Shoot! The Day Casting Call

Twenty photographers are being selected to “Shoot! On Location” as a part of July 20th in our five shoot categories with teams being led by people like David Hobby and Kareem Black. Part of producing a full-blown stock shoot is to cast people for the shoot, so we held a casting call at the office today, and here’s how it went down.

Harjot, our producer, placed ads online and with a few agencies here in the city giving the details of the casting call and Shoot! The Day. We fully disclosed the project details and made it clear that it was for stock since some models do not do stock.

We wanted to see everyone in person because photos often “lie” — especially those that have been retouched, and it was important to see how they interacted because they need to be able to take direction from the photographers on July 20th.

Between 3-5pm, we had a steady stream of people of all ages and ethnicities per out casting requirements. Our producer observed them while we shot a head shot, a 3/4 body shot, and then an “attitude” shot. The goal was to see a smile and a non-smile so we have a sense of how they carry themselves. The models held up their info form with a number so that we could easily correlate their image with their information.

The more experienced models brought a comp card and “book” with them. People that were more from the actor-camp brought a headshot. And some people didn’t bring anything at all.

We used a medium Photoflex softbox connected to a Profoto Acute-B 600 pack dialed to the lowest power setting since we were indoors.

Our producer made notes and separated the forms into “yes” and “no” piles, and after we have a chance to review photos and images, we’ll call or email the models to let them know if they’ve been selected.

And that’s how we are casting Shoot! The Day!