A fundamental principle of our Levels system is the concept of “mastery”. When Shoot Producers can demonstrate they have mastered the requirements of a given Level, they can advance to the next Level. A major mistake leads to losing all accrued points, encouraging SP’s to be careful with essential elements of a shoot (as true Masters are).
We assess mastery by assigning points, which are assigned based on each shoot’s assessment.
| Points assigned | Action |
|---|---|
| +1 | 🥇 The shoot meets all assessment requirements. |
| 0 | 🥈 One assessment area does not meet the requirements in a minor way. The SP's current points balance do not change. |
| -1 | 👎 Two assessment areas have minor issues, or one assessment area has a major issue meeting the requirements. |
| Reset to zero | 💩 Missing a Basic Requirement, or 3+ assessment areas do not meet requirements |
Some examples of applying points;
🥇 SP Dan makes a shoot that is well-assessed, and meets all the Basic Requirements of that Shoot Type. Good job, Dan’s assigned one point, and is one step closer to completing his mastery of that Level.
SP Kelly makes a shoot that is well assessed in most areas, but one assessment area has been addressed poorly. She’s assigned 0 points for this shoot, meaning she’s no closer to – or further away from – mastery of this Level. She chalks up this shoot as a learning experience.
SP Courtney make a shoot that has significant issues with two assessment areas. That indicates she is not aware of the importance of the assessment areas to making a quality shoot, and she’s further away from mastery than we previously assumed. She is assigned -1 points.
SP Robert submits a shoot that is missing a Basic Requirement (a fundamental need that all shoots of this Type must show). His points balance resets to 0.
Shoot assessments and a running balance of points is stored in a Google Sheet shared with the Shoot Producer. The points balance for a given Level is calculated on a per-shoot basis, and a running total is shown.
Major issue: Points reset to zero
Resetting a SPs point-count to zero could have a major effect on a Shoot Producer’s progress to the next Level. Imagine this scenario;
10 points are required to master Level 3 (that is, when 10 points are assigned, the SP graduates to Level 4).
A Shoot Producer had earned 7 points from the past 11 shoots, submitted over the past nine months.
The SP submits an Open Leg Solo shoot with only 40% at the maximum Posing Level (the Basic Requirement is 50%).
A Basic Requirement was not met, so the points counter resets to zero.
All that work over nine months is not wasted (the SP was paid for those shoots, and they added value to the site), but the SP is significantly set back in their mastery efforts advancing to Level 4.
Restting a SPs points balance to zero is always carefully considered by Shoot Reviewers, and decisions are not made lightly. Exceptions may be granted in some situations, and decisions can be appealed by Shoot Producers, to be reconsidered.
Examples of a Points Reset to 0 situation include;
-
Common to all shoots
- Significant tech problems
- Under-exposed in a way that cannot be fixed in post production without degrading the image quality unacceptbaly
- Audio track has unwanted audio (eg, kids screaming, construction noise)
- Video scene shot mostly zoomed-in (or with a long lens)
- Poor exposure thoroughout
- Significant tech problems
-
Solo shoots
- A pattern of missing Must Haves
- Posing Level percentage not met by a significant amount
- [Other Shoot Types to be added in the future]