allowable amount of days), I was still under the union agreement on the weekends the events aired on the union network. So they had to pay me penalties for meals, hours, the way they did per diem, etc. that normally would not have happened. The funny thing was, my rate was HIGHER than the union rate, so the union net paid their portion and the other net(same family, different channels/nets) paid the rest to make it up.

ESPN is NOT union, but I have heard grumblings from guys that do a lot of remote(live) events that there are people looking in to it. Honestly, I'm surprised they have made it this long without guys unionizing, because ABC is union.
 
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Puredrifting, how did you write it off? I got stiffed maybe 15 years ago by a friend who basically went bankrupt, too*. It was only $2k-$3K, but still... My accountant said there was nothing I could do to write it off, deduct it, etc. If memory serves me, he basically said because no taxes were paid on the money I would have made, no money was spent out-of-pocket(it was just my labor), the IRS wouldn't allow it/didn't care. My accountant will push the limits, but is a "by the book" guy.


*Yes, we are still friends and do still work together from time-to-time. Sh!t happens. No one want's to go bankrupt or screw their friends intentionally.
 
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I think I will try the soft hold thing but again, trying to get these people to sign a deal memo guaranteeing cancellation fees etc is just not likely to happen...I really think they would move on to someone else (and of course never call again). I guess I could always ask each "challenger" if they are willing to do a contract and if one is, take that gig of the soft hold STILL won't. Again, MY client (crewing service ) didn't cancel, THEIR client did. On them. Last minute.
 
They absolutely will move on to someone else if you ask for any kind of guarantee. The only places you might be able to do this is major venues like NYC (union) and the west coast stuff (union). Most everything in between is independent contractor territory. Though ESPN you are now a tax paying temp employee, they deduct taxes from the pay and send you a W2 (as opposed to the 1099 in days of old). But that still guarantees you nothing. Several friends signed "contracts" with them to do XYZ season and then ended up getting half their games cancelled because the local team was out of the spotlight. No buddy like to fly you around anymore, too much money and there is always so other idiot in the local area that will do the job. Whether they do a good job or not rarely matters anymore, just that they do the job and get through the production. If they really suck, they won't get another call, and there is always one other person that claims they can do it waiting in the background.
 
Greg_E said:
They absolutely will move on to someone else if you ask for any kind of guarantee. The only places you might be able to do this is major venues like NYC (union) and the west coast stuff (union). Most everything in between is independent contractor territory. Though ESPN you are now a tax paying temp employee, they deduct taxes from the pay and send you a W2 (as opposed to the 1099 in days of old). But that still guarantees you nothing. Several friends signed "contracts" with them to do XYZ season and then ended up getting half their games cancelled because the local team was out of the spotlight. No buddy like to fly you around anymore, too much money and there is always so other idiot in the local area that will do the job. Whether they do a good job or not rarely matters anymore, just that they do the job and get through the production. If they really suck, they won't get another call, and there is always one other person that claims they can do it waiting in the background.
Click to expand...

I have a little interesting add on. I will get calls every once in awhile, to do news
stories (often it is breaking news) for a national network or cable station. Now I have
a bit of an advantage as I live in a small, remote area, so when they call me, it's not
like they can just 'go down the list' and find more people. In my area, I'm kind of
the only guy they can call (mainly because I'm the only one, stupid enough to continue
doing freelance/my own business) while the other people who are good at video work,
have turned it into some sort of city, state or federal government job or job at the
local University. After one of these jobs a year or so ago, I got a big surprise. They
wanted me to fill out a bunch of paperwork, get it notorized, and mail physical copies
to them, all the way across the country in NY. (This meant I had to drive to a notary's
office, after filling out paperwork, then drive to the P.O. and after the week or so it took for
the mail to get from Alaska to NY, it was scheduled to be another 90 days until I saw any money.)
They then, pulled the 'accountant out of the office' line, and finally told me I had to send them more
paperwork. It was 130 days or so until I got paid. Worst of all, they withheld taxes and SS from
my agreed on day rate. I did one day of work for them and they claimed me as an 'employee'.
I got none of the benefits of being an employee, but was not able to subject the money I earned
from them to business write offs for tax purposes. I was not happy. I instantly introduced a new
business policy. Whenever a big network calls and asks for my day rate, I give it to them. Then I
tell them, that if they want me to 'become an employee' (with all the associated paperwork
and tax and SS withholdings) that there is an additional $500 'processing' fee. I have had two
networks call me since I implemented this policy. Both ended up paying my processing fee.
One tried to get out of it, but I had them in an email agreeing to it, and sent that to the accounting
dept. They ended up paying it. When this crap happens, don't argue with the producer
or whomever. If they are a big company, look them up and submit a bill, (along with
your contract or other paper trail where they agreed to pay) directly to their accounts
payable. The people in the accounts department usually play by the rules....after all,
that is kind of their job....to know the rules. I can only imagine the awkward conversation
between accounting (who sees the proof that they agreed to pay you)....and the guy
trying to stiff you.
 
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alaskacameradude said:
I have a little interesting add on. I will get calls every once in awhile, to do news
stories (often it is breaking news) for a national network or cable station. Now I have
a bit of an advantage as I live in a small, remote area, so when they call me, it's not
like they can just 'go down the list' and find more people. In my area, I'm kind of
the only guy they can call (mainly because I'm the only one, stupid enough to continue
doing freelance/my own business) while the other people who are good at video work,
have turned it into some sort of city, state or federal government job or job at the
local University. After one of these jobs a year or so ago, I got a big surprise. They
wanted me to fill out a bunch of paperwork, get it notorized, and mail physical copies
to them, all the way across the country in NY. (This meant I had to drive to a notary's
office, after filling out paperwork, then drive to the P.O. and after the week or so it took for
the mail to get from Alaska to NY, it was scheduled to be another 90 days until I saw any money.)
They then, pulled the 'accountant out of the office' line, and finally told me I had to send them more
paperwork. It was 130 days or so until I got paid. Worst of all, they withheld taxes and SS from
my agreed on day rate. I did one day of work for them and they claimed me as an 'employee'.
I got none of the benefits of being an employee, but was not able to subject the money I earned
from them to business write offs for tax purposes. I was not happy. I instantly introduced a new
business policy. Whenever a big network calls and asks for my day rate, I give it to them. Then I
tell them, that if they want me to 'become an employee' (with all the associated paperwork
and tax and SS withholdings) that there is an additional $500 'processing' fee. I have had two
networks call me since I implemented this policy. Both ended up paying my processing fee.
One tried to get out of it, but I had them in an email agreeing to it, and sent that to the accounting
dept. They ended up paying it. When this crap happens, don't argue with the producer
or whomever. If they are a big company, look them up and submit a bill, (along with
your contract or other paper trail where they agreed to pay) directly to their accounts
payable. The people in the accounts department usually play by the rules....after all,
that is kind of their job....to know the rules. I can only imagine the awkward conversation
between accounting (who sees the proof that they agreed to pay you)....and the guy
trying to stiff you.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure I follow. They took taxes out, so YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY TAXES on that money now(and it saves you self employment tax on that income, as well, as a bonus). So basically the money is "all yours" at that point. Why can't you use that money towards business purchases that are in turn write-offs/deductions? It sounds like you are an individual/sole proprietor otherwise you would have probably billed as a corporation and not been subject to any of the withholdings on the front end. As a sole proprietor/individual you can use your money to buy anything you want and if it's a legit business expense, you can write it off, deduct it, depreciate it, etc. That's how I've operated since the late 90's(I just incorporated).

I have one or two clients that pay me as a "W2 employee" and it kind of sucks when you look at the check vs. them paying the full invoice, BUT the taxes have been paid on the money by the time I get it and I actually get to keep more in the end from that shoot, because I'm not having to pay self-employment tax on it, too.
 
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