Freelance toolkit for unscripted with Alison Grade

• Part 1: Tues 16 January 9:30 - 11:30
• Part 2: Wednesday 17 January 9:30 - 11:30

As part of our Step up strand, we’re offering training to help individuals coming back into the industry after a break, moving into a new role or responsibility level, or improving skills in unscripted TV. 

This course is spread over two days, please only apply if you can attend both days.

In these 2 x 2-hour sessions Alison will guide you expertly through how you can grow and develop your freelance career and provide you with a range of tools and strategies to help you achieve this. The focus of the two sessions is how to better work ‘on’ as opposed to ‘in’ your freelancing.

Because money is often at the top of a freelancer’s list of worries the first session will focus on the money side of freelancing and will explore what you need to live, how to manage your money as well as looking at the mechanics of freelancing and how tax returns and tax status works in Film and TV.

In the second session it’s all about you – the freelancer. What is your secret sauce? Why are you the right person for a project. During this session you will explore what skills you bring to your clients and why clients hire you (hint – it’s often not what you think it is). From here we will look at the value you bring and strategies for valuing yourself in order to negotiate better rates.

Who it's for

These sessions are aimed at anyone who is working in unscripted TV in a freelance or fixed term contract capacity and looking to learn how they can better work ‘on’ their freelancing, which in turn will help develop participants develop a more sustainable freelance career which they feel in control of.

The majority of the USF online short course offering is for those at early career stage and above. As a result, we generally require applicants to have at least 3 credits (unless working in a traditionally uncredited role). If you strongly feel you would still benefit from the training, please email USF@screenskills.com so we can assess if an exception should be made.

We are committed to ensuring all our courses are accessible to everyone. This course is designed to be as interactive as possible. Please email the above address if you have any access requirements and we will be delighted to help, be that clarifying the form such interaction is likely to take or discussing reasonable adjustments.

What it covers

Session 1: All about the money

Show me the Money!

• What do I need to live on?
• How do I manage my money as a freelancer? 

Mechanics of freelancing

• Tax returns
• Understanding tax and national insurance
• PAYE fixed term contracts and sole trader
• Dailies and 7-day rule
• Insurance and legal considerations

Session 2: All about me

What’s my secret sauce? 

• What skills / experience do I have to offer?
• Why do clients hire me?

Realising my value

• How do I work out my value?
• Over and under-pricing
• How to work out your hourly, daily or project rate?
• How to negotiate effectively

Speaker

Alison Grade describes her key skill as transforming creative ideas into a business reality. She accomplishes this with the films she produces, the creative entrepreneurs she mentors, SMEs and freelancers she advises and in her Penguin published book, The Freelance Bible. Alison has an unique skillset in that she has formal academic training (INSEAD MBA); has worked at senior level in many media companies; is an entrepreneur who has established several businesses and is a Nesta accredited Creative Enterprise trainer and mentor. She currently sits on the Creative Industries Federation UK Council as well as the Digital Leadership Board for the Centre for New Midlands. She brings her passion, knowledge and experience with her in all the work she does.

How to apply

This session will take place online via Zoom. Click ‘apply for ticket’ and follow the instructions to apply for your place: you must login or register before you are able to complete your application.

Places on these free online courses are limited and applications are often highly competitive. To stand the best chance of securing a place, please be sure to consider the following:

• When asked to list your three most recent credits, please include the programme title and your job role.
• When asked what you hope to gain from the course, please be concise but ensure you cover the specific elements of the topic you would like to gain knowledge of and what gaps in your skillset you believe the course may address. A rewording of the course title or a general comment on career progression does not tell us much about how this course would benefit you.

If you are no longer able to attend, we ask you to please use the “decline ticket” function on the right hand side of the page so that we can release your place. Our sessions are often oversubscribed, so we’d like to give other freelancers the opportunity to fill available spots. Thank you for your consideration.

This session is supported by the ScreenSkills Unscripted TV Skills Fund which invests in training for the unscripted workforce thanks to contributions from broadcasters, SVoDs and production companies.

This course would normally cost participants to attend, but thanks to this support, we are able to offer it to you for free. If you fail to attend, we reserve the right to request reimbursement of costs, unless your place can be taken by someone else.