This week, I’ve started thinking more and more about my current job title. More precisely, thinking about whether I actually have a job title? Walking to the office earlier this week, listening to the Guardian football weekly, enjoying the morning sun, and eating a banana, I found myself wondering – what am I actually doing at the moment?
For the past 4-5 months, when asked about my job, I’ve been saying “I’m trying to get into the media industry at the moment, doing various bits and bobs here and there”. But am I still trying? Or am I now just struggling, but from within? I think it might be time to change my generic answer, I think I’ve slowly become a freelancer in TV.
After writing those first two paragraphs, I’ve had a look at the definition of a freelancer, and it is ‘a person who sells services to employers without long term commitment’. Now, without focusing too much on the obvious connotations of this statement - I think it sounds about right.
Since I last wrote anything about my career as a freelancer, a few things have changed, but not much. I’m still doing little bits of work at Media City, most recently on 'A Question of Sport'. I’m also doing some work at an independent production company in Manchester, working alongside their development producer. This is a field I’ve always been interested in, and I’m really enjoying it. However, I’d never realised the extent to which programme ideas rely on reading papers, magazines, and browsing the internet. That’s effectively what I’m doing at the moment. Reading these things, and keeping an eye out for TV ideas, and researching anything we think could be interesting. It actually fits right in with my Geography degree, in which I basically spent 3 years researching.
So, what next in my life as a freelancer? I’m not sure as yet, but that’s what I’d always heard this industry was like, you’re not always sure where your next bit of work is coming from. That's just the life of a TV freelancer.
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