Who are the Freelance Crew in the Blue Room

[Guest lightnix]

As you might have guessed, this is a poll to establish how many Blue Room members are currently, have been, or intending to become freelancers.

 

For the purposes of the poll...

 

I'm limiting it to people who either are, or are studying to become, professional crew in the Entertainments Industry i.e., who will earn two-thirds of their income or more, from working in the business; if you are an amateur or still at school, then I apologise for not being all-inclusive, but please do not vote in this poll :)

 

The term, "freelancer" is defined as: Someone who makes two-thirds of their income or more, from short term jobs, done for a variety of Entertainment Industry clients (e.g. hire / production companies).

 

Some self-employed freelancers (especially in TV/Film) are taxed at source, so I'm not counting simply how people are taxed, as a definition of "freelance" status.

 

If you are a self-employed freelancer, please enter "N/A" in the last two questions.

[Ike]

It would seem out of the nine people who have voted so far two have already failed to read the question fully!

If you are a self-employed freelancer, please enter "N/A" in the last two questions.

[Guest lightnix]

Nothing unusual there, then :)

[J Pearce]

Just to say: I voted as Industry Student, but I also work as a casual, and do a VERY small amount of work that could be defined as freelance, but I rarely earn more than expenses.

[Guest lightnix]

Thanks to all those who have voted so far - keep 'em coming in :)

 

I must admit to being surprised at the apparently high proportion of freelancers in the professional membership - I had reckoned on maybe a third.

 

Anyone care to speculate on how accurate a reflection of the "real world" the current figure (44.3%) is? Could it really be that almost half the people who work backstage are freelance? I'm sure that's not the case in theatre, but theatre is just one part of a very broad business.

 

Thinking about it, I wouldn't be too surprised if that turned out to be the case, but... :huh:

 

Don't forget: you don't have to be a freelancer to vote, just somebody who is "working in" (as defined in the OP) or studying to work in the business. It's important to get as broad a sample as possible, so don't let anyone think their vote doesn't count, just because they aren't freelance ;)

[w/robe]

I must admit to being surprised at the apparently high proportion of freelancers in the professional membership - I had reckoned on maybe a third.

 

This may be because, at first glance, this looks like a survey of freelance crew as opposed to being about freelance crew but surveying everyone.

 

What do you term as crew? Possibly a relatively high proportion of crew jobs are freelance but this figure may reduce as you progress in your career.

 

I am in the 'professional membership' and have a permanent job but make just under a third of my income from other work but I did not vote as I am certainly not crew.

[Seano]

I very rarely get involved in theatre these days, working mostly in live music with occasional bits of large corporate work. (AGM's for plc's, that kind of thing.) In both of those areas pretty much all of the people I encounter are freelance, if I had to put a figure on it, maybe 95%.

[Guest lightnix]

...this looks like a survey of freelance crew as opposed to being about freelance crew but surveying everyone.

Good point, I've requested a title edit to make it clearer. Thanks :) *

 

What do you term as crew?...

...people who either are, or are studying to become, professional crew in the Entertainments Industry i.e., who will earn two-thirds of their income or more, from working in the business...

...somebody who is "working in" (as defined in the OP) or studying to work in the business.

I tried to avoid the term "crew" for this poll, as I wanted to try to include those who work in offices and warehouses, too.

 

 

*And blimey, 'twas done before I'd finished the post ;) How's that for 5-Star moderation? :huh:

[w/robe]

Sorry lightnix this is probably just me being slow, I was just trying to ascertain if you were limiting the jobs that people were in by the use of the term crew or if you were using it as a catch all to include any of us who earn our money in the entertainment industry, as I would say;

 

get in muscle - crew

rigger - probably crew

board op - probably crew

chief electrician - possibly crew

lighting designer - definitely not crew

wardrobe supervisor - only crew when it is time to go down the pub.

[Guest lightnix]

An interesting point of view there, w/robe. Personally, I'm of the view that "Crew" is more a state of mind / way of life, than something defined by a mere job description; but that's possibly something for another thread :o

 

Meanwhile, I've been keeping a weather eye on this poll over the last couple of weeks and have noticed that despite gradually mounting votes, the proportions seem to be settling down. In particular, the percentage of freelancers has remained at around 40-44%.

 

Obviously, 447 votes / 149 voters (at the time of writing) is hardly a "scientific" sample, but given the way the percentages are holding, I'm wondering again if this may actually be a reasonable representation of the outside world. Any further opinions on that?

 

Thanks again to all who have voted so far, keep 'em coming in :unsure:

[lightsource]

An interesting point of view there, w/robe. Personally, I'm of the view that "Crew" is more a state of mind / way of life, than something defined by a mere job description; but that's possibly something for another thread ;)

 

I own the company, but still class myself as crew, after all, I still do transport / load in, cabling, live sound, lighting occasionally, limited rigging etc etc, and get out.

 

So really a jack of all trades ( but a master of none). :unsure:

[Firemonkey]

I also own and run a company, and in reality don't have answers in the poll which I would tick to make any sense of resulting statistics.

So..... the point is?

[Guest lightnix]

It's basically just a simple demographic survey, to try to establish what proportion of people in the Blue Room and therefore perhaps the business, are freelancers.

 

I appreciate that not everyone will have meaningful answers to contribute (see the OP) to this one, but I have a couple for freelance related polls in mind, which will be welcoming management input.

 

This one's been running nearly six weeks and I'll be asking for it to be cut adrift from the stickies at the end of this week. I know that it's not a scientific sample, but the fact that the proportions have remained mostly unchanged from around the first 100 votes onwards, suggests that it might reflect reality to some degree. Please feel free to contradict that assumption B-)

[itinerant baker]

Interesting thread/poll, glad you put it up - not at all scientific, but still worthwhile. B-)

 

 

 

[Adopts gruff shouting/singing voice towards microphone that's 4 inches too high]"We..... are the freelance crew".

[Guest lightnix]

Just one last(?) bump for this thread, as I have asked Admin to cut it loose from the stickies.

 

Thanks to everyone who has voted (so far) - just shy of 200 at this time.