Thursday, January 27, 2011

Annoying Tales of Freelance Writing: The Q&A Delay

Aside from reading books and watching movies, sometimes our intrepid blogsmith moves away from his comfort zone and attempts to drum up work as a freelance writer. The following is the latest in a series of posts detailing the perils of his job.

About a month ago, I was offered the chance to interview a recent Golden Globe winner, among others, for a recent film. It was a dandy of an opportunity. About two weeks later, I e-mailed to see a screening of the film and for the press day, then followed up with the PR person. The screening and interviews were on Monday, but I figured no one would schedule both at the same time.

Days passed and I didn't hear anything about either possibility. The Thursday before, I get a mass e-mail from the publicist: The screening will be at 12 p.m.; the press day will start at 1:20 p.m. The movie is over two hours long and in in different parts of the city, an arrangement that makes no sense.

I write back to the publicist that I can't make it. The next day I get another mass e-mail from the publicist: The screening has been pushed up to 10 a.m. I then e-mail the head of the agency--whose e-mail is CC'd--about whether I can attend both. At this point, the original publcist has not responded directly to any of my queries.

He writes back immediately, saying that he'll forward my request to the original publicist. Awesome. Back to square one.

On Saturday afternoon--two days before the press day and screening--I finally get an e-mail from the publicity agent...about a completely different movie that we had discussed weeks ago! I respond that I will review that movie, but could I please interview said star and recent movie.

I spent the whole weekend waiting to see if I was in. I never heard back. Guess I'm not as big a wheel at the cracker factory as I thought.

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