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| Musician's as A/V Freelancers... | | Date Created: Apr 12, 2005, 11:28 PM |
I often laugh when we get a new freelancer on the scene who thinks he knows what he's doing because he's been a musician for "such-and-such" years. They never realize the simple fact that they are starting from scratch, the same way we all did. Now, I'm talking about new guys, not the old timers who have been doing both for years.
A tech is a tech due to experience. Once every few years we get a musician or two thrown into our mix and they just blow me away cause they just want to go straight to mixing the board. Doesn't work that way guys. Those guys mixing the boards had to pay their dues as A2's for years, and there's plenty of A2's ahead of you in experience who are gonna be running the board way before you get to touch it...
Having a good ear doesn't mean anything - I know deaf A1's who can mix great shows! What is important is, if you are backstage during a show and something isn't working, or it dies, or anything number of things that can happen do happen - can you get the job done right now, in a professional manner, without losing you head?
You have to be a good A2 before you even get to touch a board. You have to have all your stage terminology down, you have to know the names of the cable and equipment, you have to know how to use it, you have to know how to set a back-line and patch the snake without even thinking about it. You also have to know how to fix stuff...
Anyway, these guys usually hang around for a while until they figure out how much work is required before they will actually get to touch the board - they get discouraged and bail out...
I only bring this up because, we got this new guy freelancing right now who doesn't know anything. He's a musician, so he thinks he does. I usually follow this guy with my eyes throughout the setup so I can see what I have to go back and redo when I'm done doing what I'm doing. I've never told anyone that I do that - I just do it.
Totally unrelated to his lack of knowledge, the worst part about the situation is that I have had two clients (who are not my clients by the way) come to me and say something about his personal appearance and attitude. He always looks and smells as though he just got back from a camping trip and his mouth just needs to close. Every sentence that comes out of this guys trap has to have at least one fowl word in it - I don't think he thinks anyone will hear him if it doesn't...
To make things even worse, he's buddies with the guy who hires him - so he's not going away anytime soon. As a matter of fact, I've had three clients complain to me about the guy who hires him (not for personal hygene or a bad mouth, but for other issues) - so there seems to be a common theme going on there (I've never had my client's client complain to me like this before)...
I have a strange dilemna here as well, the three clients who complained to me about the "boss" want to call me direct the next time they come around. They actually want me to TD their shows using this guys equipment (basically they just don't want to see him on site). I think I'm just gonna give them his bosses number when they call so that he can handle the deal, cause if I TD the show there's a possibility that I may lose a good client. I really don't know what to do, but this seems to be the best way to go...
Any suggestions....? dvhakes@mac.com |
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