What should my on-set attitude towards the shoot be?
Overall, the SP’s attitude on set should be constructive and positive. Their energy and enthusiasm is high – not manically high, but never negative or even just neutral.
SP’s are driven to make the best shoot possible for customers, they are enthusiastic about collaboration with the model, and are excited to capture the next part of the shoot in the best possible way.
There can be a tendency for people at work to “bitch” about their job, the nature of the tasks, the company, their boss or co-workers. While that’s fine to do amongst other Shoot Producers or Model Liaisons (so long as it’s respectful), it’s never appropriate to denigrate the company or its people in front of models.
Doing so undermines the company / people, and demotivates models to do a good job (causing the model to wonder if they have made the right decision to work with the company), refer friends, or come back for more work.
That’s not to say that everyone has to be “happy happy happy” or fake all the time – it’s appropriate to share the emotions of the day together with models. For example;
✅ I had planned an outside shoot today, I found the perfect location that was quiet, private, and looked exquisite this rain has really wrecked those plans 😔. But, I have a backup location we’ll use instead, and it’s pretty good too! 😊
It’s appropriate for Shoot Producers to be positively engaged in the process, but also honest. For example;
Shoot Producer Steve is really not into feet – he prefers to never touch other people’s feet, and does not look when he washes his own feet. Rather than present his “feet are gross 🤢” mentality to the models he shoots, he uses a different tack:
✅ Feet are not my preference, but yours are well groomed 👍🏽, so I think we can capture some good material for foot fetishists today! 👌