Are you a freelancer working in Film or TV, looking to expand and leverage your network? At Film Ireland, we are delighted to partner with the experts at Crewless.ie on this post. Here’s what industry veterans and Crewless co-founders Kevin O’Regan and Tommy Flavin have to say on the matter…
Before starting Crewless, we used to run a production company called The Reelists. We’ve hired hundreds of freelance crew over the years, and that’s only a tiny proportion of how many have sent us cold emails looking for work. Some do it just right and we’ve hired plenty this way, but we’ve also seen it done very, very badly.
Having a broad network of Producers who hire you is the only way to survive as a freelancer- so we’ve created this guide for how to impress a Producer, how to avoid annoying them, and how to keep them coming back for more.
Work smarter, not harder
First of all, if you’re planning to reach out directly to clients, stop now. It takes forever, the response rate is super low, and very few quality jobs come out of it.
Go straight to people like us who are almost always looking for crew- Producers and Production Companies. This will give you the best return on your time investment.
Hopefully you’ll have your hands full of work from a strong network of Producers, but your next priority should be advertising agencies, then marketing agencies- depending on what kind of work you do.
Hopefully you’re already doing this, but it’s important to connect with other people who do what you do. Plenty of jobs will come from other crew who are too busy. Get in touch with your relevant guild, or there might be a WhatsApp group where you can network with them.
Get yourself a website
Before you pick up the phone or send a single reach out, you have to get your house in order. A website is an easy, inexpensive way to make a great first impression on a Producer. Other portfolio pages like Behance are okay too, especially for some crew roles, but building a website on Squarespace is almost as easy.
Your site can be super simple, but make sure it’s neat, everything works correctly and all your work is accessible (Check those Vimeo permissions!) If you’ve got a good spread of work, a short bio and a few testimonials, you’ll be top of any Producer’s list.
Make a short showreel, then make it shorter
Not all crew roles will require a showreel, but if you’re making one, keep it under 60 seconds PLEASE. We’ve looked at hundreds of showreels over the years, and it’s amazing how many are over 5 minutes. Producers are generally watching a whole bunch of reels in a row to shortlist candidates, and they will skip yours if it’s too long, so show the full range of your work in as short a time as possible. If you haven’t done a lot of work yet, keep it even shorter.
Get all your social media up to date
Make sure your social media channels are tidy and up to date. Recent posts are a great sign that you’re active and busy, all things a Producer likes to see. Include a visible link to your website so we can go watch more work. Make use of the pinned post feature to make sure your showreel is top of your feed.
Use LinkedIn to find decision makers
OK, now it’s time to go find those Producers. LinkedIn’s search feature (literally type in “Producer”) is a great way to actively build your network. Not a lot of crew use it actively, but Producers do. The most effective way to build your network is to send connection requests without a note- it’s been shown that connection requests without a message are far more likely to be accepted. Then they’re in your network, seeing your work every time you post.
Reach out
Once Producers have accepted your LinkedIn request, you can send them a brief introduction. Be polite, be succinct- this is where sharing your website comes in handy! Don’t worry if they don’t reply- this probably just means they don’t need someone like you right now. But they’re in your network now, they’ll see every time you post and you don’t need to keep spamming them to remind them you exist.
If you can’t find a company’s producer on LinkedIn, emailing their general email address is the second best option.
IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: It’s okay to follow up a few months after a reach-out, but please don’t keep spamming Producers. We’ve had a few people who sent us weekly messages looking for jobs, and it’s a sure way to never get hired.
Post regularly
Instagram is also a great place to keep people up to date with your new work- keep posting regularly whether it’s a new finished work or BTS photos- this will let Producers know you’re busy and they’ll be more likely to keep you in mind. If their competitor production companies are hiring you, they’ll want to too! Tag your fellow crew members and the production company in your post, with their permission, to help your post gain a much wider reach.
We generally wouldn’t recommend reaching out to Producers directly on Insta unless they have a separate work profile, but absolutely send follow requests to build that network.
How to keep clients coming back
Once you’ve actually been hired by someone, of course the most important thing is to do a great job.
But here are a few things you can do to make sure they come back and hire you again:
- Be polite and professional- it’s the no. 1 thing Producers will consider when hiring
- Report any issues at all promptly- trying to hide a mistake is the very worst thing you could do
- Ask for feedback on your work- make the Producer tell you how great you are and they’ll start to believe it
- Send your invoice promptly- simple, but very annoying if we have to ask
- Keep us in the loop- as long as you’re not spamming, we love to see cool new work or equipment
Set up a profile on Crewless.ie
Crewless is a great way to reduce the amount of time you spend building your network of Producers. Once your profile is set up with a list of your skills, relevant jobs will be sent to you directly by email, and your work is already there for Producers to see. We do all the work bringing jobs to the platform, so you can go about your work and wait for the o
pportunities to land in your inbox.
Here are some tips for being successful on Crewless:
- Fill up your profile – take the time to populate your profile fully online. Crew with bare profiles have rarely been hired on Crewless.
- Get reviewed – testimonials are worth their weight in gold. Producers tell us their main worry hiring someone new is what they’re like to work with- make sure they don’t have that question about you. PS reviews can come from any previous job, not just Crewless jobs.
- Write a good first message – Crewless lets you give a mini pitch to the hiring Producer- use this to give any additional info not on your profile, maybe send some specific relevant work, or ask a pertinent question about the job to show you’re thinking about how to do it.
Keep your profile up to date – Same as your website and social media, Producers like to see recent work on your Crewless profile. Maybe you’ve added new skills recently – be sure and add them to your profile in order to get notifications for that work. Also, we keep updating Crewless with new features, so keep an eye for new additions to your profile!
