Guaranteed Income or working freelance

Bob Pank#

Author: Bob Pank#

Published 1st August 2011


I am not a morning person. But by mid morning (so about 11am), once I’ve had my caffeine fix and something to eat, I’m good to go.
Unfortunately, coffee and cake won’t make me proactive.
Up until recently, my working life consisted of just working a Saturday shift operating a photo lab in a store in the local town centre. (And I’m currently still there! Though it’s slowly sapping my will to live!)
This little job is what my Dad likes to call “guaranteed income”, I get a salary and specific hours to work. All I have to do is show up to work on time, print some photos; and come the same day every month, I’ll have money in the bank.
How very different to working freelance!
Now, I’m a chatty person, and can quite happily make conversation, but when it comes to promoting myself, and the work that I do, I tend to stay quiet. Whilst this might be fine working in retail, it won’t serve me well as a freelance production assistant!
Part of it is laziness, I’ll be honest. But mostly, I worry that I’m in some way inconveniencing people, or being untoward. I guess I gained this idea that talking about yourself, or promoting yourself in anyway, is just “showing off”, and no one wants to talk to someone who’s self centred. I’m still getting used to the idea that the work that I need, is a service that will help someone, that will help a shoot to be successful.
So I emailed a client that I had done some work with a while back, asking if there was any work coming up that I could assist on in anyway. An hour later I had a reply back asking if I could autocue a shoot the following week. For Chris Tarrant!
I still feel a fair bit of pressure when operating an autocue, even when the talent isn’t a celebrity! It’s your responsibility to make sure the client knows what they have to say, and to make sure they can read it at a pace that’s natural. Often, I end up having a bit of panic mid script that it’s either too fast or too slow, but it’s rare that it messes up a take. But at least it keeps me on my toes!
Although I can get a bit nervous, I enjoy being so involved with the process of creating the footage. Perhaps when I become more experienced, it won’t be so intense, but for now, I still get a kick out of getting through the script without making a mistake on my part!
I don’t think I’ve done a shoot yet where the script hasn’t been altered there and then. On other occasions, I’ve helped to edit scripts that haven’t read naturally, or haven’t expressed quite what the client wanted to get across. I’m a bit of a bookworm, and studied English at college, so I enjoy writing.
For now, I can kind of get away with not chasing up jobs, or applying to work with new clients. I’m currently learning to drive (it’s terrifying!) so by not having my own transport, I limit my client base. But once I’m driving, there will be no excuses! Better get some business cards printed then…
Oh, and for the record, Mr Tarrant was very nice and very funny. If not fond of eccentric ties.
It was great to hear from some of you about the whole University dilemma, thanks so much for getting in touch! If you have any comments, advice or questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch at @emmabeanies on Twitter.

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