Let's say you film a model for an hour and pay her for the hour. Can you use that footage in as many videos as you want? Or does she get paid per video?

How about this....... two years later, you film a different model to create a video and you decide you want to throw in a "flashback" scene. Can you use that footage of the other model from 2 years earlier? Or you do have to get her permission?

Depends on the model release form you have made up and what the model is willing to sign.

OK ..... So how fussy are most models about that kind of stuff? Don't most just want to make a couple of bucks for an hour or two?

Are you thinking of becoming a producer Bozo?

My model release is in my name just in case I change the company name, the material can be used by me forever and for whatever purpose i see fit, I paid for it its mine, all mine..... It can go in the shredder or I can put it on HBO. Never had a model refuse to sign.

Phil

No, just curious. I think of stuff like this.

This seems like an odd question to me. As a model I have signed a lot of release forms over the past ten years and when working for paying producers they all have basically the same release, they own the copyright, period. When you own the copyright to something that means you can edit it and publish it however you like.

I know some models who have felt they have been taken advantage of because their photos have been used as "teaser" pics on hardcore porn sites implying that they have made hardcore porn, or even used as ads for escort services. Those types of producers typically have something in their release saying you can't sue them for character defamation.

I personally don't sign release forms that have the "defamation of character" type of clause because I don't want photos of me being used in escort adds. Unfortunately though there are photos of me on fake dating profiles because I did work with one shitty company that had somewhere in their contract that they could impersonate me but it was worded in a weird way so I didn't notice it. (I should have realized a 10 page contract was sketchy as fuck but I had gotten so many good references from them that I figured it was ok).

Yeah, I've always done the "I own what we shoot" agreement. It's pretty standard. I've certainly never heard of a situation like the one you describe, where the model stipulates you can release the videos one time, but not again.

You're probably thinking of something along the lines of residuals, or a musician owning publishing or a copyright... They get paid every time a new compilation with their song appears. (Or in the case of residuals, every time a show airs.) But that implies the model is getting a percentage of your sales... And sorry, but with (very) rare exceptions that never happens because it's just too complicated on both ends.

To wit:
On the end of the producer... I have to determine how many copies of X scene sold, and at what price... And did I change the price? Did someone get a bulk discount? What about DVD sales? And then am I cutting the model a check every month? Every six months? Are we supposed to stay in contact with each other, even after she's long retired, to keep getting checks?
You can see how this would be confusing.

On the model's end, it's much simpler. To wit:
"I just got hit with pies and slime for 4 hours, and now instead of paying me cash up front, this guy says he'll give me 'a percentage of the sales'.... when he releases it in 6 months or so?? Do I LOOK like an idiot? Pay me now!!"

Fuck. So THAT'S why none of those six blind dates actually looked exactly like Leila.

To elaborate further....
I'm paying each model a flat rate for the shoot. The rate varies depending on the model, length of time, etc etc. And sometimes the final amount is a bit different. [SPOILER: It's always higher! I'll compensate a model more if the shoot ran super long or she did amazing. A producer who pays a model LESS than agreed is a producer who no longer shoots.]

So I'm basically paying for EVERYTHING up front. It's an inherent risk, where I assume/hope the footage will sell well, and I will make that money back plus a profit. The model WANTS to do well (because if her stuff sells, I'll invite her back quicker) but she's not assuming any risk. If she (theoretically) wears a wig the entire time so the sales are terrible, I don't send her an email asking for half of her fee back. (Boy, that would be nice tho.)

Some shoots come out very quickly. Some don't. Some footage gets split among multiple volumes, which tends to escape notice from most (not all) of you. Some shoots sit for years before coming out. (Although I'm not as bad as other producers about this.) There's probably gonna be 3-4 Shelly scenes that won't ever come out, at least not officially... But again, I'm not gonna shoot her a text NOW and ask her to return her fee for those scenes.
Conversely, if a scene does amazingly well, I'm not required to send that model a bonus check just for the heck of it. (Although I'll probably book them a lot more.)

Things I HAVE written into the contract to make the models happy:
--An alias name
--No videos on YouTube or any other sites
--No social media
--Nip slips and any other inadvertent nudity censored
--Full-size pics removed from site (never in the contract, but occasionally at the model's request, years after the fact, once she's been retired)

Hourly rates = longer showers.


If I could go back and tell twenty something me starting out just one thing... it would be that.

Of course if you're shooting shower wetlook this isn't necessarily a bad thing...

But yeah, flat rates per scene. Keeps things simple and everyone knows in advance exactly what they are doing, and getting.

And in response to the OP, all standard model releases assign the rights to use the model's image commercially in all forms of trade, that's what the model gets paid for.

Very simple. If you pay a model an hourly rate, you're doing several things:
--Punishing models who are quick and efficient
--Rewarding models who take a LOOOONG time getting ready (not that it's a bad thing if the end result is great, but understand you're paying her more automatically)
--Cutting corners with the look of the set (messy backdrop left over from previous scene, messy floor, etc.) and also the model (wet hair, red eyes, little to no makeup) just to get your "money's worth"

I mean, I did this when I was starting out. That first year, we'd shoot 5 scenes in 3 hours... The model got $50 an hour! (A rate and total you will never see anymore.) But invariably she looked like hell for the final 2-3 scenes. Meg from SS22-23 was the first one to "take her time" to get photo-perfect for each scene (and I was already paying a flat rate even then) and after that I never looked back.

Ideally you should be able to mix/match scenes from the same shoot in any order without folks being the wiser. If it's obvious which scene was shot last, you're probably doing it wrong.

I've recently switched to "per scene" but for a decade or so, I shot hourly. I was smart about it though. I paid a pretty high rate but it was "cameras rolling" only. No pay for showering and makeup (unless I was filming that too). The footage has time code, so it was easy to prove exactly how long we recorded.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of having naked girls wandering around my place, so I have no problems with long showers and general time-wasting by the models. Kym is great for that. She'll sit around bare-ass naked all day smoking, chatting, and putting on makeup if you let her. You eventually have to bite the bullet though, and tell her "put on some clothes so we can shoot"

Kym is great for that. She'll sit around bare-ass naked all day smoking, chatting, and putting on makeup if you let her.

I would let her.

I forget when, but at some point we drew the line on doing any more than three videos in a day, and I still stick to that. There's a law of diminishing returns - after three everyone starts dragging and shit gets compromised.

Others mileage may vary but I'll bet it doesn't much.

Damn this is all getting a bit inside baseball.

I've sometimes shot messy five scenes in one day, but generally that's been when we had several models available and not everyone was in every scene, so the non-participating models could relax (and heckle!) while watching the scenes they weren't in being filmed.

With the TV gunge we're now using we've actually set a limit of two scenes a day, as it makes for more relaxed shooting, plus it does seem to dry the models skin out more than custard and cream do.

I've done up to three mud scenes in one day before, but only at the peak of high summer when we have long days of full sunlight. To shoot good mud the photographer has to go right in with the models, keeping just hands and cameras clean, so it's time consuming to do because clean-up has to follow a specific procedure before we can even get back in the van.

We'll do up to five outdoor wetlook scenes in one day, but not having to clean up, just dry hair and change into dry clothes, makes these easier. We still get rather cold by the end of the day though, but always follow with a huge meal in a country pub, which mostly makes up for it.