The permalancer phenomenon started in New York and has yet to catch on in L.A., but it exists on both coasts. The term refers, of course, to people who work freelance for a company, but on a permanent basis. In the world of postproduction and visual effects, the category describes a new breed of digital artists who work primarily at one or two houses but are not officially on the payroll. They are around most of the time but are not enrolled in the company health plan, nor do they receive most of the other benefits staffers take for granted.
How do permalancers and the companies that use them feel about it? Just fine, thank you. Many digital artists consider it more than a fair trade to give up the health-care plan in favor of day rates that average 30% higher than staffers and the ability to control their own destiny. A number of post and effects houses like the system because it gives them desperately needed flexibility to ramp up or down with freelancers depending on how much work is in the shop at the moment.
A decade ago, running a video graphics department was a simple proposition: Hire four or five kids fresh out of art school, train them on a graphics package and lock them in rooms for 10-12 hours a day to make magic. That was 1989. The new business model is more complicated. Actually, there are three.
Its really all across the board, says Brian Terr, president of bicoastal staffing agency International Creative Alliance (ICA). There are still some facilities who say, AI want all full-time people. There are still other facilities that say, AWell, Ill just have a core of people and some freelancers. Then there are other facilities out there that say, AHey, I just want to use all freelancers.
The client base apparently has no bearing on the preferred business model. For example, a pair of digital houses specializing in commercial work that SHOOT talked with at length have distinctly different approaches. The Finish Line, Santa Monica, prefers to stay out of the freelance market, while bicoastal visual effects/multimedia production company Curious Pictures relies heavily on freelancers to complement its staffers.
We have our regular roster of freelancers that we call on who can work for us, says Curious principal/CFO Susan Holden. They can work for other people as well, but were primarily their main employer. Theyre by no means here every day. And they tend to be the people who are on commercials.
Jack Schaeffer, president of The Finish Line, disagrees with the philosophy of putting freelancers on commercial jobs. He claims it disrupts the tradition of holding the clients hand during the postproduction process. Since we focus primarily on commercials, that process is one where clients will come in to do some work, and hours or days later theyll come back for revisions, Schaeffer says. If the same crew that did the first go-round isnt available for the second, it can be very awkward at times. Freelancers, by definition, when you need them, you hire them, and they come in and theyre nice guys or ladies and do great work. The next day theyre off on another job, so when you need a revision, youre up the creek.
Still, even The Finish Line has used permalancers in the past, and is now resorting to creative arrangements to keep its full-time staff of digital artists happy and under the roof. For example, former permalancer Jon Mueller has the option of taking off days when the workload inside the shop is light.
Weary of being tied to the same chair for 10-12 hours a day, five days a week, Mueller, says Schaeffer, went freelance after arriving in L.A. from Texas in order to cut back on his hours and spend more time with his family. Schaeffer was a fan of Muellers work and offered the Henry artist a retainer arrangement under which Mueller went from permalancer to full-time employee, with the understanding he could take days off at his own discretion.
The reason why youre seeing more people go freelance, or try to go freelance, is when you work with people like us, we try and chain you to the room and work you long hours. Our revenue stream is basically attached to what we can bill from the rooms. Were probably one of the more flexible places for that, because we understand if our artists are not happy, the quality of the work and the quality of the experience for the clients wont be any good, Schaeffer adds.
In addition to the arrangement with Mueller, The Finish Line has also guaranteed loans for digital artists recruited from overseas, secured temporary housing and provided a number of other types of unusual support to its contingent of digital artists.
While its unusual and unorthodox, its in our best interest to do these things for these people, because then we can really expect 100 percent of their energy and theyre not worried. Artists worry about these things more than a lawyer or accountant might, explains Schaeffer.
Star Box
The force behind the willingness of effects houses to bend over backwards to keep their respective coteries of digital artists content is the growing star system for digital artists. Ten years ago, effects shops sold boxes. But over the past decade, as computing power exploded and prices for digital effects technology imploded, a funny thing happened on the way to the digital media ageatalent increasingly became the key selling point in the never-ending battle to attract clients.
A top-of-the-line Henry still costs $700,000 and a state-of-the-art Flame clocks in at around $400,000, but the cost is steadily coming down. Flames, Infernos and Henrys are popping up around L.A., New York and other major media centers faster than Starbucks.
Theres a company out here [TNT Media, West L.A.] that will rent you a Flame for $3,000 a day and deliver it to your house, says Scott Suess, a permalancer at View Studios, Hollywood.
Enter star power. With the we have the latest and greatest boxes argument losing its power to lure clients, who runs the boxes has become increasingly important to landing spots, broadcast and feature work.
Consider Henry artist Jerry Steele, who leveraged his star power as one of the top Henry artists on the West Coast into a unique arrangement with Digital Magic, Santa Monica.
Although Steele in 1996 launched his own company, Steele VFX, an entity he operated out of several Los Angeles-area facilities (with administrative quarters still in Sherman Oaks, Calif.), last month he opened a digital-effects boutique studio inside Digital Magic. He spends every workday at Digital Magic, but his name doesnt show up on the payroll. Instead, he negotiated the unrestricted use of a Henry-equipped room, staffs it with his own assistant, brings in his own clients, bills clients through his company and then pays Digital Magic an hourly rate for use of the room, equipment and other client support services.
I was looking to do more of my own client work as opposed to being a hired gun, Steele recalls. Previously, I had been moving all over town. This was really an opportunity for me to have a machine at my disposal whenever I needed it and, more importantly, whenever my clients needed it.
Lost Planet and Inside/Out, both in Santa Monica, and Us 2 Editorial, Venice, Calif., and bicoastal HSI Productions number among Steeles regular clients. His credits include last Aprils Khakis Swing for GAP, directed by Matthew Rolston of bicoastal Venus Entertainment, an HSI satellite, for GAP direct; as well as dozens of music videos, including Madonnas The Power of Goodbye for Warner Bros. Records, which Rolston also directed.
Suess, by contrast, has a more traditional permalancer relationship with View Studios. The boutique finishing house routinely brings Suess in to handle the high-end commercial graphics work and gives him first refusal rights on any freelance work the shop has to offer. Suess is currently creating effects for a series of theme-park-ride spots for Knotts Berry Farm via DavisElen Advertising, Los Angeles.
I think they appreciate you a lot more than when youre working for them, Suess says. When youre full-time, they take it for granted that youre going to be there every day. When youre freelance, first of all, youre working for their client so they want you to do the best job you can and they try to encourage that environment. If they like you, they want you back again. Youve brought their client back, probably, and its a real positive relationship.
Most industry insiders see the freelance, permalance and other relationships that fall outside the traditional employer-employee model continuing to grow in the years ahead, because both sidesadigital artists and their employersaderive benefit from it.
Im totally paranoid about adding to staff because when you put people on staff, if you have to gear down for whatever reason, you have to fire someone and thats always a big negative, says Holden. Once people are on staff, their whole attitude changes to one of entitlement, as opposed to with freelance people. They are constantly selling themselves because they want you to hire them back. I find its a much more positive attitude. I love freelance.
A dissenting voice is Bob Coleman, who at press time was in the process of putting his repping firm, Digital Artists Agency, Santa Monica, on the back burner in order to assume an executive role in post production with a leading company. Coleman doesnt foresee the freelance/permalance market dominating postproduction in the years ahead the way it has on the production side.
I reserve the right to be wrong, Coleman says, but I just dont know if I totally see that. I would admit to the fact that the freelance industry is growing.
I buy that the workstations are getting less expensive. However, if youre talking about mainstream commercial houses sitting on Henrys or Infernos, those are not inexpensive pieces of equipment. Theyre very expensive pieces of equipment that require someone to be staffed on them to generate as much revenue as possible, Coleman points out.
Suess, who enjoys the permalance lifestyle, believes it isnt for everybody. I think probably most of them would want to do their own thing, but I think a lot may not know how, he says. For many, it might not be the best thing for them. They may not have the personality for it.
Steele, for one, enjoys the freedom his new boutique studio brings. I think its one of the best decisions Ive ever made, he enthuses. Essentially, I make the same amount as I did before. The only difference is I have a much higher comfort level. Im in control of my own destiny, and I have much more time to spend with my wife and children.u
