Most of the people I, Art Freeman, know are freelancers. That is the world that I live in. However, not everyone understands the reason why I or likeminded individuals decided to go this route. So I've decided to outline a few reasons as to why this is advantageous, from my POV.
Schedule Flexibility.
Imagine sleeping in on certain days. Imagine taking the time off when you want it and when you, most importantly, can afford it. Forget about the norms of working a 9-to-5 Mon-Fri, or Mon-Sat.
When you freelance you basically work whenever you can get booked for a project and sometimes that means working more, while other times it means working less. It is the ultimate hustle and grind gig. And that is exactly what it is - a gig.
What is a gig?
A gig is a project of various length in duration. Can last from a few hours to a few months or more. It's a temporary type of employment, a contract. A job of a good freelancer is to get booked as often as possible and to potentially work non-stop. And that means at times day and night.
Good freelancers are in high demand and tend to have scheduling difficulties, double booking, having to turn down gig, etc. That's the good life. But also they have the ability to sorta pick and chose what they wanna work on. S
Say you wanna work on feature films, or tv shows, or you love competition type shoots. If you know the right people you can start doing just that.
As far as it goes for me, Art Freeman, I really like shooting interviews, shooting sports, music videos, narrative type projects, conventions and corporate gigs, etc. I get to meet a lot of interesting people and learn something new every day and it really makes the world go round.
Diversity in the Projects
As mentioned briefly previously, you get to chose what you wanna work on. And there are multiple reasons why you would want that.
Most people are asked to commit to a certain activity and do it day in and day out. Especially so on the corporate level. Or if you are making pizza for example. Those are delicious. But what if you get bored easily or are easily distracted or get tired of the same ol thing. Well in the media industry every day is different.
I literally wake up every day not knowing what to expect and it's amazing. I don't know if I'm gonna get an email or a phone call that will change my life and for some people that may get stressful however I see it as an opportunity. When you open yourself up to new possibilities it's just so cool.
I know a lot of people in the industry and contrary to popular belief it is a small world and the news spread at a speed of light, especially recently with all the social media. So you kinda know what everyone is working on, who is doing what, you can ask and learn and communicate. Which gear is used for what, how much it costs etc.
So having said that, some people in the industry do chose say to focus on Reality TV. There are a lot of people that do that. I mean, oftentimes, it's a steady 3 month long gig, steady paycheck and you get a sense of what every day is like. However for myself I prefer shorter stints, few days here few days there, that way we keep creativity flowing and it doesn't become a dreaded monotonous job.
Diversity in people you work with
TV/Film industry is at the forefront of diversity and I love the possibility to meet new people from all parts of the world. Just recently worked with a crew from S. Korea and it was amazing.
When you keep things moving, you keep innovating and changing yourself. Looking at how different productions do things, and learn new and better ways to do the same thing.
Not putting all eggs in the same basket.
This one is very important as well. Companies can crash, go out of business, etc so it's important to diversity your sources of income so if one company doesn't have any upcoming projects, perhaps other one might.
For example, I shoot sports for one or two companies, do automotive circuit gigs with another company, do corporate stuff with others, do music videos and commercials when those come along and much more.
The thing is to keep things moving and don't get stale. :)
Well if you guys and girls have any questions leave them down in the comments below. If you wanna shoot some stuff hit me up at Art@c137prod.com or call / text at 702 980 9620