Lamentation of a freelancer
I'm not what you call a 9 to 5er. I don't have an office that I go to, I don't clock in anywhere, and weekends mean as much to me as tuesday. The downside to this, of course, is that my income is far less than what is considered desirable. In fact, the words "unhealthy" "insane" and "sweating bullets" have all been used to describe my livelihood. Nevertheless, I somehow manage to get by on the little jobs I can find here or there. These jobs are generally found through a variety of means, be it through a friend or contact, or on the internet. There are a plethora of casting services available for use over the internet; some come at a cost while others are free. One of the old standbys is Craigslist. Everyone has used it, we all know how it works. Don't get me wrong, it's become a cornerstone of the internet when it comes to finding everything from jobs to free stuff in your community, and its value can hardly be measured. But the major downside of Craigslist is that anyone and everyone can post without a screening process. This leads to a high number of scams and ripoffs. It's true that many of these are flagged by the Craigslist community, and deleted by administrators, but what happens when the post is technically not breaking any rules? I'm talking about the conniving sons of bitches out there who prey on young, naive freelancers by offering work for little to no pay. This generally affects those of us who work in creative fields. You'd never see an ad for a plumber that said something like "I need my sink unclogged. There's no pay involved, but if you unclog that drain really well, I'll make sure to tell all my friends about you." When put into this light, it sounds preposterous, right? Why then is this such common practice for jobs involving creative types? I offer this Craigslist ad up as evidence:
Cameraperson needed (NYC)
Looking for a cameraperson (with camera) to shoot my reporter reel!
The camera also needs a stick microphone.
This is unpaid, but great experience! I can give you a copy of the reel and a recommendation (by day I am a tv producer).
Days to shoot: Saturday October 4th, Sunday October 12.
Please reply with your experience and what type of camera you have.
Thanks
Let's break this down. So, you're a TV producer. Right off the bat that should sound alarm bells because this is a very vague professional tag. I could be an associate producer on a cable access show and call myelf a TV producer. If the TV producer was worth his or her salt, why on earth does he/she need to come to Craigslist for someone to shoot a reel? Don't you...work in a TV studio? Aren't there...cameras and paid operators everywhere? You should have connections up the wazoo! But for argument's sake, let's ignore that fact. So you want someone to film your reel for you. You don't have any equipment, you want to use theirs. So you want their talent, their time, and their equipment...but you aren't going to pay them. Is anyone else scratching his head? Is this how our world works? We're expected to give up our precious, precious time and wear down our expensive equipment on the empty promise that you'll say nice things about us to your supposed co-workers?
This is FUCKED up!
I wish this was an isolated post, that it was something that rarely ever occured, but if you sort through the "creative" and "talent" sections of Craigslist's job postings, you'll find this is the rule, not the exception. Thankfully I have been doing this long enough, and have enough good sense to begin with, to smell this bullshit from a mile away. But I know that there are plenty out there who don't or can't. This "TV Producer" will likely get a response, will get that reel for free, and the poor schmuck who films it will never see a dime or get any more work from the experience. This will happen day after day after day, and that's sad. There are resources out there for young freelancers that are easy to obtain, and would prevent becoming the victim of this kind of manipulation, but I fear that many simply don't take advantage of them, and end up getting taken advantage of themselves.
Cameraperson needed (NYC)
Looking for a cameraperson (with camera) to shoot my reporter reel!
The camera also needs a stick microphone.
This is unpaid, but great experience! I can give you a copy of the reel and a recommendation (by day I am a tv producer).
Days to shoot: Saturday October 4th, Sunday October 12.
Please reply with your experience and what type of camera you have.
Thanks
Let's break this down. So, you're a TV producer. Right off the bat that should sound alarm bells because this is a very vague professional tag. I could be an associate producer on a cable access show and call myelf a TV producer. If the TV producer was worth his or her salt, why on earth does he/she need to come to Craigslist for someone to shoot a reel? Don't you...work in a TV studio? Aren't there...cameras and paid operators everywhere? You should have connections up the wazoo! But for argument's sake, let's ignore that fact. So you want someone to film your reel for you. You don't have any equipment, you want to use theirs. So you want their talent, their time, and their equipment...but you aren't going to pay them. Is anyone else scratching his head? Is this how our world works? We're expected to give up our precious, precious time and wear down our expensive equipment on the empty promise that you'll say nice things about us to your supposed co-workers?
This is FUCKED up!
I wish this was an isolated post, that it was something that rarely ever occured, but if you sort through the "creative" and "talent" sections of Craigslist's job postings, you'll find this is the rule, not the exception. Thankfully I have been doing this long enough, and have enough good sense to begin with, to smell this bullshit from a mile away. But I know that there are plenty out there who don't or can't. This "TV Producer" will likely get a response, will get that reel for free, and the poor schmuck who films it will never see a dime or get any more work from the experience. This will happen day after day after day, and that's sad. There are resources out there for young freelancers that are easy to obtain, and would prevent becoming the victim of this kind of manipulation, but I fear that many simply don't take advantage of them, and end up getting taken advantage of themselves.