When talking with models, we position Shoot Producers as being experienced creative professionals. That means, models see Shoot Producers as leaders.
We all want to follow strong leaders that make us feel good about ourselves and our place in the team. Humans are sensitive to weak leaders (for example, those who are indecisive; equivocate; “sell out”; go the easy way, not the best way; or disempower others for their own benefit).
When Shoot Producers share uncomplimentary things about the Company (directly, or indirectly) they undermine the Company in the model’s eyes, but they also undermine themselves and their leadership (the model thinks, “If that’s what they say about their employer, I wonder what they’ll be saying about me!”).
We want models to “let go” in the moment of a shoot, to enjoy themselves – this is what customers want to see. If the SP is unenthusiastic about abbywinters.com, the model is less likely to be engaged in making a high quality shoot. The model wants to feel proud and excited by what they have done, the Shoot Producer being buzzkill is a major downer. Shoot Producers represent abbywinters.com.
Anti-leadership examples
Consider some of these examples models have told us things their Shoot Producer said;
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Shoot Producer to a model: “I know it’s childish, but they make me get you to write these bio things…”
- HWB’s add a valuable dimension for customers getting to know the model. They are part of our product that customers read, engage with and comment on.
- Showing a lack of respect for the content models are creating disempowers models, making them feel “small”
- Historically, we have asked models to make these be colourful, which some models interpreted as “childish”, but since 2015, our policy on HWB’s has been much more open (see how we present the concept to models now; and this is how SP’s are expected to present it to models on-set); more info 0n HWBs
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Shoot Producer to a model: “I have tattoos myself, and I would never appear in an AW shoot if I had to cover them up!”
- The model thinks, “She would not shoot for abbywinters.com under these circumstances, but she expects me to!? Doesn’t seem right…”
- Our customers pay us for shoots of wholesome models. Many of our customers see tattoos as a sign of “impurity” – that’s not a “politically correct” view, but it’s the reality we live in.
- Customers are buying a fantasy from us, it’s our job to provide what they pay for.
- Covering small tattoos on some models means models and Shoot Producers get more work, and we can satisfy more customers.
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Shoot Producer to a model: “It’s dumb to do so many poses like this, but they said we have to, so we better do it…”
- Our competitors make shoots with 60% to 90% of the shoot at the model’s highest Posing Level. There’s room for abbywinters.com shoots to be different, but only to a degree (there’s a big risk of going too far – that is, not enough revealing material – and dis-satisfying customers)
- The requirement to do eight poses at the model’s highest Posing Level is a technique to support Shoot Producers in capturing a suitable amount of content at the highest Posing Level.
That’s not to say Shoot Producers should be mindless cheerleaders for the company, and nor is anyone expected to lie! Although we try to minimise it, the Company, the owner and the people in the company frequently get things wrong. Everyone is pretty open about accepting their mistakes and learning from them.
If you have feedback on how the company can improve, share it with the Owner. If you feel like your feedback has been ignored, bring it up again.
Shoot Producers are not expected to be personal fans of the content we produce, but they are expected to professionally lead models to make the best performance possible by empowering models.