Hey guys, a Media Production university student here and would love to ask some advice from people who have experience working in a part time event shooting under certain media company, if this kind of circumstances is normal or not.
Things happened like this, A friend introduced me to a private media company that hires part-timers to shoot photos and videos at events. We only need to submit the footage and photos, without editing. Since this was my first time doing this kind of job, I thought it would be a great chance to gain experience and earn some extra pocket money.
During my first event, the manager who assigned us the job didn’t tell us when we could finish. She just kept asking us to shoot more footage before leaving us alone at that spot. We only found out we could finish after another friend working elsewhere contacted us. Not long, after sending out the photos and videos she’d asked me to, i literally waited almost a month without receiving my allowance, even until now.
Just when I decided to ask the manger about it, my friend called me, saying that the manager insisted me to come to another event shoot immediately, without saying anything. Of course, I rejected it since it was so sudden but then she assigned me to another job involving a three-day event related to Chinese traditional rituals. Once again, she provided no proper briefing or schedule and instead told me to contact “their client” by myself for the details, the flow and the entire event details. She also told me that I will be to handling BOTH photography and videography alone for all three days, offering only half my usual allowance (my first event was RM100 for one day).
Things got worse on the first day when it started raining during the outdoor activities. I was worried about damaging my camera, so I contacted the manager about this matter. However, she insisted that I find ways myself to continue shooting despite the heavy rain, without thinking much of the risk to my equipment.
Honestly, I’m frustrated with how irresponsible the company seems to be when handling its part-timers. I know these jobs could let me gain experience and earn some extra money as a university student, but the late payment, irresponsibility, and unreasonable workload from this company made me question whether this is normal or not.
Okay I’m really dumb and still have a lot of questions about this kind of job since it my first time exposing to part time videographer/ photographer. So I wished to ask yall who have much experience in part time photographer/videographer or freelancers, is this kind of situation reasonable? Normal? Should I just stop accepting this kind of job?
