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?

Anyway, I don’t want to derail OPs thread so I’ll leave this now. But good luck OP - I know it’s incredibly tough out there for freelancers.

The Civil Service would snap you up. Look now on Civil Service jobs website.

CPS for example

Recruiting freeze is from April next year.

Ex TV production here - albeit I left 10 years ago and am now in marketing. Agree with others there's loads of transferable skills just need to find someone open to them - I've posted roles in my company on People Who Know People in TV on FB before.
Sorry its tough out there OP! I hadn't considered it at the time but wish I'd explored a production role at an ad agency - might be an option for you?

Is there a reason tv directors don’t work for streaming platforms? Could you not do productions for Netflix/Amazon etc or is that all closed shop?

sorry if that is a stupid question, as I don’t know the industry

I’m in post-production (staff) and there have been huge layoffs in the last year. DH is freelance and there’s been little work over the last year - he’s lucky to make £300 a month at times. One company has announced they won’t use freelancers again.

The streaming companies mostly buy in from production companies and other broadcasters. So you could be a producer, director, creative director, researcher whatever, but you'll work for companies that produce content for Netflix etc - and they are anything from small indies to big production companies to TV channels. They are also usually the same companies who are/were making TV for all the unusual terrestrial and cable channels

I've heard that the worst hit during this time are the editors - an awful lot of really good freelance editors touting for work at the moment.

I worry for younger people entering the business. There were far too many media courses versus the reality of jobs and the majority of the time companies didn't even take the media graduates on anyway (unless from specialist or certain unis/colleges or masters courses... and there was a fair amount of nepotism/favouritism/racism/classism). A lot of the fun has gone too. My own kids are studying very different subjects at uni and I'm quite relieved.

Have you thought about retraining and going on the satellite trucks or in an MCR? DH works in the broadcast industry and faced a lot of redundancies over the years so I hear you.

Ah op it’s so tough! Was also going to suggest your transferable skills would be a good fit for marketing as a couple of others have. Some advertising and/or marketing agencies hire producers as perm/freelance, or you could look at account manager / account director roles. Your expertise would be really valuable to a client who purchase a lot of this tv advertising media.

Sorry to shatter the illusion but I know two independent corporate video producers, and both have given up on that line of business. One has retired entirely (much earlier that he would have liked) and the other is trying to diversify into other areas.

It's tough but try not to give up hope of being able to switch to something suited to your valuable skills and experience. And by hook or by crook, hang on to your flat. It is a most valuable asset and security. If you have to sleep in your living room and rent out your bedroom for a time while you sort out a stable income so be it.

Perhaps I was not using the best phrasing, but I was trying to imply here is that the demand for British shows is smaller because the market is saturated with products coming from every other country.
The share of British produced shows has gone down because people now watch other things. Therefore, there is less demand for freelance producers in the UK.

You are not alone, but you know that. Keep looking, but consider these alternatives:

I've seen producers be good project managers.
And I think becoming a PA or office manager in financial services would be a good skills fit, salary probably similar, but a very different culture. Smaller organisations especially who want people who can do everything and anything.

Hi OP. My husband is a producer in factual. He was doing really well through covid and actually came out of it with 2 awards for the programmes he'd produced. Then he went into 2 years of very limited contracts. In some ways he's been lucky as the work hasn't dried up but I'd say he's worked about 14 months out of the last 2 years and that's at a reduced rate of pay. We've had many sleepless nights over it.

I think BECTU said 5 months ago that unemployment rates were at around 50% and I think they'll probably be due for an updated at the beginning of 2025. It's better than the 75% they were talking about a year or so ago. I'm very aware non-scripted is in a worse position than scripted so you're obviously much harder hit if you're working in factual etc.

I don't know what the future will be but we have seen more signs of life over the last quarter - we're based in the north - but it's nowhere near it was a few years ago.

I think you've had some good advice about which routes to have a look at. I used to work in the industry many years ago and I know you'll have many transferable skills. I know producers who have gone on to work as lecturers in universities, in PR departments, marketing and retrained as counsellors / therapists. I just wanted to give you a hug and wish you the very best of luck.

My DD had dreamed for years that she would go into animation but her research has shown her must jobs are freelance and fine remotely either many entry level jobs now done by AI. She saw so many talented artists either great reels on Insta all looking for work. I used to freelance myself in publishing - the day rate has hardly changed since I left 15 years ago.
My DD gave up her dream and is going an academic degree.

Name changed for this as some of my telly friends are on here and ain’t nobody need to know all my business! Hi Vic! 😂

See my (new) username OP. I hear you.

An exec with 25 years experience on some very high profile shows. Fact and fact ent.

Currently temping and have been since March.

It’s utterly bleak. And I know PP who don’t know the industry are very well meaning with their ‘can you move to drama? Work for the steamers?’ comments - we really do know this comes from a good place - but if only it were that simple. All of us freelancers have done nothing but network (and work!) for all of our careers to get to our positions - so have the people in drama.

That said, I came <this> close to getting a Pivot Job (industry buzzword de jour!) into a creative agency, so I’m holding out a tiny, minuscule bit of hope.

Solidarity OP.

Satellite SNG technology is on the way out (to be replaced by cloud/IP).

MCRs are a mostly SDI based concept (though there will possibly be some requirement for them as we move full to IP they won’t look like they do right now).

producer > engineer would be quite a pivot. There is no crossover really at all.

OP - TV person here. I think the industry will reshape and there will be jobs in production again. Albeit they’ll look different.

Look up The TV Mindset on LinkedIn/Facebook for info and support - some great advice on there.

Civil service is a great shout from a PP or my tuppence would be to train as project manager (you could get a FT contract in projects and/or work it alongside telly work - if it ever comes back).

Events Management could be another way to turn.

Solidarity here too. My DH was a development producer for years. Work dried up a bit with Covid, then he was lucky enough to get a permanent role in corporate. Then was sadly let go in January & been looking ever since.

And I know PP who don’t know the industry are very well meaning with their ‘can you move to drama?

My point was that if it was possible, that's where I would go. If I was younger, that's where I would aim to be. And there are opportunities in drama - I have friends who have gone from production into soaps and series. I send every drama job I see onto my mentees. Because drama is where the money is at the moment and that's where I'm seeing more opportunities.

I'm not just well meaning, I've had over 35 years in TV production, I've worked for every major broadcaster. Factual is really suffering so why not try to diversify if you can possibly do so, even if it means dropping down the ladder? My friend rented out her flat in London so she could take a job on a northern soap in production management for less pay but she's really happy (and vows never to come back south...)

I had a look over my socials at friends who have left the industry and found former TV colleagues doing PR, charities - particularly the ones that film or that are very news reactive, lecturer, media training, events, government media - a very creative camera guy I know works for one of the big departments, talent agencies, teachers - several, particularly primary, commercial services for the entertainment industry, practice manager, project management etc etc

I remember going through a rough patch when I was freelancing and thinking that I had few transferable skills - then I landed a 6 month job running a clinic on Harley Street. It turns out being super organised, having a great work ethic and being able to sort pretty much anything in a few hours with a hard deadline sets you up really well for other work!

I agree with the previous poster. I’m not suggesting drama because I ‘don’t know the industry very well’, but because I do. I’m IN drama.

I would recommend doing one or two of the ScreenSkills ‘Step Up’ drama courses for producers or line producers. SS will even support ‘Step Up’ producers on productions, working alongside experienced drama producers, and from then it should be possible to get a drama producing role. As I mentioned before, it’s also worth contacting the prod cos who are doing a lot of the lower budget shows eg for C5. Ask their heads of production if you can possibly buy them a coffee / come in for a quick chat - everyone in house is super aware of the situation for freelancers and therefore keen to help if they can. And then worth also reaching out to agents who rep a lot of drama producers - message me if you want some names.

This is excellent advice. I have already sent links to several people I know. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting. I’m not crew but did work on the commissioning side for a major broadcaster for several years and it was very rare for a Commissioner to agree a Producer/EP they hadn’t previously worked with or at least heard of. Given that there is so little cross over between Factual and Drama on the commissioning side and the skills are completely different, I’d have thought it would be really hard to break into Drama from the factual side given how many good producers with relevant experience are also available for work?

I’m in a senior level strategic comms position in the public sector and everyone I’ve hired to my team over the last few years have been either ex-journalists or TV producers. They’ve mostly been to either content creation/social management or comms specialist roles (copywriters, content marketers etc.)

No useful advice but interesting to hear this news. My son at 27 is doing a masters in marketing as he said the film industry is becoming too hard to make money in. I was worried that he was making a mistake but reading this thread I guess not .

As people are saying you have many transferable skills and are on the cusp of are discrimination so I hope you feel some of the suggestions are suitable for you .