I have had this Blog post in draft mode for the last few months now. As I was finished listening to Episode 53 of The Back to Work Podcast, I realize that I was listening to the "Return of the Jedi" podcast for freelancers editors.

Which means that Ep. 51 is "The New Hope" & Ep 52 is the Pana-ultimate-cast "Empire Strikes Back"! So if your only going to listen to one of te podcast's, you should listen to that one. My struggling with this post was finished. I am not a writter, so why not just leave it to the pros. They pretty much hashes out all my thoughts and more on the subject of what I like to call the "Invisible".

Please read at your own risk the draft of my thoughts on Freelance intagngable that most Productions don't take into account when picking someone to craft their project in the most important final stages.

(Begining of Draft)

I was recently chatting with a peer of mine about software (FCP X and 3D packages), post work in general and the state of working freelance in the film industry when I started to talk about that INVISIBLE factor. It is the invisible advantage that hiring someone like me (meaning someone with a certain level of experience) versus someone who can just operate a software package (Thanks Mr.Jobs you made my life easier but you made some people think that they don't have to "study" film to make film*).

I know that this is treading weird waters as I find it hard to write about this because it isn't a tangeble. Also, I don't think that there isn't a place for the "machine operator" as I call them. Moreover, I don't pretend that I don't opperate the machine and you should strive to know your tool to it's fullest so that it isn't stopping you or slowing you down from the task at hand. BUT, I know that most of my regular clients appreciate the INVISIBLE that I bring to the table. I think Malcom Gladwell touches on this on his book (which I haven't finished reading yet).

I don't really have to explain this to my current repeat offender clients but the new clients that come for a quote always seem to look at it from a dollar and cents perspective. Rarely do they look at how far their dollar spent is going to seen in the result of the footage.

One last thing on this I-Factor, the I might be for INSURANCE. What I always say to my clients, is that your paying for insurance that if there is a "road block" or something doesn't go as planned, you loose some footage,... any of the thousand of situations that happen on a film production. The more experienced, seasoned individual has that set of invisible tools to deal with that situation.

The sad and sometimes frustrating part of this is that the productions that don't run into a bad experience never really see the advantage of the INVISIBLE; since they completed the show, commercial or movie without the drama of a disater but one will never know how great it could have been if they hired someone with the INVISIBLE.

* What I mean by study film is not necessaraly go to schoold but read, eat sleep film. Really study it as a craft.

(end of draft)

The Invisible factor: Puppet elevate's the average actingfrom Good to Great.

I appologize if this isn't the most polished post, but like I said, I am not a writer. My stregth is writting with pictures, a soundtrack, ect... I am just "Shipping it"!

Shipped! (Thx Merilin Man & Dan Benjamin)