Okay, this is pretty embarrassing, but I'm just curious if there's anything new to say on this subject from the closest thing to peers I could imagine. Please bear with me…
I have been a freelance AC since 2000. I joined 600 in 2002, but lapsed my membership in 2007 due to not having enough work to sustain myself in smaller midwestern markets, seemingly always the last one to call when everyone else was booked and it was me or pay to bring in an out-of-town 2nd or loader. So I got away from freelancing for a couple years. I got back into it full swing in 2010, splitting my time between AC work and what I'm trying to focus on now; DIT, which I got a chance to do on an indie feature shot in Georgia last fall. I just re-joined 600 for the access to the monopoly they have on feature production in the hopes of having more opportunities in Michigan, where I just became a resident in Jan. 2011….
…and we all know that's already circling the drain.
I don't have the $$$ to just uproot and move my family on a whim to another market right now, especially when I've ALWAYS had a lot of trouble getting the phone to ring even where I've freelanced for years already. And it's been CRUSHINGLY slow this winter for me. Scary in fact.
I've scoured production directories in several other target markets for contact information of UPMs, Coordinators, Line Producers, Producers, production companies, and individual crew members like DPs, and send out emails about every month in effort to initially introduce myself and continually pop up on radar. Always brief and positive, highlighting any recent changes or work news, asking for a visit to my website, even offering a 20% discount on my rate, "first taste is free" and demos of me and my gear, just to try to drum up a gig or two for spot work. (NOBODY'S taken me up on these to date) I've also made lots of phone calls to try to do the same thing. Occasionally I get a call asking a question, and occasionally get asked a few email responses for rate info or the like, but most of these efforts go unanswered, and I can't recall a single response from one of my correspondences resulting in a booking.
My basic question is what more can I do to possibly get more calls for work when I'm NOT local to an area I'm targeting? In other words, I can't just go knock on doors, and in these areas I'm hundreds of miles or more removed, what else can I do besides what I just described? I don't personally know any other specific union guys in Atlanta for example, to ask who I should be talking to. And they don't know me from Adam so why would they vouch for me anyway? This is always part of the emails I send; inquiring for other suggested leads or people I should introduce myself to, and like always, these seem to go unanswered.
I feel I've put in a lot of years of time and effort devoted to trying to freelance, and whatever I'm doing wrong or not doing right keeps eluding me. I've even asked those I have worked with on occasion to tell me what I might do to be more employable, so I'm not the last call they make. On set I keep quiet, keep my head down and work, don't try to be the comedy relief or a busybody, and just do my job to the best of my ability. I've never had someone come back and tell me I screwed up and they're not calling me anymore, never fogged or flashed film, never lost any footage, to my knowledge never ruined a take or pissed off the talent. Always try to add value and go the extra mile with a cooperative attitude and don't nit-pick too much. I've received lots of compliments over time. But, I can't seem to get that phone to ring with any regularity.
As terrible as the prospect seems, am I going to have to relocate and get a job in a rental house, like I did with my first job in the industry, staring all over from scratch? Shouldn't my years of experience, credits, and resume count for something?
Thanks in advance for any worthwhile advice, sorry for the length of this.