The #1 Network for Video Production Jobs – Staff Me Up
We talk about video production jobs and the process of hiring and getting hired in the video and film industry.
Video Production Job Panel
Discussion with Staff Me Up on How to Find Work in the Video Production Industry
Video Production Jobs – Video Production Careers
Hey everyone. Welcome to our webcast crew talk brought to you by shoots.Video and BLARE Media, a team of driven professionals that are passionate about visual storytelling I’m Nicole Matarese, your host and producer turn host here at Shoots.video. I’m speaking with you live from California’s beautiful central valley, and I’m joined today by amazing people from the entertainment industry where we’ll be telling you all about the company, Staff Me Up, what we all do and more. But before we go round Robin here, introducing our wonderful guests, I just wanted to invite those watching live here to please feel free to ask questions to us during the show via the Q and a portion of our chat. And we’re happy to answer any questions on our show. Feel free, feel free to last now. So now we’ll go ahead and introduce our guest here again. Our topic for today’s webcast crew talk from shoots video is about staff me up. And before we go ahead and do that, let’s introduce our wonderful supporting panelists that we’ll be learning about today. So learning about them, staff me up speaking about our video production experiences and, and all the, that fun stuff. So, Anne, let’s start with you. How are you today?
Anne Vinsel:
I am well today. It’s a little cold. I’m from just outside of Boston. I am a motion graphics artist as well as a video editor and sometimes producer. I’ve been freelancing since before the turn of the century, which makes me feel old. I do pretty much anything that a client asked me to do. That’s legal. No. no I, but I do. I’ve done anything from like broadcast interstitial, like animations to, I did a bunch of work on infomercials. I do a ton of corporate work which right now is right now, that’s like the bulk of my work. A lot of supporting stuff in this climate. I’ve done a lot of supporting graphics and visuals and video content for are a lot of virtual meetings. Now, a lot of that is you know, stuff. So it’s you know, and I work for various production companies typically and sometimes direct to clients.
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. It’s a lot of great stuff. Ooh. I love to hear it. Great. Well, thank you so much, Anne. Wonderful to meet you and to have you on this show. Next up here we have Eric Eric, how are you today?
Eric Farber:
I’m good. How are you?
Nicole Matarese:
I’m doing well. Thank you. Feeling good today. I would love to hear a little bit more about you Eric. What’s what what are you up to, what’s your background?
Eric Farber:
Well I’m the founder and CEO of Creators Legal, which is legal zoom essentially for the creator industry and one click contracts for filmmakers musicians, independent artists. And my background is, is in the I was a lawyer for 25 years in the entertainment business and represented all sorts of different from athletes and Olympians to musicians, production companies writers, painters any kind of visual artists. And my sort of claim to fame was I represent a Tupac Shakur estate for 18 years. And so cool. I, I like to say I’m the only lawyer who’s represented Tupac biggie, Snoop Dre, death row records, priority records, ruthless records and E wow. Yeah. Wow. I did a lot of a lot of intellectual property cases over the years and I really felt like a lot of the stuff that I do.
Eric Farber:
And a lot of the times we ended up in court were because clients really didn’t want to come to lawyers. And so I came up with the idea of creators legal a long time ago and only had the opportunity to start putting it together. And we launched about six months ago. And it really is that place where in Indy filmmakers, musicians, podcasters can come in and get their contracts done for, you know, very inexpensively without a lawyer. And we in a really short period of time, we have a few hundred users and who have built 600 contracts. So we like to say we’ve, we’ve taken $600,000 away from lawyers so far. And hopefully we’ll hit a few million quit pretty quickly. And and that’s it. That’s where, that’s what we do.
Nicole Matarese:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, congratulations on launching just about six months ago. That’s wonderful. Great to have you on. And, and Eric, you’re so interesting. I love, I love both your stories and what you do.
Video Production Community
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Nicole Matarese:
So now let’s transition here and talk to Nicole the director of business development at staff me up. Nicole, how are you today?
Nicole Go:
Yeah, I’m good. Thank you for asking and thank you for having me excited to be here.
Nicole Matarese:
Yeah, it’s great to have you on, so can you, let’s, let’s jump right in here. Can you tell us a little bit about about what staff me up is?
Nicole Go:
Yeah, absolutely. So staff me up was founded in 2003, and we’re essentially like the LinkedIn specifically though for television production. So from the ground up, our foundation has always been about television production. And we’re really the go-to site for those looking to get hired as well as to hire. So we service both the employer side and the job seeker side. We have thousands of jobs that are posted on our site on a weekly basis by hundreds of different employers that are, you know, different production companies that are contracted by net networks like Netflix, HBO, max E Bravo, like literally all the, all the TV shows and networks that you can think of.
Nicole Matarese:
So cool. Nicole, so can you tell, tell us a little bit more about how staff me up got, got its start.
Nicole Go:
Yeah. so Staff Me up, like I said, was founded in 2003 and we were founded by one of the first producers for the amazing grace. And so as you can imagine, they needed lots of crew wow. In lots of different places.
Nicole Matarese:
Yeah. Oh,
Nicole Go:
That’s really cool. Yeah. And that’s how it all started. We were originally called reality staff back in the day for anyone who was on a reality staff. And over time we’ve grown into who we are with over 370,000 users on our platform.
Nicole Matarese:
Wow. Congratulations. That’s wonderful. Oh,
Nicole Go:
Thank you.
Nicole Matarese:
So that transitions well into my next question. Yeah. Can you tell us more ways that your clients benefit from staffing up?
Nicole Go:
Yeah. I’ll, I’ll give you a little bit of a personal story, right. So staffing up really like, you know, especially if you’re just starting in the industry, staffing is gonna be like one of the first places you go. For me, I was a line producer in unscripted television for 10 years. And so I’ve used staff me up both to post jobs, to hire other crew members like camera operators, audio supervisors from all over the us. And actually when I started at working at staff me just over a year ago, I went back into my history and I was like, oh my gosh, staff me gave me one of my first jobs in the industry and I didn’t even realize it. So I really came full circle. And I just say that, you know, to really say that it really is helpful for both employers and job seekers.
Nicole Go:
So like on, I’ll start with, on the job seeker side, cuz that’s where a lot of people know of staff me up. You know, what I really like about staff me up is that we have a dedicated I have a dedicated coworker who literally just goes through every job that’s posted on staff me up to vet them. So we really vet it to make sure that they are verified employers. We verify, you know, is it a full rate job or is it a low budget jobs? Cause you know, especially as your, for entry level positions, right? You wanna be open to both full time or I’m sorry, full rate and low budget jobs. So we have like indie producers that are posting on here as well as like I said, like the, the Netflix shows the HBO shows. And then, and you can utilize, you know, that filter to be able to say like, I want to see all of those jobs or I only wanna see full rate jobs.
Nicole Go:
And that’s how it really is like on, on the job seeker side and what a lot of people don’t realize too, is it’s completely free to create a staff me up profile. So you can create the profile, you can put all your credits in. I always suggest that people keep their credits updated, right? Because as a part of the free you get five free job applications. And like, you know, let’s say you’re also, you’re working already. You don’t necessarily, you’re not on staffing up cause you don’t need a job right now. You have a gig. It’s just so important to keep you or credits updated because like I said, we have thousands of employers that are on our site that are not only posting jobs, but also looking at the site for, for more like looking at all 370,000 people for looking for crew to keep in mind for their next show that they’re producing.
Nicole Go:
And so just as much as like you might not be on staffing up all the time, you know, there are employers who will pull up your resume, pull up your online, resume on staff me up and, and be like, wow, you know, maybe I’ll reach out to them to see if they’re available in may. They may not be available now, but maybe in may. And so it really is important for the job seekers to keep their credits updated and it’s free to do so. Like you never have to pay more to put in more credits or anything like that you can put in your experience. And that’s just on the job seeker side. And then on the employer side I, I don’t even know where to start with the benefits because you know, one, it’s always free to post jobs also too.
Nicole Go:
And like for me I’m not just the director for business development, but I’m also the director for diversity and inclusion at staff me up. And so I’m really in charge of all our strategic initiatives that work with production companies to create access and awareness, diversity, equity and inclusion on all of our sets and psychological safety as well. And so we help also employers, not only just like post jobs and find people from all over, but also to be as inclusive as possible within these jobs. And we really create that diversity that helps their authentic storytelling within their content then. And so one of the things that, that I get to do at staff me up is we also work with over 50 plus different diversity advocacy organizations. So think like brown girls, doc mafia, ghetto films, school, like all the different pipelines here, you know, is one of our biggest partners at staff me up.
Nicole Go:
And for those who don’t know, Q you know, is a collection of over 18,000 professionals in the entertainment industry started in 2017 and, you know, they’ve grown so large since then. And to be able to help our employers and production companies connect with our diversity advocacy organiz, and then also search for candidates from historically excluded backgrounds is one of the biggest benefits that we can give to our job, give to our employers because then, you know, and when I say historically excluded, I mean, like, you know, black indigenous people of color LGBTQ plus people with disabilities women in those identify as non-binary military veterans. And so really working holistically to create access and awareness for these jobs to everyone, but also specifically those from historically excluded backgrounds is a service that we also provide on top of being able to provide diversity analytics and reporting to our employers. And again, you know, just access to 370,000 crew members from across the us. So, you know, especially right now, like there are so many shows and so much content being made. We have more jobs, you know, than I’ve seen in a long time being posted on staffing it, cuz everyone’s just looking for someone. And we’ve been, you know, we always get really great feedback from our employers and job seekers alike.
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful, Nicole. It’s, it’s great to hear a all of that. And what you said here transitions well into my next question. So you spoke a lot about creating an account for free and that’s wonderful that someone could sign up right now for staff me up for free. I’m curious of the benefits of staff me up with having a pre a premium account. Can you speak a little bit more to that?
Finding Production Jobs on Staff Me Up
Nicole Go:
Yeah. So with a premium account, you can apply to an unlimited number of jobs first and foremost. And, and all that to say to, like I said, like if say you have an, you have a premium account on your 20th application, right. Cuz you’re applying to all the ones that fit your criteria. So you get a gig for six months. What’s great is that you can also email us and be like, Hey, I’m on a gig for six months. Can I pause my subscription? And I’ll be like, absolutely, of course. Mm. So you can also do that. Yeah. and now a lot of people know that, so I, I did wanna put that out there and and then, so you can apply to an unlimited number of jobs. You can feature your, your application so that doesn’t necessarily put you higher or lower.
Nicole Go:
That’s still based on our algorithm and your experience. But what that does do is it literally highlights just like, you know, in zoom when you’re talking and you get a highlighted box around your, around your face you get a highlighted box of around your application. And then on top of that, you can also choose the credits that you want shown. So like the top three credits that you want shown to the employer. So when they’re going through your application, they’re gonna see your name, your title, and then the three credits that you choose to be highlighted. And then from there, the employer can click into your profile and see all the credits that you have added. But at least it gives you some more flexibility with that. And it could, you can also feature your resume on your profile as well.
Eric Farber:
That’s so I have a question about the credits Nicole, because does the IMDB profile, because somebody added a credit on my IMDB profile many years ago, which I never removed just cuz I thought it was so funny. We, because I appear as self on Playboy sex on the beach and it’s actually my IMDB listing. Do you guys use the, you use IMD B as part of that as well?
Nicole Go:
Only if you can input your IMDB link onto your staff unit profile. But that’s not something that we automatically do. We do use a system called baseline to pull in credits, but not necessarily IMDB only if you provide that on your staffing profile, that’s something that you have to voluntarily do.
Eric Farber:
Got it.
Nicole Matarese:
I do have a question for Anne. Anne, you are a freelancer. Yes. Do you have any experience with staff me up or, or similar websites?
Anne Vinsel:
No. I, I actually just sort of signed up for the free version. I’m gonna check it out. It’s always good to have definite leads here and there. I’m pretty busy right now, which is good, but it’s always good to just have a resource and it seems pretty good.
Nicole Matarese:
Awesome. Thank you. That’s great.
Eric Farber:
I got my first job in Hollywood through a, through a, a staffing agency. I, I still recall. And you know, it was recommended to me by a good friend of mine who went to, I went to high school with who ended up using the same service and got, you know, sort of got a job that day with the guy he he was sent to and has gone on to become a, you know, a Peabody award winner nice through from that same job that started out from that, you know, from the staffing agency.
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful. Yeah. Nicole do great work at staff me up. Thank you. Thank you. And, and on that note are there any upcoming or new features on staff me up that you would like to tell us about?
Nicole Go:
Yeah, I mean, I would say that most of the new features are for our employers. So like I said like the diversity analytics and reporting something that we provide per project for our employers who subscribe to that feature. And you know, especially right now we have, like, there are so many networks that are asking as part of your deliverables, like what’s the makeup of your team. And so that’s something that we’re able to provide them as a third party service that really keeps that data confidential as well as our concierge service. So like I said, there are so many people that are, that are that are hiring right now and they have money jobs. So what we do is on a high touch level, we provide them essentially their own dedicated staffing at production manager with experience and production management, just like myself where we can, you know, invite people to apply.
Nicole Go:
And on the job seeker side, when you’re invited to a job, don’t ignore those emails because what that also means is with a free profile, let’s say you’ve used up all five of your free applications. If you’re invited to apply to a job, you can apply to that job for free. So there’s no having to pay for an extra credit or anything like that. Like you are able to apply to that job for free when you’re invited. And there are a lot of people, including our concierge service who are going into jobs and inviting qualified applicants to apply. And so I would say that’s even an underutilizing that now a lot of people know about you know, even myself before coming to staff me up. So I did wanna highlight that. But a lot of our employer tools are really what’s, what’s new and you know, like I said, we’re built for production. So as an employer you know, when you post a job on staff me up a lot of times, it’s like, okay, now I need to share this, these applicants with my production coordinator. I need to share it with my showrun EP. And you’re able to collaborate on those jobs and everyone can see those applicants together as a team.
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful. Nicole, I do have a recommendation from an audience member, Charles, thank you here for writing this here. I highly recommend a book called the business of media distribution by Jeffrey Culin. I believe is how to pronounce that last name. So thank you very much. And that transitions into my next question for Nicole. What do you like most about what you do at staff me up?
Nicole Go:
Oh man. I would say it, it’s the impact that I get to make. Not just even in terms of like diversity equity and inclusion, which that is, I would say 90% of it cuz that’s really where my passion lies. Being able to make an impact on the industry at a higher level. I’m not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but you know, we also, as part of staff me up, we have launched a partnership called coded for inclusion. And so that is our partnership alongside color of change, change Hollywood, AMC networks, endeavor content and Michael B Jordan’s outlier fellowship. Awesome. So with that, it’s really creating access and awareness to all these opportunities that we have available. Specifically for people from historically excluded, excluded groups and elevating their voices and creating, you know, usually in Hollywood, right? Like it’s Al you always have to, it’s all about who, you know, but what we’re trying to do is break down that system because that in and of itself is exclusion, exclusion by familiar, right?
Nicole Go:
If you’re constantly hiring the same people or only hiring people within your network, the question is, are you truly being inclusive? So by just posting on staff me up, you’re opening up your network to hundreds of thousands of new people that you would’ve never otherwise met. And to be able to do that on such a strategic and on such a strategic level and create those sustain processes for production companies, to be able to continue that and break those old patterns and behaviors I is really impactful and meaningful for me and that’s, I would say that’s what I love most. But then also getting to, you know, talk to our job seekers speaking with speaking with you all speaking with other members from diversity, obviously organization, I also get to speak with college students and just, even on an individual level, being able to make that impact and being someone who can, you know, just help be as guiding light on how to navigate this weird industry that we’re in is, is really, it really gives me energy to do that. And that’s what motivates me to continue.
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. Well, thank you, Nicole, for what you, you do, and thank you, staff me up for what you all do in, in that regard, in every regard. So thank you very much. Eric, I have a, I have a question for you. So, so you’re a you know, creator, zoom I’m sorry, creators legal is the name of your company. Could you see yourself using a service, like staff me up or are you in a little bit of a, a different area now or like, could you have seen a past Eric being on staff meetup? Can you speak a little bit more to that?
Eric Farber:
Well, I don’t know that we would use it unless we’re actually doing some sort of production, but I mean, I think that, I think that these, that these types of sites, especially like staff me up are really integral to to the industry and bringing so many more people, you know, so many more people in and expanding it outside of Hollywood as well. Right. Because again was saying she’s located in Boston, you know, I’ve represented production companies that are sort of all all over and people always think about it just in LA, but there’s so many productions that are going on in so many other places, right. All over the world really. And I was in a previous life. I certainly would’ve been because I worked at a production company in LA for a long time that, and most of ours, you know, we were most of our product were done elsewhere. They were either done in Europe or in Asia. We almost never filmed in the US. But you know, with Creators Legal, it’s really, it’s so much about the Indy creator and the small production companies and things like that. I mean, for us, we wouldn’t actually do it be using it, but it it’s a, it it’s a great resource, especially with all the people that are coming in and out of our site as well. I’d love to be able to, you know, send them over and vice versa. Ryan
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful. Eric. what kind of artists do you mostly work with at at, at Creator’s Legal?
Film Company and Camera Creatives
Eric Farber:
Well, we, like I said, it’s just a website and it’s really do it yourself, you know, that are people coming in, but we we have a lot of filmmakers. We’re actually, we started a pilot program with the, with Cal state Northridge there’s center arts program. So we are a mandatory tool, so to speak for their film students, their upper level film students. So we have actually, it’s, it’s fun cuz I actually get to see what they purchase along the way, cause it sends in the orders and so they they’re really active. And so we’ve got a lot of filmmakers podcast has actually been a really big thing for us. We have a full suite of podcast and we also, we have everything from, you know, NFT contracts for artists live theater. Self-Publishing was so we actually see a lot of the stuff go through musicians and indie musicians, but the most that we actually see is pro is film, production and podcast. Yeah. So
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. Eric, thank you for speaking about that. I wanted to mentioned we had, we got a comment from an audience member here. Thank you, Leslie. I’ll read it. I’m glad this oh, lemme start from thinking, I don’t know how I got on this email list, but I’m glad it made it to my inbox. Us too. I am looking for crew for a short, I am producing first time. Congratulations, Leslie. That’s great. So I will check out. So ask me up. So that’s awesome. Thank you so much, Leslie, for saying that and a reminder to everyone in the audience. If you have any questions for myself or for any of our wonderful guests here, please feel free to ask. So yeah, we’ll jump back into the questions here. So Nicole, I have a hypothetical situation for you that I wanna pitch. And I’m curious about, you know, for freelancers signing up for staff me up, you know, I’ve so I’ve just signed up for staff me up. I’ve added my resume and I know you spoke a little bit to this, but what’s what’s what could I expect next? After just signing up, getting my resume on there. What’s next?
Film Employment: After signing up as a video producer or video editor on Staff Me Up what do I do next?
Nicole Go:
Yeah. First step set up your work alerts. And so what that is is for whatever job it is that you’re looking for set up your work alerts so that whenever a job of that title or similar title is posted on staff me up, you get emailed and then you can immediately apply. So for, for jobs like PAs, right? We have hundreds of applicants that apply for every PA job. So you wanna be one of the first to apply. So as soon as you get that work alert, you already know, like you said, your credits already updated, your profile is fully filled out. You’re good to go. I would also like to recommend too, if you know, for people, we also have a self ID portion of the, of your profile. So that’s where you can self-identify your race, ethnicity, gender background if you have a disability and you can choose to have that hidden or displayed on your profile, but either way, if you fill that out, then that still allows it allows employers to be able to search you know, by, by your different identities and then you know, but it also is like open to everyone, right?
Nicole Go:
Like, so they’re not, it’s not you know, it’s just really being as inclusive as possible, but then when you are getting those work alerts, right, cuz everything’s already filled out, you’re a hundred percent completed on your profile. You can immediately put yourself forth for that. So work alerts, work alerts, work alerts. They’re amazing. And then also just checking out the job board so you can literally go in and search for if you wanted, right? You can search all the 10 thousands of jobs that are on staff me up and just go through everyone or you can filter it by whatever position is that you’re looking for. So whether that’s a PA position, a field producer and a, I will say majority of our jobs are below the line. But we do have a few above the line. So like show runner, producers casting, producers, things like that. We do have those on our site, but majority will be four year below the line positions.
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. Thank you, Nicole. So I have a question here that, to be honest, I don’t completely understand myself, but I’m curious about, cause I think it really to what you were just saying. So I’ll go ahead and read the question here. What are the benefits of listing as a recommended vendor? Is that a portion of staff me up is, yeah. Can you speak to that a little bit?
Nicole Go:
Yeah. I’m not also sure what they mean by recommended vendor. We do have a a portion of staff me up that we’re looking to build out, which is a vendor database. Okay. But that hasn’t been built yet, but you know, if you are a vendor definitely check out that part. So it’s in the what’s new tab when you sign into staff me up and then you can add yourself onto our vendor database once we are ready to launch that.
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. Thank you so much. Yeah. If if anyone who asked me that question wants to jump in here and kind of elaborate, I’d love to keep talking about that as well. Figuring out as I go and learning much more about staff me up today, which I’m happy to be learning about. Now I wanna rewind a little bit to Anne here. And you seem like someone who could benefit from, from a site like staff me up and I would love to hear a little bit about your start in, in freelance and motion graphics and all that you do. So can you speak a little bit to that please?
Anne Vinsel:
Sure. so I started I, I majored in art in college and had no idea what I was gonna do. And I got a job doing audio visual stuff, which led to photography, which led to, you know, this was like before computers were used for a lot of stuff. Like it was real photography with like film and well, you know, like now nobody uses actual felt, very few people use actual film, but anyway, like long story short, I ended up I was working for a production company on staff and I just was working to death, you know, and, and I was young and it was like, oh, I’m doing the coolest stuff and you know, whatever. But I finally burned out and I, I, I actually like decided to quit and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. And the actual owner of the company was like, oh, you totally should freelance and call anybody you want in my role.
Anne Vinsel:
You know, she was really nice. I, I guess I quit at a opportune time that didn’t really leave them out. And she actually hired me as a freelancer back to the same company, which ended up meaning, like I basically doubled what I was making. Even though I had to, you know, I mean, like as a freelancer, I have to pay my own benefits and all that stuff. But you know, I could also, like when I got burned out, I could just stop, you know, and, and stuff like that. And yeah. So back then staff me up. Would’ve been a really good thing to have. And, and even now, I mean, I, I do have steady work, but you know, you just never know. I mean, like COVID like knocked it out for a bit and, and it was pretty scary, you know? I mean, I think it was scary for every in the industry. I also do a lot of different things. I do motion graphics. I do some 3d, I do some compositing, you know, I do a lot of editing. I mean, I’ve, I’ve actually jumped behind a camera before, you know, like, I mean, I have a background in a lot of things which helps, but predominantly I do post things now and I like that.
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful, Anne. It’s, it’s, I’m, I’m the same way where I always feel like I’m wearing many hats, but it’s a good thing. Yeah. Right. and, and this transitions, well, to my next question for you which you spoke to a little bit can you tell us a little bit more about how the industry has changed since you began working freelance?
Anne Vinsel:
Yeah. There’s like, I mean, I, I started freelancing pre nine 11 pre like, you know, like Ava, it was relatively new. There was a, you know, like the, just the software is so different and, and just different things. You know, like the software makes things so much easier now. I mean, geez, we can, you know, you can search for a, like a, a word and a script and find it like I, which is just makes it so much faster and easier. And I think the industry it’s it’s I’m trying to think of what, I mean, what I’m trying to say. In some ways it’s easier and in some ways it’s harder. Like as a female in the industry, I’ve been very lucky that I haven’t really had too many pro problems with that, but I do kind of feel like I’ve been up against male counterparts who say they’re experts in the thing and I’ll say like, mm, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m okay in this, but I, I don’t know that I would call myself like an expert. And then all of a sudden I realize the guy who was hired at the ex as the expert, I’m like, oh, wow. I know more than he does, you know, whatever,
Anne Vinsel:
But you just, you just roll with it. I’m, I’m pretty good at standing up for myself.
Nicole Matarese:
Excellent.
Anne Vinsel:
Yeah.
Nicole Matarese:
Yeah. It’s I could relate, you know, so I don’t understand where you’re coming from. I do have a two questions here from Joel. Thank you, Joel, our audience member, I’ll go ahead and read them. Nicole. The they’re directed at you. I’m an old producer who’s been around for a while. Some credits in the early days of reality, like field producer for first season of real Housewives and shooter producer for MTV made. I love both shows. That was me saying that not so two questions I have BTS I and network promo work around reality shows and have had a hard time fitting them into your format. Are you considering options for credits that don’t fit in as neatly as role on this show? So yeah, let’s start with answering that question and then I’ll get next question after that. So yeah. Nicole, can you speak to a little bit? Yeah,
Nicole Go:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, I also love those shows. So K congrats, a great career. And yeah, so I will say staffing up is actually, we are a very small team of about 12 people. Not a lot of people know that they, they think we’re the, this huge conglomerate, but with that comes a lot of great things, like one taking into feedback, taking into consideration feedback that we get from our users. Our users are, are always number one for us. And currently I would recommend for any network Chromer or BTS. What we do have is, you know, you know, we usually say like show season production company that you worked for, things like that. You can always put non-applicable or for, you know, the network or the production company. I would just put whatever the in-house company was that, that hired you.
Nicole Go:
But you can also put full-time. And so when you put full-time or like no end date kind of thing, to, to the, to your credit or staff position, I don’t remember exactly what it’s called. I think it might be a staff position that puts you around the whole having to put in the show name, the season, things like that. And so that’s first, what I would recommend using is when you’re typing in your credits, use the staff position. So then you can, it’s more relevant to what actual information you’d be putting for your job. And then, like I said, as we continue to grow into different parts of the industry, that’s something that we, that we continue to build out. And that’s something that we’ve heard before as well.
Nicole Matarese:
Cool. Thank you, Nicole. And I’ll read Joel has two more questions here. I’ll go ahead and ask them where’s all the hiring happening these days. Can you speak to something like that, where have you noticed a trend of who’s hiring or anything like that?
Nicole Go:
I mean, from what I could see, there’s a lot, so majority of the jobs that are posted, I would say 80% to 90% are in unscripted television. So I can only speak to unscripted television. But a lot of it is it within production management jobs. There are a lot of production management jobs that people are looking for. Production accountants are, are very much in demand right now. And that’s across the board for all the different production companies, all the different types of shows, but, you know, there’s, there’s all new content, continuing content, like renewed seasons that are being, that are hiring right now. And so definitely now is the time, you know, if you are in one of those positions to update your staff mail profile,
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. And last question here from Joel. What are your favorite companies shows networks any to avoid Nicole, maybe, maybe we won’t address the last portion, but, but and and, and, and Eric, if you have any, anything to tune in here of your favorite company’s shows or networks, feel free to to jump into Nicole will start with you.
Eric Farber:
Well, Nicole, I’m just gonna tell you as a lawyer avoid that last part of the question.
Nicole Matarese:
That’s
Nicole Go:
I appreciate the consultancy. I don’t have to pay for that. Do I,
Nicole Matarese:
So let’s talk about, I appreciate
Eric Farber:
It free, free.
Nicole Go:
Yeah. Oh, thank you. I mean, there, there are, I don’t even know where to start, even in terms of favorites. I mean, like there are, there’s just such good content and really, for me, at least, you know, if I were in a job seeker position, right. Like I would always just take a look at the company and the content, and even go as deep as like, if it’s for, if I know what show is hiring, like I would go as deep as, you know, looking into IMDB and seeing like who the executive producers are, who are the show runners and like, what other content have they produced? Like, does that seem like where I wanna take, take the trajectory to trajectory of my own career? Like, is that where even I want to be. But I, I don’t, I don’t necessarily have a favorite.
Nicole Go:
I’m also someone just, so I’m not like, just to say too, like, I don’t even have like a favorite color. So I just, like, it’s more about for me you know, the team and who I’m working with. And so beyond just show or company or network I can talk to you in terms of like, the shows that I like to watch right now are on like prime video and HBO max, but in terms of staffing and working it really is all about the people and they’re such a good people to work with in this industry.
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful. And, and Eric, can you speak to, to that a little bit? Do you have any favorites? Is it kind of all over the map?
Eric Farber:
Well, I can just tell you, I mean, I, I cut my teeth in the industry at, at, at an agency in the days where they still threw stuff. Right. So my you know, if, if if I’m, I’m dating myself, but, you know, swimming with sharks, the movie with Kevin, with Kevin Spacey was, was really was really sort of, it still causes PTSD for me, right? Like that those were the day. So, you know, I am, I was used to that product, those production companies and those execs and everybody else that it was really, it was really very, very harsh environment for everybody. It didn’t matter who you were, right. Because they wanted that. They wanted to weed people out and make sure that they could sort of be tough through that, through that stuff. I couldn’t tell you how how the place are these days.
Eric Farber:
We, but it’s the same thing as Nicole said, right? I have to worry, like, where’s the content getting out there? Are you working for a production company that the content is getting out because somebody who works on a project that, that project becomes huge, really benefits everybody worked on that project. Right. And always say, it’s just as easy to make a bad movie. Is it as to make a good one, right. It is just as difficult to make a bad movies. It is to make a good one. But those, you know, working on any of those HBO productions, you know, you mentioned HBO max, but you know, Amazon’s doing so amazing stuff these days, and they’ve taken over MGM and like, there’s, there’s so much out there and there’s so much content and everything, and it’s, it’s important leapfrog from one, you know, from kind of one thing to the other, if you haven’t do, if you’re just starting out, you know, get that job through the temp agency or get that first production so you can get, so you can start building those credits, just work really hard, bringing that person.
Eric Farber:
That’s like gonna be around doing that extra mile, because is that’s what gets you known? Right. And I’ve watched the people I kind of grew up with at the, at the agency and the production companies, you know, some of them went on to amazing careers. You know, one of my friend became the president production of Warners and another one became, you know, the showrun Buffy and then went on to, you know, her, her own stuff. So it really just depends. Right. It really just depends. And try to look, who are the, who are the people producing this? What are their other credits? Are they, are they from real right. Cause there’s a lot of that stuff out there. That’s not really for real. So is the paycheck gonna come? Can they, is it actually funded? Right. Things like that. And I can’t speak to staff me up and how they vet that stuff, but I’m sure it’s pretty tough. Right. Cause there’s a lot of there’s a lot of not so are great people in the industry as well,
Nicole Go:
But yeah, I, 100%, Eric you really have to be careful with, with where you’re applying and who you’re applying to. Like you said, like, you know, really look into who, who these people are. And I can just say for staffing up, we, we do have a pretty tough vetting process. You know, we kind of go through your LinkedIn and thing to make sure you’re legit and have like production insurance, for instance, that’s something that require as well.
Eric Farber:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That’s, that’s good to know. I mean, just that, just that alone. Right. if there’s a vetting process, because there really are, there’s so many productions that shut down and they can’t finish and you don’t, you know, find out more about it, you know, dig in a little bit, who are the people, right. What kind of credits do they have? So yeah. I’m sure Ann can attest to all of that. I’m sure doing this stuff as long as she has, she’s like, Hey, when’s the check coming. Right. There’s I’m sure there’s probably a lot of that, right?
Anne Vinsel:
Yep. Yeah. yeah, I mean, I’ve, I I’ve had all sorts of experiences. Good and bad. I had one where I was actually working as a director on a, like a three camera infomercial shoot with like, you know, a 15 person crew. And, and I was one of the only women in the owner of the company who was also the host of the show. It was just this whole thing where we, we did two shoots of the commercial and the morning one, he ended up stopping and storming off after I had to stop because he was sweating so profusely, I needed him to be powdered down and, and he just got really mad and, and like basically, you know, ripped me a new one in front of the entire crew, which was mostly male. And they felt awful seeing that. And you know, I had worked with this guy a lot and he came back that afternoon and you know, we, we nailed it.
Anne Vinsel:
And so in the morning he was telling me I was incompetent in front of the crew. And then in the afternoon he’s like, oh my God, this is the best you are the best director. Like, and the crew’s like, how do you deal with that? And I’m like, well, they both cancel each other out. And you just really, really have to have a thick skin. I mean, that’s probably one of the worst case scenarios. I also had a executive producer who was south African and had a very heavy accent. And she told me once you’re tic and, and you kinda have to just look at it and go, wow, are you really saying that to me in front? Like where if I walked right now, it would be really hard on you. And you know, like I ended up staying and finishing the job because that’s what I do, which ultimately that person actually gave me a lot of opportunities later. So you just, you just never know, and it’s never black and white, awful or good. It’s always somewhere on a continuum. And, you know,
Eric Farber:
I had a boss that used to fire me in the morning. I knew that I just sort of stick around because he would hire me back after he came into my office
Anne Vinsel:
And I’ve had like,
Eric Farber:
It would literally happen like four days a week.
Anne Vinsel:
Yeah. I’ve had, and I’ve also had like, you know, checks for thousands of dollars bounce and then you have to go chasing it. And I’ve learned to just go like the opposite way from like calling payroll directly and, and tracing it back to where the problem is with the, you know, okay, who, who miscalculated, who did this? And, you know, you just, you just get savvy about it. I’m, I’m pretty good though at standing up for myself at the beginning of a job. I mean, I’ve had people ask me like, you know, what can you do about your rate? You know? And I’m like my rate’s pretty much not negotiable. And I said that won’t work well for either of us. And, and like I had a producer ask me that and you know, like why would it not be good for us, for you to reduce your rate?
Anne Vinsel:
And I said, because I’m gonna be walking in on the job at 75%. And I said, if you pay me a hundred percent of what I’m asking, I’m gonna give you more than that. But, but if you give me less, you’re not gonna get anymore. You know, and it’s just attitude wise. And, and, and, you know, it was one of those that was a job I really wanted. It was a fun animation job that ultimately played on Oprah Winfrey’s network. And you know, I, we ended the call and I’m like, oh man, that I wish I, you know, like, should I just ate it or whatever. And then I called them back like a week later saying, Hey, I’ve got another gig. And I had you penciled in, I don’t know if you need me or not. I just wanted to check. And, and they were like, okay, hold on. And they’re like, oh yeah, yeah, we want you for the whole time at your rate. And I was like, oh, okay. And then they were like the producer, it took me aside. Don’t tell the other people what you’re making. And I’m like, I typically don’t. But
Eric Farber:
So, I mean, there are occasions, I mean, doing enough productions, there are occasions where they’re not sort of trying to Nick and dime, there is budget issues. Right. And they, you know, and, and you can either stick with it, like you’re like you did. Or they can prove to you that there’s a budget issue. Right. That, that, that, that, that it is slated. And that would be because a lot of times when they do that, you’re just thinking, oh, they’re just trying to cut, you know, cut and save. But very often, it’s like, sorry, we can’t hire you because we don’t have the budget for that. And that’s when you get to make that decision, right. You get to make that decision to say, and, and then you don’t feel so bad. Like, oh, they’re just trying to cut my rate. That there’s an actual reason for it. Right.
Anne Vinsel:
Yeah. And if we have that, like I said, I’ve done stuff for nonprofit outfits and I’ve done stuff for like people who are really starting out. And it’s like, oh, if I like the project and it’s something like, oh man, I’ll, I’ll learn something from this. Or I’ll, you know, whatever. Then, you know, then it’s worth it to me. And in which case, that’s a, that’s a decision I’ve made on my own. And I’m, I’m all in for that. You know, like I did a thing for a nonprofit last January it was a, a com like a, a nonprofit out San Francisco for kids education. And it was just like a video that played on their site, a little promo piece, and they needed some animation and it was super fun. It was all these drawings I did. And, and you know, they’re like, look, we we’ve got a tiny budget and I’m like, you know what, I’m, I’m cool. And I, I love the people I worked with. I love the producer, the guy who was, you know, doing, you know, and I think it was sort of a labor of love and I’m, and then I did another job with them and they were like, oh yeah, no, we’ll, we’ll pay you more money. And I’m like, fair enough. You know, like, so yeah, it does go both ways. So Anne,
Anne Vinsel:
And
Nicole Go:
When it,
Nicole Matarese:
Oh, go ahead. I’ll go ahead. Ask the
Nicole Go:
Question. Oh, no worries. I I’ll just say when it comes to pay, you know, it, it very much is dependent. I think it’s important too, to keep in mind like who your employer is, right. Like a, just that speaking from like a, a production management perspective, right? Like a Disney plus show, right. Is gonna have a completely different budget than your smaller network that only has like a few smaller shows, like reality shows here and there. And you know, with staff up to, we are very much champions for pay transparency, especially when it comes to equity. Right. And so another tool I’ll just mention for staff me up is that we also have our negotiator tool. It’s like a fun, little name that we call it, but you can actually see how much you know, an editor position for a reality TV show is making weekly. So then if you are in the process of negotiation, you can kind of balance and see, you know, is that within the standard range? Am I getting undercut overcut? And like, we have it, you broken out into the different industries. And they’re, and they are, self-reported self-reported data from our users so that we are all helping each other as a community, as an industry to, to be as transparent and, you know, just look out for each other.
Eric Farber:
That’s really, that’s really, really good. Cause that is one of the hardest things there is for years and years. And the industry is trying to figure that stuff out, but there’s just so many different kinds of productions and there’s so many different levels, right? Yeah. So you’re talking about a Disney plus, but it might be, it might be an independent production company who’s actually done pretty well. That’s just, that’s trying to do something on spec or is gonna get the thing sold after it happens more in movies than it does in TV, but there’s, you know it, it does happen in TV. In fact, I, I mean, I don’t think about it quite as much, but we have a full suite of independent television contracts. Yep. And web series contracts on on our site because those are, those are the pro that happen on an absolute regular basis. Right. Yeah. So, but it is, it is so much about the production company and who’s involved is gonna set, you know, whether they’re gonna run outta money or not. Right.
Nicole Matarese:
So I do wanna go back to the questions from the audience. We got one question from Leslie, thank you, Leslie. That I think ties back really well into staff me up and and, and Anne so let me go ahead and open up the question here. Of course I just minimized my screen, so never mind. The question was something to the extent of and what, what should one look for when apply for applying for editing jobs? What makes a good editor?
Anne Vinsel:
What
Nicole Matarese:
Makes you stand out?
Anne Vinsel:
So what makes me stand out? I know a bunch of platforms of, you know, I, I know avid quite well. I know premier I know a little bit about DaVinci resolve. I mean, you basically wanna know the tool that your client needs cuz it’s very different. A really good editor needs to be organized. You know, and it depends on, on, you know, how big the production is. Some of them have PAs that do all that for you and you just sit down and do your thing, which is lovely. But if you don’t, if you’re working for like an independent thing, you wanna make sure that, you know, if somebody else has to come in, they can sit down and understand like where your media is. I mean, you know, media management and all that stuff. And very often I’ve worked with other freelancers who have done a lot of stuff like out of their house and they haven’t worked on like an enterprise level.
Anne Vinsel:
And so that’s where it gets you know, like if you have like enterprise experience, like for example, with like shared storage and, and like avid has their, it used to be called interplay. Now I think it’s media central you know, those types of things where you, you know, can, can tag your footage so that, you know, if you need to find it quickly, you can just type in a word. All those things are helpful. You know, and like, I know people are like, well, I only work in premier and I’m like, well, I, I work in what my clients want me to work in if they’re fine, you know? And I guess that’s it, you know, you, an editor needs to these days, know a lot of, lot of everything, you know, it used to be much more specialized now.
Anne Vinsel:
Like I do a lot of color grading and, you know, and then you know graphic knowledge for an editor is incredibly helpful. Like I, you know, I know all of like, you know, I do a lot of motion. Like that’s like my favorite thing to do. But it’s, you know, good to know like a little bit of everything and, and just you, you watch stuff and learn and the ability, you know, sorry, and open open-mindedness of, you know, if you do something you think is good and the producer doesn’t like, it, it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong or right. It’s just, you know, so you have to figure out like, okay, how do we make it work?
Nicole Matarese:
That’s wonderful. Yeah. That’s great advice for editors out there who are looking to build a profile and get their resume, everything up on staff me up. So I think that’s a good place to kind of start to wrap up here. Thank you all so much. For coming on the show and thank you to the audience for their questions. I think we, at least indirectly it got to all of them. So thank you so much, everyone. So why don’t we go round Robin, again, starting with Nicole where do you have anything you wanna promote? If you wanna promote your social media, feel free to, to let us know work we find you.
Nicole Go:
Yeah, absolutely. So in addition to working at staff me up, I’m also a certified life coach that helps people with like transitions and, you know, really finding their authentic self and also just like navigating our own mental health. Like I know we talked about before just these, you know, pandemic times. And I see there was a few questions about, you know, toxic employers and mental health and stuff. So if anyone wants to reach out, my Instagram is at we grow dot end go. And then if anyone wants to connect on LinkedIn, I, I’m more than happy to connect on LinkedIn. That’s just linkedin.com/nicole KGO. And if anyone has any questions about staff me up, even beyond this, I’m more than happy you know, to give out my email. It’s [email protected] more than happy to connect about anything. And any questions that you have.
Nicole Matarese:
Wonderful. Thank you, Nicole. It great to learn about staff me up. So thank you. Eric, of course. Why don’t we go over to you? Can you tell us do you have any social media to promote do you wanna tell us a little bit more about creator creators legal that we haven’t gotten to?
Eric Farber:
No, not really, but I did set up a staff me up 50 promote code for anybody who’s watching or any of the staffing up peeps that would like to get 50% off an annual, I think it’s for an annual subscription over there. And and I, I am actually on Twitter, although we don’t use it all that much at real Eric Farber. And we’re pretty easy to find, you know, creator legal.com. And then we do have plenty of social media stuff and we do post quite a bit of stuff actually on our social media and really, really thankful for being part of this. And that’s it, the discount code is staffmeup50, so, and I can put in, again, it’s creatorslegal.com. We’re pretty easy to find.
Nicole Matarese:
Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much, Eric.
Eric Farber:
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Nicole Matarese:
Thank you for being on. And so have about you work. We find you, do you have anything to promote here?
Anne Vinsel:
No, nothing really to promote in general. At this point I do have a, like a website ATV production, studio.com. I’m on LinkedIn. I think it’s at V I N S E L. Same thing on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Instagram and Facebook. You’ll find a lot of horse pictures cause I just do it for fun.
Nicole Matarese:
Nice. Oh, that’s wonderful.
Anne Vinsel:
Yeah. So that’s it.
Nicole Matarese:
Great. Thank you. So I wanted to thank all of our wonderful guests for coming on today and speaking with me I wanted to remind our audience to please follow shoots video on social media and to check out shoots videos for more webcasts more info on our work and, and even more than that. So tune in next time for our webcast crew talk. I’m Nicole mad Reese, thank you again to our guests and the audience. And I hope everyone has a great night. Thank you very much. Bye guys. Thanks everyone.
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