On the train ride back, I spent a lot of the time working on the video below, finishing it up last night before going to sleep. It’s a video I put together from a bikini shoot in early November. I want to tell you the story behind this, though, as it was tragically all wrong.
The Competition
While online one day in late October, I learned that Playboy was having a competition: the winner would be a “producer of the day” for Playboy. All contestants had to do was submit a one-and-one-half minute long video of a girl (or girls) in a bikini. Surprisingly, nudity was not allowed in any form in the video entries. I was intrigued. I didn’t have any particular interest in being a producer for a day but I thought, “What a great opportunity to make an impression and perhaps get on board with Playboy. For more than a day.” It would be a career move that wouldn’t be far out of line with what I do. Actually, it was pretty well in line with what I do and I saw a great opportunity before me.
I looked at the entries that had already been submitted; they were all shared online alongside the contest. I looked at all of them. I was dumbfounded. “No. There’s no way this is going to be this easy.” With the exception of one or two videos out of about fifty to one-hundred, the competition consisted primarily of absurdly amateur videos shot with point-and-shoot cameras walking around girls while they swayed their hips back and forth in someone’s junked-up back yard or in a park.
“No. It’s not possible,” I thought in disbelief. I was ecstatic!! Bikini shoots aren’t really my thing, but I do sexy well, and so I KNEW I could do this. I had this in the bag!!! So I embarked on the endeavor with more “seriousness” than I do with most shoots. I decided upfront on three things:
- I would pay a model to shoot to ensure that I had a quality and dedicated model.
- I would hire a makeup artist to ensure that the model was flawless in video.
- I would buy the appropriate bikini to make sure every element of sexiness was captured in ninety seconds.
The Making of a Video
I posted a casting call on ModelMayhem. I had a few responses and in making a final decision on who to shoot, it was the eyes of the model that sold me. The model was Jess. While I don’t always place a strong emphasis on eyes in shoots, no matter how great a model’s assets, it is ALWAYS the eyes that sells them to the fan or to the viewer. Beautiful eyes always captivate.
As it turned out, one of the other applicants was also a MUA, or makeup artist. I looked at her work and opted to hire her to do the makeup. I spent almost twice as much on the MUA as I did on the model, deciding that I wanted two different looks: one very simple, and one more dramatic.
The final definite investment in this project was buying the bikini. I already knew what I wanted and where I would buy it. There’s a GREAT bikini shop (with all styles from micro to full-coverage bikinis) on 7th between Washington and Collins Ave. You could probably guess which way I went in terms of coverage. I bought two bikinis to be safe and a sarong that matched both. Sol De Mar is the name of the shop. Highly recommend. And the owner is incredibly sweet and designs the bulk of what is sold in the shop.
With that, I was nearly done. I only had to find the location for the shoot. In my mind, I already had the perfect location given the bikini. I had a hotel in mind whose colors and style would compliment perfectly. That would be another expense. I intended to rent a room for the day so the model had somewhere to change and the MUA had a place where she could work.
Everything was in place. But then…
The Issues
I knew one of the guys who worked at the desk of the hotel and he had often invited me to come talk to him if I ever wanted to do a shoot there. In fact, I may have initiated that conversation. But I couldn’t get hold of him. I tried to reach the manager to talk about shooting there, but she was impossible to reach and didn’t return my efforts to communicate with her.
OK, that’s fine. Even though it would’ve been ideal, I could find a place. I didn’t want to just do a bikini shoot on the beach. I wanted something more inspired.
I had scoped out Key Biscayne and had found a great place under an overpass (the first bridge going across after the toll) but wasn’t entirely sold on it for this shoot. Wanting to shoot this video soon so that I could start editing (the bulk of the work), I finally decided that we would shoot there.
The day of the shoot, everyone arrived. I was a couple of minutes late. The MUA had transportation issues and so was relatively late. But it was fine. It gave me time to get acquainted with the model and look more at the location and begin to plan shots. While we waited, I showed the model the bikinis I had for the shoot. We had discussed it ahead of time and, much to my chagrin, she wasn’t certain that she could wear them because of the limited coverage. We talked about what bikinis she owned and as she described them to me, I told her which ones to bring. She had said to bring the ones I had purchased just to see.
She saw and she wasn’t comfortable. I was a little disheartened by that, but I figured that I could always use them in some other shoot with another model. They are very sexy bikinis. But incredibly skimpy. Anyway, I don’t like to make anyone uncomfortable and certainly not a model I’m shooting, so that was that.
The makeup artist showed up, and got to work immediately on the first look. Unfortunately for her, the only place she had to work was in the model’s car parked under a bridge with both of them in their front seat. She did great work. But I think that it was a struggle for her working in those conditions.
There were a few people about when we started. A man fishing. A couple who had taken their lunch break to make out ferociously in the small parking lot under the bridge. A family eating lunch. All of them eventually left during the shoot.
The Shoot
The shoot itself was actually fine. There’s always the first few minutes of shooting when the model and photographer aren’t quite in sync and neither is as relaxed as they should be. At least, that’s been my experience. Almost always, with rare exception, the first photos from a shoot are throwaways. The feeling isn’t there.
Four hours after we started, we were done. After getting home, I dumped the remaining images to my laptop and started looking through them. Great shots. And the raw video footage looked pretty good. Cool. I’ve got it.
The Terrible, Terrible Failure
And this is where the real tragedy comes in. Foolishness on my part. I went back online to look once more at the competition. To look again at the details.
The deadline for entry was the day before.
Somehow, I had failed to look at that one kind of important fact. So I just blew a TON of money for a bikini shoot. For nothing. And it was money spent on a bikini shoot! It’s rare that I pay anyone to shoot anyway, so all of it… I wasn’t real pleased with myself.
Actually, both the model and the makeup artist lost a little patience with me because after releasing just a few photos the first week following the shoot, I stopped working on anything from that day. I lost heart for the whole thing. They kept asking when I was going to have them done. And I kept putting it off.
Eventually, we worked it out, I sent the model a sheet of proofs, the images I had selected as worth processing and publishing, she chose the ones she wanted and I got them done that week. I’ve done a few photos since then. There are still, truthfully, a ton of great images and even still great footage outside of what I used for this video. But I’m unlikely to invest much more energy into the shoot anytime in the near future. The model has all the photos she wants.
And I did eventually put a video together. This is it below. I suppose this would’ve been my submission. If they have another identical contest, perhaps I’ll submit it.
(All of the published photos (and the video) from the shoot can be seen here: Under the Overpass)
The Video
