The TV Word for the Day: “Permalancer”
By Garland Waller
It’s always good to see the alums come back to COM. It’s especially heartening to see young people from the Television program who get jobs right out of the gate. And it comes as no surprise that Dana Cyboski (2006) is one of them.
Cyboski was in Boston shooting a New Kids on the Block live concert for VH1. Having hired some COM students as production assistants for the weekend preparation and shoot, she made one last stop at her old stomping ground to talk about her nascent career.
Cyboski’s list of credits impressive: She has freelanced for MTV, VH1, the CW, and Precision Event Group, just to name a few. And the shows? Well, let’s just start with Fashion Rocks, Hip Hop Honors, The Concert for Diana, 46664: The Concert for Nelson Mandela as well as concerts with Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige. That’s the short list. The long list is, well, long…. very long.
Cyboski said that she, like many of her fellow students, feared the life of freelancing at first. It seemed too risky.
“When I first started working at MTV, I was on staff as a "permalancer". I was scared of being a freelancer early on, but was lucky enough that I was signed on for a year at a time. Things changed fast though. The way it worked was that I was a permalancer on a Friday and came back to work on Monday, but as a true freelancer and I have been freelancing ever since.”
Here’s the part that surprised many students in the audience.
“Freelancing is actually better,” Dana revealed. “Yes, you have to be a good negotiator, but it can actually be better financially.”
Grauduate student Divya Nair wrote about the revelation afterward. “I was surprised to find out that freelance work wasn't the scary beast I assumed it was -- as long as you have a good reputation.”
As a production coordinator and soon to be production manager based in New York City, Cyboski looked back on her classes at COM in the Television program as the place where she got a good foundation. “I think Hothouse Productions (FT 505) and TV Management (FT 517) were the classes that helped me the most. I took scriptwriting and other electives, but for me, for what I wanted to do, those classes were the best.”
She admitted that even though Hothouse Productions was a challenging course, the skills she developed as the Production Manager were invaluable. She and her group worked on a video for the Boston Fire Fighters’ Burn Foundation. “So many things went wrong, but I learned how to deal with changes.”
The toughest part of her job now?
“Well, there’s so much you can’t know until the last minute,” she said. “Things are always changing. Maybe the contract isn’t signed even as the concert is beginning or the talent doesn’t feel like taking the private jet your company ordered and it just sits on the runway and your company has to pay for it. That’s frustrating.”
Cyboski said her life is both exciting and exhausting. She is sometimes on the road 20 days out of the month. It might be Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Phoenix or Miami. She never knows, but she is a woman on the move. She’s the first to get to the concert location and the last to leave. She works hard and she loves it. Whether permalancer or freelancer, she’s enjoying – and booking – the bright lights for the big cities.
