HOW LOCKDOWN HAS AFFECTED MY CAREER
Added 2020-05-14 12:49:11 +0000 UTCHow are you all doing up here in the balcony? How's the free popcorn? Sorry if it's a bit stale. It's been next to a radiator for six months.
You may have heard the news this week that TV production has been given governmental permission to open up again, providing social distancing rules are in place. Unfortunately, while that sounds like good news to people like me who work in the industry... the reality is a little more complicated.
Keeping two metres apart when filming a scripted show is next to impossible. Not only when it comes to scenes where characters have to interact, but in small things like costume, make-up, sound - it's a very hands-on industry. And given that I work in children's TV, there's the safety of a young cast to consider. The BBC, given that it doesn't take much for it to get criticised, will be extra-cautious.
Consequently, and somewhat inevitably, the three-part finale to 4 O'Clock Club that I'd been hoping would film back in March, has now been pushed back to Easter 2021, at the earliest. I'm glad the intention is still there to make it, though a lot can happen between now and next spring, and who knows how open the world will be by then? Not to mention that the kids in the show will all be a year older. And, if there's a second outbreak with no clear endpoint, that could disrupt the months of planning that lead into production. There are so many unknowns.
I'm continuing to write on my other show, Almost Never, though I suspect that too is going to struggle to find a filming window this year. Currently, they're penciled in for autumn, but there's a possibility that the young cast might not be given permission to take time off school to film, given how much they've missed already. But we'll see. One way or another, I'm confident it will go ahead in time, but... I'm not particularly optimistic that it'll be this year.
Fortunately, this week I got a bunch of royalties I hadn't been expecting, and some payments are on the way that had been due to me two years ago, which I'd not even known about. These will more or less plug the gap left by 4 O'Clock Club filming, and I'm very lucky that I have enough work to last me most of this year. With no holidays or big outlays planned, we'll get by.
Plus, if filming for both my shows does get pushed into 2021, that means - due to the payments I receive when my episodes film (50% of my income, essentially) - I'll have some money guaranteed to come my way next year. So, silver linings, and all that. I can't complain. I've got it better than many.
In a way this is all kind of what I needed after the utter relentlessness of 2019. I took on too much, worked too hard, and this has forced me to go at a considerably gentler pace. Plus, it has given me the time and headspace for stuff like Lost Footage.
While I'm not working on any spec scripts like many writers are, I am using the time to understand what it is I want to do long-term. In the past 10 or 15 years I've only pitched shows and ideas that I think are potentially commercial. While I've had success with that, if I'm being true to myself I'd be doing much more authored, esoteric stuff for a living, even if it earned me less money.
Once I've got the next Lost Footage out of the way, I think I'm going to be ready to explore what that means for my day job. For too long it has been something that I've just seen as a means to an end, a way of paying the bills. Though I'm proud of everything I've worked on, this feels like the perfect time to really have a think about my career.
How about you lot? How has all this affected your jobs? Really interested to know.
Paul
Comments
The beautiful broken people are all here. Obviously we're drawn to the controlled chaotic flickering that is the Biffo-verse (and Cheapshow and Barshens et al). Humans have a shelf life, we wear out. Many more of us survive childhood and fulfill our purpose by 40-something. I've spent my years fighting ADHD/ODD and a racing mind and I wore out in 2018. Drifted in and out of work and psychiatry. Marriage disintegrating. Finally being treated and then COVID came along. Hey, whatever, it's actually made me feel so much better because I'm being treated like an adult and asked to take personnel responsibility again. I think I thrive when there is no normal. I have always kicked against the wrong type of authority, the teacher who demanded and didn't listen to reason...the boss who shouts, and resents it when you tell them to grow up and piss off in public...did I undermine your authority you bully? Oops. Sick leave. Now that there is no normal, people are frightened, and yet I'm loving walking the newly opened fields of problem solving, where I can do what I want according to my definition of informed common sense. The parameters imposed by a disease are much easier to follow, than the awkward rules of social interaction where, what is funny to you is offensive to others etc (never any malice, I've always fought for the little person, I just have fewer filters). So, my relatively senior management post is relatively safe because as always, you fire the people who do the job first...and keep yourself in employment...Or at least that's how we're suppose to play it at this level! I work in transport so there'll be a need for us and I should count my blessings. But like many others, I'm genuinely thinking about stepping down, becoming a postman and just allowing myself to enjoy life again. What is the point of existence and all that malarkey. Thanks for your all your work Paul, and Gannon and the rest. Really great to know there are others with a similar sense of reality and humour out there.
Dave Graves
2020-05-15 13:44:48 +0000 UTCHello Mr Rose I may sound like a right bastard saying this, but for me this year has been tremendous so far. After many nightmarish years of depression and self destruction I eventually found my will to sort out my life. I got a new job to get back on track and in august I will start training as IT professional, which is completely out of my comfort zone, but it feels right and liberating to restart in an entirely new and different branch. Covid somehow came out of nowhere during this time of change but it hasn't affected me much despite the general restrictions. It's kind of odd; for the past couple years I felt like I was dragging behind, or in fact standing still while the whole world carried on without me. On my worst days, of which there were many, I felt as if I had lost a race and any chance to give my life purpose was gone, while everyone else was reaching for something and carrying on. Now that I am finally able to rejoin society the whole world literally has halted. It's like coming late to a party when suddenly the music stops and nobody knows what to do. Anyway, I still have a lot of issues to work out, but overall I feel relatively eased and light. For the first time in about 7 years! I want to say thank you for being the person you are. I developed this happy zone for myself over the past year consisting of all Digitiser/Barshens folks. Whenever I'm really down I binge (as the kids say) videos and it just helps. I imagine you heard something along those lines before, because sadly there are many people out there suffering from mental issues. And it really helps knowing of kind and likeable people that just make you laugh and feel welcome. I think that's one of the internet's nicest sides.
Benedict Miller
2020-05-15 11:05:43 +0000 UTCStrange times make for strange bedfellows....so why not :)
Tyronne Mann
2020-05-14 21:40:31 +0000 UTCI know, let's all just start up a big, beautiful, collective and make THINGS
John Veness
2020-05-14 19:41:49 +0000 UTCMan. Terrible timing for all this, John. Really hope you find something to do that fulfils you.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:13:32 +0000 UTCShit. Sorry to hear it, Andrew. Absolutely sucks. We're waiting to hear what the situation is going to be with the Digi Live venue. They were on a knife-edge before all this...
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:11:56 +0000 UTCVery pleased that we've enough stuff on the channel now for people to binge! Did you see that Marillion Made Again vid that went up yesterday?
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:11:19 +0000 UTCHappy to hear that lockdown is working for you, feller.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:10:28 +0000 UTCSend me a link to your surrealist noise album when it's done!
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:09:19 +0000 UTC1452?!?! That's nuts. Bloody hell. Glad you're still ticking for as long as you can.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:08:51 +0000 UTCWell, the fact you're being very modest about it is what's so commendable, Colin.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:07:52 +0000 UTCSilver linings! Stay safe, Dom.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:07:23 +0000 UTCSounds like a similar boat to me, Kelvin; writing stuff, but no idea if anybody will ever see it. Hope, for all of us, we can get out of this damned uncertainty as quickly as possible.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:06:59 +0000 UTCAh man. Sorry, Nikki. I'm glad you're at least able to use this time to look ahead. I for one very much want to play a very very gay space fantasy adventure game in a pixel art style.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2020-05-14 19:06:22 +0000 UTCI've been in an odd state career-wise in any case, having not been working for almost a year due to REASONS. The money is just about to run out, so I need to decide what I'm going to do next (I can't go back to what I did before, it would ruin me). This is not necessarily a good time to choose a career change, but I'm likely to go for it. I've recently been learning some new skills online. So we'll see.
John Veness
2020-05-14 17:22:47 +0000 UTCI run a venue. We’ve had to furlough everyone to survive this. We may not though.
Andrew Edwards
2020-05-14 16:28:44 +0000 UTCI'm pretty luck, I work as Dev Support for a game dev, so our studios were able to make the transition to working from home fairly easily. Been a few that have had some difficulties in some departments but it's generally been okay. I'm in a lot of zoom calls because of it, but the nature of what I do meant I was going to end up being in a lot of calls anyway. Outside of that, the lack of a 20-25 minute car journey every day means I do get to spend a bit more time for my own hobbies, I'm playing through my backlog of games, I'm able to dedicate a bit more time to learning guitar and listening to music. (Been on a major kick with Marillions - With Friends From The Orchestra the last few days) My girlfriend has found things a bit tough at times, shes been furloughed and has found it a struggle to find motivation to do things but I just keep reminding her there is no right way to do things and to just be kind to yourself. We also find binging Digi helps :)
James Moorehead
2020-05-14 16:23:02 +0000 UTCI’ve been extremely lucky in many respects. The company I work for operates a large site in the automotive industry (nearly 700 acres) with almost 200 workers – most of whom have been furloughed because all site operations had to shut down when lockdown first came in. I’m office based though, and the only person in the company doing my job as a reports developer. The management haven’t exactly been able to do much over the last few weeks other than keep watch over how the business is being affected by all this upheaval. To do this they needs reports, graphs, charts, spreadsheets et cetera – more so than ever before. So to say I’ve been kept busy would be an understatement… So, here I am. Been working from home since the 13th March, and I live on my own so I’ve had next to no human contact during this time – apart from my weekly trip to the local Co-op. That all sort of suits me fine though, I’m a very solitary person and find being around other people awkward and uncomfortable at the best of times. Also not having to worry about leaving the house and having some better defined rules/parameters to live by has done wonders for my anxiety. I’m counting the days until things get back to something approaching normal though – I really want my job and the company to still be there at the other end of this. In the meantime I get to carry on doing my job from home and listen to as much Yes as I want to on my Walkman without people thinking I’m some sort of weirdo.
Thomas Thacker
2020-05-14 16:17:41 +0000 UTCI am just about to head into my fifth week on being on furlough in the transport side of things (large number of places we work for are presently closed - so nothing to deliver at the moment), initially it was only meant to be for 3 weeks but it has been extended by a week by week basis...I just want to get back to work tbh as the only other time I had this much empty time was when I was between jobs and I hated that with a passion.
Tyronne Mann
2020-05-14 16:03:34 +0000 UTCI work in a medical warehouse, so as part of the supply chain I'm a key worker. So as of right now, aside from the actual measures taken to avoid getting the komodo (getting your temperature taken at the start of every shift; avoiding standing too close to each other, etc.) the actual job hasn't changed or been impacted much. Pills and bandages and lotions are pretty evergreen in terms of industry so I can't imagine much will change, but there's always unforeseeables. In the meantime I'm working on completing that surrealist noise album I've been fiddling with piece by piece for the last decade and a half. That's not job related and it's not going to make me any money, I just get bored really quickly of talking about my actual job
Sedric And Charlie
2020-05-14 15:17:26 +0000 UTCMy job is procurement in the hospitality/catering sector. I work out of the catering department for a very well established higher education institution which is of great comfort because the sector as a whole is really taking a kicking. With a little luck my job should be secure. There has been someone in my job role continuously since 1452, I’ve got a archive copy of their ledger on my office wall, so it’ll be a shame for this illness to achieve where the plague failed. The job keeps ticking along. I’m one of only three people not furloughed in the department and we’re keeping the place ticking over, making sure some of the more vulnerable members are looked after and starting to prepare for reopening. Also a lot of budget planning which is really grim work. Catering and the wider food sector won’t come out of this in any resemblance of how they entered. A mixture of working from home and two or three days a week in the building. I had written more about the wider food sector but it got a little too depressing.
Nick
2020-05-14 14:11:53 +0000 UTCAs a train driver I'm a key worker. Some people consider key workers heroes, but in reality we're just doing our jobs (my opinion - don't hate me) and personally I feel lucky to be less restrained than most. Still abiding by social distancing and always practising basic hygiene. Resisting going to local beauty spots for some proper drone video testing.
Colin Jones
2020-05-14 13:21:50 +0000 UTCI've been quite lucky as I'd started lockdown seconded in a social media role for my company so homeworking was a very easy transition. I've had my secondment extended twice and I'm hoping that it will become a permanent role. The rota currently goes up to the end of the year with my name on it, and a few adjusted shifts to convert holiday that colleagues have booked so I'm taking that as a good sign. It's still a little worrying as I'll be going back to work in the call centre if it does end and that probably means contracting the virus, but at least I will have a bit more media experience and have a better CV to apply for other media jobs if that were to happen.
Dominoid
2020-05-14 13:14:37 +0000 UTCI went freelance a couple of years ago now, which has been up and down, mostly down, but we've managed to keep afloat. In October I signed on for a permanent-freelance (as in, I'm not an employee as such but I get a regular paycheque) for a games publisher and things were looking up, but that market has had a wobble with shops and warehouses closing, so my future looks uncertain there. At the moment I'm in a bit of a weird limbo. I'm still producing work with the assumption that it will get printed and sold but we don't know when. My sort-of-employer says that things have started to improve for him, so fingers crossed that trickles down to me. I've got other things coming out from other publishers, so I'm not reliant on a single source of cash, and that's another positive. But all in all, it's a very uncertain time, and given that things were just starting to look good again, it's a bit demoralising.
Kelvin Green
2020-05-14 13:06:47 +0000 UTCIt's been a bit of a blow for us. Bunty's job is animal care, so that's completely dried up. She has one client who is a keyworker and still needs services a few times a week, but apart from that, nothing. My job is different. I've been a home worker for about 10 years and my current company processes foreign exchange stuff and payroll, so it's seen a change in the market. Some folks stopped using it, but some folks needed an online solution to process payroll that they used to do by hand in an office, so it seems stable. It has made me think hard about the next 5-10 years though. I started writing a novel that I'd wanted to write for years, and it was going well, but I decided that the medium wasn't for me. So I've reinvented the story as a retro style pixelart adventure, and I've been using my spare lockdown time to develop that. If I could build a fanbase for it over the next couple of years, I'd love to do it for a living, especially as our expenses are due to be much much lower in a couple of years time. Also world building is what I love to do. The market for very very gay space fantasy adventure games in a pixel art style might not be big enough to sustain us... but I can hope and dream.
Nicola
2020-05-14 13:02:53 +0000 UTC
