COVID-19 vs Freelance Economy

I am exhausted.

I wish I was tired due to all the work that was in front of me but that is unfortunately not the case. I am stressing out and losing sleep because work in the creative industry disappeared overnight due to COVID-19, leaving myself and hundreds of thousands of my fellow freelancers in a hopeless position.

At this point (April 2nd, 2020) humanity has had 966,644 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49,288 people have died from the virus. You’ve heard of restaurants going under, people working from home, and how the gig-working Uber driver is taking a hit… but have you heard of the creative industry? I’m writing this to shed light on how the creatives responsible for making our self-quarantine TV shows, movies, and other forms of entertainment have received marginal coverage amidst the plethora of news headlines.

For those that don’t know, I’m a commercial cinematographer and I work almost exclusively in teams (which is why I’m no longer able to work). I’m the person that sees a story on paper and translates it into visuals for the masses to consume. On a larger scale than me though, but still similar to my work, feature length films have been delayed left and right. Some of these productions have been pushed back because they simply aren’t allowed to film right now and some because the parent companies don’t want to release the films for such low public turnout.

I'm going to share some personal numbers in this blog regarding my finances, not because I want to make it all about me and my woes, but because people need to transparently see how their freelancing friends may be affected by this pandemic (I realize we’re not the only ones being hit hard in this crazy time).

Within one week of Seattle getting its first case of COVID-19, I had clients cancel ten days of production. That translates to $19,200 and to be quite frank, I doubt much of it will be rescheduled. Multiple of those projects had events and releases tied to them and those events are simply no longer happening. I’ll be lucky if I can reschedule a quarter of those jobs once this all blows over.

That $19.2K is a large sum of money for me and my livelihood but it wasn't all going to my vacation fund. Aside from me having to pay overhead (office rent, insurance, Adobe subscription, etc), filmmaking is a team sport and if I lose income, my crew also loses income.

Best Case Scenario

Everyone in the entire world immediately and simultaneously self quarantines to cease the spread of the virus. We would all feel a squeeze on our savings but humanity could unite to save lives! If this miraculously happened, we could stop the virus in its tracks and allow the economy to pick back up with relative ease.

Worst Case Scenario

People half commit to social distancing, but don't really take it seriously, and our health system is overrun for months with unfathomable casualties - the economy becomes irreversibly damaged. Think you're hurting this month to pay bills? In this dystopian future there will be incredibly few jobs - Goldman Sachs predicted that unemployment will rise from 3.5% to 9% and the US GDP will shrink by 24% which is 2.5x that of the 1958 Eisenhower Recession. For the sake of the global economy, I really hope that this prediction is wrong.

That’s downright depressing. That means that I’ve lost out on roughly $30K worth of business that was already scheduled and on the table. Mind you I’m not counting work that may have come up if this pandemic hadn’t taken place. I’m only talking about work that was already scheduled and has been taken away from me and my colleagues.

There is Hope

The astronomical $2 trillion ($2,000,000,000,000) federal stimulus package is now including gig workers and freelancers. For the first time ever freelancers will be able to file for unemployment which is $600+ per week depending on your state. This money won’t make up for all of the work lost but it should be enough for freelancers to cover their basic necessities in this dire time of need; something is definitely better than nothing. Here’s a CNBC article about the stimulus package if you’re curious about qualifying or if you simply want to read more about how the stimulus package is specifically affecting the creative industry.

How can you help?

If I had a solution, I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog. I do however know that many people are going through a rough time and that a little compassion can go a long way. If you know someone that is down and out, reach out to them and ask how things are going. If nothing else comes out of this, let’s at least strengthen our communities.

If you’re a creative with no work in front of you, I’m truly sorry that sucks, why not donate some of your services to nonprofits? Check out this page for insights on how I’m offering pro bono editing services to help tell the stories of nonprofits affected by COVID-19.

Hang in there everyone, we’re in for a bit of a rollercoaster.

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