Easy identifier: There is none. You have to check references.
These creeps are the hardest ones to pick out. They have status and money and they know you to use this to get what they want. They are also smart and normally have people around them to help them with things. Most part of the usual homework does not come up with any warning signs:
Can you find them/him on the net: yes
Does he have a company: yes
Does he have a legitimate reason for using models: yes
Is he well-known/famous: maybe
Does the his name <-> phone number match when you search on yellow pages: yes
Do they have a professional website: yes
So if you are a model that actually do your homework, you have to remember two really important bullets:
Does he have a good reputation?
Can you trust your source or is it just gossip?
These questions are the "only" way to blow their facade. You will have to find a first-hand source, a reference who actually worked for him. The rest can be gossip. Since they are smart and they have a lot to loose if their Creep-side come out, they do not try stuff on all models. Just the ones they can use when no one is watching.
Let me describe some I have encountered.
You get an job offering or a casting call for a bikini-shoot for a well-known brand of bikinis. It is even the owner himself that is doing the casting. You Google him and you find pictures of him in the press, at high-end fashion shows and his brand's advertising is really good with top-notch models. After doing your homework (but you forgot to check a reference) you feel more secure, so you contact the guys.
The owner is nice over the phone and you accept the shoot.
The only funny thing is that the casting will be at a hotel rather late one evening.
When you arrive there, you are not directed to any venue, but up to a room. After knocking on the door, he opens only wearing a robe, holding two glasses and invite you for champagne...
You are contacted by an director from India looking for models for his next film. When searching on his name you find him IMDB, in quite a few Indian magazines and websites. You are then contacted by his assistant and he books your ticket and stay in the European city he will come too. It feels a bit awkward to go alone to another city but you think it would be soooooooo much fun to be in an Indian movie so you take the risk.
You meet him in some fancy restaurant over lunch he is paying for and later you follow him on some meetings, since he wants to get to know you for real before deciding. He says this is how he works.
During your time togehter he gets more and more "friendly" and personal, and you keep following him to more meeting, dinners and gatherings. All of a sudden you get it: you are his bunny! His catch. His jewel he like to show up to others to brag.
If you do not stop here you might end up washing his dick in the shower...
Whenever you decide to bail, he will continue to call you, send you messages and invite you next time he comes to in Europe. There is a bit of Mr. Stalker in him too.
You really consider to call the Indian magazines and his family to tell how he really is...
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep Mr Nice Facade out?
*Trust. Since we will gather information from everyone who worked with each other, the chances are higher that Mr Nice Facade's cover with break. Sadly, any feedback system rely on honesty on all participants to be good. Irritation, personal vendettas and friendships should not affect ones voting.
The upside though, if it works at least OK, is that you will be able to get information from many Talents quicker than it gets to even call one reference.
Any normal user of Models-n-Shoots can see individual's and company's Trust level. The voting is anonymous but traceable. That is, we at Models-n-Shoots can dig deeper into comments and se who voted, to be able to stop misuse or investigating creeps, but other users just see the level.
Three people have to give feedback before any Trust level is shown, to ensure it is not possible to guess who voted and one biased voter does not affect your first shown level that much.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Monday, September 06, 2010
Creep of the Day: Mr Shoot first-Pay later
Easy identifier: Oh! You want your pictures? Feel free to come home to me and discuss it…
So you check his portfolio and he has good pictures.
OK, it is mostly Glamour, or tits-n-ass as we call them, but he is good with lighting and locations. It is not that much variation but the shots are really nice, maybe a bit too much filter on the skin, but hey, that is a style that is good to have n your portfolio.
So you arrange a shoot. He is charming. Or even a little more than charming. It is like he is testing you. He is making some akward personal sex jokes, shows a lot of interest in you, put his hand on our back not that spontaneous.
He shows you the pictures in the camera and the raw pictures look good so you are happy. Now you just have to wait for the pictures, and since he does extensive work in Photoshop, you know it may take a while.
After getting tired of waiting you start asking him about them. His reply is that you should come over. You ask why? He gives you some hints. You start to get a bit upset, so and tell him that. Then he starts arguing that you have to show him some appreciation since you got the shoot for free. He tells you he wants to go out for a beer at least. You first think: "Just some drink is maybe worth it", but you don't really want. When you say no, he gets angry and abusive. Saying you have no chance in the business; that you are unprofessional!
I think you get the idea. You will get pictures, but you will have to pay for it. Somehow.
And just like many of the creeps, as soon as you go against his wishes, he turns aggressive. To get you to feel bad and push you in his direction. Imposing guilt is affective.
Mr Shoot first-Pay later is hard to spot. He may have a registered company, be registered for and pay VAT, have his phone number visible, have a nice web page with lot of other models and so on.
One way to pick them out is to chat with them for a longer time before booking anything. The best though: ask other models! Try to see if you recognize models in his portfolio. There may even be linked to their's portfolio.
If you don't find one yourself, ask him about who the models are in some pictures you like/chosen in his portfolio. Then you ask if you can contact them as a reference.
If he gets irritated here: that is a serious warning sign.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep Mr Shoot first-Pay later out?
*Trust Level. Models-n-Shoots has a function for Trust feedback. Anyone who have worked together on an Assignment can vote on Trust one week later. The voting is anonymous for the regular users but specialized staff at Models-n-Shoots will analyze the voting to find if someone just trying to be bad or if a group is trying to help each others with high votes.
So you check his portfolio and he has good pictures.
OK, it is mostly Glamour, or tits-n-ass as we call them, but he is good with lighting and locations. It is not that much variation but the shots are really nice, maybe a bit too much filter on the skin, but hey, that is a style that is good to have n your portfolio.
So you arrange a shoot. He is charming. Or even a little more than charming. It is like he is testing you. He is making some akward personal sex jokes, shows a lot of interest in you, put his hand on our back not that spontaneous.
He shows you the pictures in the camera and the raw pictures look good so you are happy. Now you just have to wait for the pictures, and since he does extensive work in Photoshop, you know it may take a while.
After getting tired of waiting you start asking him about them. His reply is that you should come over. You ask why? He gives you some hints. You start to get a bit upset, so and tell him that. Then he starts arguing that you have to show him some appreciation since you got the shoot for free. He tells you he wants to go out for a beer at least. You first think: "Just some drink is maybe worth it", but you don't really want. When you say no, he gets angry and abusive. Saying you have no chance in the business; that you are unprofessional!
I think you get the idea. You will get pictures, but you will have to pay for it. Somehow.
And just like many of the creeps, as soon as you go against his wishes, he turns aggressive. To get you to feel bad and push you in his direction. Imposing guilt is affective.
Mr Shoot first-Pay later is hard to spot. He may have a registered company, be registered for and pay VAT, have his phone number visible, have a nice web page with lot of other models and so on.
One way to pick them out is to chat with them for a longer time before booking anything. The best though: ask other models! Try to see if you recognize models in his portfolio. There may even be linked to their's portfolio.
If you don't find one yourself, ask him about who the models are in some pictures you like/chosen in his portfolio. Then you ask if you can contact them as a reference.
If he gets irritated here: that is a serious warning sign.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep Mr Shoot first-Pay later out?
*Trust Level. Models-n-Shoots has a function for Trust feedback. Anyone who have worked together on an Assignment can vote on Trust one week later. The voting is anonymous for the regular users but specialized staff at Models-n-Shoots will analyze the voting to find if someone just trying to be bad or if a group is trying to help each others with high votes.
Friday, September 03, 2010
Creep of the Day: Mr Grand Ideas
Easy identifier: I have some super-cool ideas for a shoot!
You talk with this photographer over a coffee and he is bubbling with ideas. You are gonna shoot by a lake with super-nice clothes, dressed as a nun in an old house, these high-fashion shots at a place he knows about, super-sexy glamour shots in front of a steel wall and more. Then he sends you an email with top-of-line photographs from world-famous photographers with super models to show you what he intends to do.
Then you check his portfolio.
One half-happy "model" with no make-up just standing next to a tree in a poorly lit picture. Another one with a semi-fit girl in a bikini on a beach, and just behind her is a thrown away white plastic bag.
You then realize, he may not be a creep, but his mind is way ahead of his talent.
It takes time and effort to become a good photographer. And it is the result that matters. That is one of the best things with photography. Now one really care how you got the shot! You can have spent hours and hours on it and people just go "Naah.". Some other times you just go out in the back-garden of the make-up artist's house, snap with a Lastolite reflector, and people go crazy about it!
Even if you fill the model with 1,5 liters of beer, yourself with just as much, watch her drunk and naked/semi-naked add more and more baby-oil in the rented hotel room, crank up sad music and bite her on the neck to get the mood right-it still wont be seen in the picture! But hey! It's fun and the result was AWSOME! :-)
And you know what? There was no plan. For the best shot of the night, I did not use any of my expensive light gear, just the surrounding much-to-yellow lamps in the hotel room.
I aimed for bringing her beauty out and show the honest her. I think I did since even her mom loved the shot! (I guess she did not give the details of how we got it.)
So what I am saying is: If the height of the ideas are not seen in his portfolio - skip him. If you see something you like in his pictures, try to get him back on the ground and maybe you can work out some pictures that will improve yours and his portfolio.
Trust results - not ideas.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep Mr Grand Ideas out?
*Not good enough pictures-not accepted. Go home, try harder, come back again.
You talk with this photographer over a coffee and he is bubbling with ideas. You are gonna shoot by a lake with super-nice clothes, dressed as a nun in an old house, these high-fashion shots at a place he knows about, super-sexy glamour shots in front of a steel wall and more. Then he sends you an email with top-of-line photographs from world-famous photographers with super models to show you what he intends to do.
Then you check his portfolio.
One half-happy "model" with no make-up just standing next to a tree in a poorly lit picture. Another one with a semi-fit girl in a bikini on a beach, and just behind her is a thrown away white plastic bag.
You then realize, he may not be a creep, but his mind is way ahead of his talent.
It takes time and effort to become a good photographer. And it is the result that matters. That is one of the best things with photography. Now one really care how you got the shot! You can have spent hours and hours on it and people just go "Naah.". Some other times you just go out in the back-garden of the make-up artist's house, snap with a Lastolite reflector, and people go crazy about it!
Even if you fill the model with 1,5 liters of beer, yourself with just as much, watch her drunk and naked/semi-naked add more and more baby-oil in the rented hotel room, crank up sad music and bite her on the neck to get the mood right-it still wont be seen in the picture! But hey! It's fun and the result was AWSOME! :-)
And you know what? There was no plan. For the best shot of the night, I did not use any of my expensive light gear, just the surrounding much-to-yellow lamps in the hotel room.
I aimed for bringing her beauty out and show the honest her. I think I did since even her mom loved the shot! (I guess she did not give the details of how we got it.)
So what I am saying is: If the height of the ideas are not seen in his portfolio - skip him. If you see something you like in his pictures, try to get him back on the ground and maybe you can work out some pictures that will improve yours and his portfolio.
Trust results - not ideas.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep Mr Grand Ideas out?
*Not good enough pictures-not accepted. Go home, try harder, come back again.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Creep of the Day: The GWC (& PWC)
Easy identifier: I have a camera. You have tits.
How can you not be amazed by an offering like: "You look really sexy. I have a Canon EOS 300D. Shall we take some underwear pictures?"
I can not really call this guy a creep. He is just stupid. He has a huge interest in the model not in images.
In the old days, when sex was free and webcams used by corporations, buying film was expensive. So even if you could afford a camera, you had to waste a lot of money on film and spend hours in a darkroom or even more money on development labs. Then, you had to have access to a scanner to get them digitized, retouching away dust and if you used negative film, it was a really hard to get the colors right.
Not fun!
But it kept the idiots away from it.
Today, they buy a cheap camera and sign up on a community as a photographer.
You can really see them sitting there, drooling in front of the computer, looking at you and other models, thinking they just have been super-smart and will trick any lady they send a misspelled message to.
"Ooohh... Boobs! Maybe she will go naked. Maybe I will see a nipple! Aaaahhhoooohhh!!!! Darn. I have to change again."
Thankfully, they normally give up pretty soon after not getting any luck. But for you, dear model, there are always new ones signing up, resulting in a constant flow of idiotic messages from a retard with an empty portfolio and a stolen picture of a tree as their personal picture.
Gaah!
"Hi! I am Morre! I am here to revoke your camera and shove tripod up your ass!"
Bonus: PWC (Photographer With a Camera)
(OK... Careful now, Morre... You can step on some toes here...)
As mentioned about, the GWC has a huge interest in the model but images: not so much.
There is a half-breed out there: the photographer with a huge interested in the model.
Some you can identify by their repetitive portfolio: same picture - different model. Usually c1 or higher nudity level. Often good pictures though.
But it is cool! They are a part of a well-established system with a base of droolers: some guys are really interested in staring at super-retouched girls with stiff smiles and big boobs -> they buy a magazine with these pictures -> the magazine use the money to pay a photographer good at those pictures -> the best ones are the ones with the highest interest in these type of pictures.
But! These pictures are actually good for you as a model to have in your portfolio too. But remember that last magic word: too. If you only have these types of pictures you might get pigeonholed as a glamour model, and will not get other types of assignments requests.
The PWC is seldom a real creep. I only know a few half-creeps. You know, the type that, when a bit drunk, are chatting up 16 year old girls in open chat-rooms bragging about how they work for a well-know glamour magazine.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep The GWC out?
*No pictures-not accepted.
*Not good enough pictures-not accepted. Go home, try harder and come back again.
How does Models-n-Shoots try to help the model to not become pigenholed?
*Maximum Nudity level on Primary pictures are c1 (bikini); Maximum Nudity level on Secondary pictures are c2- (topless but no nipples). These are the first and second pictures a customer will see of you and by not seeing juicy pictures, the look at you more as a model for any type of work.
*You can upload pictures up to Nudity level c3 (nude with slightly shown genitals) (like Playboy) but a customer will only see pictures up to Nudity level c2-. But here is the nice part: If a customer send you an Assignment Request for a job with higher Nudity level, lets say c3, you can reply No (not interested), Yes (interested) or Maybe and by replying Yes or Maybe, the customer will get access to your pictures with corresponding Nudity level.
Here is the scale
c0 (fully clothed)
c1 (bikini or underwear)
c2- (topless, but no nipples) Female only
c3-- (nude but no nipples, no genitals)
c2 (topless) Female only
c3- (topless nude but no genitals) Female only
c3 (nude with slightly visible genitals)
--- not allowed on Models-n-Shoots ----
c3x (nude with explicit showing of genitals, or hardon)
c3xx (nude with toys or help with hands or friends)
c3xxx (intercourse)
So if you answer Yes or Maybe on an Assignment Request with Nudity Level c3-, the customer will get access to your c2 and c3- pictures.
By this system, you can let Playboy see your nude pictures by saying Yes to their AR, but The Shop Next Door's AR with nudity level c3 and pay EUR 10, you can just deny and they never see any pictures with higher nudity level than c2-.
How can you not be amazed by an offering like: "You look really sexy. I have a Canon EOS 300D. Shall we take some underwear pictures?"
I can not really call this guy a creep. He is just stupid. He has a huge interest in the model not in images.
In the old days, when sex was free and webcams used by corporations, buying film was expensive. So even if you could afford a camera, you had to waste a lot of money on film and spend hours in a darkroom or even more money on development labs. Then, you had to have access to a scanner to get them digitized, retouching away dust and if you used negative film, it was a really hard to get the colors right.
Not fun!
But it kept the idiots away from it.
Today, they buy a cheap camera and sign up on a community as a photographer.
You can really see them sitting there, drooling in front of the computer, looking at you and other models, thinking they just have been super-smart and will trick any lady they send a misspelled message to.
"Ooohh... Boobs! Maybe she will go naked. Maybe I will see a nipple! Aaaahhhoooohhh!!!! Darn. I have to change again."
Thankfully, they normally give up pretty soon after not getting any luck. But for you, dear model, there are always new ones signing up, resulting in a constant flow of idiotic messages from a retard with an empty portfolio and a stolen picture of a tree as their personal picture.
Gaah!
"Hi! I am Morre! I am here to revoke your camera and shove tripod up your ass!"
Bonus: PWC (Photographer With a Camera)
(OK... Careful now, Morre... You can step on some toes here...)
As mentioned about, the GWC has a huge interest in the model but images: not so much.
There is a half-breed out there: the photographer with a huge interested in the model.
Some you can identify by their repetitive portfolio: same picture - different model. Usually c1 or higher nudity level. Often good pictures though.
But it is cool! They are a part of a well-established system with a base of droolers: some guys are really interested in staring at super-retouched girls with stiff smiles and big boobs -> they buy a magazine with these pictures -> the magazine use the money to pay a photographer good at those pictures -> the best ones are the ones with the highest interest in these type of pictures.
But! These pictures are actually good for you as a model to have in your portfolio too. But remember that last magic word: too. If you only have these types of pictures you might get pigeonholed as a glamour model, and will not get other types of assignments requests.
The PWC is seldom a real creep. I only know a few half-creeps. You know, the type that, when a bit drunk, are chatting up 16 year old girls in open chat-rooms bragging about how they work for a well-know glamour magazine.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep The GWC out?
*No pictures-not accepted.
*Not good enough pictures-not accepted. Go home, try harder and come back again.
How does Models-n-Shoots try to help the model to not become pigenholed?
*Maximum Nudity level on Primary pictures are c1 (bikini); Maximum Nudity level on Secondary pictures are c2- (topless but no nipples). These are the first and second pictures a customer will see of you and by not seeing juicy pictures, the look at you more as a model for any type of work.
*You can upload pictures up to Nudity level c3 (nude with slightly shown genitals) (like Playboy) but a customer will only see pictures up to Nudity level c2-. But here is the nice part: If a customer send you an Assignment Request for a job with higher Nudity level, lets say c3, you can reply No (not interested), Yes (interested) or Maybe and by replying Yes or Maybe, the customer will get access to your pictures with corresponding Nudity level.
Here is the scale
c0 (fully clothed)
c1 (bikini or underwear)
c2- (topless, but no nipples) Female only
c3-- (nude but no nipples, no genitals)
c2 (topless) Female only
c3- (topless nude but no genitals) Female only
c3 (nude with slightly visible genitals)
--- not allowed on Models-n-Shoots ----
c3x (nude with explicit showing of genitals, or hardon)
c3xx (nude with toys or help with hands or friends)
c3xxx (intercourse)
So if you answer Yes or Maybe on an Assignment Request with Nudity Level c3-, the customer will get access to your c2 and c3- pictures.
By this system, you can let Playboy see your nude pictures by saying Yes to their AR, but The Shop Next Door's AR with nudity level c3 and pay EUR 10, you can just deny and they never see any pictures with higher nudity level than c2-.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Creep of the Day: The Bragger
Easy identifier: I worked with this, this, this and this!
You get a strange offer of going abroad for a bikini shoot or something and when checking his profile it is full of text. Not that many pictures, but text. And it is all about "I have work with magazine Y, I have work for magazine Z" (strangely they are competitors), "I have worked with this premium super-model, I am the 10th best bikini photographer in the world" and so on.
But when you look at the few pictures he have they are not that good, you do not get a lot of hits when you Googled him (or just strange ones) and the bikini calendar you are suppose to be part of is sold on some obscure web site with way to high price tag.
One Bragger had a wordy profile on a Swedish modeling pictures community and it had been there for a while. In that profile he stated that he had worked with basically all the major new magazines in Sweden. It was so obviously a lie, but since it stayed there, I realized others may trust it! So I called the first four magazines on his list. After four calls and four e-mails later, he was contacted by four pretty pissed off lawyers. Five days later his profile has changed. :-)
The amazing thing is that NONE of the vast numbers of models he contacted, did their homework! No one contacted any of his references! For f'ck sake, if someone actually writes down references, USE THEM! And for the ones that do not have any reference, ask for one or more and check them up. Any good photographer can can spew out a bunch and a good newbie will admit that he does not have any references yet.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep The Bragger out?
*You can not write anything on a Models-n-Shoots' profile. Models-n-Shoots is about the work. If you, as a Talent, have not worked enough to have pictures, you are not just qualified. "Is he good in bed? Don't know, but he say he is." With a reference and "it is all about work" the obvious comment is: "Shut up and suck!" :-) (No, we do not have Assignment Requests for that...)
*To contact a Model you have to be a customer, and there are not ways to contact a Model unless she/he has answered Yes or Maybe on an Assignment Request. If you as an individual are an Assignment Request Sender (customer Role) and a Photographer (Talent Role), you can send out Assignment Requests where the salary is set to zero, since you then can send out portfolio shoot AR's. If you as a Model get an AR about an portfolio shoot, you just look at the Assignment Request Sender's pictures and answers Yes, No or Maybe. No words can push you in any direction.
You get a strange offer of going abroad for a bikini shoot or something and when checking his profile it is full of text. Not that many pictures, but text. And it is all about "I have work with magazine Y, I have work for magazine Z" (strangely they are competitors), "I have worked with this premium super-model
But when you look at the few pictures he have they are not that good, you do not get a lot of hits when you Googled him (or just strange ones) and the bikini calendar you are suppose to be part of is sold on some obscure web site with way to high price tag.
One Bragger had a wordy profile on a Swedish modeling pictures community and it had been there for a while. In that profile he stated that he had worked with basically all the major new magazines in Sweden. It was so obviously a lie, but since it stayed there, I realized others may trust it! So I called the first four magazines on his list. After four calls and four e-mails later, he was contacted by four pretty pissed off lawyers. Five days later his profile has changed. :-)
The amazing thing is that NONE of the vast numbers of models he contacted, did their homework! No one contacted any of his references! For f'ck sake, if someone actually writes down references, USE THEM! And for the ones that do not have any reference, ask for one or more and check them up. Any good photographer can can spew out a bunch and a good newbie will admit that he does not have any references yet.
How does Models-n-Shoots' Creep Defense try to keep The Bragger out?
*You can not write anything on a Models-n-Shoots' profile. Models-n-Shoots is about the work. If you, as a Talent, have not worked enough to have pictures, you are not just qualified. "Is he good in bed? Don't know, but he say he is." With a reference and "it is all about work" the obvious comment is: "Shut up and suck!" :-) (No, we do not have Assignment Requests for that...)
*To contact a Model you have to be a customer, and there are not ways to contact a Model unless she/he has answered Yes or Maybe on an Assignment Request. If you as an individual are an Assignment Request Sender (customer Role) and a Photographer (Talent Role), you can send out Assignment Requests where the salary is set to zero, since you then can send out portfolio shoot AR's. If you as a Model get an AR about an portfolio shoot, you just look at the Assignment Request Sender's pictures and answers Yes, No or Maybe. No words can push you in any direction.
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