Unit 38 : Self – Management & Professionalism

Self – Management & Professionalism  

Introduction

If you are self-employed you must be able to self-manage and be professional in the way you present yourself and the way you handle your money, and in this blog post certain things about this will be discussed and explained

 

Self-employed – Being self-employed is working for yourself and getting your own work i.e. handing out flyers and social networking to get your name around, being completely self-dependent so that you can handle all of your money at low cost and correctly

Specific Income - Specific income is a person’s employment income for tax purposes

Tax deductible expenses are things that are for work use and not personal use e.g. a new laptop that is used to record or produce music would be a tax deductible. An example of something that is not tax deductible would be a house with no studio because you cannot say it is work related and therefore it would not be tax deductible

Examples

•  Equipment
• Auto Expenses
• Travel Costs
• Equipment Repairs
• Advertising
• Board Meetings (entertaining guests)

 Invoice

 An Invoice is a record for you and the customer of what was done, when it was done and how much is owed, it is very important that an invoice is kept for tax purposes as it will be tax deductible and you can lower what you give if you are the one paying, but if you are the one receiving money it is not tax deductible, because that is money that is acquired because of a job so therefore must be declared

An example of what a Invoice looks like is located below
 

Example of an Invoice


In the example you can see there is a billing address, company name, my details, the money that is owed and a due date. All of this is essential for an invoice, because without this there could be many problems with payment including not receiving any money as there is no due date.

National Insurance

National Insurance - social insurance program in Britain; based on contributions from employers and employees; provides payments to unemployed and sick and retired people as well as medical services
(Definition from http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=national%20insurance)

You pay National Insurance if your profits are above £5,725 and you’ll pay more when your profits rise above £7,755.

Annual profits	Class 2	Class 4
Up to £5,725	£0 but only if you get an exception	£0
£5,725 - £7,755	£2.70 a week	£0
£7,755 - £41,450	£2.70 a week	9% of profits between £7,755 and £41,450
More than £41,450	£2.70 a week	9% of profits between £7,755 and £41,450 and 2% over that amount

(Chart from https://www.gov.uk/self-employed-national-insurance-rates)

Class 2 is paid by direct debit.

Class 4 is paid through your Self Assessment tax return.

E.g.

• If you earn up to £5,725 in annual profits you pay no national insurance

• If you earn £41,550 you pay £2.70 per week and that is taken from your direct debit card so that totals up to £140.4 per year and then the class 4 is paid through your tax return, So the 9% would come out of £33,659 meaning that you would pay £3,056.85 in national insurance and over the £41,450 you would be charged 2% so if u had £100 over you would be charged £2

Working out

Class 2 - £2.70 x 52 (working weeks in a year) = £140.4
£41,550 (profit) - £140.4 (class 2 national insurance) = £41,409.6

Class 4 - 9% of £33,659 (profit left from class 2) = £3,056.85
£33,659 - £3,056.85 = £30,602.15

Total taken for national insurance - £3,197.25
Money left after national insurance -  £41,450 - £3,197.25 = £38,252.75

Tax

Tax - a sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc. 
(Definition from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tax)

Rate	2012 to 2013 tax year		2013 to 2014 tax year
Basic rate 20%	£0 to £34,370		£0 to £32,010
Higher rate 40%	£34,371 to £150,000		£32,011 to £150,000
Additional rate 50% (45% from 6 April 2013)	Over £150,000		Over £150,000

(Chart from http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm#1a)

E.g.

• If I was to get a job producing in the future and earned £28,000 anually then I would be taxed £5,600
• and then the next year i earned £100,000 anually I would be charged 20% for the £34,370 and then for the remainding £65,630 I would be charged 40% so in total you will be taxed £33,126

Importance of Professionalism

If you have a professional approach to the freelance world you would be more likely to be hired and more work would come your way as you'd grow a reputation for being professional.

As a Music Production student I feel that presentation is very key in receiving job offers and actually making money so being professional with your image and money is a way to be successful self-employed, Because if you aren't responsible with your money you are just basically losing all of your profit and potentially losing money. Also being able to self-manage as well  is just as important because you can actually keep track of what you have and how much you owe rather than getting an accountant to check your books for you, you can do that yourself and be able to lower what you are giving in tax.

Also being professional would mean being up to date with social networking sites so that you can market yourself in a professional manner and showcase yourself to a wider audience. Also if you are professional you will know about tax considerations and be able to find ways to reduce your profit therefore you will pay less.

If I was a freelance sound engineer and was hired to master a song and handed the mastered track back late and not up to a high standard i would be risking not being hired in the future by any artists as i did not complete the work with professionalism. But if i mastered the song to the best of my ability and done so on time i would be in a great situation as the artist may hire me again and my reputation as a professional would grow and more work would come my way.

Understanding music for film and TV

Diegetic Music – Diegetic Music is music that is part of the story/film e.g. a radio or an instrumental being played in the film/story is called Diegetic Music

Non–Diegetic Music – Non-Diegetic Music is music that is played in the background to create atmosphere and ambience e.g. A harp being played in the background and it’s not part of the film/story is called Non-Diegetic Music

Wild Track – Wild Track is background ambience of the real sounds recorded in the location of where the film is shot. E.g. a lion’s roar in an African plain is called a wild track

Composition Track (soundtrack) – A composition track (Soundtrack) is built up of sound effects, Film scores and Dialogue.

Foley – A Foley Artist uses props to create artificial sounds to the visuals of the film to highlight the important features in a film. (Voice overs count as Foley) E.g. the noises of punches are made by Foley artists

Temp Track – Temporary tracks are songs that the director would like the composer to make similar songs to.

In this part of ‘I Am Legend’ Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) turns on his iPod and starts singing along to 3 Little Birds, This is an example of diegetic music as it is part of the film’s world and is interacted on screen. The song is playing as a reminder that despite possibly being the last man on earth there is good moments to be had and the weather as well as the song is lightening the mood of the entire film in that one scene and at the end of the scene the sudden realisation of the fantasy world Dr. Robert Neville slipped into has disappeared. The music works very well with the scene as the director is trying to create a relaxed and light moment in a chaotic world and it makes the scene very successful

.

In this part of ‘Green hornet’ Kato has just designed the ‘Black beast’ and Brett Reid and Kato take it out on their first ride together. This is an example of diegetic music as it is part of the film’s world and is started on screen as Brett Reid plays the song and starts singing along. This film is an action-comedy film so the aspect of this scene is to be funny and entertain the viewer and this scene does that so it serves its purpose. The music suits the scene because it is trying to be humorous and it achieves it this piece of music was also a success.

 

 In this part of ‘The Walking Dead’ Dale has been attacked by a walker and is going to turn into one and the only way to prevent that from happening is by killing him. This is an example of Non-diegetic music as it is not part of the films world and is being added over the actual scene. The song is playing with a slow tempo to highlight the fact that a main character is dying and that the overall scene should be upsetting to viewers and emotional hence the music selection, It creates the atmosphere for what is going on

 

In this scene of ‘Hangover 3’ the film and trilogy has come to an end and it is recapping them in their journeys and adventures. This is an example of Non-diegetic music as it is not part of the film’s world and is being added over the clips. The song playing is talking about Alcohol and hangovers and the film is called hangover so in theory it fits and suits the film very well. It creates the atmosphere for an ending.

   

 In this documentary the ambience playing in the background is the wild track that was post recorded by a crew to pick up the animal noises so that they are loud and standout to the audience more. The Wild track used in this documentary works very well as the noises are the noises recorded from the area.

   

 In this scene of ‘Shaun of the dead’ a punch is made to sound incredibly loud by foley artists to add emphasise on how hard the punch really is. The punch at about 0:05 was probably recorded with meat or lettuce. If you watch the scene you can see that they exaggerated sound fits it really well and makes the scene a successful one

Thames Festival: Maracautdo Mafua

London Festival!

The Thames Festival was much anticipated because of recent displays of fireworks and loud samba music accompanied with festival dancers, festive foods, free entertainment and just an overall amazing experience in a thriving talented London.

The Thames Festival was not packed to point of no entering but the turnout was definitely good for a wet rainy Sunday, The crowd was enthusiastic and revved for a day of samba music so the atmosphere was that of a football game with the Brazilian music playing.

The act that I watched was called Maracatudo Mafua, They are a London-based maracatu group which is inspired by traditional Afro-Brazilian rhythm, dance and culture from the northeast of Brazil. They had great poise and great presence on the stage they also had no fear in crowd interaction, getting the crowd to join in on song lyrics although in Brazilian the crowd participated well, The vocals during the songs were sometimes too loud for the speakers to handle and were fuzzy but what can you expect for a free outing?!. The energy on stage was rewarded after every song with a loud round of applause from the audience, Also the dancers provided lots entertainment with fast footwork, twirls, jumping and a high energy performance. A couple of the crowd members were trying to replicate what was seen on stage and here is the result!

The only thing I have to criticize is that the volume of the microphone during songs was low and you couldn't hear the song name being introduced. But overall the atmosphere was not dampened by the British weather, and the aim for the artists was to bring the festival to a small park in London and they definitely achieved that.

Maracatudo Mafua's Website

Thames Festival's Website