Advice for new models.

This site has a lot of good information for new models: newmodels.com

Topics covered include: the players in the modeling industry, an introduction to professional modeling, should you go to modeling school, about model searches and conventions, height and professional modeling, all about TFP, all about race, sex and age in commercial print, how to apply to a model agency, how professional agency modeling works, how child modeling works, visa requirements for working in the USA, all about "mother agencies," about "Internet managers" and Internet agencies, the bogus Internet modeling agency scam, the Nigerian scam comes to modeling, and myths and reality about modeling scams.

The Rules of Filmmaking... an evolving list

Back when I was making movies a lot more frequently, I came up with a list of rules for better filmmaking. I like rules and handbooks and that sort of thing. Rules are, of course, meant to be broken, but you should understand the rule and why it exists before you trespass in its realm. I will go into detail about the specifics in a later post or posts.

The Rules of Filmmaking... an evolving list

Please do not repost this elsewhere online without a link back to the original page and a reference to the version number, or reprint for commercial purposes without the express written permission of the author. It can always be found at http://www.starfortress.com/filmrules.html

• Leave the location or stage in a better condition than you found it.
• Never forget your flashlight.
• Never forget your radio.
• The streets of Hollywood were never paved with gold. Make that your job.
• Never perform an actor's line.
• Always keep your crew well fed and watered.
• One sandbag per light indoors, two if you're outside.
• Watch your language, kids show up at the oddest times.
• Tagging someone with C-47's is not a crime unless you're caught in the act.
• Only the director may say or grant the authority to say "action," or "cut."
• Keep the assistant directors informed about EVERYTHING. Give them a department status report at least every 30 minutes. If something is going to be delayed or ready ahead of schedule then they should know that immediately.
• Never ask someone to do something you would not.
• Never be afraid to ask someone to do something you cannot.
• The set should be treated more like a temple where the filmmakers are the monks, and less like a saloon where the filmmakers are the customers.
• If you're not needed, be nearby.
• If there is not a phone list then compile one and distribute it. There are always movies down the road where you may want someone or someone may want you.
• Never let an actor take home a prop or costume that you cannot easily replace.
• Never pay for an investor's lunch.
• Never unplug an unfamiliar cable.
• The director should never hire or fire anyone directly unless it is their personal assistant.
• Filmmaking is definitely a collaborative process, but not so much a communal process. There needs to be a leadership structure like you would have on a ship.
• Never shoot in an actively hostile location.
• Master lighting with one source first.
• The lowest ranked person in the room is the most important one to have on your side.
• "In a crisis people need to feel like soldiers, not victims." - The West Wing
• Know all the rules (and what they mean) before you break them.
• When all else fails, ask yourself "What would John Ford do?"

version 3.2, released the 30th of October 2005
all versions (C) 2003-2005 C. Beckwith

Compositing is everything.

I learned to value layering effects when I was into computer animation in the mid-90's. The concepts of good compositing translate to fashion photography and many other art forms.

Complex things tend to look more special.

If it looks like it took a long time to do by hand, that's less common now than it used to be, so there is value assumed. Add considered detail to make things look expensive. Just don't over-do it.

What is an editorial?

This was my response to a photography forum post asking "what is an editorial?"

An editorial tells a story, argues a point, focuses on an issue. Like a written editorial, a photographic editorial expresses a position on an idea. It is an editorial comment, a note from the artist or editor or publisher. Someone is communicating an idea through the images.

On models and "the walk."

There is so much pomp ascribed to "the walk" in lesser circles of fashion, but the only logical reason high-end runway models must be trained to walk is that they are gangly 5'9"-6'2" tall 15 year-old girls in 4 inch heels who don't have enough experience in those kinds of shoes to be walking a straight line in odd lighting conditions on a slick surface, sometimes with a 20 foot train behind them, without some serious practice.

Either they have a sense of balance or they don't. If they don't, you cannot send them down the catwalk, they're a danger to the show and to themselves.

The style and presence that make a walk superior cannot be drilled, it has to come from within. A teacher cannot be acting like a deranged drill sargent and expecting the model to come around, because what needs to be reached is a state of mind. Sending a model off to a corner alone for two minutes so they can clear their head will do a hell of a lot more good than bitching at them for 20 minutes.

A Green Dinosaur

A friend was telling me earlier today that new archaeological evidence (feather-like pattenrs in fossils) points to the notion that some larger dinosaurs, including the Tyrannosaurus Rex, may have had a layer of feathers over their scales.

This reminded me of my favorite cocktail: The Green Dinosaur

• 2 oz Grey Goose Vodka
  
• 2 oz Hendrick's Gin
  
• 2 oz Bacardi 151 Rum
  
• 2 oz Midori Melon Liqueur
• 2 oz Triple Sec
• 2 oz Sweet and Sour Mix
• 2 oz Sierra Mist

What is an exotic model?

Someone asked a few weeks ago, on a photography forum I frequent, "what is an exotic model?" This was my response:

When you do a double take, thinking something about a model is makeup and it turns out to be their real face and it is beautiful, that is the "exotic" I look for.

Sofia Loren is exotic, Djaimon Honsu is exotic, Yvonne De Carlo was exotic.

They have sculpturaly breathtaking features that really would shock the kind of person who never leaves their hometown, but even people who get around are surprised when they first see these people.

Exotic must be elegant in form, and exotic must be breathtakingly rare. For me, that is.

Who was Jack?

John Ford died years before I was born, but I've still learned a lot from him about being an artist.

He didn't write a book about making movies, so the only way to understand him is to wade through dozens of biographies and watch a couple hundred movies. Having done this, I get a sense that I know him, and that I have begun to know and understand his true voice. What I don't have is any advice from him on how to make a movie or tell a story. The vibe is there in his films and the voice is almost overwhelming when you really sense it after reading all the biographical information and what few interviews he gave, but he never talked publicly about composition, use of daylight, character development, or really any of the practical elements of cinema.

Ford was a master of his craft to the point where it seemed effortless. His passion for telling stories never ebbed. Ford was an innovator and possessed an intelligence on-par with Jefferson, Fuller, or Tesla. He simply knew truth when he saw it. But even though the man is my idol, something I feel I must to do differently, besides avoiding his violently self-destructive tendencies, is to give my knowledge and ideas more openly than Jack Ford was able to share his own.