Anyone else a telly freelancer? Career has disappeared

[GooseGoldenEgg]

Or can anyone else relate?

I am (was) a pretty successful TV producer. Worked continuously most of the time the last 15 years. Things got tricky around the pandemic and haven't really recovered for me. I was working on successful shows, had a fulfilling and fun career and was paid pretty well, most years earning between £50k and £75k.

Pre pandemic I bought a one bed flat within M25. Life was good.

Now I have been unemployed for over a year. Working bar shifts when I can get them. I'm 40 and a single woman. I don't think I can afford to keep my flat for much longer but if I sell and use the money to rent that will only buy me so much time and I'll be left with nowhere to live. Lots of my friends and other colleagues from the industry are in the same position. They're all just temping.

I've tried thinking about transferable skills but can't seem to get anywhere certainly I'm not going to be able to earn what I once took for granted. Along with the financial aspect my self worth, social circle and a large part of my identity has gone.

If I could warn young people I'd say don't go into a freelance industry. Don't know where to turn next, don't have the money to retrain. Is this it now? This industry seems shafted by budgets, streaming giants and I can't see it ever going back to what it was. So now I'm going to work minimum wage jobs if I'm lucky enough to get one until I retire?

I would look at civil service and government jobs. The application and interview process is often based on transferable skills, and with a little internal experience you can then get promoted to positions that need specific knowledge. Pay isn't always great but isn't terrible either. I'm sure you have plenty of skills, working with others, prioritisation, project planning, communication etc

Really sorry to hear this. I don't know about prospects for industry recovery. What I can say is that your org skills are probably amazing so could you look into operations management roles or similar? Also creative/comms roles in the charity or private sector?

You're probably facing a huge amount of age discrimination in that industry. My only guess is that it all must thrive on networks. Can you do a 6 month push to go to all events, meet with people and do an aggressive campaign to get back into 'the fold'? Online too.

Or pivot to something like training content production?

How about moving into public relations? Agencies often take on journalists, digital marketeers etc as their experience can help sell their agency to clients.

There are definite risks with being freelance, but I think being a successful freelancer for so long looks great on a CV. It shows you have a strong drive and that you produce decent work. You can't piggyback off another individual's or a whole team's success.

On line e-learning videos need production teams. Your skills are transferable.

Podcast ing, filmed podcasts for health etc. Content creation on the professional scale.

I'm so sorry, it's a terrible state for the industry, with approx 70% of freelancers out of work. It's such a valuble and skilled workforce in the UK, but seems terribly underfunded. There is a new tax credit scheme in place which may attract more interest from overseas production companies, and the fact that you're London based is an advantage (anecdotally, regional companies seem to have been hammered harder after years of growth following a push to regional production). As you say, budgets have been really screwed down, making it even harder to finance a production with any profit element to keep a company going. Pushes for the scrapping of the licence (and fewer people buying it due to streamers) is terrible for tv production in the UK, and everyone should expect to see even more cheap out put being produced - game shows, reality tv etc. Ground breaking drama, natural history, documentaries, news, specialist programming...farewell.

Everyone was saying 'stay alive til 25', but I'm now starting to hear 'keep in the mix til 26'. I don't know how much longer it can go on for.

Corporate videos? There are so many agencies out there that should lap up your skills and experience. Large enough firms can employ video professionals in house too, if they churn out enough content to justify the hire.

Yes I’ve heard the same from other former colleagues in the same sector.

Whilst it’s going to be hard or even impossible to stay in this space however I dont agree that you are only qualified for minimum wage jobs. You have loads of transferable skills and starting in a new industry at 40 still gives you another quarter of a century to progress and become the most senior person in your new organisation if that’s what you want to do!

Are you holding yourself back by only considering temp jobs or those with a short notice period so you could drop everything if a TV or film gig comes up? Maybe time to reconsider this strategy if so.

Have you looked at event/project management roles I would assume there would be a lot of transferable skills although I know nothing about what it takes to eb a producer.

Can you give us some examples so we can try and offer insight?

Let's face it. TV is doomed.
I am 44 years old. and I don't watch TV ever. Nor does absolutely any one in my social circle of similar age.
It is all about streaming platforms these days.
So you have to bite the bullet and start retraining yourself in another field. And you must do it sooner rather than later.

Do you mean you don't watch terrestial tv, but you do watch streaming platforms?

I hear you.

if you can possibly hold onto your flat you should, even if that means renting it out and moving somewhere cheaper for a bit.

I assume you mean people who watch daytime telly and sit on a a Saturday night watching 'live' content? Because I can see that is a bit doomed but TV shows itself is booming. 20 years ago your mega stars were all in movies, now they're all TV stars. Just have to look at game of thrones, the new harry potter series, even stuff like squid games, to see it's TV not films that are doing well.

Programmes still need to be made for the streaming platforms.

What were your main tasks / skills as a producer? I'm assuming it was things like:

Securing funding? - Local government and charities are crying out for bid writers but often can't afford people full time so there is a market for consultants who are paid per bid in this space - would your skills be transferable to that? Contact agencies such as Tile Hill and Hampton's who deal with that sector.

Managing Productions? - Project management skills? As above - Local Government, Charities and Central Government as well as private business are always on the look out for project managers.

Advertising? - PR, Communications jobs - again, both public and private sectors

Have you looked at theatre jobs - especially being close to London - the TV industry may be changing, but theatre is starting to recover really well and the sector is crying out for experienced people!

Don't think about the industry, think about what you actually did on a day to day basis - I would say that producer is probably one of the roles with the most transferable skill set.

Respectfully, this is argument is codswallop.

Who do you think makes the content for streaming platforms? You think Netflix doesn't employ producers?

I am sorry. I have friends who work in tv who are saying similar things, the industry isn't doing well. Can you try getting work with the streaming companies? Sorry if that's naive, it's not my field but it strikes me that that's where the work is ATM. I don't watch TV at all (with the exception of Rivals! But that was Disney) so I can see why it's grim. Don't sell your flat though, renting will be terrible so do whatever you can to hold onto that. Good luck, I hope you find something.

Professional content creation isn't faring much better... It's not a space I'd choose to move into right now.

Do you want to be in TV production? If so, it's a big push to get your name back out there and be recommended by people, I think - that's how most of the people I know in that industry have got back into it. It has been a really rough few years.

If you want to retrain, it's picking something that has a more stable future and you'd still enjoy... bid writing, as someone said, or project management although AI is being used more and more for this so salaries are falling quite quickly.

I’m in this industry and it’s getting harder every day with so many companies turning to AI, so I wouldn’t recommend!

I agree.

Telly person here - I have never known it so hard for freelancers. Staff are doing more and more in a shorter time, there's a lot of combining roles now and we rarely backfill annual leave.

TV isn't doomed, in fact most of the broadcasters are making shows for streamers now as well as for their own channels. I enjoy telling people how many amazon/netflix/apple/disney etc series my own employers make. And for other channels too. The industry has changed but content is still getting made.

You will have transferable skills and lots of my telly friends have gone into PR, Charities, Corporate roles etc. In fact, your TV experience will be invaluable for companies that deal directly with the media as you will be very aware of what hits and what doesn't. You may need to adjust salary expectations down. I earned a lot more when I was freelance before taking a staff job but I needed the security (and pension) so compromised. If your TV career has been anything like mine, you will have been used to an exacting work schedule, needed a ferocious attention to detail and budgets, been used to juggling multiple projects at once and will be able to organise anything and everything in record time. Those skills are incredibly useful to numerous companies.

Another alternative is to attempt the pivot into drama - not easy and again could come with a drop in salary. But that's where all the money is in the industry. If I had my youth again I would aim in that direction instead of features. I include long running series and soaps in that (although anyone who has worked on a soap will no how relentless that can be!)

The civil service is making massive cuts and has recruitment freezes
There have been very few jobs for the entire year unless specialist technical roles

Former telly person here, now working in features. It's been a hard spell for a lot of people, but the last year or so has probably been the worst I've seen it since the 2008 recession. I think its been made worse by the fact that the boom times of a few years ago meant the industry was desperate for new people so many were actively recruited into industry, making for a much, much larger workforce, all now chasing a massively shrunken pool of jobs. What kind of TV do you tend to work in? If it's not where you are already, would you consider attempting a move into High End TV (drama that costs more than £1 million per episode)? That's where the most seems to be being made at the moment (although even in HETV there is much less work than a few years ago).

Alternatively how about a move into VFX Producing? The tax break for VFX work in the UK is even more generous than the tax break for shooting here, and because of the nature of the work VFX companies can work on films & TV shows shot in other countries. Good VFX Producers are always in demand.
But if you've got your heart set on a move out of the industry you'll have amazing transferrable skills. I'm always in awe of good producers, they're like sergeant majors, CEOs, hostage negotiators, therapists, accountants, and planning consultants rolled into one awesome person!

I'm in Higher Ed, but media industry adjacent and I'm hearing this a lot, so I'm sorry. I've heard small but significant numbers of early/mid career producers losing out to seriously experienced production management people who are applying to lower paid positions because there is so little out there. We should be really worried about losing experience and knowledge.

I'd second exploring areas that look in terms of competencies rather than direct experience, like the civil service, but those applications are an art in themselves!

It's not the best time of year, for recruitment, but most of the public services and Universities have Comms departments that would look really positively at your skills. Sure it would be a step down in salary, but there would be continuity of employment and sick pay!

Good luck.

Did the writers strike in the US have an impact? I'm in the film industry, as is one of my DCs. Both of us have felt a massive impact from it. Our roles are pretty niche, and we're only just starting to recover from it