Masquerade Fashion Gala 2021 - PROMO VIDEO - EVO II 6K

herein2021 · Sep 20, 2021

For this promo video I used the EVO II 6K for the night aerial video scenes.

Saladshooter · Sep 20, 2021

Where do you get the models for your shoots?

I'm sure ~~Miami~~ I mean Tampa is teeming with them... but are they supplied by the client or an agency?

The drone footage sets the night scene nicely.

herein2021 · Sep 20, 2021

Saladshooter said:
Where do you get the models for your shoots?

I'm sure ~~Miami~~ I mean Tampa is teeming with them... but are they supplied by the client or an agency?

The drone footage sets the night scene nicely.

I am by no means an expert at staffing or talent management but its an important part of getting jobs done. Where I get the talent (models, dancers, actors, actresses, etc.) really depends on the type of project and the client's budget. At the top of the list is the agencies (most expensive), and at the bottom of the list are when the client uses friends and family. In between there's many other sources below are a few (and I've used them all):

Agencies (Best/Most Expensive) - for 4 and 5 figure budgets agencies are the only way to go. The key is to always work with the same 1 or 2 agencies so that you send them plenty of work and they in turn provide you discounts on their rates which makes your proposal look better to the client. With agencies you can pick everything about the demographics that you need, they will be 100% reliable, they will be very experienced, and they will do exactly what you need them to do even if a scene needs 20 takes to get it right, no complaining, checking their cell phones, wasting your time, arriving late, etc.
Unsigned Talent - these are the free agent models/actors/actresses etc. who do not have an exclusive contract with an agency. You can usually negotiate a better rate than going through an agency but you risk them not showing up, showing up late, or getting tired of multiple takes. They are good for short, simple shoots, and for lower client budgets.
Client Provided Talent - Sometimes the client already has done all of the work for you and books the talent themselves. I have a clause in my contracts that states if the client provides the talent they accept the risk of a no show. I have the same clause if they don't have the budget for agency models; I'll make a best effort to source the talent but their budget restrictions means the talent may be late or a no show.
Client Provided Friends/Family/Employees - This is the worst / lowest budget scenario and is the one most likely to have bad results. Friends and family while they have good intentions don't have the patience for multiple takes, don't understand why things take as long as they do, would rather surf their cell phones than listen to the directions, and are most likely to be a no show or cancel at the last second. Employees are bad as well, they are usually camera shy and require 2-3x as long to get a single good take vs a professional so the client ends up spending more than if they had let me bring in professionals.

As far as finding talent its pretty easy if you are in a large enough city. For bigger shoots I have my creative director handle the staffing and she has an even larger network than I do of people to pick from for nearly everything. For smaller shoots I handle the staffing as well and have a pretty big network of everything from dancers to models, to actors, to actresses for nearly everything.

For dancers I simply contact dancing schools and by now have at any given time about 30-40 dancers I can call when I need that type of work. The key is to work with the dance instructors or owners of the studios since they have an even bigger network.

For models I shoot nearly every fashion show in the area and I also have a studio so I have the contact information of models all over the area for nearly every type of job. New models come through my studio all the time for headshots and comp cards and I use that source all the time for projects.

For Actors/Actresses the local colleges are a good resource, if you work with the teachers and art directors of the colleges they have entire classrooms full of students who would love to star in your project; many of them are very good as well. Many colleges even like to see their students work in the industry and the students get credits for working with your company; they are a great resource for many types of projects, hard working and very reliable.

Of course social media is a decent resource as well but I am old school and rarely use social media for talent sourcing; I've found that if you have never worked with a particular talent before or try to recruit on social media for an important project they are the least likely to show up, be reliable, or do what is needed for the shoot. You literally need to book 3x the amount of talent you actually need and even then you will be lucky if even 20% show up.

If I am working for an out of town project where I have no local contacts then I mandate the client provide the talent, I use a local talent agency, or I bring in my own talent with me and the client foots the travel costs. Most of the agencies I work with are nationwide so I usually can still get a discount if they have agency models in the area where I am going.

A final source is casting calls; these are very laborious, time consuming, and will only yield good results if your client has a decent budget; I quit doing them for the most part because by the time the client paid for all of the casting call work they could have just hired an agency model. My creative director still uses them though sometimes if we want to do something quick and last minute like a holiday shoot or informal modelling get together.