What is a freelancer?
A freelancer is someone whom works for themselves and earns money by their own clientele. For example, people going onto a freelancers website for their commission and asking them to do a job for them e.g. create or edit what the clientele wants. This is if the freelancer was an editor.
As a visual effects freelancer, you need your website or showreel to have something that no other freelancer has. This means no copying from other freelancers as you want to sell your work being original and new in the industry. The clientele can quite easily look for other freelancers that may be able to do the same work you want and cheaper, so how much you charge for your work and the style you have for your work, needs to be encountered.
If clientele came along and wanted a commission from me, I would show them my showreel. The work I have done and how I do it or what I could possibly do for them and there business with my knowledge and skill. This would be a great starting point, showing them my work as they could see possible creations they want for themselves or their business and they could see what it may turn out like by looking at similar products. By looking at my work as an advertisement, it would promote me as a freelancer as they would then be able to decide whether I am the freelancer for them or not.
In condition to this, I would not show my clients old pieces of work that I do not like or find relevant as this might put clientele off. My old work that is not as good as my current would make a negative impact rather than positive as the clientele would imply that is what my skill level is at, at the current moment. Therefore they may lose interest thinking my quality of work isn't as high. They would not want to waste money employing me when they would not get high quality work in return.
What are my strengths? what are the things I would promote to a client if they saw my showreel or cv?
Firstly, I would tell the client a bit about who I am, what I do as a freelancer and the things I like. For example, my name is Callie Pocock, I am a freelancing video and graphic editor. I take on commissions to do with graphics design and creation, making advertisements, and adding in the special effects in short films and products. My strengths would be knowing how to do this, having experience in it and being able to come up with various other solutions and ideas for their company and what they want. My cv and showreel is just a short taster of what I can do but one of my strengths is the ability to adapt this to what the clientele is looking for.
In a documentary, it is all about promoting your work. You want to talk about yourself and the things you can do as well as previous client work. You want to tell them about your products and how they are created and how you are different to any other freelancer in the industry. What can you provide that others may not be able to? this is something you may want to arise when talking and contact clientele or making a documentary to promote yourself. The documentary is almost like an advertisement to reach out to clientele who are looking for a freelancing videographer to help their business or company.
The documentary would be professional by making sure I am serious when answering the questions, answer the questions as enthusiastically as possible as videography is my passion as well as a full time job, answer the questions in depth and don't ramble on. Keep it easy and to the point. Make sure I talk about everything relevant and have the camera on the tripod with the audio recorded separately using the clapper board for better sound. It will be long cuts and only cuts where needed as I do not want it to have too many cuts or it will not look professional.
Questioning techniques.
A closed question is simply a question that requires only a one word answer. Either one thing or the other. For example, Do you like the colour red? the answer would require either a yes or a no. This is a closed question as you do not need to expand any further than one word as the question does not ask you to.
A open question is the opposite. It requires a longer and more expanded answer than just one word. You may have to explain your opinion or connotations or explanations. It requires more of you than a closed question. For example, why do you like the colour red? this would be a open question because it requires you to write a few sentences. The answer could be, because when I imagine the colour red, I imagine love and beauty.
For a documentary promoting yourself as a freelancer, you would normally use open questions. This is because you want to show off your skills as much as possible without being too bland or uninterested. If you seem uninterested and blunt then the audience and clientele wanting to employ a freelancer, will think your too boring and uninterested therefore they will not employ you.
Questions that could be asked of me if I were to make a documentary of myself as a freelancer. In order to promote myself and my work for clientele.
What is your filming or editing style?
What is your favourite genre to film?
What is your favourite project you have created?
How long does it roughly take to complete your project?
What makes you stand out as a competing freelancer?
What are your strengths as a freelancer?
What are your weaknesses as a freelancer?
What was your last clients feedback?
What is clientele?
Clientele is the people whom are looking for freelancers and companies for commissions. The clientele are the customers of a business, organisation or freelancer. They are the people whom you target your work to. You want to get as many clients as possible as it means more work and more income. The clients are who you want to impress, they are not just a customer like a customer buying products in a shop but they are a on-going customer for a certain amount of time. The business or freelancer, works with its clients to create a product or to do a commission usually for the clients own business purposes.
As the client, what would you be looking for in a freelancer if you wanted a commission?
Professional cv or documentary to get a short brief of who they are, what they do and what they offer so I know whether they are right for me.
Social media links to see other advertisements of their work they done previously
previous commissions and responses to see whether other clients were satisfied with their product they got.
Biographical Information
I was born on the 6th June 2000 in Chatham Kent. I have always lived here and have been brought up here although me and my family do not like the area much. We live on the outskirts so it is more quiet than other places in Chatham. None of my family have gone to university or higher education apart from my cousin who has just gone into his second year at university doing music technology and mixing. He wants to work in a music studio in London.
The beginning of my career. I always liked technology and the complicated side of things since I was very young. MidKent college allowed me to expand my interests in film and technology and applied it to practice. I have been able to explore new things and technologies, meet new people and be inspired by the things I enjoyed which I never thought I would be able to do as a career. My family has always been very influential, my mum being the main influence. I've always wanted to have a really good career as she did and travel the world for a year moving from place to place. The biggest influence is the place I live. I've always seen and wanted bigger and better things. The urge for a big house, a car, nice area to live in and holidays is what urges me to be determined with education as I know what career I want and that is really important to me.
This brings us to my educational background. I first studied at Ridge Meadow Primary School on Churchill Avenue, I then moved to Horsted Junior School for years 5 and 6 as sadly, Ridge Meadow was taken over by Bradfield's School due to them needing more space. For my secondary school, I went to Walderslade Girls School which is where my filming and editing interests arose. For my GCSE's, I chose to do Media Studies, Art and Design and Photography. This is where I knew I loved films and how they are made or edited and put together. This was where Youtube played a big part in my life due to looking at tutorials to see how things are made and created. This brings me to MidKent college in Maidstone. This is the part where I'm fulfilling my dream of working in the filming and after effects industry. It is where I am building on my knowledge and my skill and liking the subject more and more each day. My teacher from my second primary school told me "Sometimes it's the people no one imagines anything of, who do the things that no one can imagine." why this stuck with me all those years I'm not sure. I'm not even sure where she found the quote in the first place but I remember at first not being able to understand it. She had to explain it to me repeatedly for me to remember and be able to understand what it means. I know now I am older, that the quote has meaning and purpose. I only found that out a few years ago but even without knowing the meaning, I remember it being the quote that has always given me inspiration and determination within education.
I do not remember a particular piece of work that I was known for as all my work is different and subject to change. My work is more suited to individual interests rather than as a group. I like to experiment with new things therefore it is hard to compare my different pieces of work together.
For my clients, I would advertise my social media account to show my work across different medias. These would not be my private social media accounts, they would be for work purposes only. I would advertise all my work as a short introduction portfolio on Twitter, Instagram, I could take commissions on Facebook, my own website, Youtube and any other applications where I could present my freelancing work.
My cousin was awarded a triple distinction A level in music production and technology at Greenacre sixth form and firsts in his first year at university. My mum was awarded a GCSE media pass and I was awarded a B grade in Media Studies, C grade in Art, A* in Photography and passed my first year at college.
What is my style?
I believe my style to be mainly in the editing. Some of my products contain long shots with few cuts but my favourite style of work is when the cuts are short but often. I like fast paced products as they intrigue the audience. There is not a particular cast I work with as I just work with anyone who is available at the time although I do make sure they are a natural actor as I do not want my product to be let down or not understood if the audience do not get the acting. I like my products to look professional so usually I tend to use either close up shots or medium shots. Very rarely I use long shots or point of view shots as they can make the product not look professional. I like to get up close and personal especially in action scenes.
Other ways of self promotion
Pinterest is a good marketing tool as you can pin different videographers, photographers, graphic designers and may others to keep updated when they add something new.
Emailing companies or organisations to see if they are looking for commissions. They may like your work and want to partner with you in a project.
Being mentioned in various websites, newspapers or other media.
Creating your own blog pages of your work, what you do and other companies you've worked with or partnered with.
Creating banners or flyers to advertise your self. Showing people your social media to keep in touch, your website information and have your own colour scheme, logo and style so the public can recognise you for being individual.
Create a online portfolio or cv. To advertise what you do to get out in the industry.
Partner with other organisations on several projects
Word of mouth
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