Freelance OP in UK. Where to find work

[Danny O'Neill]

Morning, afternoon and evening peoples of the world. Forgive me if this is in the wrong category but it seems to be the best one.

Tl;dr I am looking to do more freelance work but have no idea where to start or post my services here in the UK. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Now, for the long version. I'm Danny and for the past 12 years I have been happily making wedding films as mintyslippers.com and life has been great. Lots of work, nice regular income.

The problem is that the recent banking crisis, brexit and the fact that the number of people actually getting married is falling by around 4% since 1972 means weddings alone cannot support me and my family filming weddings alone. So it's time to start doing something else with my skills and to stop putting all my eggs into one big wedding basket. Prior to filming weddings I was an IT manager but I've been out of the game so long there is no way I could go back. 

So, I think it best to stay in the video/camera world and put my new skills to good use. But, I haven't got a clue where to begin. What websites are good for finding work? The freelance and camera op world is very different to the corportate 9-5 job. There doesn't seem to be any call for camera ops on indeed or the like and unlike many I didnt study film and media in college and then grow down that path. I literally fell into weddings and did an OK job at it.

On occasion I have worked for other media companies as a freelancer. They seem to like that my years of experience mean I can crack on and I'm used to getting things right the first time. I operate my own little Steadicam Pilot so nothing major. 

My passion is to be behind the camera, flying my little Steadicam, calling the shots and not so much in the edit.

I am fully aware that in the great big world of camera and steadi ops I am very much at the bottom of the food chain having never worked on TV or movies and while that would be great, I know things need to start somewhere. But where,

So. Where do I begin? What is the going rate? I have googled for a few sites but as with most things I know a lot of them will be garbage and not worth my time.

Again, thanks for any help. Sorry if it's in the wrong forum and please with your replies follow Wheatons law ;)

[Timothy Gray]

Hi Danny,

I might not be the best person for advice here but I thought I would kick it off and hope that some of the more experienced members on the forum come back to you as well I am very new to the Steadicam world and am currently studying one of those Film Production courses that you mentioned :).

All I can give you is the advise I have been given by a few people and what I have seen on the sets I have worked on:

- Work-wise, this industry is very, very based on mouth-to-mouth. You really need to get a network running to start having a steady income. 

- You need to probably start at the bottom as a Camera trainee or AC. Now, I was given this advice as a student, but seeing that you have more experience this might not apply, although a solo-shooting wedding video environment is very, very different from on set. 

- You probably should have a show-reel as it is asked for all the time when applying. I would also say it should include work that is relevant to the project your applying for, i.e. if your applying to LIVE TV, have a showreel of working on events. If you're applying to a Film project, it should include your shots on other films. Meaning your wedding videos might not suffice and you need to go out and find some projects to work on. The go-around advises here is to work for very, very cheap or usually even free on student projects just to get the showreel material. 

- Learn "set-life". This is partially what a film production course can teach you a little bit or you try and get on working sets as a PA / Runner. There is a very distinct work ethic on set, that you don't really see in any other industry. At least, in my opinion, this is especially true for the camera department. There is some very distinct jargon that must be known and each person on the crew has a very distinct role to fulfil. Just read into the working relationship of a 1st, 2nd. 3rd AC along-side the Camera OP and/or DoP. Each person has a very particular role that you must know before coming on set. Now, this working relationship can be more relaxed or more strict or even slightly different depending on your Head of Department, but in my opinion, you need to know the fundamentals to be able to work properly.

- Rate-wise, I have always been told to run off BECTU cards, but don't take my word on that as I am not too sure.

Hope this helps a little and maybe intices some other, more experienced Cam-Ops to respond with their advice :)

 

Cheers,

Timi