Tuesday, August 21, 2012

And Then There Was None...


For a brief moment, I had it...


Thursday: I get a call checking my availability for next week. Three days of work for a pretty decent rate. Sweet!

Friday: I get a call from a different show, asking if I'm free next week. Five days of work. The rate isn't that great, but I'd have a little extra spending money in my pocket after five days with them than the previous offer, plus the bonus of solidifying myself with a semi-new contact. I tell them I'll take it if it's five days for sure. Best Boy says he'll double check and call me back.

I hang up, a little proud of myself for being such an in-demand juicer. 

Saturday: I finally hear back from the Best Boy about the schedule. It is for five days, but apparently the Gaffer wants to bring in his buddy instead. You know, the one who's been out of work for a while and can't find a job on his own, blah blah blah. Great.

I'm a little disappointed, but not too much. Being the smart cookie that I am, I never told the first job I was planning on bailing, juuust in case things changed. Which means that despite getting dumped, I still had three days of work at a good rate to look forward to.

I love it when things work out that way.

Until...

Sunday: I step out of the shower to find a message on my phone from Job #1. "Sorry kiddo, but the schedule changed..."

And that was how I went from being an in-demand lighting tech being sought after by multiple shows to being unemployed this week.

Gotta love this industry...


4 comments :

Michael Taylor said...

This kind of thing is certainly frustrating, but it comes with the free-lance turf. I try to think of such lost weeks as "the gift of time," especially after working so much these past few months.

There's more to life than work. It's still summertime, you're young, and now you have a whole week to do whatever the hell you want.

Not a bad thing, that...

A.J. said...

Michael - "The gift of time" is one gift I seem to get often. :)

Patrick Morris said...

I call it Freelancer Tetris. The jobs come floating down, 1, 2, 3 or more days, and you try to fit them in to make a full week.
Then just when you fill the week, they all disappear.

A.J. said...

Patrick - That's a very fitting analogy.

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