Photographer
LaMarco
Posts: 904
Berwick, Maine, US
Not sure why I am going to add my 2 cents..
If there is unproven talent than a meeting is a great thing. You can build trust and talk about what would be bad and good ideas for a shoot. Saves time and brain power which I need to work the buttons on my camera. LOL
On the same note, if I was paying money for a model or doing a TFDP with a pro. I would hope it would not matter an dlike it was said here. They could come in and get the job done. If we did get along should not have anything to do with the work. Go stand there look that way try to be sexy and hold till I say otherwise. If they cannot do it because they do not like me, they do not get paid for they did not hold up there end of the "WORKING RELATIONSHIP"
Models are easy, try getting the sun to move about 30 feet to the left or the rain to stop.
Makeup Artist
Camera Ready Studios
Posts: 7191
Dallas, Texas, US
Posted by Brian Kim:
If this is a paid gig? Shoot until you get it right. Shoot everything you have and then go and get more film. Use the shotgun theory of shooting if you have to. Anything to get the result. Shoot until the only thing left on your right hand is a bloody stump.
Never give up. Never surrender. Iron Eagle.
(I wondoer how Louis Gossett Jr. feels about having that on his list of credits?) I agree 100% You can't leave a paid shoot until you get what you came for, and sometimes it's like pulling teeth. I did a job a few days ago, the model was TERRIBLE! she was with an agency, making a great commercial rate but couldn't take direction at all. The art director actually walked off the set...when someone travels from across the country and walks off the set not to return you know the model is bad...the message was, "I dont want her here tomorrow" (she was scheduled for 2 shots, 2 days).
The photographer couldn't give direction because of out door noise and distance between the model and himself, the art director tried, after he left I tried. I think we got it in the end but it was one of the harder shoots I have been on. Models need to take acting classes, honestly, nothing will help you like taking acting classes. Models need to show emotion, be animated, get comfortable in their own skin, the best models I have ever worked with are actors and dancers. It's the art director and photographers job to get across what they are looking for, its the models job to take it from there, a lot of models just can't.
I think it's a good idea on a casting call to not only look at the model to make sure she looks like her card but ask her to portray an emotion in front of the camera and see if she even has it in her to do anything but look pretty.
I know if you're shooting unpaid tests this probably isn't going to fly. Models may not want to take time to meet you before an unpaid test, but on a paid job the stakes are higher and you really can't afford to end up with a model that can ruin your shoot.
Photographer
jimmyd
Posts: 1343
Los Angeles, California, US
how do you go back to the client and say, "sorry this stuff sucks, but the chemistry between the model and i simply wasn't there?"
Photographer
Herb Way
Posts: 1506
Black Mountain, North Carolina, US
My perspective is different because I have the luxury of working with models strictly for myself, not for clients. I've, so far, been spared the bad shoot experience. I mostly credit this to my insistence on open, honest, and effective communication before the shoot which, by the way, doesn't involve meeting face to face with the model. If a model is flaky about returning emails and telephone calls or scanty in her responses, that's usually the red flag that tells me to cancel the shoot and head off a bad experience. I'm still on a high from two really great shoots I did in the month of April (love you Vanessa and Natalia). Both were with models with whom I exchanged ideas via several emails before the shoots. By the shoot days, we were almost like old friends.
Model
Cynthia Leigh
Posts: 799
Orlando, Florida, US
Posted by Brian Kim:
Models need to take acting classes, honestly, nothing will help you like taking acting classes. Models need to show emotion, be animated, get comfortable in their own skin, the best models I have ever worked with are actors and dancers. It's the art director and photographers job to get across what they are looking for, its the models job to take it from there, a lot of models just can't. I will agree, I've been lucky enough most of my life to be as animated as I am (always making goofy faces, etc). I've been told on a few occasions I should branch into more commercial modeling (god I wish I could get my foot in the door), or just flat out do acting period (acting is alright, but I really like modeling better).
I know for my Intro. Drama Class the Professor brought up the story of a Undergrad in Directing trying to produce their final project (a commercial about chocolate). He told the guy that he needed to show "love for the chocolate and try to keep people from taking it away from him". Well, the guy did just that, but it was more of a "I'll beat you up if you get near my chocolate", instead of what the Director really wanted. That's why it's sometimes necessary to use the magic "If".
Ex. How the Director should have told the guy to act was as "if" the chocolate was his long-lost lover and he wished to never be parted from it.
This isn't directed at, but I've found some photographers could benefit from this acting tidbit as well (sometimes it's just bad people, other times, it's improper direction). Heck, I know there's been a few times where I wonder what dimension I go zapped into because nothing was getting through and I knew it was me.
But to make this actually part of the thread: (this post is going to be sooooo long 0.0)
I've had all different kind of situations happen when I go to shoot. I've had shoots with no chemistry. I've had situations that when me and the photographer actually got to be good friends, we stopped shooting completely. I've had shoots where the first one sucked, but photographer me and photographer got along, and we shot again and everything was great. I've had shoots where I guess the photographer was apparently expecting a 6'1, 120lb Norwegian Amazon because he looked at me like I looked nothing like my picture (It's the pink wig, I SWEAR!).
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