I was wondering from those who write and do scenes, how do you come up with ideas for plot lines or whatever kind of reasons are used to make a mess out of the person on camera?

So far I've managed to write 10 including dialog, what's used, when, and how much, plus overall ideas for three more. We've used six and I don't think it'll be too long before we video again so I'd like to keep on writing. Just not sure what to think of.

Have you seen something another producer has done that you'd like to improve on? See something on TV you'd like to try yourself? Is there a model, a setting, an outfit idea you'd love to run with?

Inspiration comes from literally everywhere. Just don't try to force ideas out of yourself. I don't think that works. But recognize when you're moved by something and develop that feeling.

I mean, this is the Million Dollar Question: How do you write a good WAM script?
It's not easy and there's a reason most scenes now are clearly unscripted (or there's a "setup" and the model just improvises everything). Personally, I love a well-written setup and scripted escalation, but also that's my thing, right?

I will say, I shamelessly stole from stuff I liked when I first got into WAM.... Mainstream TV show pie scenes and so on. I definitely recycle the same ideas (and scripts?!?) with different models if I like the concept, as they inevitably come out different.
And sometimes you just have to get inspired. I mean, the SAW Parody that everyone liked was just me watching the first movie and thinking, "What if Jigsaw made a girl smash pies in her face instead of something violent and awful?" And that amused me enough to run with it.

You know what else helps? Specific wardrobe. If I see a model with a really cool look in one of her pics, that might inspire a whole script.... and then you have to convince her to, um, "replicate" said look again. (That was Jasmine, who had some great pics of her wearing just a loincloth and holding a bow & arrow in a stream.... which inspired the whole stupid "Nature Girl Vs. Bear Man" scene.)

I don't know if it's taboo to borrow ideas that someone else has done and tried improving upon them? It's not recreating I guess but not sure if there some kind of etiquette I'm unaware of.

Outfits, yeah my wedding dress led to a really good one this weekend. I have one for an awesome prom dress ready to go and another kind of in work for a bridesmaid. There are definitely a couple of producers whose work I really like, it's the right sort of combination between what's used, how much, and what the model is wearing.

I really depends on your reason for writing the script. For me personally, I write entirely based on what I've seen and what I like, and what I would like to see done. Granted, I do this entirely for my own personal enjoyment, as I do not have the means to be a producer, although I will occasionally get customs based on my ideas. Having said that, if you are struggling to come up with ideas and are intending to produce content, it might be better to request audience suggestions and then write round that. Also, if you intend to produce, I wouldn't worry too much about writing dialogue, as the more a model has to act, the less genuine the scene will look usually. My scripts tend to have dialogue intended to tell a story, but if they were ever to be produced, I would sideline most written dialogue in favor of candid reactions, because that's what works best to me. That's just me, though; I can't speak for everyone's preferences and desires.

Creatives get inspired by their contemporaries all the time. They're not attempting a shot-for-shot remake of what another producer has done (I think creative pride would prevent them from doing that), but I bet a lot of producers out here got their start because they saw something another producer did and said to themselves, "I can do that better." That's natural and so long as you're not plagiarizing or disrespecting your inspiration I don't think there's an etiquette violation.

Go to Netflix or Hulu and you'll find plenty of movies--great original movies--made in the last 10 years that a serious film buff could draw back to a director or writer from the past.

I've often thought about the way specific substances are delivered. Slime generally falls from above, mud gets fallen into and pies get thrown. So what about mixing it up a bit? Throw a bucket full of mud, pie a different part of the body, fall into a slime puddle. I seldom see anything other than what's always been done as far as delivery of specific substances.

What about a gunge tank with oatmeal in the container waiting to be dumped over the participant? Why is it always the same stuff used the same way?

That's not even getting into writing scenes, but just one way to be creative and inventive and have something new to offer.

Your thing is a good thing. It would be great to get to that point because there's genuinely good chemistry going on in the interactions. What we did was at the setup + continued dialog throughout level.

Those are some good ideas, I've never thought of it that way! I definitely had work on my mind with the first day on the job one because I was thinking about what would be fun to use with a nice dress that I wear to work. Swimsuit / wedding and prom dress lent themselves to what I wrote. Maybe start by coming up with things I have to wear, then work on what at least makes a little bit of sense for me to look that way and fill in the details.

I've had to stop a couple of times to add to a Notepad file I have with this stuff on it so it's definitely a good way of looking at it. Thanks!

I'm writing for myself which may make things harder. Not exactly a producer yet since nothing has been completed and put up for sale... Luckily there's no acting involved when it comes to the actual meat of the production because I do actually want to be there. Reactions are quite genuine

I'll have to try the give the audience a go thing later because they'll come up with things I'd never imagined for sure.

I think I get what you're saying, I did do a swimsuit / lounger chair at a resort thing because I'm pretty sure I've seen variations of it done on Slapstick Stuff and Pie Zone (& others?). Likewise with the higher/lower card game but I made my own rules with wrong guesses and made sure to stack the deck. There's for sure other things I like that have been done, just haven't found a way to make them different enough I guess.

I don't write scenes (apart from a custom idea I posted that I realized is pretty out there), but I'll maybe come up with what I would want the person to be wearing and go-off of that.

For instance: I'm going to go off my usual trail and do a short dress with a cardigan.

Possible scenes-

First-year teacher gets nominated as some sort of initiation thing for the yearly pie-a-teacher fundraiser without her knowledge. In an unfortunate twist, they're out of ponchos, and she doesn't have something to put on over her shirt. They also accidentally go conservative with the pies for the first 2-3 teachers. She's last, so she gets most of the pie, which just happens to be 10+.

Could also go meta. She's a frequent contributor to this forum and always talks about how she's secretive about her fetish. Her bridesmaids somehow find her account, and decide to cap off her bridal shower by turning her into a human wedding cake.

Another idea-she's at a very casual wedding.
- her table is right next to the desert buffet. the waiter, who just happens to be the ex of her SO/date, "accidentally" accidentally knocks the very very large bowl of liquid chocolate over on her.
-her date/SO confesses her love for the bride during the speak now and she runs out of the venue in despair. Just happens to be a downpour, and between that and the mud puddle she falls into because she's in heels, her outfit gets just a little messed up.

Haha, I did the lounge chair scene for the first time with Elle.... 15 years ago?! That was as simple as me saying, "Well, I'm shooting outside, I'm dealing with sun anyway, and I have a lounge chair. I could probably make a skit with that."
And customers seemed to love it, so I did variations with a ton of different models over the years.... All the way up to Bre and Yezzica I think. The last one was shot inside, with brief blue screen and Scarlet complaining about how resort scenes look so fake now. So yeah, it came all the way around to meta.

ANYWAY. You can rip off anything of mine that you want. I consider it flattery.
That said, I stopped posting scripts on my site because at least one producer started using them in his own scenes, word for word.
So yeah, maybe don't do THAT.

It's just like a mystery novel. Start with the girl saying "I don't know" then work backwards!

Many of mine are rip-offs from [that show we can't talk about but you know which one]. I almost always pick the girl first and then tailor the scene to them so I can include their natural mannerisms. Otherwise it's hard to say exactly how a script comes to fruition. I guess focus on the hottest parts of your favorite scenes or fantasies, and then say ok, how would a girl end up in this hyper-specific scenario?

Keep it simple. Models don't get paid enough to learn reams of dialogue, so they're going to paraphrase anyway. There was one writer who became notorious for coming up with ridiculously detailed scripts, and attending shoots, then grumbling at the models if they changed a single word.

You could always pay someone else to do it for you

I'll gladly write scenes for people if money is involved. Practice for me in using my creative juices and maybe I'll be able to finally imagine a scene featuring an item of clothing other than a maxi dress.

That raises an interesting question: how much should models be paid if they were learning dialogue?

As I understand it, there are 3 levels of actors:
* Background/supporting artist (stand in the background in a crowd scene, might say something but it's not counted as dialogue)
* Walk-on artist (might have a few words, but the detail isn't important, so the actor can paraphrase)
* Featured artist (lead actor, specific dialogue)

In the context of a WAM video, the models would be equivalent to a featured artist.

There are unions who set minimum rates: Equity (in the UK) and SAG-AFTRA (in the US). I found an article from May 2022:
https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/how-much-do-actors-get-paid-in-the-uk-74998/
"For independent productions the daily rate is £352.50, plus an engagement fee of £557."

In the US, I think a typical video would fall under the Short Project Agreement:
https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-supports-indie-film
"In order to qualify under the Short Project Agreement, projects must have a budget of $50,000 or less, a running time of 40 minutes or less, no more than 30 days of principal photography, and must be shot entirely in the United States and its territories."

So, that would be $216/day for "day performers":
https://www.sagaftra.org/rate-sheet-short-project-agreement

There's a longer list here:
https://blog.assemble.tv/the-guide-to-sag-day-rates-and-sag-minimums
The rates go up to $1088/day for theatrical releases (with a total budget exceeding $2,000,000) but I don't think that would be the case for anything that's being sold here!

More generally, I don't think actors get paid specifically to learn their lines. I.e. that's something they have to do on their own time, and their daily rate (on set) is supposed to reflect that. They'd also typically give a cut of the money to their agent.

If the actor does rehearsals, the rates might be a bit lower. E.g. this page has the BBC Equity agreement (about halfway down the page).
https://www.thecastingnetwork.co.uk/rates.asp
Background actors get £83.80/day (for filming or rehearsals).
Walk-on actors get £103.60/day (for filming) or £83.80/day (for rehearsals).

That page also mentions a £17.50 bonus for "wet down" (presumably if they're filming a scene in the rain); again, that's for background/walk-on actors, so it might be more for lead actors, and I'd expect an extra bonus for pies/gunge. Similarly, it makes sense that nudity would bump up the minimum rate.

I don't do scripted videos but I have hired and have ongoing working relationships with professional actresses. Generally speaking, they would ask for about the same whether they're modeling or learning a short scene. Actors have a remarkable talent for learning lines and while that's not an insignificant skill, the idea is you're paying them well because they're appearing in your video, not necessarily because they're learning lines. If you offer good pay in the first place, asking actors to act shouldn't be a problem.

Bringing it back to the original topic: a great way to get inspiration is to ask your talent. People love being asked "What do you think?" If you create a fun collaborative environment (i.e. not barking orders or just giving them a bathtub and telling them to sit down and shut up), once the day is done, they'll be happy to give their thoughts on things you could do next time. Shooting a video--especially if you're one-man-banding the entire production aspect--can feel like a solo endeavor and the girls are just there to take pies and your money, but the right models will be on board with helping you grow. Reach out and ask, you may be surprised at the ideas you get.

Ooo I like these, very much appreciated!

Anytime if you're ever looking to do a scene in a maxi dress (or any super casual dress), I'm more than happy to give you ideas.

It's an unusual way of doing things but I'm the model and come up with scenes + all details (dialog, what I'm wearing, things used, their order, ...). My friend has the cameras, software, enjoys doing video work and also added a scene idea along with something he wanted to see used.

The advantage of this arrangement is that there's no question whether the model will agree to all the details in the scene Asking a couple of very close friends for ideas isn't out of the question. We all know each other's interests and one of them even offered to help once. Maybe something along the line of 'I'm meeting person XYZ who I think is into one of my friends' things, but the person is actually into wam and surprise, that's what ends up happening instead.' You've given me something to write down.

Hey now, I do have one in the 'thrift store stuff I bought to get messy in' part of my wardrobe. I do try to stick with sweet stuff though.

Have you ever done wetlook? I don't know how close you are to Myrtle but there's a theme park there with a boat squirt game that you're pretty much quarantined to get soaked on. A few rounds of that and you could frame it as a "was on a date, decided to try it out, got competitive and five rounds later I was soaked".

Yes, I was contacted by someone reputable here and I'm working on it. Their standards are very high, I'm still working on meeting them... this is something I should be doing faster.

Dirty Myrtle is about two hours from here, up hwy 17. We don't have anything like that at the local beach towns in Charleston but they're sort of a different vibe. What about in a lounger near a sprinkler? It's the wrong time of the year but it would definitely be thorough and kind of a slow burn if it was the kind of sprinkler that sweeps back and forth.

Thanks, that's very helpful!

I've been making practice videos at home to try and get that smidge of acting ability. It's definitely there when I get hit with something because that's my natural reaction. The setup and my speaking skills need work; I'm not animated or natural enough. Also it would be great to have a helper actually work the bucket and pies but that's not easy to find.

Totally understand being picky, I want to feel like I look good in the final product and that's hard even when someone else is doing the camera work. And it's not really fair to them either because that's one of those "I'll know it when I see it" things. I also like a good communicator. Even if it's long paragraphs instead of long periods of silence

That definitely works- watching the dress slowly get soaked. Honestly could be a pretty funny skit.

You're sitting there and the sprinkler turns on, hitting you a bit. You move your chair. Hit again. Rinse and repeat once or twice. Not wet but damp. After the last time you turn it off. You're sitting there, honestly enjoying the damp dress because it's hot outside and it's cooling you off, when the sprinkler goes OFF, like torrential downpour, you get wet, finally get up, have a really good soaking scene where it's blasting you as you try to turn it off, and then you slip and fall in the mud from the sprinkler.

[Admin: Paragraph removed. Anything involving kids in any way, even just as bystanders or unwitting triggers, cannot be discussed here]

Check out this video and channel
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hkZr3ivyTck

Sometimes I sit and brainstorm, and other times I'm doing something completely unrelated to WAM and an idea crosses my mind. I then immediately whip out my phone and take some notes before I forget. Other times I'll already have an idea, start writing things for it, but then get a completely separate idea and start writing for that instead!

Edit: And I absolutely cannot leave out all of our lovely ladies that tell me any ideas they get.

This isn't WAM related but I have like four different folders on my phone with ideas for books/movies/tv shows that I'll probably never write.

Might have to start doing WAM ideas on the Bear app. I think I have enough ideas for maxi dress scenes floating in my head to start a channel solely revolving around them.