November 5, 2004
-
IT’S CASTING TIME AGAIN – WHO WILL BE SELECTED?
Shooting
a large national ad campaign once a year is my foray into commercial
photography. It is a big deal for two final images. Here’s how it works. The client hires an
“art buyer” (in this case I am working with Publicis, one of the
largest P.R. firms in the world). The “art buyer” then represents
me, (the photographer) in a way I have yet to understand. They
negotiate my day rate, rights and durations to the use of the image
that I produce. In the current ad campaign, I have a two shot
deal in which I produce two images that the Art Buyer will then buy
from me then sell to the client, and then contractually purchase the
rights to use my image(s) for a certain amount of time. It
seems as if the art buyer is on a commission, because they negotiate my
fees, and they do a great job at it! Once the client signs the
contract with the Art Buyer, the art buyer hires the photographer and the production
company. For production, I am using “Legends” for like the third year in a row
because of how much I like working with Peter McClafferty – who ran Los
Angeles’s “Elite” modeling agency for 12 years. Peter then sets
up the casting of models for me. He contacts the agencies, who
then send all of their postcards, and then I flip through them.
Peter will also call them in and do some quick digital shots and
forward comments to me. Since I am in my home in Canada, Peter is
doing a lot of the screening because he knows what I like. Plus
anybody who knows me knows how much I hate casting. This year’s
selections look pretty good from up here, but we won’t make any final
decisions for a while.On shoot day, it is a big deal. VIP’s from the client fly out
from New York, the art director, the art buyer (publicis), Peter (the
producer) the marketing V.P., stylists, hair-makeup people all are
there to help, support, suggest and as a team we come up with a
dynamite ad image. It is always a lot of fun, never stressful,
and it’s always an exciting crew. I look forward to returning to
L.A. to do this shoot, and then returning to my home in Canada.
