WOW, I’m gone for a few days and everyone came out of the woodwork on this one.
I’m so glad you guys are doing well with your working relation with freelancers. I also have many friends that are staff at stations across central Florida, actually I day hire many of these guys regularly, they gladly take a vacation or sick day to work with me as my clients pay them 4 times what they make at their stations, not to mention that they get to learn the freelance business. As I indicated earlier, 90% of successful freelancers come from the newsroom and for years I’ve been helping many of these guys taking the very critical first step into their own business. I also have a program where people tag along to help us for a day, unpaid because we don’t need and are not authorized to hire the extra help, but they get to observe and learn the way we do assignments. However, the question that Kevin asked wasn’t about how popular you are with freelancers on the street, Kev was asking for ways to improve B-roll and I gave my opinion, you’re all so quick in criticizing but not so quick in giving workable solutions or suggestions.
To all of you who made a career in criticizing others, ask yourself, how did I possibly arrived to the conclusion that freelancers and staff news people do not mix well on B-roll? Could it be that most freelancers, including those who contributed the most over the years have left?
Could it be because of these emails that I’ve been getting from the same freelancers and former b-rollers since this thread started?
In two words: RIGHT ON.
I left because I was shouted down by idiots and called "mean" by crybabies with thin skin. Why bother continuing to contribute? I know what I did to make myself a success. If other people are more worried about their feelings than listening to the truth, let 'em rot.
I applaud your latest entry, but we both know it faces the inevitable shoot-down by whiners.
Damn, man. I had people that kicked my ass in this business. All these newbies think their s**t don't stink and get all bent out of shape when you hit them with harsh realities.
Anyway, nice response.
Nino, why are you still wasting your time with those f*****g l*****s, you’re giving away knowledge and getting s**t in return? Wake up man.
And these are just the mild ones.
The only thing that news staff photographers and freelancer have in common is that they both do videos, and that’s it. Actually storytelling, most of what news photographers do is on the average less than 10% of what a freelance does. Nobody is undermining the skills needed to be a good storytellers, on the contrary, being a good storyteller takes a lot skills but these skills are not in demand in the freelance market, not because of our choice but because of market demand. I’m sure that some might find clients who only ask for storytelling but I have yet to find a freelancer who can make a decent living doing only storytelling, so I can only talk about what I see in the field. This is why for the last ten years on this and other boards I’ve been preaching about the importance of skills diversification for anyone who attempts to become freelancer. This is the biggest problem of those trying to make the transition from the newsroom to freelancers, most don’t have the diversity of skills needed or even know what skills are needed and this in most cases leads to failures. Sorry guys but that’s the reality, I didn’t create the freelance profession so please don’t shoot the messenger, I only call it as I see it out there in the real world. But of course by me telling all this on this board is immediately interpreted by the usual thin skin critics as if I consider news photographer somehow lesser that their freelancers counterparts and this is why all the ongoing controversy, and this is also the reason of why most freelancers have left, how many time do they have to explain this before it penetrates, and when it din’t they stopped trying and moved on, taking a lot of knowledge with them.
On top to the additional photographic skills necessary to get into and stay in the freelancer business, is the business side of the business, issues that staff people do not have to be concerned with, read again, this is what I was suggesting to Kevin. Issues such as marketing, bookkeeping, equipment investment, insurance, both for equipment and personal, equipment maintenance, depreciation, business taxes, both federal and state, not to mention tangible taxes, transportation, security, collecting from clients, cash flow, business plans, and the list goes on. These are all separate issues that freelancer need to discuss and vital to the success of the business, staff don’t, so why mix the two when there’s no common ground. But of course like always you guys let your own imagination get the best of you and interpret everything as an insult, open your eyes and your minds would you?
The NPPA asked me if I could start a program to help newspeople transition to freelancers but thanks to you I realized that the same problem with critics here on B-roll most likely will be repeated there, you’re not isolated cases, so I decided that wasn’t a good idea. I believe that in being honest and upfront will save many disappointments and failures later on. Sorry guys but I don’t know how to teach without being honest.
I really have no clue what’s going on in the newsroom, everything negative that I’ve ever heard came from newspeople themselves right here on B-roll, I also never heard you critics so proud of your professions challenging or denying any of those posts. If somebody would say anything similar about freelancing I would be all over them.
My goals in teaching has always been get to the very top or at least try, if you can’t make it to the top you can stop everywhere in between. Do the best you can and money will surely follow, but don’t go after demanding clients with deep pockets unless you have the skills they are looking for because they’ll only give you one chance to do it right. And this are the two main causes of failure for newspeople getting in the freelance business, overestimating their skills and misunderstanding the market needs. I really wouldn’t know what to teach to somebody who only wants to make $70K or less per year, I’m lost there, it isn’t my market, but I know how to teach how to make $250K per year because that’s my market. Isn’t a matter of being money hungry like many have calling me, it’s a matter of reaching business goals, it’s targeted marketing.
It has been a good ten years on B-roll, I made a lot of good friends and helped a lot of people, time to move on, there are still a lot of people that are looking for my help, actually more than ever. This is why I started the workshop programs. They shouldn’t be deterred by those few opinionated who have a safe job and could care less about freelancing.
Anyone who needs to get in touch with me, for educational purposes about freelancing you can email me at
nino@efplighting.com
I also have a section on EFPLighting about tips and tricks,
http://efplighting.com/category/tips-tricks/
mostly about the same stuff I used to post here.
I also have started recently a group on Linkedin that I moderate with an iron fist.
EFP Video productions workshop.
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4449303&trk=anet_ug_hm
It’s strictly freelancers addressing all freelancing issues, it’s still new but it’s getting a lot of traction.
Peace
