Posts Tagged ‘economics’

Freelance Scheduling and Recession Economics

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

One of the most complicated aspects to freelancing is managing one’s calendar. A full year can include 20-30 projects easily, averaging around two projects a month. In a world of Platonic ideals this breaks down very simply and easily. The real world of freelancing is never so simple. In the real world shows pile up back to back, there are awkward gaps between projects, shows fall through randomly, and new projects pop up at the last minute.

A few month ago I got an email from the producer of a show I lit three years ago. The production is going to be remounted in Connecticut next summer. This is fantastic news. I truly enjoyed the project and my collaborators, it is a strong piece that deserves a wider audience. This also means I have at least one show definitely scheduled more than 8 months out. I have soft offers going well into 2012, but uncontracted and thus not yet firmly placed in my calendar.

When dates are uncertain and contracts are unsigned it is important to keep an awareness of projects without letting them be firm limiters on one’s calendar. This is an almost constant dance of finding out which soft offers and potential contracts (if only we can get the funding!) become real and what new concrete projects will come in the meantime.

This December was mostly free for me as few days ago. My last show of the year opens December 3rd. The following few weeks would mean a nice bit of downtime from production to get my bookkeeping and paperwork in shape, start preproduction work on 2011 projects, and generally get a bit of rest. Then the phone rang two days ago. A play. In Dallas. Focuses on December 6th. That’s three days after my last contracted show opens and eliminates much of that downtime I had previously thought I would have in December.

This is the way of things. It can be a roller coaster at times. Sometimes nerve wracking. Sometimes thrilling. Never boring.

I remember November of 2007. I had almost my whole year penciled in in my calendar. It was going to be awesome, filled with a wide array of regional and Off-Broadway projects, a season with a dance company, and several experimental pieces. Then the bubble burst. One by one I got calls from producers that they were unable to secure funding for such and such a project and it would be postponed indefinitely. By January 1st 2008 over 80% of the projects I had lined up were gone.

Over the course of that year new projects slowly filled gaps in my schedule. I made it through the year, scraping at times, but pulling through. Freelancing is never easy, but the Great Recession sure makes it that much more challenging.

Even during good economic times the schedule of a freelancer is never easy. You sign a contract for a project because you have a hole in your schedule to fill, it’s not the best, but its work. Then, two days later, your dream project falls in your lap and the dates are identical. Managing the overlap is an art unto itself.

Many designers hire assistants to carry them through the overlaps. Fees being what they are, one must calculate if the overhead of hiring an assistant is worth the value of the contract.

Managing multiple projects artistically is the easy part. We learn tricks for finding inspiration so we can keep moving ahead with our design work. Managing multiple projects logistically is a whole different beast. As a freelancer I can manage my preproduction work largely on my own schedule. But the one thing I can not manage is when the show opens.

Being a freelancer you share many of the same skills with a project manager. You are in charge of making and maintaining multiple projects on numerous timelines for a variety of clients. It is very different than simply running a small business. You have, at times, the administrative workload of managing a large business and maintaining a full time creative life.

No one ever said freelancing was easy. But as a student, and before I freelanced full time, I tended to think of the difficulty coming from an artistic direction. Relative to the administrative and scheduling aspects of the work, the art is the easy part. Add the increased volatility of our current economy and the roller coaster gets a lot steeper, faster, and jolts your around harder.

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Doug Rushkoff Strikes Again

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

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Many readers thought I was hinting at something under the surface—a conspiracy, of sorts, to take money from the poor and give it to the rich. It sounded to many like I was describing an economic system actually designed—planned—to redistribute income in the worst possible ways.

I guess I’d have to agree with that premise. Only it’s not a secret conspiracy. It’s an overt one, and playing out in full view of anyone who has time (time is money, after all) to observe it.

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Solar Sunday

Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.

Collaboration, the future of green commerce

“Increasing political momentum around issues such as resource scarcity, climate change, security, and new regulations brings to light critical challenges that our industry will face in the coming years,” said Sabine Ritter, general manager for GCI. “The 2007 Bali Treaty and other political initiatives are driving the industry to come up with breakthrough solutions. Such solutions require new thinking, new approaches and new collaboration on infrastructures.”

The key, the report puts forth, to a more sustainable supply chain is sharing. Companies need to share warehouses, transportation, and, most importantly, information to help reduce carbon footprints and cut costs.

Ritter explained, “The coming years will see a new era for industry collaboration, which will become an important factor for future success. In many cases, this will require companies to rethink their areas of competitive advantage. Some business areas that are now considered to be core differentiators may well become candidates for non-competitive collaboration with competitors, such as replenishment in inner cities. In addition, industry collaboration will be essential to encourage governments to enact more appropriate regulations.”

Greening LA

Aptly nicknamed the “green blade,” Jean Nouvel’s newest addition to the asphalt laden City of Angels slices through the concrete jungle at 10,000 Santa Monica, adding much needed greenery to the surrounding office towers. Standing 45 stories tall and little more than 50 feet deep, this statuesque green structure is bound to make an sustainable impact that we hope others will follow.

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With $400 million going into a mere 177 residential unit, you can be sure that nothing will be spared in the new residence. Each unit will run the width of the building with views from the balconies on the north and the south façade. The narrow units help with energy efficiency but still have plenty of square footage on multiple stories ranging from 3,400 to 9,400 sq feet each. Plans currently show the south side landscaped in natural California foliage, while the north will take on more tropically lush feeling , providing plenty of green those viewing from afar while offering each residence to step out into a re-defined urban jungle. Not just for looks, the greenery will help minimize the heat island effect in LA.

Tokyo follows California

Tokyo’s mayor has seen the (green) light and is taking major steps to introduce a climate change programme for the city despite Japan’s reticence nationally on the matter. Mayor Shintaro Ishihara is a 75 year old self-acknowledged rightwinger who has decided to go it alone and impose strict curbs on local green house gas emissions. Some have compared his initiatives to those of California’s Governor Schwartzenegger’s differences with the Bush administration.

As of 2010 Tokyo will impose caps on emissions on its largest polluters, along with credit trading for those who go over the limit. The city has budgeted $191M for green initiatives this year including subsidies to small businesses to help them comply. Building regulations are being tightened for new buildings and increased energy efficiency is being promoted in Tokyo homes and offices. Almost 1,000 hectares of new parks and trees will be planted in the next 8 years. Tokyo has a population of 13M people but it is only responsible for 5% of Japan’s emissions because it is has little heavy industry. However this stance will certainly send a strong message to the Prime Minister in time for the G8 summit next month where he has promised to put global warming high on the agenda, and hopefully show more leadership in this area.

Self-Healing solar-wind skins to retrofit older buildings

There’s nothing like a towering wind turbine to inspire NIMBY sentiment from neighbors and city councils alike. Enter a striking new alternative energy concept by Mexican-born Agustin Otegui, who works with economies of a much smaller scale. He has conceived of a next-gen Nano Vent-Skin that sheathes structures in a shimmering solar weave studded with micro-turbines. The concept takes advantage of a structure’s maximum available surface space, and its modular composition allows it to retrofit our old buildings instead of pouring resources into new ones. Plus, the stunning superstructure incorporates micro-organisms to soak up C02.

In the past we’ve covered approaches to alternative energy that seek to synthesize solar with wind. It’s an exciting area to watch as technology improves and processes are streamlined, and Ostegui’s concept charts some innovative new territory.

The Nano Vent-Skin is a zero-emission material that takes a tri-partite approach towards energy efficiency. First, it soaks up sunlight via a photovoltaic layer, and transfers energy via nano-wires to storage units at the end of each panel. Second, its tiny turbines employ “polarized organisms” to create chemical reactions, generating power each time the turbine makes contact with the structure. Third, the organisms present in the inner skin of each turbine soak up C02.

At the core of the technology is an elaborate system of bio-engineered micro organisms which “have not been genetically altered; they work as a trained colony where each member has a specific task in this symbiotic process.” Ostegui even has plans for the system to be self-healing: “Every panel has a sensor on each corner with a material reservoir. When one of the turbines has a failure or breaks, a signal is sent through the nano-wires to the central system and building material (microorganisms) is sent through the central tube in order to regenerate this area with a self assembly process.”

CFLs are not so green

More and more countries are banning incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs. But options to recycle the mercury-laden alternatives are often scarce.

A variety of European Union recycling regulations make it unlawful for EU residents to dispose of CFLs in the trash. In the United States, some states are following suit, though most localities rely on consumers to voluntarily mail the bulbs back to manufacturers for recycling. In developing countries, recycling is less available, and proper landfills often do not even exist in the event that the bulbs are discarded as trash.

To reduce hazardous waste at its source, leading CFL manufacturers have committed to reduce the mercury content of their products. Martin Goetzeler, CEO of Munich-based Osram, said his company aims to cut the mercury content of its CFLs by half in the coming years. “It should be part of any new technology that hazardous substances are regulated,” he said. “And we should use the lowest levels [of toxins].”

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Those shows just magically sort of happen don't they?

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

NYTW it seems has fired its entire production staff.

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Solar Sunday

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.

Print your power

If you like the idea of solar power, but aren’t convinced by expensive, clunky solar panels just yet, here’s a more manageable option: print your own on an inkjet! Konarka Technologies has just debuted a printable solar panel film that uses a common inkjet printing process to manufacture paper-thin photovoltaic solar cells. Using the existing and very simple technologies of your office inkjet printer, Konarka has essentially replaced ink with the solar cell material, and paper with a thin flexible sheet of plastic.

Now for something completely different

The news media and the government are fixated on the fact that the U.S. economy may be headed into a recession — defined as two or more successive quarters of declining gross domestic product.

The situation is actually much worse. By some measures of economic performance, the United States has been in a recession since 1975 — a recession in quality of life, or well-being.

How can this be? One first needs to understand what GDP measures to see why it is not an appropriate gauge of our national well-being.

LED’s light up Africa

We love our LEDs for lamps and Christmas lights, but there’s a global application for LEDs that could bring inexpensive and efficient light to the 75% of Africa that lacks dependable access to clean, safe electrical lighting. (In Sub-Saharan Africa over 500 million people presently lack modern energy, and rural electricity access rates is only 2%.) A $13 million World Bank Group Initiative called Lighting Africa was launched in September 2007 to develop and distribute a highly efficient and rugged LED light bulb for the electricity-deprived in Africa.

Organic growth in the LED market

The global Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display industry is anticipated to experience stupendous growth in the coming five years according to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Major OLED manufacturers are upgrading their production techniques to offer quality products, so as to stay ahead in the highly intense competitive environment.

The Active-Matrix OLED displays represent the burgeoning segment in the total OLED display market. Revenues from this segment are expected to overtake passive-matrix segment, and dominate the global market by garnering a share of about 84% of the total OLED market value by 2010.

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When you ignore reality, poverty is just like wealth

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

It is amazing how the rich can justify their greed by ignoring the fact that the working poor in this country live largely on credit and thus assume debts way beyond their means.
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It’s true that the share of national income going to the richest 20 percent of households rose from 43.6 percent in 1975 to 49.6 percent in 2006, the most recent year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has complete data. Meanwhile, families in the lowest fifth saw their piece of the pie fall from 4.3 percent to 3.3 percent.

Income statistics, however, don’t tell the whole story of Americans’ living standards. Looking at a far more direct measure of American families’ economic status — household consumption — indicates that the gap between rich and poor is far less than most assume, and that the abstract, income-based way in which we measure the so-called poverty rate no longer applies to our society.

The top fifth of American households earned an average of $149,963 a year in 2006. As shown in the first accompanying chart, they spent $69,863 on food, clothing, shelter, utilities, transportation, health care and other categories of consumption. The rest of their income went largely to taxes and savings.

The bottom fifth earned just $9,974, but spent nearly twice that — an average of $18,153 a year. How is that possible? A look at the far right-hand column of the consumption chart, labeled “financial flows,” shows why: those lower-income families have access to various sources of spending money that doesn’t fall under taxable income. These sources include portions of sales of property like homes and cars and securities that are not subject to capital gains taxes, insurance policies redeemed, or the drawing down of bank accounts. While some of these families are mired in poverty, many (the exact proportion is unclear) are headed by retirees and those temporarily between jobs, and thus their low income total doesn’t accurately reflect their long-term financial status.

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Mike Daisey Steps Up

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

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Every time a regional theater produces Nickel and Dimed, the play based on Barbara Ehrenreich’s book about the working poor in America, I keep hoping the irony will reach up and bitch-slap the staff members as they put actors, the working poor they’re directly responsible for creating, in an agitprop shuck-and-jive dance about that very problem. I keep hoping it will pierce their mantle of smug invulnerability and their specious whining about how television, iPods, Reagan, the NEA, short attention spans, the folly of youth, and a million other things have destroyed American theater.

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the art of money

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

The other day imomus mentioned that when money people get together they talk about art and when art people get together they talk about money. The money of art is something that can be rather difficult to talk about. I think this is a primary reason professional artists generally have agents. Leave the money dealings to someone else so the artist can focus exclusively on the art.

But the business of art is very important. After all it is with money that food and shelter are procured. In the theatre the business of the art is at the fore. Unlike disciplines like painting or sculpture that one might do in seclusion and then, once completed, present to the market, theatre is done from the beginning in collaboration and those collaborators must agree on what fees are paid, to whom and when. They must agree as to who controls the rights to what and under which circumstances.

Working in the theatre it is necessary to be at once a “money person” as well as an “art person.” But often one is a “money person” without much actual money. Or at least with an income with as much fluctuation as the stock market. Since all my work is on a contract basis and my checks(portions of the total design fee) are paid on an irregular schedule it can be very difficult to organize this financial situation.

I am a big believer in saving and investing and find the typical American’s reliance on credit cards as a “cash reserve,” or worse yet supplemental income, to be reckless at best. At the same time, due to the often inconsistent nature of my work, I have at times been forced to use this less than ideal “cash reserve.” But how does one save and invest reasonably and responsibly with such a fluctuation in income?

What I have found to be of greatest use is to treat everything I make in terms of percentages. I do have fixed expenses, things like rent and utilities, so there is a minimum I must make each month. But after that, everything can easily be scaled to the amount of money I take in. I put away a certain percentage for taxes, and another percentage for savings. Then what is left over is free for all other expenses.

By dealing with my money on a check by check basis(as opposed to yearly or even monthly), I am able to save money during the leanest times. If I try to save ten percent of my income, when a thousand dollar check comes in I can take out one hundred dollars and this is not noticeable in the regular flow of things. Certainly not when compared with attempting to gather thousands of dollars at the end of the year to put in savings.

Breaking finances down to small easily manageable increments makes the whole thing a lot easier to understand. This is why I enjoy sites like Get Rich Slowly. It takes a reasoned approach to personal finance and breaks everything down into components that are easy to manage. So much so that almost insurmountable feats like paying off credit cards is broken down into five easy steps.

The business of art need not be something to fear. With a little planning and research even the most organizationally averse can practice the art of money.

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Economics by Design

Tuesday, April 11th, 2006

Matthew Freeman makes some good points about the role of the playwright in small low-budget theatre. His argument is that the economics of small theatre in the US should not dictate the visionary style in which the work is written. The comments derail a bit from this central theme, but the idea is a strong one and important for both writers and producers to consider.

Within the context of low-budget New York theatre he mentions there is an obvious kind of aesthetic limitation that might silently be placed on a work. Large cast with a small number of props and set pieces, perhaps adhering to the unities to avoid costume changes etc. etc. While this is easily producible, it may not be easily successful. Limiting ones vision creates a constricted work and usually leaves a piece with a tension that is not useful. A tension of a piece unduly contained and not fully expressive of the writer’s intentions.

In my post a few days ago I talked about the merits of leaving a design open to the imagination. The context for that was a discussion surrounding a show I just opened where, with our very limited budgets and resources, we attempt to create a vast and expansive world. This can be done by clearly and cleanly choosing what and where elements will exist. How to construct a visual vocabulary that allows for locations as diverse as an open glade, a valley, a mountain top, a balcony, a bedroom, a graveyard, etc. etc. Creating a space where all these things exist in an emotionally true way with very limited budgets is no simple task. But it is doable, and as Freeman points out, should allow the playwright freedom to write their vision, not a cliffs notes version there of.

I love minimalism. I think there is an expressive potential in a minimal aesthetic that rarely exists in larger productions. It can operate to focus the attention down to the cleanest expression of the idea and the emotions in the play. However, there is a difference between minimalism by design and minimalism by economics. The former, like the Opera of Johannes Schaaf, is a beautiful meditation on the power of simple forms. The latter, is an artistically destructive way of thinking.

I have lit plenty of productions where I had a very limited number of dimmers at my disposal. You can see one now if you want. But the challenge with these situations is to think, not of the limitations but, of the possibilities. By reaching beyond your means, you can stretch out the resources into a fuller design idea. You will always be limited. Even in large scale opera at a certain point there is limitation. But the power of an expansive visioning of the piece, of seeing potential and possibility in every aspect of the work, is needed now. This is part of the New Optimism that must guide theatre in this new millennium. As my director for Cupid and Psyche said, “we may be laying in the gutter, but we are reaching for the stars.”

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