Being paid as a freelancer

Being a freelancer requires a lot of work. The money is not the reason for why you do it. It's too hard for it, if you are only searching for financial satisfaction. However, it IS important to have it in mind if you do plan to continue creating your art.

Although I have done free work in the past, today it's just something I never do except if there is any real value that can justify my time and expenses.
I have turned down more work than I have accepted because, during the very beginning, I learnt that sometimes the project idea is amazing but the work is never finished; or you just find out that the director/producer just wants to keep more money for himself by having you work for little; or they actually just don't care about their project (strange, right?). Moreover, they just might want free work and not care for you at all.

The thing that remains a constant is that they try to justify it by saying "There is no payment involved but your work will be promoted and you can use it on your portfolio". - Let me tell you now that that's RARELY the case with free work.

This video is a bit of a rant and aggressive but it does provide some good points.

So, which ones do you accept? Personally, I do my homework. I try to research more about the person contacting me, know their portfolio and if they have actually done something worthy of my time - as I only work on projects that I personally believe in. I also try to understand their personality. Are they just talkers or actually do-ers? Who is being paid? If they are, why am I not? Is the project being shown/marketed in a public place with people that would want to hire me? Is my name going to be an "above the line" credit? Will bills and investments, entangled on working on a project, be covered in the end and still be able to make some profit?

This research once helped me during the earlier process of my carreer. I was hired to compose for an iTunes game and they wanted 20/30 min of music in exchange for a % of the game's profit. 20/30 min is a lot to compose and requires a lot of hours per day throughout various days and even weeks. I did some research about their sales and found out that they were close to none and could never pay me anything close to all that work.

In the very beginning, it is important to get experience and if you believe the project is worth it, then do it. However, don't diminish yourself by always working for free. You also need to think about profit as it is the only way you are ever going to pay your bills and even upgrade your equipment to be able to produce better quality work.