Freelance/Student £140
Members £115
*Tickets include lunch
Freelance journalism can be incredibly rewarding – but you need versatility and tenacity to make a living out of it. In this one day workshop, journalist and reporter Jenny Kleeman will share her experience of how to make full time freelance journalism work for you.
Covering print journalism, television current affairs journalism and documentary making, and online video journalism, the course will look at both domestic and international reporting, print features and opinion pieces, and how to become a pundit on radio and television.
In a day packed full of illuminating examples and case studies, you will learn:
– how much you should charge and how to maximize your earnings
– how to generate ideas that engage commissioners and how to pitch them successfully
– how to create a personal brand and market yourself to editors, contributors and audiences
– how to keep yourself safe – from both dangers that could compromise your personal security and from legal issues – and what to do when it all goes wrong.
You’ll also have a chance to talk through any ideas you are working on, and the best way to find a home for them.
The course is for people of all levels of experience: those starting out in freelance journalism, journalists with staff jobs considering going freelance, and experienced freelancers who’d like to hear some fresh perspectives on how to maximize their career potential.
About the trainer
Jenny Kleeman has been a full time freelance journalist for 15 years. On television, she has reported for BBC One’s Panorama, HBO’s VICE News Tonight and Channel 4’s Dispatches, as well as presenting 13 films from across the globe for Unreported World, Channel 4’s critically acclaimed foreign affairs documentary strand. In print, her features appear regularly in the Guardian’s Saturday Weekend magazine and Long Read section, and also the Sunday Times, The Times, The New Statesman and VICE. She has had her own series of online films for theguardian.com, and her most recent film for VICE/HBO has been viewed 20 million times on Facebook alone. As a commentator, she’s a regular on the Sky News Press Preview, as well as LBC, the BBC World Service, 5 Live and Woman’s Hour.
]]>Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist, according to international press freedom groups. An increasing number of journalists in Mexico are freelance and working without the backing of a media outlet. This can further increase the risks that they face, especially when working in conflict areas and contribute to an already precarious labor situation.
FFR is an international organisation founded by freelance journalists that works to improve the safety and labor conditions of freelancers, especially those who work in conflict zones without the backing of a media outlet. Due to the situation freelance journalists find themselves in, the Frontline Club will be starting a chapter of FFR in Mexico to create a support network and provide solidarity.
The event will feature two documentaries about journalism in Mexico and will be followed by a discussion with local and international journalists about the situation for freelance journalists in Mexico and the work of Frontline Freelance Register. El Paso, is a documentary that tells the story of Mexican journalists who fled in exile to Texas after receiving threats in Mexico, related to their work. Death in Veracruz is a mini documentary produced by AJ+ that shows the daily life of Mexican Photo journalist Félix Márquez and Jorge Sánchez, the son of assassinated journalist Moisés Sánchez in Medellín, Veracruz.
More information here: http://www.centroculturadigital.mx/actividad/Frontline-y-Freelance-Periodistas-en-Riesgo-H1qFaSARW
Run Time: 18:00 – 21:00 hours
Sarah Giaziri – Frontline Freelance Register
Andalusia Knoll– Frontline Freelance Register
Mónica González – Periodistas de a Pie
Rodrigo Cruz – Documentary Photographer
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The Frontline Club will be screening the BBC Arabic documentary ‘Goodbye Aleppo’ followed by a Q&A with the makers of the film.
‘Goodbye Aleppo’ is a documentary about a team of four young citizen journalists who film themselves and each other as the battle for Aleppo rages around them in December 2016. They show us what daily life is like in the last days in the east of the city, as the Syrian Army, the Russian and Iran armies, and Iran-backed militias gradually take the city from opposition fighters. The team film in extremely dangerous and life-threatening situations, trapped, bombarded, and encircled with the civilians under siege in East Aleppo. ‘Goodbye Aleppo‘ is a dramatic, emotional, gripping, thoughtful, and unique film that tells the story of the fall of East Aleppo as it has never been seen before, through the personal stories and insights of these four young men.
This film is not just a dramatic, gripping story of one of the most important battles in Syria’s civil war, it is also an important historical document.
Speakers
Christine Garabedian is a freelance Producer-Director of documentaries and current affairs programmes. She was born in Beirut and is of mixed Dutch and Armenian-Lebanese heritage. In the last six years she has worked mainly at BBC Arabic, on the Broadcast Award-nominated documentary series ‘Close-up’, which includes observational films and investigations.
Kai Lawrence (Editor) is a freelance director and editor with more than 30 years experience in broadcast documentary and current affairs, working on projects that have either won or been nominated for: Academy Award, Foreign Press Association, BAFTA, AIB, Canadian Screen and Royal Television Society awards. Kai is also an electronic musician and a guest lecturer on the Goldsmith’s University BA Film course.
Mahmoud Ali Hamad (Associate Producer) was born and raised in Der’aa, Syria. He has worked at the BBC since 2009. He now works as a Field Producer at BBC Arabic. He has worked on Syria’s conflict and uprising since 2011 and often appears as a commentator on Syrian affairs.
Talks on both evenings beginning at 7:00 PM – booking is required.
Evening events
Thursday 28 January 2016, 7:00 PM – BOOK HERE
Presentation of the War Zone Freelance Exhibition 2016 by the WZF team:
Osie Greenway – American photojournalist
Anne Alling – Danish writer and reporter
Benjamin Hiller – German photojournalist and writer
Jeffry Ruigendijk – Dutch photojournalist and videographer
Following a short presentation about themselves and their experiences working as freelance journalist the four will give an in-depth look into the making of the War Zone Freelance Exhibition, the ambitions behind the project and the debates they wish to contribute to through the exhibition.
After the presentation the floor will be opened for a Q&A with the audience.
Friday 29 January 2016, 7:00 PM – BOOK HERE
Panel discussion on today’s freelancers and the future of the profession.
In addition to the WZF team the panel will include speakers from:
Osie Greenway – American photojournalist
Benjamin Hiller – German photojournalist and writer
Jean-Paul Marthoz – Committee to Protect Journalists
Vaughan Smith – Frontline Club founder and freelance cameraman
The £5 ticket fee is a direct donation to the War Zone Freelance Exhibition.
About the War Zone Freelance Exhibition
The War Zone Freelance Exhibition gives an exclusive look into the work and world of freelance journalists covering wars and conflicts in the Middle East. The project is motivated by the desire to pay tribute and provoke debate on the important and consequential role freelance journalists play in bringing news out of conflict areas to the international public, often with little support, on their own expense and at extremely high risk.
After spending years working alongside other freelance colleagues, American photojournalist Osie Greenway, Danish writer and reporter Anne Alling, Dutch videographer and photojournalist Jeffry Ruigendijk, and German writer and photojournalist Benjamin Hiller, propose an exhibition that pulls people deep into the reporting process; educates on the people who have been affected by war in the Middle East region; and highlights both the struggles and triumphs of working independently in a high-stakes vocation.
]]>Freelance/Student £125.00
Members £100
This intensive one-day workshop will cover all aspects of marketing for photographers. The workshop will give photographers the skills to tailor their marketing efforts to the real needs of their clients, giving them practical tools to enhance their self-promotion and raise their conversion rate.
From self-promoting tips and tricks, to the most recent self-marketing free tools, this workshop follows a “checklist” approach which photographers can easily integrate into their daily or weekly schedule and will help them to find a natural balance between self-marketing, networking and being creative.
This course is intended for professional photographers, or aspiring photographers who wish to move into freelance photography.
What we will cover:
Setting up
- Visual identity and visual brand
- Playing the game
- A new marketing era
- Social networks for photographers
- Build and manage a successful mailing list
Presentation
- Email marketing
- First contact, introductory and cold call emails
- How to create a killer promo
- Develop a professional newsletter campaign, for free
- Cheer ups for photographers!
Follow up
- Maintaining contact and follow ups
- In-person networking
- Direct marketing
- Building relationships and a network of real customers
About the trainer
With more than 14 years’ experience in photojournalism, Raffaela Lepanto has worked for both magazines and photo agencies as a visual editor, producer, and freelance photographer and writer. After her long collaboration with Grazia Neri Photo Agency, Milan, she has been working for Emblema, an independent Italian photo agency, as photo editor, production manager and web creative director. She currently works as a photography consultant between Milan and London, where she provides bespoke consultancy for agencies, organisations and photographers.
Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith chats with Ben De Pear of Channel, 4, Marcus Mabry of The New York Times, freelancer Emma Beals, and AFP’s David Williams.
As many major news organisations close foreign bureaus, freelancers are called on more and more to cover global conflicts. They face risks often without the structure, training and resources that come with having a large media outlet behind you.
Continuing a conversation that began at the end of October in New York at the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC), Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline Club, spoke with leading editors at the club in London on Tuesday 18 November. They discussed the importance of pay to reflect risk, training, and new ways of determining how much responsibility for freelancers news outlets should take on.
Joining Smith were David Williams, deputy global news editor at Agence France-Presse (AFP); Marcus Mabry, editor at large for The New York Times and president of the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC); Ben De Pear, editor of Channel 4 News; and Emma Beals, a multimedia independent journalist covering Syria and Iraq and member of the board at the Frontline Freelance Register (FFR).
New Standards
How freelancers are folded in to media organisations vary from outlet to outlet, so what should best practice look like?
“There’s an inverse relationship between the amount of control and the amount of responsibility they should take on for that person,” Beals said of the freelancer–editor relationship.
“We commission people in a very clear way. They have to take a hostile environment awareness course. We have to know them,” said De Pear. “Do you trust this person, are they trained, will this person deliver something we will put on television?” he said are important questions they ask, adding, “the Arab Spring was a bit of a nightmare. Libya was a fantasy war zone. Anyone who had a camera flew in.”
“I think the future is more to incorporate regular freelancers into our structures,” said Williams, pointing out that they made a tough decision after two of AFP’s top editors met with freelancers on the Turkish–Syrian border in 2012. “We will not accept production from freelancers where we don’t dare to venture ourselves,” he said, “we don’t want to encourage freelancers to take risks that our own journalists won’t take.”
Better Pay = Safety
Marginal wages for a story from a conflict zone don’t allow freelancers to invest in much needed training and equipment, argued Beals and many from the audience.
“You have to pay them more than $300 for 1,000 words in Syria,” she said. “It’s a professional work force with unprofessionalised wages. The pay is about safety,” Beals added, noting a recent story had her covering her expenses, which were twice the rate she was getting paid, up front with a promise of reimbursement months later.
Treating freelancers like a member of the AFP team under a new approach, said Williams, means they have more financial backup. “We bring them into the same structure that an AFP reporter would have. Generally they should have the same benefits.”
Smith said he is astounded by the number of freelancers he meets who have not been on a hostile environment training course. “We did a survey of freelancers at FFR,” he said, “a third said they thought that the editors they dealt with didn’t give a fig about their safety.”
You can watch the talk and listen again online here:
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Heading to Sheffield Doc/Fest this year? Not only does the programme contain a fantastic selection of films, everyone with a full festival pass also has access to the diverse and inspiring conference programme. Join Frontline Club founder, Vaughan Smith on Friday 14 June at 2.30 PM at the Crucible Studio, for the panel Surviving Syria: Filmmaking in Extremis.
The Syrian conflict is in its third year, and it is largely freelancers who assume the great risks in covering the events. The Frontline Club has recently launched the report Newsgathering Safety and the Welfare of Freelancers to consider how these risks can be mitigated.
Independent filmmakers, Olly Lambert and Mani, both made award winning films in Syria receiving wide acclaim for their powerful storytelling and unprecedented access. Head of High Risk for the BBC Simon Marr will also join the panel, which will be chaired by veteran journalist and filmmaker Inigo Gilmore.
This session will address the extremely treacherous challenges of filmmaking and reporting in one of the world’s deadliest places. What does the Syrian war tell us about the future of freelance journalism and independent filmmaking? How do we take necessary safety precautions – whilst managing to produce a great film?
Watch last year’s session ‘Dying to tell the Story’ with Founding Director of the Frontline Club Vaughan Smith, photographer Giles Duley and Siobhan Sinnerton, Commissioning Editor at Channel 4. Last year journalist Inigo Gilmore also chaired the debate.
]]>A year ago, we invited freelancers, editors, managers, trainers and safety advisors to come together and discuss the issues of safety in the field.
Since then, professionals from across the industry have been collaborating and sharing their experiences and insight to shape this paper, overseen by ex-Director of BBC World Service Richard Sambrook.
In this paper, we have tried to to address the problems facing today’s freelancers, whose efforts to inform and engage us are now more valuable than ever – coverage of the ongoing conflict in Syria is testament to this.
Our efforts do not end here. The findings on duty of care, safety training, digital security and insurance are foundations that we will continue to build upon to improve the lot of freelancers and, in so doing, encourage a wider view of the world around us.
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE:
