Freelance Taxes #2: Five Pitfalls of Filing Taxes as a Freelancer

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Freelance Taxes #2: Five Pitfalls of Filing Taxes as a FreelancerCreative Commons License photo credit: B Rosen

From our ongoing discussion of How to Do Your Taxes as a Freelance Filmmaker:

Filing taxes isn’t as intimidating as it may seem, but that doesn’t mean you won’t make a mistake.

When you’re filing as a freelancer for the first time (or the fifth), there are a few pitfalls you’ll want to steer clear of to avoid paying more than you need to or to avoid an audit from the IRS.

As prepared as you may feel and as confident as you may be, there’s always the chance of misunderstanding some part of the tax code and applying it incorrectly.

So today we’ll cover five specific pitfalls that are easy to fall into if you don’t know about them.

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Freelance Taxes #1: The Basics of Getting Started and Preparing Your Taxes

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Freelance Taxes #1: The Basics of Getting Started and Preparing Your TaxesCreative Commons License photo credit: Ken Teegardin

From our ongoing discussion of How to Do Your Taxes as a Freelance Filmmaker:

Sometimes the hardest part about doing your taxes is summoning the will to start. If you’re like me, you’ll do anything else on your long list of “To-Do’s” before you’re willing to do taxes.

I don’t blame you. Taxes are cumbersome, complicated, and there’s a lot of money to be made or lost. I always feel a little worried when actually filing that I forgot some deduction or left out some info that’ll cost me an extra $100. After all, $100 is several meals (or at least a bill or two).

But alas, you have to do taxes at some point. You’re bound by the law to do them and the government is pretty serious about their deadlines.

So today’s post is all about that initial push and getting started with your taxes: gathering the appropriate forms, evaluating your options for filing, and some tips on prepping for the actual filing.

Ready to get started? Yeah, me neither. But here we go anyway…

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How to Do Your Taxes as a Freelance Filmmaker (Series)

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How to Do Your Taxes as a Freelance FilmmakerCreative Commons License photo credit: 401(K) 2013

The tax man cometh and he wants your money. Seeing that you’re a freelancer, he sees an opportunity to take a little bit more.

When you’re a freelancer, paying taxes can seem like a huge burden. There’s more paperwork to handle, calculations to make, and money on the line. If you don’t wade through the ocean of tax rules carefully, your filing could end up being a tidal wave of epic proportions.

But we won’t let that happen. Taxes don’t have to be as intimidating as they seem. As long as you aren’t hiding your money or using it to fund any crimes, well, you don’t have much to worry about.

With two weeks until last year’s taxes are due, it’s a good time to cover techniques to maximize your return (or minimize what you owe) so that you can focus on your career, not your checkbook.

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The 10 Commandments of Slating

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The 10 Commandments of Slating

Some time ago, long before our cameras were RED and cinema was digital, back in the days when film meant celluloid and the talkies were just beginning, the tradition of slating was in its infancy.

And as the tradition of the clapperboard grew, so did the cries for a singular method — one in which all camera assistants could gather behind and clap their clappers.

What came forth were laws and commandments written by the Lord himself for all camera assistants and clapper-loaders to learn and to follow. With their slates in hand, they waited patiently as, one-by-one, the rules of slating were laid upon them.

These are decrees of the clapperboard – the 10 Commandments of Slating.

Respect them in your mind and channel them on set…

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5 Ways the Camera Department Can Help Avoid “Fix It In Post” Headaches

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5 Ways the Camera Department Can Help Avoid “Fix It In Post” HeadachesCreative Commons License photo credit: Mark Sebastian

Have you looked around on a film set lately?

You might notice that production and post-production are beginning to merge.

Walter Murch, the “Yoda of editing,” often talks about how he doesn’t think editors belong on set. He thinks they need to come to the footage fresh with untainted eyes — knowing in your mind, for instance, that a shot took a whole day to film might bias you into using it.

From a philosophical standpoint, I agree with Murch. From a practical standpoint, especially with low budget filmmaking, I don’t see it happening.

Editors do come on set. And part of that is to smooth the shift from production to post-production.

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Find the Perfect Lighting Gels with These LEE Filters and Roscolux Pocket Guides

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The Dailey Info Gel Pocket Guides

What’s the one thing about lighting you often overlook? Is it placement? Power? Type of lamp?

For our purposes today, we’re going to say it’s lighting gels — the rolls of plastic you cut and slip over a light to change its temperature, softness, or overall output.

And knowing which gels do what is crucial to using them properly.

So Brian Dailey from The Dailey Info has created Gel Pocket Guides: a reference for LEE Filters and Roscolux lighting gels that you can put on your phone or in your toolkit to consult in a pinch.

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Learn for a Lifetime, Not a Product Cycle

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Learn for a Lifetime, Not For a Product Cycle

These days, a lot of filmmakers are obsessed with the wrong stuff.

They spend hours researching cameras, sensor specs, and exploring different rigs. They spend their free time comparing the difference between a $500 follow focus and a $550 one. They look to rumor websites, tech blogs, and forums for answers.

They want to know what’s next and when they can get their fix?

None of this is particularly bad… if you want your film career to be a hobby.

But if you want to be a professional, you’re going to have to dive deeper than these obsessed filmmakers. You’re going to have to do the hard work. You’re going to have to actually learn beyond the product cycle.

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The Empty Calendar Can Be Your Friend

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The Empty Calendar Can Be Your Friend

It’s the empty calendar that scares us. The days without call sheets, the afternoons with nothing to do, and the nights open for drinking with friends.

That’s scary for the freelancer. Scarier than even the most intimidating job.

Imagine a train blowing full-steam ahead and hitting a wall. It’s a similar jolt going from 12 hour days of lugging a camera to not working at all. As you race to the end of a shoot, you have to brace yourself for impact.

Then – boom — you’re at home. Several days go by and you’re quickly wondering, “What’s next?”

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5 Below the Line Lessons from David Fincher’s House of Cards

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Below the Line Lessons from David Fincher's House of Cards

When Netflix handed David Fincher the keys to a $100-million production called “House of Cards,” nobody knew what was going to happen. Would the investment pay off? Would Fincher flounder or flourish in television? Is it still considered TV even if it never broadcasts over the cable pipes?

“House of Cards” is now Netflix’s most-watched title.

Consider me an accomplice to that success: over the course of a weekend, I watched the entire series — exactly what Netflix hoped would happen.

During the post-binge hangover, I tried to quench my thirst for more “House of Cards” by reading interviews with several key members of the production and I stumbled across one with David Fincher that was particularly revelatory.

During the course of this interview with Empire, Fincher drops hints here and there about what it’s like to work with him. And what we can glean from these brief insights are a few tips that will help your career for the long haul. One that, perhaps someday, gets you on a set run by Fincher himself.

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25 Filmmaking Terms that Sound Like Sex Acts (and What They Actually Mean)

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21 Filmmaking Terms that Sound Like Sex Acts (But What They Really Mean)

Filmmaking ain’t always pretty. Sometimes it’s downright dirty.

Well, not that kind of dirty. I’m talking more about getting on your knees in a tight place and doing whatever it takes to pop off a shot… Hmm. Nevermind. This isn’t going well.

But as long as your mind is in the gutter anyway, let’s take the conversation to a place it normally doesn’t go until your 10 whiskey shots deep with a key grip in the back of a shady bar.

Here’s a list of filmmaking terms I’ve compiled that, in a twisted world, would be spoken only in a hotel room with a hooker and a $100 bill. Instead we shout them on set. And in an attempt to make this post tasteful useful, I’ve gone ahead and defined what the actual meaning of the word is…

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