clients who use text messages for hiring/job info for a gig

[PCMsoundie]

I wanted to bring up this topic as in the last year or two it's become more and more of a way some clients start communication for a job.

Last week I noticed a thread on a TV cameraman board

The new terrible: Texting assignments, no followup.

While that is a more of a complain-type thread and fairly related only to news type work assignments it prompted the idea to start a thread.

Some regular clients send a text message asking if you are available for a certain date which seems fairly fine when you have already an established relationship and rate with them. This works well when you can reply with a text message to put a day or two on hold.

I may ask them to use email to send all the job details. (so I can have the info, email address, etc.)

Sometimes I'll get a text message where its some phone number asking if I'm available for a date. No job info, no name, no company name, nothing. This I try to address with encouraging them to call me and put my full name down (especially if the job is only a day or two away).

It could be a production assistant tasked with sending a message or making the 'calls' to see who is available and not even the person who is actually hiring me anyway.

Sometimes I'll get a text message asking about a date and extremely minimal info about the job for someone I haven't worked for in many months or years.

Seeing that this board handles everything from IATSE scripted narrative shows, scripted broadcast TV, documentary, reality TV, corporate/industrial videos there are all different types of clients (from production managers, to producers, to camerapersons, to production coordinators doing the hiring).

How do you guys handle text messages from TV clients and do you try to steer clients from that point on (after the initial text message) to using email or a phone call to discuss an upcoming job?

[Jeff Wexler]

For the jobs I do, texting is not an issue (thankfully) but I think what you are talking about comes mostly from the underlying sloppiness of the whole "texting" process. The messages you mention that have limited info may be that way because the new P.A. (who probably ONLY communicates via texting) just doesn't bother to keep those thumbs working a little longer.

I would be interested to see how others, like yourself, are dealing with this since your very livelihood depends on getting these jobs and responding properly, being prepared for the work, etc.

-  Jeff Wexler

[imagist]

This is a disease that's spread slowly but surely - using text, and email rather than phone calls combined with not committing to anything until the last possible minute, but it could get worse and use Facebook as well!

I had to get push email working properly on my phone earlier this year or simply lose work.

Of course the people organizing the hiring are often sitting offices where email / texting are ubiquitous.

And there's very little understanding that it might be useful to communicate some idea of what the job is so that many of us who have a range of gear can tailor and prep. kit specifically for the job. etc. etc.

It seems to be getting more like - 'We'd better get someone on sound', send out a number of texts or emails, see who responds first........

ges u hav 2 go wth da flo

[studiomprd]

the OP covered the real estate well...

a quick text from a known client with a date inquiry, or even a date change is quick and easy, but I want a phone or email followup to confirm and add info...

once booked and confirmed, a text may modify call time or location, so it ends up being an advancement on the old pagers, which have pretty well disappeared.

If I don't know who it is, or what the gig is, it is just an initial contact or inquiry, just like it used to be on my pager, and it requires proper follow-up to become anything more...

[old school]

I mostly receive phone calls 1st. 2nd would be emails. I have received txt messages inquiring my availibility, as well as a couple on Facebook. I'm OK w all of it as long as work is the end result.

CrewC

[John Blankenship]

Yep, it's a changing world.

The scenario that puzzles me is when a client (even a good, established client), carries on a protracted 10-12 message text or email exchange when one 3-minute phone call would solidify all the necessary details much quicker.

John B.

[imagist]

.......

The scenario that puzzles me is when a client (even a good, established client), carries on a protracted 10-12 message text or email exchange when one 3-minute phone call would solidify all the necessary details much quicker.

John B.

That is also very true, but the mechanics I suppose are quite different, with a text based exchange SMS/email you can tap it out, throw, forget, and move on to the next thing with an illusion perhaps of getting more done. Also a text based exchange might be more easily 'mosaiced', prioritised and scheduled in an office whereas with phone calls you actually get locked in to speaking to one person for an unpredictable amount of time. I have'nt worked in an office with a long list of 'to do's' but it's probably got a lot to do with office convenience? Whereas when you're out on location a protracted SMS/email exchange is a PITA as we know.

[Eric Toline]

I don't think I have a "text" phone.

Eric

[Jeff Wexler]

I don't think I have a "text" phone.

Eric

You don't.

[Bondelev]

This is very much divided by age. I have students who check their e-mail once a semester (literally) even though the university mandates this as the primary method of communication outside of class. They expect to be able to text me any time and get an immediate response. I was wondering when this would become the norm in the professional world. I think it’s inevitable.

Remember when cell phones were new, and nobody wanted to give the numbers to clients because they didn’t want to be bothered late at night?

[chriskellett]

Yes, I agree that the methods of communications have changed and perhaps not for the best at times.  The issue that I have been seeing lately that has caused a few issues is the idea that late, last minute changes in call-times, directions, locations ..... any of the these types of things is being communicated via text or email with the assumption that people check these things at all hours of the day and night. 

[Eric Toline]

You don't.

Oh good, thank you for clearing that up for me.

Eric

[John Moore]

I've been frustrated by spending much more time texting & re-texting info, when a short conversation would suffice... I've even tried calling a PA who was texting me (although she couldn't see me- I could see her) and she just let her phone go to voicemail without a second thought. It's not like she was busy, she just "never answers her phone"!

John

[studiomprd]

" the assumption that people check these things  "

there is that ass-u-me thing again...

it is only really ok if I (or you) say it is OK.

there are a lot of times and reasons it is OK, but it is an individual thing, and as always, "it depends"...

an example from the old days, this was a major show, but could be a smaller project just as well... that I'm updating to today:

I'm day playing tomorrow, and they won't know the call time until they wrap, sometime before dawn, when they will be going to sleep.  no problem,  when you have the ncall time, leave me a message on my answering machine and I'll get it in the morning.  or more recently: just fax it, or email it, or text it... see)

frequently when we are on set we don't answer our phones...and maybe especially if we don't recognize the caller ID, or expect the call...

an oh, yeah, TXT messages are kept short  and simple

[pverrando]

Nameless text received 11:30pm Friday night: " I need a sound guy for tomorrow/Sunday. Can you help? What's your rate? This is a big shoot."

[studiomprd]

" This is a big shoot "

and your response??

[BWilson]

I think texting may even been a cost saving measure. Rather than make an initial call, it's cheaper and easier to text. Then, wait for a reply, usually a phone call in my case to find out more information about the job, get the producer/director's details so I can speak to them. Then they send an email with the relevant details of the shoot. Total cost - a few dollars to book a crew.

The booking agency I am with uses texts as a standard form of communication realizing the cost issues, and most people have phones on silent.

As long as facebook doesn't become the norm, I only check my facebook page once every few months. I had better go check it, maybe I've lost alot of work...

[Jan McL]

In features/tv, some (including me) have become facile @ using txting for initial inquiries. Totally saves time from the set to send a single text to all the usual suspects. If you don't have/use texting, you're certainly missing or will miss work as a result eventually.

Younger colleagues are more aware of who's working where, when, and who's available because they're in touch via text / IM / email. Aspire to that.

Sure, there are downsides; it falls to us to turn those on their heads.

-- Jan

[OutstandingSound4Picture]

It's a generational thing.

The kids live through their LCD screens.

I remember recording a live rock show at a club a few years back in Boston. The back of the room was lit up and looked like fireflies on a summer night. Everyone was texting and reading their messages and not paying much attention to the music.

I get texts and emails out of the blue all the time. My stock response is  "CB". No call back, then the job really wasn't there.

And FWIW the text solicitations are usually for $100 a day sound gigs anyway.

[Adam Douglass]

I get job offers via text fairly often. They're almost always from repeat clients, which doesn't bother me at all. Sometimes, it's even preferable to a phone call, since I generally can't answer the phone while I'm on set. If I were to get a text from someone I'd never met before, I might be mildly annoyed, especially if they didn't identify themselves. It wouldn't stop me from considering their offer, though, assuming that the offer was reasonable.

[RPSharman]

I will text boom ops or utility people to check availability.  Sometimes it's because I know that the people I am asking are usually working.  A text will give them a chance to text back, which may be way more convenient than a phone call.  Other times, I just don't feel like a conversation.  I just need the information.  Maybe that's a bit rude, but when I am day-playing, I might need to ask quite a few people if they are available.  A bunch of phone calls, messages, return calls, is just not logical to me when texting is so simple.

I have never been sent a text by production asking if I am available, but a few of my mixer friends (young and "less young") will text me checking if I am available, perhaps for the same reasons I noted above.

Robert

[pverrando]

After entertaining many cute responses, I settled on "Sorry, I'm booked."

" This is a big shoot "

and your response??

[Marc Wielage]

If it's somebody you KNOW, I can deal with texts. Strangers -- no way.

What kills me are the morons who have no clue on how to communicate in emails. I'll ask for specific dates and locations, and get nothing but vagueness in response: "sometime around the end of November...  locations are a doctor's office and a restaurant... probably three days."

What does this mean? Idiots.

--Marc W.

[studiomprd]

"  I settled on "Sorry, I'm booked." "

diplomatic...

I'd have done: "how big?"

[Steve Grider]

After this thread started, I asked some of the producers I work with why they sometimes prefer to hire via text message.

They said that on average, people respond faster to text messages. The text alerts them from their phone, which is almost always on their person. Some folks still don't have smart phones, and they check their email only after they arrive home, sometimes 12 hours after they left.

They also cite that texting can be more discreet, and that many dont like to have out-loud conversations regarding their next job while they are supposed to be working on their current one.

The texts I usually receive are inquiries of availablilty, and all pertinent info about the job is then sent via email. I have received call time information via text when there was a last minute change. It was sent to everybody on the crew via text. Everyone who didn't respond to the text were then called to verify they had the new information. In instances like this, it can be a very efficient mode of communication for producers to spread information to the entire crew.

I was slow to jump on the texting bandwagon, but when I realized that this was becoming a preferred method of communication, I embraced it and all the business it brings.

Steve Grider

Location Attenuation