I went into this movie with perhaps foolishly high hopes. I am a long-time fan of the series, ever since I was a kid. I saw Fight the Future and walked away entertained. While I did walk away from I Want to Believe having been entertained and not feeling like I wasted my $7.50, I did feel a little let down.
Don't get me wrong: I Want to Believe is indeed a stand-alone story in the X-Files universe. While you can't enjoy it fully if you've never seen any X-Files shows or Fight the Future, it can be enjoyed if you know the story of how the tv series ended (hence the reason why Mulder and Scully aren't together, etc.) The story is good, the acting is excellent and the story is everything you'd expect from the X-Files. My only gripe is that this feels more like a 2-hour special episode of the series rather than a feature film.
Fight the Future was big. It was up to Mulder and Scully to stop an alien conspiracy to colonize the earth through hostile means. There were aliens, government conspiracies; it was big time. The stakes were about as high as they can get. I Want to Believe seemed much smaller in scale. The story this time round involves a pedophile psychic priest, a missing FBI agent and a Russian doctor playing Dr.Frankenstein. Again, it makes for a great story and a creepy concept, but I was expecting something grander in scale.
All things considered though, I Want to Believe was two hours and $7.50 well-spent for an old fan. We get to see Mulder and Scully get back together and tackle some old issues, Skinner gets a cameo at the end and the story has a decently happy ending. A couple plot holes remain unfilled (what happened to the FBI agent? The experiment subject? Scully's patient?) but that aside, I'd recommend seeing this if you were/are a fan of the series and saw Fight the Future. If you're not an X-Files fan, skip it unless you have a taste for the macabre.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tips for Successful Freelancing #2: Style Guides
As I have found recently, Style Guides are much more than a standard set of rules to direct the uniformity of documents used by a company. They can also be vindictive pieces of literature that seem to want nothing more than to make your life a living hell.
To save yourself eternal damnation at the hands of an editor with a copy of the latest Style Guide in their hands, make sure that you always, without fail, read the damn thing BEFORE you sign a contract to start work for somebody. Most companies use established styles like Chicago, MLS, MLA or AP. But not everyone. If a company has it's own style guide, it is imperative that you read it and read it well BEFORE you sign a contract or start working. Is it short? Is it cursory? Does it have gaps? If the answer to any of those three questions is "yes", ask the company why.
If the style guide is short, it probably means the company is new and wants to do things their own way. Beware of companies that do this. Short style guides are bound to get longer and if you don't keep up with the changes, it can cost you a lot of time, effort and gnashing of teeth.
If the style guide is very simplistic, it is open to interpretation. If your interpretation of the guide is different from the editor's, guess what: you've got more work ahead of you that you probably aren't going to get paid for.
If the guide has gaps in it, it probably means the company doesn't really know what it wants, but rather has a general idea of what it doesn't want. If this is the case, you are essentially left fumbling in the dark until you either do something they don't want or happen to get lucky and do something they find they do want. Either way, it means more work for no pay.
Bottom line: If the company you are thinking of working for has a sub-par style guide (or none at all) consider one of the following: 1) Find employment elsewhere. I know we all get desperate and we could all use the extra income but believe me when I say it may not be worth the effort. 2) Request an addendum to the contract limiting your liability for edits and rewrites. The Writer's Guild stipulates that if a screenwriter under contract is asked to rewrite or edit their script, they must be paid for doing so. There's no reason you shouldn't. You are putting in billable hours, just like any other employee when you edit or rewrite a document. If the company you are considering working for is not willing to accommodate extra pay after a fair number of edits or rewrites, go somewhere else.
Example: I recently did some work for a burgeoning website which had (when I started) a very brief style guide. My first piece for them went fine, but then they started updating the guide on a near-weekly basis. My second and third pieces went through no less than five edits each. Each time I sent it back, the editor thought of something else they wanted or had some new style guide that needed to be met. I wound up spending more time on the edits than I did in writing the pieces to begin with. Because the contract has already been signed, I can no longer get paid anything more for writing the pieces, even though I spent nearly double the allotted time on each of them due to constant demands for edits and additions.
Admittedly, some of those rewrites/edits were due to errors on my part. I admit that and I think it's fair that a writer should have to fix their mistakes. However, I do not believe that writers should have to cater to the whim of their employer at every turn without suitable compensation. If I'm going to spend 40 hours working on a 20 hour piece for 20 hours worth of pay, the situation must be rectified.
Freelance writers have it rough, and never let anyone tell you otherwise. We have to constantly look for work, constantly interview for new jobs, beg to get paid, fight to get our work read and deal with often harsh criticism of some of our most cherished work on a near-constant basis. We shouldn't have to do twice the work for half the pay. If your employer is not willing to offer additional payment for more than two or three rewrites/edits that are not due to writer error, find work elsewhere.
To save yourself eternal damnation at the hands of an editor with a copy of the latest Style Guide in their hands, make sure that you always, without fail, read the damn thing BEFORE you sign a contract to start work for somebody. Most companies use established styles like Chicago, MLS, MLA or AP. But not everyone. If a company has it's own style guide, it is imperative that you read it and read it well BEFORE you sign a contract or start working. Is it short? Is it cursory? Does it have gaps? If the answer to any of those three questions is "yes", ask the company why.
If the style guide is short, it probably means the company is new and wants to do things their own way. Beware of companies that do this. Short style guides are bound to get longer and if you don't keep up with the changes, it can cost you a lot of time, effort and gnashing of teeth.
If the style guide is very simplistic, it is open to interpretation. If your interpretation of the guide is different from the editor's, guess what: you've got more work ahead of you that you probably aren't going to get paid for.
If the guide has gaps in it, it probably means the company doesn't really know what it wants, but rather has a general idea of what it doesn't want. If this is the case, you are essentially left fumbling in the dark until you either do something they don't want or happen to get lucky and do something they find they do want. Either way, it means more work for no pay.
Bottom line: If the company you are thinking of working for has a sub-par style guide (or none at all) consider one of the following: 1) Find employment elsewhere. I know we all get desperate and we could all use the extra income but believe me when I say it may not be worth the effort. 2) Request an addendum to the contract limiting your liability for edits and rewrites. The Writer's Guild stipulates that if a screenwriter under contract is asked to rewrite or edit their script, they must be paid for doing so. There's no reason you shouldn't. You are putting in billable hours, just like any other employee when you edit or rewrite a document. If the company you are considering working for is not willing to accommodate extra pay after a fair number of edits or rewrites, go somewhere else.
Example: I recently did some work for a burgeoning website which had (when I started) a very brief style guide. My first piece for them went fine, but then they started updating the guide on a near-weekly basis. My second and third pieces went through no less than five edits each. Each time I sent it back, the editor thought of something else they wanted or had some new style guide that needed to be met. I wound up spending more time on the edits than I did in writing the pieces to begin with. Because the contract has already been signed, I can no longer get paid anything more for writing the pieces, even though I spent nearly double the allotted time on each of them due to constant demands for edits and additions.
Admittedly, some of those rewrites/edits were due to errors on my part. I admit that and I think it's fair that a writer should have to fix their mistakes. However, I do not believe that writers should have to cater to the whim of their employer at every turn without suitable compensation. If I'm going to spend 40 hours working on a 20 hour piece for 20 hours worth of pay, the situation must be rectified.
Freelance writers have it rough, and never let anyone tell you otherwise. We have to constantly look for work, constantly interview for new jobs, beg to get paid, fight to get our work read and deal with often harsh criticism of some of our most cherished work on a near-constant basis. We shouldn't have to do twice the work for half the pay. If your employer is not willing to offer additional payment for more than two or three rewrites/edits that are not due to writer error, find work elsewhere.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Tips for Successful Freelancing #1: Don't Quit your Day Job
You hear this all the time, and believe me, it's the last thing you want to hear. Most people don't think working and living as a full-time freelance writer is possible. For most of us, it isn't. For those of us who can make it as a full-time freelancer, it's far from easy. Ok, the dress code is "Perma-casual" and the hours are up to you, but in order to maintain your status as full-time freelancer, make no mistake: you WILL work your ass off.
There is something to be said for a guaranteed paycheck every two or even every four weeks. As a full-time freelancer, you can forget about that. You'll be lucky to get paid once a month. Damn lucky. If you're like most of the freelancers, you'll spend a good deal of time sending invoices, doing your taxes (that's right, remember how nice and easy taxes were when you went in to work? Well guess what: next to nobody withholds for you in the freelancing world. You need to budget for taxes yourself,) and trying to get paid for services rendered.
Having a regular day job, even a part-time one ensures that A) you'll get a paycheck every 2-4 weeks, B) you won't starve, C) you might get health benefits if you work for a good company (freelancers typically do not receive benefits of any kind), and D) if freelancing work slows down (and it's bound to sooner or later) you have something else to fall back on.
True Story: About seven months after I started working my first freelance gig, there was a restructuring. Previous to the reorg, I was writing about 60 articles/month at $50/article. That works out to around 2,250/month after taxes. Not bad, beats the hell out of retail. I was working hard, but I was having fun, building my portfolio. But then the reorg comes. My editor leaves and a new company comes in. They offer us a monthly stipend and some ad revenues that amount to a fraction of what I was earning. They expected less of me (12 articles instead of 60) but it paid a hell of a lot less. Because I was doing so well for so long, I ditched my day job and did this full-time. Didn't even bother to look for another client. Big mistake.
By the time it was all over, I was making around $750 a month. Not hardly enough to get by on. I looked around for other freelancing gigs, but if you work in a specialized field, finding a new gig can be tough if not nigh impossible. I was eventually forced to go back to retail for a while until things picked up. It was a rough few months, shoot, it still is rough. But I learned my lesson. I now write for no less than three clients, and am still looking for more.
Bottom line: you never know when your "sweet gig" will go sour, and a shitty day job is better than no day job. Despite what you may be thinking, you CAN work a "regular" job and freelance at the same time. It will be a challenge at first, but you'll get used to it. Besides, co-workers in the humdrum "regular" world love to hear about other people's lives.
There is something to be said for a guaranteed paycheck every two or even every four weeks. As a full-time freelancer, you can forget about that. You'll be lucky to get paid once a month. Damn lucky. If you're like most of the freelancers, you'll spend a good deal of time sending invoices, doing your taxes (that's right, remember how nice and easy taxes were when you went in to work? Well guess what: next to nobody withholds for you in the freelancing world. You need to budget for taxes yourself,) and trying to get paid for services rendered.
Having a regular day job, even a part-time one ensures that A) you'll get a paycheck every 2-4 weeks, B) you won't starve, C) you might get health benefits if you work for a good company (freelancers typically do not receive benefits of any kind), and D) if freelancing work slows down (and it's bound to sooner or later) you have something else to fall back on.
True Story: About seven months after I started working my first freelance gig, there was a restructuring. Previous to the reorg, I was writing about 60 articles/month at $50/article. That works out to around 2,250/month after taxes. Not bad, beats the hell out of retail. I was working hard, but I was having fun, building my portfolio. But then the reorg comes. My editor leaves and a new company comes in. They offer us a monthly stipend and some ad revenues that amount to a fraction of what I was earning. They expected less of me (12 articles instead of 60) but it paid a hell of a lot less. Because I was doing so well for so long, I ditched my day job and did this full-time. Didn't even bother to look for another client. Big mistake.
By the time it was all over, I was making around $750 a month. Not hardly enough to get by on. I looked around for other freelancing gigs, but if you work in a specialized field, finding a new gig can be tough if not nigh impossible. I was eventually forced to go back to retail for a while until things picked up. It was a rough few months, shoot, it still is rough. But I learned my lesson. I now write for no less than three clients, and am still looking for more.
Bottom line: you never know when your "sweet gig" will go sour, and a shitty day job is better than no day job. Despite what you may be thinking, you CAN work a "regular" job and freelance at the same time. It will be a challenge at first, but you'll get used to it. Besides, co-workers in the humdrum "regular" world love to hear about other people's lives.
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