One of the biggest things I’ve had to adjust to since going freelance is the wild variation in how much I can influence a campaign once it has been sold in. I’m always at the coalface when the idea is generated, but I’m rarely around come the day of the shoot.
The upside of this run-and-gun approach is that I get more work out. If you’ll forgive the crass metaphor, it can be a bit like the life of a sperm donor. I have lots of babies. But sometimes you see one of them out in the world and damn - the kid is ugly.
Other times it turns out great. Other times it turns out fine but is a bit unrecognisable - all that has survived from when I worked on it is the end line or something. The child unmistakably has my eyebrows, but nothing else. It can feel a bit odd to claim it as my work. And yeah, sometimes that munchkin is a minger. In those instances, it can feel as though this is the downside to freelance. Not being there for the kid! Not being around to shape it, and protect it.
In the end, I get a bit more philosophical, and more practical - am I sure I could have really changed the outcome had I remained involved? The answer I usually arrive at, if I’m honest, is no. Of course I would’ve made passionate arguments for this or that piece of music, or edit choice or whatever. And my CDs would’ve been in fierce agreement. In fact, they probably made most of those arguments in my absence. But the harsh reality is that the success rate of changing a client’s mind about such things is super low. Even as a full-timer, when I was a very doting father to ideas, there are these other Fathers and Mothers - with the Big Daddy being the client. Their opinion trumps all, as it should - they’re paying, and it’s their brand. And whilst you can usually win a couple of the one percenters, arguing the bigger bits - the kinds of decisions that can turn a brutish bub beautiful…well, I think that opportunities for persuasion are far more limited than most of us can bear to admit.
But maybe I’m just not persuasive enough.
I’m certainly a deadbeat dad.