Working pattern in the television and film industries

Shift work 

Shift work is when a group of people have a rotation of shifts for a set period of time, this typically means doing same task daily.  It can involve evening or night shifts, early morning shifts, and rotating shifts.

An example in the television industry we see shift work happen in news program particular as they always need a camera operator to record the news, an example would be Jon Brotherton as he work for BBC news and does shift work because news program are run 24 hour this is why the have shift work and news program also get news from other countries where their time zones are different. 

Advantage for the employee is that most jobs are shift work so it makes it easy for the employee to get the job, this gives them more job opportunities, it also helps the employee know when they are going to work so they can plan around there shift.  However doing shift work means that the employee does not have that much flexibility, this means that the won't have any choose but to do that specific shift, and the shift time can change which mentally effects as your body clock takes long to get used to specific shift.

Advantage for the employer is that by giving shift work means that they can meet the demand of public an example of this would may be that a television show would be getting high view so they may need to make more episodes fast so this may mean having more people to work at different shit so they meet the demand of the audience. A disadvantage for the employer using shift work is that they have to pay if the employee works more than shift hours, this means the employer paying more money to their employee.

Fixed term 

Fixed term is when the contract is signed for a duration of time by this i mean that they are only needed for a specific time period, fixed term contracts are mostly used in the film industry as all employee's are hired on fixed term basis.

An example of Fixed term would be the director James wan as he recently directed a film called 'Fast and Furious 7' in 2014 and before 'Fast and Furious 7' he made a film called 'Insidious' in 2012 this tells us that James wan did not direct any films in 2013 this tells us that James Wan does not have an permanent job.Director is a fixed term job because they are only need until the movie is completed.

An advantage for the James Wan would be that they  know when they need to look for another job or extend the contract by doing this it allows the employee know when they can take other jobs and it gives the employee flexibility as they take the jobs which are more suited for them. A disadvantage would be that after the fixed term they are not guaranteed another job which means that they will jobless  like James Wan was in 2013, so to prevent this they would need look for jobs ahead.

An advantage for the employer would be that they can hire employee when they need them this will help the employer reduce cost and also allows them to try out different staff so if they do not like the employee they can let them go and look for better employee's. A disadvantage is that you may hire an editor for specific dates so if you do not finish editing by that date you are going to have to look for different editor to finish the film which means starting again this is because the editor may have found a new job to start at that date, this will increase the costs because they have to pay another editor to edit the film.

Office Hours

Office hours is typically 9am - 5 pm job,  Office workers often deal with the paperwork, this applies in both industries as in the television industry you need the admin team to do paperwork and answer phones at the office and in film industry you need the office workers to help do paper works for the film and also answer phones and pass message onto the directors.

An role which uses shift work is mostly office work like production accountant and example of this would be someone like Claire Thoreux because she is production accountant and has worked for films like Hunger Games, production accountant mostly work from 9am to 5pm as they mostly deal with financial paperworks. 

An advantage  for the employees is that they have set timing of when they start and finish everyday this is consistent and enables individuals to plan ahead as they are aware of the times they need to present and being a production accountant has a lot of stress because you need to deal with all the finance of the film this means that they can be stress free after 5pm so they can relax.  However the disadvantage for employees is that sometimes you may not be up to schedule so this may mean not meeting deadline and this may mean working more hours without pay.

An advantage for the employer is that they just pay the production accountant until 5pm this means that that do not have to pay staff for overtime if they take work home or do extra hours. A disadvantage for the employer is that the business will be less responsive because they are only opened certain hours which means if there is an urgent issue they'll have to wait until working hours. 

Free lance

Free lancers are self employed as they work for different companies at different time,they are do not represent any companies and they often have the option to choose who they work for and they also plan their own calender's. 

An example free lance will be the editor , as editor are often free lancers as they are not needed through the whole process and are only needed at post production because  they edit and complete film, freelancers are often used in the film industry as films jobs only occur when the job is needed for example most of the camera crew will be freelancers as they are not needed once the film has been completed.

An advantage for the employee's is that they can negotiate how much they get paid and they can charge extra because they have experience or have been called urgently this give the freelancer an upper hand and as a freelancer the choose when to work so they can look early for jobs so they are still getting paid and they can plan when to take their own holiday. However a disadvantage would be that they may not get all the jobs this will mean them being jobless and not getting paid which can affect the cash flow this is why a free lancer should book in advance.  


An advantage to the employer would be that they can save a lot of money as they only hire employee when they need them for example they can employ editor when they need one this is usually at post production stage and another advantage is that freelancers are often experts as they specialise in specific role. A disadvantage is that a free lancer can leave after the date which was agreed this means that if the editor is not able to complete the film the employer would need to employ another editor and start again, this will increase the cost of the business. 

Irregular Pattern 

Irregular pattern is when do not have a consistent work pattern it varies , this means that you work different times different days , Irregular pattern can occur in both industries as most jobs in the television and films have irregular patterns.

An example of a job that has irregular patterns is a news reporter because news broadcasters are 24 hours this means they have news reporters on call so if they is an incident over night they have to go to the scene and report news from their scene, and another example in the film industry may be that they need to record specific scenes in the night this will mean all the production team working in the night.

An advantage for the employee for having a irregular pattern is that they will be paid extra for working the irregular pattern as it may be unsociable hours and irregular patterns may involve interesting jobs. However a disadvantage for the employee would be they may be asked to come in the night as they may want you to report an incident this will effect your health as you change your body time which is very dangerous as it can lead to mental health issues.

An advantage for the employer would be that they are able to control the hours of the employee's this means the employer can chose when the employee comes to work and a disadvantage would be that you have to pay for the extra hours the employee works this would mean the cost raising of the business.

Hourly Rate

Hourly rate is a specific amount paid by the hour, this means that  you get paid by the amount of hours you have worked and it does not matter how much they work , this can apply in both industries as there are many jobs which pay by the hour. 

An example of this may be a editor from the film industry gets paid £42.82 for editing a medium budget, medium budget films have a budget of 5-15 million this is a lot of amount of money for some people but the film editor but in all the effort to make the film look the best and they are also are paid hourly as they work countless hours to complete the finished content. 

https://www.bectu.org.uk/advice-resources/library/1667 

An advantage for the employee getting paid hourly is that they you get paid for how many hours you work and there are opportunities to work overtime which you get paid for hourly. A disadvantage for the employer is that they hourly jobs are often the lower down jobs. 

An advantage for the employer is that the only pay for the hours their there so this means that if they work less hours you pay less, however a disadvantage is that by paying the employee hourly means that you still pay even if they work less productive as they know there getting paid still, this working pattern does not motivate them.

Piece work

Piece work is when you get money per an item, this means that it does not matter how long it takes they will only pay you on how many pieces you have made.

An example of this would be piece work would be the costume designer as they are often paid per item they produce an example of a costume designer would be Kurt and Bart because they worked for a film called hunger games and got paid for every costume made for the artist and they had to make sure it suit the personality.

An advantage for kurt and Bart getting paid by every costume they design is that they can charge higher products because they'll make bespoke products, they'll also be able to produce quicker as they get used to it which means them making more money as they produce one piece quicker. A disadvantage is that the Kurt and Bart will have to put more effort in as the won't be paid based on time, this means the longer they work on the costume the less the money they make.

An advantage for the employer paying the staff per piece is that the worker will be more productive, because  the faster they produce the product the more money they are able to make, this will help the employer make the staff more motivated to work as they know that they won't get paid until they make the costume. As they charge per piece they often can be very expensive so they cover costs, this will mean the employer paying more for the costume