Rays Fine Art wrote:
I dunno,

Seems to me that a casting call is an advertisement.  If advertisers posted something that said "Don't come into my store unless you want to buy something" stores would be a lot emptier,  just as photographers would have a lot less choices available to them.

Doesn't take a lot of time, knowledge or skill to just eliminate the ones that don't fit the needs of the job at hand, but it also seems to me that by applying a little time, knowledge and skill to looking over the not-quite-right applicants, the photographer might sometimes either discover another approach or come up with a new idea.

Besides, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast" so you ain't gonna stop 'em.  Might just as well try to find a use for 'em.  Kinda put a little lemonade in your life.

All IMHO as always, of course.

I tend to think in these [flexible] terms.  And I would just put the non-conformers into the category of those that didn't make the cut anyway.  For sure...it would be nice to find someone new to work with on another project.  Miracles sometimes happen.

What I find most amusing are the 18+ castings that call for nudity where non-nude, non-implied models post they are interested.

SayCheeZ!  wrote:
A classic example of what you said can be seen here, most of the replies are priceless:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thre … 585&page=1

It was the funniest damn thing I've ever seen here.  I stopped reading, for now, at page 5 but still have tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

Barry Kidd Photography wrote:

It was the funniest damn thing I've ever seen here.  I stopped reading, for now, at page 5 but still have tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

16 pages !!!!

F O R B E S wrote:

Do people actually pay you? Serious question.

Not exactly sure why'd you even ask that on the OP's post. You can be professional or try to be and send me a message if you are so curious.

F O R B E S wrote:
I saw you sent a message. I deleted it without reading. Don't really have time in my schedule to read messages from people I never plan on shooting. Now I must return to my life. Cheers!

lol that's exactly what I mean about you lol
but I will be the professional one :-)

edit: it says you read it lol

LA StarShooter wrote:
If people are replying to castings on their phones sometimes they will miss details due to the screen format and on some phones it is a diabolical act to download and do other magic tricks.  If it started snowing bunnies while I was on MM I wouldn't be surprised. I would go, "That's enough MM for the day."

There is probably an element of truth to this but the overwhelming majority of models just type the word "interested" and then paste it into every active casting call they can find within a 100 mile radius of their escort's apartment. I've discovered that's way more the rule than the exception.

I wrote an article for the EDU section on casting calls and one of the things I'm adamant about is putting in a Van Halen clause into all my casting calls. This is the fastest, easiest way to weed out the carpet bombers who only go back to read your casting call after you respond back to them showing interest. In every one of my casting calls I always state that I need to have full contact information provided in a private message. Public responses and responses without that information will be deleted. It's a very simple way of ascertaining who is actually interested in working with me and who is not. It works like a charm.

Sometimes though it's hard to stick to your own rules and I'm kicking myself for it right now actually. I'm currently working on a pinup calendar project where the profits will be donated to charity. I've got casting calls out on MM, Craigslist, and other places and, as usual, the responses on MM have been the worst. However I had a glimmer of hope when one stunningly beautiful model responded and said she was interested in working with me on the project. Now, in my casting calls, it's labeled as a TFP shoot, I mention in the description that it's a TFP shoot and that it's for charity, etc. There is nothing ambiguous about this project at all. So I get this email from the model and she says she wants in on the project. She doesn't provide me any of the information I requested but because she so looks the part for what I want on one of the shoots, I thought I'd respond anyway, knowing full well she probably didn't even read the damn casting call. So looking at her portfolio where she is a blonde one day and a brunette the next, I ask her about her hair color and what kind of pinup wardrobe she has for the project. These are the three emails I got back from her as responses:

My statistics are updated Im blonde.

I have a Mariyn Monroe White Dress.

Oh wait I thought this was paid work. Oops

So there you have it. Yet another model who responded first and read second. So to the OP, I feel your pain and even when there are systems we can put in place, ultimately it's up to us to use those to weed out the flakes like this.

If anyone is interested in the article, here it is:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/education/u … ting-calls

Shot By Adam wrote:
UPDATE:

So the model who wrote me several emails before realizing that she didn't read the casting call and wasn't going to get paid on a charity shoot got a simple response from me. I simply asked if that means she wasn't interested.

I was going through my emails today and I see she blocked me. Oh, you just have to love the immature ones. Classic.

You can't read "tone".  I could imagine that some might think your "I simply asked if that means she wasn't interested" comment was intended to be rude and/or snide.

So, you & she ain't going to work together.  Why do you care if she blocks you?  Why bother calling her "immature"?  Why start & feed this thread?  How mature is that?

Looknsee Photography wrote:

You can't read "tone".  I could imagine that some might think your "I simply asked if that means she wasn't interested" comment was intended to be rude and/or snide.

So, you & she ain't going to work together.  Why do you care if she blocks you?  Why bother calling her "immature"?  Why start & feed this thread?  How mature is that?

And blocking could simply be a means of making sure they do not contact you again, since the are "paid only" (I assume) anf you TF.

I use block in that way.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
You can't read "tone".  I could imagine that some might think your "I simply asked if that means she wasn't interested" comment was intended to be rude and/or snide.

So, you & she ain't going to work together.  Why do you care if she blocks you?  Why bother calling her "immature"?  Why start & feed this thread?  How mature is that?

Herman Surkis wrote:
And blocking could simply be a means of making sure they do not contact you again, since the are "paid only" (I assume) anf you TF.

I use block in that way.

That's fine by me.  But sometimes a "paid only" model will do a TF* session -- indeed, I seem to remember Cindy Crawford did a TF* session once a year during her career, to "give back" to the industry.  Also, there might come a time when you can afford to pay for a better model, but you will likely forget that you blocked some candidates.

Sometimes "no" means "no", but sometimes "no" means "maybe" or "probably not".  Closing the door is a choice you are welcome to make, but you might lose some future opportunities.

How does a "paid only" model decide on an exception?  Well, I would guess that she has a previous conversation & exchange with a photographer and is interested in meeting him.  That won't happen when one person blocks another.

David Stone Imaging wrote:
What I find most amusing are the 18+ castings that call for nudity where non-nude, non-implied models post they are interested.

model / read

see the problem?

Chuckle - thanks for the proof!