Freelancing
Gerard Butler on the set of Machine Gun Preacher
In my never-ending quest to find a source of gainful employment – or at least income – I recently ran across an unusual opportunity, quite by accident, which proved to be an interesting experience, to say the least. I don’t even remember what led to my finding it. While searching for work online, I ran across a job posting for extras in a movie. The movie being filmed was “Machine Gun Preacher” starring none other than Gerard Butler. “Why not?”, I thought. I certainly wasn’t doing much else and it did offer a paycheck, albeit a temporary one, but still…
I submitted my photo via email and didn’t think much more about it. After all, I’m 53 years old, not exactly in the best of shape anymore. Me? An actress? Riiiiight. Shortly thereafter, though, I was surprised (shocked) to find a reply in my email inbox…..”We are interested…”. To say that I was surprised, even to say that I was shocked, is an understatement. But the idea of being in a major Hollywood film sounded interesting and exciting. “What the heck?” (That phrase has gotten me into more than my share of trouble over the years…but I digress.) Over the next few days, I received wardrobe instructions (extras supply their own wardrobe, following guidelines provided by the wardrobe department), scheduling and location information.
I arrived “on set” (I love that phrase) and spent the next two days pretending to be a member of the congregation of a church, helmed by one Gerard Butler as Sam Childers. Machine Gun Preacher was written about Mr. Childers, who is a real, live person doing really amazing, humanitarian things. (Read more about him, here).
I loved the experience, despite the fact that the hours were long (12 hour days are common), the conditions were less than ideal (the temperature was 90+ and the building in which we were filming was not air conditioned), but I still loved every minute of it. We waited for a bit in an area called “extras holding”, where we were inspected and approved by wardrobe and actually went to “hair and makeup”, where I was very surprised to learn that they really do have mirrors with big light bulbs all around. But, the best part of being an extra is, by far, the food. Expertly prepared food, catered by companies accustomed to serving celebrities and big-time directors. The food was wonderful!
Myself and Sam Childers
After my initial two days “on set”, I was subsequently recalled, about a week later, for one more shoot, during which I got to meet the “real” Sam Childers,who was making a cameo appearance in the film. This impressed me more than meeting Gerard Butler, Kathy Baker and Michelle Monaghan, put together! He is truly an amazing person, for all he does. I urge you to go read Mr. Childers’ story and you’ll know why…
Tomorrow: read about how my first acting gig led to my first modeling gig!
Stephany Beane of Oak Ridge, TN has put a new “spin” on the concept of teaching computer skills to seniors. Ms. Beane, 52, owner of TN Platespinner (www.tnplatespinner.com), takes that concept one step further, focusing primarily on teaching social networking skills, such as Facebook, Skype and Twitter. She also offers a very unique course called, “Tech Club for Geezers, Fogies and Luddites” where students can see, touch, handle, try out and ask questions about various gadgetry such as smartphones, digital cameras and iPods. At the end of the course, a field trip is planned to one of the large electronics stores should anyone care to shop with assistance.
Services Include:
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Class Instruction for up to 4 students in Oak Ridge (both PCs and Macs)
Speaking to Groups – explaining why Social Media is important
Hands-on training in Facebook
Hands-on training in Twitter
Designing a Social Media Marketing Plan for clubs, non-profits, and small businesses
Converting Digital Photos into “Life Journey” videos
Providing Basic or Remedial Computer Instruction
Training and Set-up for Skype and Video Chatting
Working on your unique projects (reunions, newsletters, club directories, mailings, letters)
In the Oak Ridge, TN area, you can e-mail Stephany or call her at: 865-274-7798. Or, simply visit her website at tnplatespinner.com
Returning from a very extended holiday writing break. Ok, ok, I know. The holidays have been over for awhile. But if the number of people STILL inexplicably turning on their Christmas lights at the end of January are any indication, the holidays aren’t truly over until February. This is one of my pet peeves. Yes, the Christmas lights all over your house are very pretty. Yes, they were a lot of work to put up, I realize. It might be tempting to burn them just a bit past the holidays, to make the work seem more worthwhile. But, come on, people, the Christmas season ends on New Year’s Day. That’s it. It’s over. You might not want to take them down, since the weather is less than ideal. But, for God’s sake, don’t turn them on, please? But I digress.
At any rate, it’s very hard to “restart” after a self-imposed vacation. Especially when the boss is, well, ME. I can extend my vacation as long as I please without worrying whether I have the vacation time to use. Not a good habit though, I realize, and one I’ll definitely not be repeating. Anyway, as previously stated, it is February. The groundhog apparently saw his shadow this morning so, if you go in for that sort of thing, we can expect six more weeks of winter. Sounds about right, especially in Michigan.
Speaking of the land of unemployment, I just read this morning that the “jobs bill” President Obama called for in his State of the Union address includes yet another unemployment extension. There are some republican rumblings about this “jobs bill” being code for another “stimulus” package. They just don’t want to call it that. Stay tuned.
Reporting on my research into work at home jobs from awhile back: West@Home does, indeed, appear to be a legitimate outfit, albeit a low paying one. They do have work available, especially now with Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day right around the corner. You’ll do phone work, some sales and some customer service, such as the current ProFlowers project, taking orders for the aforementioned holidays. As I said, the pay is low – $7.00-$9.00 per hour and you’ll need to have an actual landline (not DSL/Vonage) in your home and you’ll need to purchase a noise-cancelling headset for your phone. Your computer must meet certain requirements, also and they will run a background check, in addition to a phone interview. If all this sounds good to you, then by all means check them out. http://www.westathome.com Haven’t received anything from the other companies to which I applied.
On writing for Demand Studios/Examiner.com: Took a break from these, also, but am getting back into the swing of things. Demand is a really interesting organization to be a part of and their forums and Facebook page are very lively, so I am enjoying that part of it. I also think they are poised for bigger and better things in the near future so I think it’s a good place to be right now, in terms of my fledgling writing career. That being said, the topics you’ll write about at Demand are less than exciting. “How to Seat a Floor Drain Flange” doesn’t exactly get my creative juices flowing but it pays $15 bucks per article, which can add up pretty quickly, I’ve found. Examiner.com is proving to be a little less satifsying for me, only because there is a complete lack of editorial control and some of the writers aren’t the best at grammar and sentence structure. The exposure provided by the articles I’m writing may be all but overshadowed by the bad reputation I’m gaining by association. They do, however, have a new feature which pushes my articles to Google News if they’re on topic for a particular news story, which could increase the exposure value. Jury’s still out on this one and we’ll see what happens.
You might remember my post from back in March about writing online for various websites. I have since applied to a few and I am happy to report I’ve been accepted to write for three of them: Demand Studios, Examiner.com and Suite101.com and can now tell you a little more about them. Of the three, Demand Studios seems to be the most selective, both in terms of your initial application and the writing you will eventually do for them. They do, however, provide you with extensive writer’s resources and editorial guidelines to follow. The writing, itself, is mostly research based articles and “how-to’s” and most pay a flat fee ($7.50 – $15.00 per article) and some assignments offer revenue share. The content created for Demand Studios will end up on any of a number of Demand Media owned sites, including eHow.com, Livestrong.com, AnswerBag.com and others. If your writing isn’t quite up to snuff, though, I wouldn’t start out at Demand, due to their more stringent editorial policies. Suite 101 is unique among these types of sites in that they don’t hold you to one particular category. You do pick categories or interests in your initial application, but they don’t hold you to it. You can submit articles on any of their topics and share in the revenue the articles bring in. Examiner.com is probably the best for sheer exposure and they have a big push on for writers right now. This might be the best place to begin for those who want to break into the online writing field. You will apply for a particular topic and you are imited to writing on that topic, only. The good news is there are hundreds of topics, some very narrow niches, so you’re sure to find something that interests you. Click here to apply – and please let them know I referred you. I’ll keep you posted over the next few months on how these three writing endeavors are going for me.
I’ve been doing some research on legitimate work at home opportunities. These seem to have some good reviews around the net. My preliminary research shows they are legitimate work at home opportunities, rather than scams. Disclaimer: Do your own research before signing up for any of these. Some have costs involved, some do not. Some will actually hire you as an employee, some as an independent contractor. I, myself, have applied for some of them and will keep you updated on my progress and results. I present these links for your reference:
http://www.alpineaccess.com/external/careers/become_an_agent.html
http://www.arise.com/Content/work-at-home.asp
http://www.convergysworkathome.com/index.php
http://www.liveops.com/become-agent/index.html
There are others, but these are the ones I found to be the most reputable. I repeat: do your own research. Good Luck!
Ok, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but in my defense, I’ve been moving. Seems to be a never-ending process but I’m finally getting settled in and back to the blog. Haven’t been doing much job hunting lately either, due partly to the move and partly to the fact that I’m getting very discouraged. NO phone calls, NO interviews, nothing, despite the hundreds of resumes I’ve sent. I keep toying with the idea of making the web, specifically writing for the web, my career. Toward that end, I’ve found a few sites that may help me (and you!) get started in the right direction. They are, in no particular order:
http://www.examiner.com/about_examiner/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/
These sites allow you to apply to be a writer and most will share the revenues with you based on your site traffic. Admittedly, this won’t be a lot of money at first, but may be a good source of exposure for your writing.
Too old to hire, yet, too young to retire, I’ve created this blog, both to chronicle my own journey across the bridge between employability and retirement; and to assist others who may be making the same journey. Finding oneself unemployed at 50 can be a frustrating situation due to difficulty in finding other employment and the daunting challenge of finding a way to sustain one’s finances in the meantime. I’ll search for ways to help us all bridge the gap between employability and retirement, exploring both job resources and entrepreneurship opportunities. If you have ideas or opportunities to share, feel free to drop me a line at jessica@boomersbridge.com !
