Jump to content

Freelance rates for Olympic related work


Haideez

Recommended Posts

Thank you all for the wealth of insight and information in your experience and opinions provided - it's great to have this forum for this very reason.

 

To respond to some of your concerns about this proposal - yes this particular project manager is largely concerned with keeping the company's profit margins high by getting the cheaper technicians and promising the client the moon on a stick. To be fair though the company has got a tried and tested pool of approved freelancers so it's not like they are hiring dodgy labour. I do consider myself a pretty good technician but I am worried about how many days in a row I can work under the the heinous conditions that the Olympics present (and this project managers lack of sensitivity to our well being), so perhaps arranging for scheduled days off is as important as any other part of this agreement.

 

The good news is that I live in East London and I cycle everywhere so assuming I can ride reasonably close to the venue I'd be working in - transportation and accommodation isn't going to be the massive headache it will be for some people working on the games. I wouldn't agree to do this work if there wasn't some sort of catering or PD included in the arrangement as I don't want to be spending half my day rate on food and drink!

 

It sounds like from what people have said here that 20% extra is a reasonable amount to expect for this period, I might just need to ask for more initially so that this is where we end up negotiating to once we factor in their requested 'bulk booking' discount. I don't mind not being able to work for other companies during this period as I imagine I'll be pretty knackered if I get as much work as they anticipate!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, but I'd have to say NO to a bulk booking discount and stress in this sort of case a bulk booking PREMIUM (be that a small or large premium is up to what you can negotiate).

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am trying to stay away from London remember there going to be lots of techs going for the pot of gold. But who covers there work that they have left behind? so it going to be harder to get kit and crew for gigs out of London also.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1338671877[/url]' post='441808']

I wont go into any details but make sure you get paid in full BEFORE you start any work ;)

 

As a freelancer I can tell you now when working for companies like stage elecics and PRG etc it's 30 days minimum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a freelancer I can tell you now when working for companies like stage elecics and PRG etc it's 30 days minimum

 

Yep.

 

It's interesting that many of the more strident views about pay and conditions of a freelancer seem to ignore the reality of the market. If you don't wanna wait 30 days (used be a lot longer for Stage, particularly waiting for cheques as someone regularly on their gigs month in month out) then you can just go find somewhere else to work. The big players that engage 100s of crew for these kind of events do not argue the toss over freelancers individual terms, they just tell you what they are, what the rate will be and you can take it or leave it. What kind of event it is, 5 rings or not, makes no difference - why would it.

 

And that's the "real" suppliers, rather than the multitude of bottom feeders that are doing "stuff" around the same time who are usually on wafer thin margins, have poor crew support and are little more than one man bands with ideas of breaking into the big time by doing a few gigs on the cheap. I definitely would get money up front from them, or for my preference, not work for them at all. The risk of never seeing it is too great.

 

Don't expect some kind of sea change in the freelance market just because there is a bit of run on crew for a few weeks. As discussed at length here on the BR, there is always someone else around the corner just as capable as you, I'm afraid.

 

Cheers

Rob

(15 years as a freelancer in this market)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The big issue with the olympi is transport. If you have long days AND long travel times you are not going to ba able to do many consequtive days.

 

I've don an 0700 to 0030 day once and I was very pleased to be a very short ride from home I certainly wouldn't want two of those in a row. add an hour's transport each way and I'd need a driver.

 

Be realistic about what you can physically do. Be realistic about how much credit you extend to people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never give credit without a good ref from some body you know that the golden rule. I only ever give credit to people when I know they will pay on time if not they have to pay before hand as trying to get money out of anyone not wanting to pay your fee is a pain and costs you in money and time. and most of the time you never win as you cant always inforce the court order anyway.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.