When Test Shoots Go WRONG, pt. 3

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MlCEoEDaftVW5pU3BXbVFTcjQ

WHEN TEST SHOOTS GO WRONG

Most people who don’t have experience working with models think this lifestyle is glamorous, filled with teenage nymphomaniacs dragging middle-aged men into drunken orgies; debaucherous weekends that leave you sore and dehydrated with subtle felonies on your record. Sadly, this is mostly (99%) FALSE. 

For all the great test shoots I engage in, hoping to give new and aspiring models a chance, I do occasionally have horrible experiences that make me question my entire life direction. Two weeks ago, I had one of these exact situations.

I was sitting in my office (an unnamed Spanish TV station) and one of our production staff brought in a gorgeous, stunning, drop-dead-flawless Panamanian model, Gianella, to shoot some commercials. Gianella is 21, has family in the area, has a lot of experience modeling (supposedly), and ditches her daughter for months at a time to travel to the US to spend time in California. So okay, right away I was judging her life-choices a bit, but at the very least maybe we could work together and create some great images.

Though Gianella didn’t speak a word of English, the producer talked me up to her and her handlers (her handlers being her 18 year old cousin and her very domineering aunt who was doing a great impression of the worst kind of “Stage Mom.” They immediately checked out my Instagram account and quickly arranged a time with me for a test shoot. So easy! So great! Little did I know…

The plan was for the cousin to join Gianella and me as a translator, then we’d all pile in my vehicle and go shoot somewhere. But nope, the aunt and Gianella wouldn’t go for it. Sure, I can understand not trusting some strange guy you’ve never met, but with the cousin along and my reputation, which they had quickly checked up on, I assumed I’d be given the benefit of the doubt. Uh uh.

So on the day of the shoot there we were caravanning, with the aunt driving the cousin and Gianella behind me, driving so slow I had to continually slow down so she could catch up. I had warned the aunt that it was a fifteen minute drive out into an area of wineries, and that it was dirty and dusty, but she insisted. Once we arrived at the location, she constantly complained about her car had gotten dirty, about how fast I drove, about how much of a bother it was. Even though I’m not fluent in Spanish, I know enough to understand when someone is displeased with me and won’t let it go.

Gianella, too obsessed with looking at herself on her phone or taking selfies, took several minutes even to get out of the car, and when she finally did, she reluctantly agreed to the body suits I had brought, even though I’d sent her images of them the night before and she had agreed to them. She quickly changed in the car and came out wearing underwear with the bodysuit, refusing to wear it any other way. Groan.

Thankfully, Gianella’s cousin was great. Smart, friendly, and apologetic for her family, she was my one saving grace during the entire afternoon’s ordeal. She translated, explained what I meant about certain poses, where to stand for the light, etc. But gianella’s favorite word was “no.” She didn’t like the backdrop I had set up, didn’t want to be in the shade, didn’t want to do anything but take selfies. On more than a few occasions I had to ask her to put her phone down because I was trying to take photos. For the aunt’s part, she too couldn’t stop taking photos of Gianella, clearly more proud of her niece’s looks than her own daughter’s passion for a degree in Political Science. At several points, the aunt stood so close to Gianella as I tried to shoot that she was literally casting a shadow on the model, so I’d have to politely ask her to move. But it didn’t matter, Gianella loved the attention so much, she preferred facing her aunt’s phone camera rather than engage with my lens. At one point I just stopped and frustratingly waited until they had taken their series of photos before I raised my camera again, only to find they didn’t even notice I had paused.

For the sake of going through the motions, I had her change two more times, into another bodysuit and a one-piece bathing suit she had brought. But it didn’t matter, all the shots were the same, and the experience with the aunt and Gianella’s little “Club of Two” made it impossible to shoot anything remotely different or creative or interesting. The pictures presented could have been taken in my sleep, and since I had already been frustrated for months about wasting my time taking boring photos, here I was once again wasting time on boring images. Groan x2.

I did have a few brief glimpses of success, getting her to spin around long enough to catch a few decent reactions. And after she repeatedly complained and made faces, I forced her into the nook of a tree where she posed and later finally admitted that those were her favorite shots of the whole shoot. She even was self-conscious getting out of the tree, so after several attempts of her trying to get down, I had to go and literally lift her onto my back to extricate her from it. I couldn’t wait to be done with these people, though I still had to lead them back to the freeway, continually slowing down once again until they caught up.

Once I finally returned home, I quickly batched out the pics with hardly any retouching and sent them to her to just be done with the whole experience. To add insult to injury, when Gianella did finally post the photos, she repeatedly failed to tag me in any of them, even though I had tagged her on both the image and in the comment section. Believe it or not, a bad shot like this has happened to me so many times, it’s a wonder I haven’t given up on this style of photography long ago. So, there it is!

What did you think of Gainella and how I described the shoot? How would you have reacted in this situation? Let me know by leaving comments in the box below or in my DMs! And thank you again for your continued support!

Here’s that link again: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7MlCEoEDaftVW5pU3BXbVFTcjQ

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