after 9 months,
Grow a backbone and learn to stand up for yourself or you will forever be a teaboy.
( Windy Pig I'm naturally quite suspicious about the moon., Sun 15 Apr 2012, 9:28, 2 replies)

Thanks for the motivational speech.
If you actually read what I wrote the first time, I no longer do that job. Nor am I now, or ever have been, a teaboy. My reply to you the first time was meant in a jokey manner. Clearly you misunderstood.

I was a technical runner. My main job was the day to day running of the facility, which involved making sure edit suites were online, delivering playouts of sequences all over the city and digitising footage to be used in edits. When we weren't busy doing that, people would ask us to sort out food and drink for clients, as we were the only ones that could really leave the building to go and buy such things.

Working as a runner is the first job anyone will get in the industry I work in. Almost every single TV show and film you have watched has been made by someone who was, at one point, a runner. It has been the way into my industry for the last 60 years or so. My sticking to the job has nothing to do with growing a backbone, and everything to do with the fact that leaving after a week would pretty much ensure I never got a job anywhere else. After nine months, I decided that was a reasonable period of time for me to quit and not have it reflect badly on me. As I stated elsewhere, the day I was told I was being let go, was the day I was going to tell my manager I wasn't coming back in.

There is a certain amount of having to "pay your dues" involved before anyone will give you a better job. If you can put up with the shit jobs for a while, eventually you will get bumped up the ladder. It just so happened that the company I worked for had no intention of bumping anyone up the ladder, but were happy to basically lie to us based on our understanding of the way the rest of the industry works. I know many people who also started as runners, and now work as associate producers or line managers.

Therefore, it is with the utmost respect that I inform you that you are talking out of your bottom.
( PMGT -Bacon., Sun 15 Apr 2012, 10:32, closed)

Apparently young folk with degrees are routinely expected to be workplace skivvies. Sometimes even without getting paid for it.
How the other half live.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sun 15 Apr 2012, 19:21, closed)

I worked for free for a year
before I could get paid work. Again, it comes down to the desperation people have to get into this industry. You have to do whatever you can to get more experience and contacts than the next guy.
( PMGT -Bacon., Sun 15 Apr 2012, 23:23, closed)

What if you want to break into the industry but don't have the necessary financial/familial support to get by with an unpaid full-time job?

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 16 Apr 2012, 23:48, closed)

Then you have to work in your spare time.
That's what I did. I pretty much worked 7 days a week for about a year, between studying, working weekends and evenings and doing as much "freelance" work as I could in my spare time. I still do that now in fact. My hours are a little bit more forgiving these days, but I still work my fucking arse off to try and get to where I want to be. I currently work weekends doing technical support, three days/nights a week teaching, and on my days off I do any freelance jobs I might have on, which is usually about 40 hours of work a month.

If I'm totally honest with you, it's had a pretty adverse effect on my health, social life and home life. I make time for people when I can, but that's not as often as I like. I'm pretty ruled by my work at the moment, but I'm hoping I'm going to be in the position I want to be in within the next year. I'm a hell of a lot better off than where I was 12 months ago, so I'm hoping that pattern will continue. It's tough, but I simply refuse to do a job where I have to put a tie on and turn up to work and sell fucking insurance or something.

The other thing is, I fucking love the work I do. I make music videos and short films and write scripts and teach, and get paid for it all. My time is worth something now because I'm actually very good at what I do. And that's because I spent a long time gaining experience and practising the skills I need to make a living.

I also just found out tonight that a short film I did visual effects on has been accepted into Cannes. These are the sorts of things that keep me doing what I do.
( PMGT -Bacon., Tue 17 Apr 2012, 2:54, closed)