Freelancer FAQ's

Great, you want to get involved. We do however have a bit of a process to go through! The Sab Network represents the professional side of the industry. Members, (other than assistant roles) require a minimum of 10 years in their job role. They should have credits relating to the main broadcasters, production companies and corporations. Check our current list of members, if you’ve worked with any you could get them to nominate you for membership. Also, we cap numbers in job roles, so you may be good enough to join the network but we’ll have to put you onto the waiting list. Don’t worry, once a space comes free we’ll contact approved members on a first come, first serve basis.

Not at all! We aim to cover all roles within the TV and Film industry, as long as you have the right level of experience and the right attitude, we want you. The network exists to provide freelancers practical marketing services to broaden their reach and ultimately increase their client base. Just being on our site will hugely increase your online presence, and it’s been specifically designed to work for crew bookers and freelancers, but we’re more than just a website, as cool as it is. We believe passionately in the abilities of our members, we know they’ll exceed our client’s requirements so we want to sing about that and we have the ‘techy’ experts to make sure that happens. When we introduce a new job role, we do a ton of SEO work to support it and thereby ensure visibility. Call us and let’s have a chat.

Once approved, membership currently stands at 24.99 per month plus VAT for full roles, half that for assistant roles. This is subject to change, but always in consultation with our members and there’s no extended contract to sign to be a member, members are with us because what we do works, not because they’re tied into a contract!

Absolutely not! Once approved based on your experience, we don’t ask you to sign anything. Members are with us because what we do works, not because they’re tied into a contract!

Simply put, exactly what a freelancer needs. Owner Stu Bruce is a Sound Recordist and Sound Supervisor and has worked as a freelancer for more than twenty five years, he wanted to take a fresh look at what would make a difference to an experienced freelancer. Basically, we get you out there. Effective marketing and increased visibility with the aim to broaden your client base. A lot of dull and very nerdy stuff goes into making that happen but we’re also still at the end of the phone to assist production companies and our members. Plus a ton of other stuff, why not give us a call to talk about it?

It’s a big advantage, but not the only way. If you can demonstrate high levels of experience and professionalism then we’re interested. Call us up and let’s have a chat.

We normally ask for a minimum of five years but more important to us is the right attitude. We aim to facilitate and exceed our clients’ requirements every time, our crew are not cheap but they are the best, ultimately we know this experience pays back in terms of results. If you feel you fit in this group give us a call and let’s chat.

No problem, give us a call and we’ll sort it out for you.

Fantastic, it’s a bit of work but will definitely pay you back. Remember, every word you add to your profile becomes discoverable by search engines. Once you’ve created an eye catching profile page you can choose credits to ‘expand on.’ Basically write about your role within that project. You can use technical terminology and remember that good SEO writing is constant reassurance of the subject matter, so repeating general insider terminology is a good thing. (As long as it makes grammatical sense!)

The idea behind Social Media output is that it should be constantly changing. Our Social Media Managers are continuously coming up with fresh ideas and keeping abreast of those changes and trends within the major platforms. And each platform requires a different approach, we tailor this to suit and we monitor analytics to check effectiveness and adapt output accordingly. Film and TV is great subject matter but it’s the ‘behind the scenes’ position of crew that makes our output stand out. Funny definitely works as does anything with animals but hey, it’s Film and TV, we can make pretty much anything work for you! Remember that Social Media output is about grabbing attention, it’s short lived when compared to blog posts or profile expansion but we’re pushing it out to a large targeted audience of potential new clients.

Absolutely you can, but just be sure to credit the agency who did provide the booking in your post. Remember, we’re here to handle your marketing because we believe we can give you the greatest reach and be most effective at it. We wouldn’t be able to do that if we restrict you to only posting for Sab jobs or referrals but we’ll make it very clear on any post who did crewed it. The reputation for high standards is something we believe should be carried through to everything we do.

You’ll receive notifications in a couple of ways. You’ll receive an SMS to your mobile, this will contain a link that will take you to the job on your Web Based App. From here you’ll be able to view the details of the job, check your availability and answer with either ‘Interested’ or ‘Unavailable’. This is immediately sent back to the booker. Once the booker sees who is available, they can either book you straight away, call you directly or message you through the App. Only initial enquiries are sent via SMS, subsequent conversation is initiated by the booker and ‘Interested’ members should monitor their messages for any updates or questions from the booker. (We stress to bookers that where members are working on other projects, replies to queries will not always be instant.) All job notifications and bookings will also be confirmed automatically by email.

Yes you can, we have copywriters that can do this for you. You can also go a step further and combine this with an SEO specialist, they work with the skills of the copywriters to ensure what is written attracts the right audience. Just drop us an email if you are interested in learning more. The Sab Network takes no commission for this service.

As the aim of the network is to always provide to best solution for bookers, search results are ‘weighted’ by the closest match to the criteria. If the job is low on detail and has many members weighted equally, members are displayed randomly. Speed of initial reply is often important where start dates are imminent but we encourage bookers to give time for replies where schedules are not as urgent. We understand how difficult it can be to manage enquiries whilst working on other projects so we try and make this as simple as possible.

We definitely want to facilitate bookers searching for local crew, we encourage members to include the name of their closest city and county within their profile. This can be read by search engines where bookers have entered that city as part of their search. It is however very complicated to create a system that understands proximity to a given location for multiple entities. We therefore instruct bookers looking specifically for local crew to enter this and the location into the notes section of their job posts. Members who have mentioned this exact location in their profiles will be displayed first however, no member will be excluded from a search result based on their location. We ask however, that when a client has specifically requested local crew, you only answer with ‘interested’ if you are within a reasonable distance of the location.

Yes you can, just put in the details of the job, you can choose at which moment you share the search results with your client, either once you’ve chosen someone you’d like to replace you or before selection which allows your client to decide who they want. Either way, the system is very clear from whom the referral comes, both to your client and the member/s replacing you. We make very clear that when a member is selected as part of a member referral, any future opportunities are passed back to the referring member. For members to trust their fellow members with their clients it is vital this rule is adhered to and any member not doing so will be removed from the network.