This is a sort of behind the scenes post you might not always hear about. It’s probably the worst side of running various websites – the hiring process and casting for talent in whatever given niche you are looking to produce content for is often straight forward, and in my case 95% of the time it is  – once you have a proven track record or established a place or pool where you can contact prospective models from etc… but when that goes wrong, oh boy, it can go wrong badly! For if they don’t turn up, or lie about their talents or change their minds about agreed parameters carefully discussed in advance, what should you do? This has always been the worst part for me and I am going to write about it from a producer’s view as it had happened to me a few times over the years and I am writing about it today as it is affecting someone I know – I am not going to name names (right now) unless they want to be silly and carry on with this precocious bullshit… I am quite happy to name you and shame your behavior, especially as it comes from Fetlife – a laid back place where bullshit should stay the fuck away! We all deal with crap elsewhere online or in our personal lives and further dramas via something as amazing as Fetlife just pisses me off big time. So where do we begin? I will let you know what it is like when a model doesn’t turn up, when she says she is and you are waiting for her to arrive on the day of your carefully planned shoot. Let’s start there and build up to that… then I will explain to you just what is happening to the producer in question – and the way he is being treated right now! I am sure she feels aggrieved, but, let me be clear, this is sadly just what happens from time to time, which is why you girls charge far more per hour (which I have no problem with, by the way) as the very nature of our business can change from time to time. However, it is about how we deal with what happens overall and accepting that sometimes, just sometimes, circumstances change beyond our control on either side and we deal with the fallout after but we don’t threaten people with lawyers or demand money for cancellations well in advance when things can be rescheduled. (anyway, digressing already… let’s start with my prep, shall we?)

Shoot Check List:
I have to tell you, this bit is what I dislike the most… contacting for new models and arranging shoots or new locations. Personally, it’s not my thing & I really loathe this part of the work I do. Some may love it… but it is very time consuming, I find. So… do I find a new location? Is it kink friendly? I have to investigate it and then I ALWAYS CONSIDER the models and their locations they have to get to. If it is too far for them, in England, if I shoot there, then I would consider putting them up in a hotel the night before. I won’t put them in a shitty place either, or fly them in (as I have done once) on a poor airline… nope, I want the model to go back knowing I had prepared this part of her trip with her in mind. I would hope that the young lady would be rested and ready to go. I like to think once I put my mind to it, that I have never chosen a bad location or had girls complain about my particular shoot that I did in the way that they were treated etc (well, maybe Alex Reynolds will jokingly complain about how cold a studio was that we filmed in but we were all freezing that day in a really cold spell which was around Springtime 2 years ago, lol!!!)

I also remember bringing over Leandra from Holland a little later that year and I chose a good airline which she loved and a nice hotel within easy distance of the shoot location that I had picked her up and took her back to after… and even paid her in Euros at the interbank rate rather than have her get fleeced at a retail bank or “Bureau de Change” (I used to work in that line of business in the past and knew it well as I advised her so I saved her up to a further 10% of her fee!) Generally, I like to think of myself as a pretty decent enough guy to work for. The other thing producers usually have a lot to do is the pre communications emails and such, discussing wardrobe requirements and the type of films we do or might cover: I make sure the girls check out the website or give them access to clips so they are fully aware of what we do if they are not familiar with the site… nowadays that is never usually a problem and less so when I co work with Sarah. So if a producer asks for fully nude or whatever the requirements are, and ask them about their hard limits and what they are prepared to do or not do… this gets worked out in advance so it is clear, it’s pretty standard stuff. So I will know that one girl can be caned or another will do masturbation or be gagged or whatever it is I or a producer would require etc etc – it’s how it works. Of course rates also are discussed early on, I get that out of the way and move on once we establish what will be done. On the model prep side that is pretty much it.
Depending on who it is, I would also usually want to talk to them on the phone as well, that way we would discuss any other issues that might arise. After that… as producers, we then have to ensure we have our paperwork ready, equipment (cams batteries, lights and implements) our own wardrobe, any other issues like a car able to travel to a destination (I am rather selfless in that I will travel much further afield to accommodate the girls… they may not know that, but it is what I do if I am in the UK since I tend to be at the ass end of the country anyway where no one will come to! Then it checking with studios/hotels etc to confirm and reconfirm. Once this is all done I feel then I could relax. It’s not such a chore but there is a lot of time consuming work as you can see.

As niche producers, it has to be said, we don’t make an awful lot, we are not all super wealthy, we do this for the love of it… I might complain about this process, some love it… but that is because I know most of us have jobs or part time work to supplement incomes and we juggle all this in our spare time, some of us don’t and rely solely on what we do… that in itself should speak volumes about what we do make. Of course I do okay as do most producers… we don’t drive Porsche 911s or are overly flash like the big Porn Barons is what I am trying to say (just wanted to clear that up) … but I do put an awful lot back into the sites and travel a lot to America nowadays which I enjoy, of course. Anyway, back to when something goes wrong from the prep… I don’t like it one little bit (since when it does go wrong I always think of the time I spent preparing and it makes me sad) because this is my weakest part of my build up and I would rather be doing something else or feel it was my fault… that’s just me. However, I love making good films that I like or customs for others and paying girls for a fantastic shoot, and usually that is the case – I have had times where I felt in the past that I was “jipped” (cheated would be a close approximation) when the girl had claimed she could do something when in fact she was totally unsuitable for our day and that made me uncomfortable. Depending on what has already been invested, nowadays, I would probably stop the shoot as I have lots of content, but a few years ago I would compromise and we would get through but at what cost? I would be far from happy with what I had done. To be honest, that hasn’t happened too much recently but just highlighting what can sometimes happen… and it usually compromises the intensity of a spanking film which might change which is totally understandable. One day we feel fine the next our tolerances for a particular pain threshold will fluctuate. I understand that but don’t let that understanding mean that I can be duped into spanking lightly when I had requsted we were employing someone for a hard shoot etc… especially if the rate was higher! It’s little things like that, but I am showing you WORST case scenarios! This is RARE! Very rare!

I  like to think I can usually sense if something like this is happening and have range and know when someone has reached their limits. I’m not a bastard, I won’t push them fully and make them call “Red” or “Cut” or whatever safeword was negotiated… I’d stop and we’d discuss how they were feeling. Guess who I misread 2 years ago… Alex again (LOL!)

I can use Alex in reference as I know her and consider her a good friend in the scene and she is the partner to a very decent guy and friend of mine, so I want to share this anecdote with you. On this particular day, it was the 2nd of a 2 day shoot between myself and Northern Spanking – the studio had heat but the gas burners needed to be switched off during filming and within 10 minutes the set had got cold quickly. Now compound this with being spanked hard by both Paul and I… (I also did some POV films which were lighter too) –  Alex was the only spankee on set and she had just arrived prior to this from filming a hard 2 day shoot in Holland. AND… to further emphasize how I underestimated her tolerance at that time… she had flown in from America literally just before that so was just about recovering from jet lag too! I am useless when I fly east… with hindsight, I should have known. She  flew into the UK and then out almost straight away to Europe and back. You see… originally, Paul and I had booked her at the start of her UK tour, but neither of us knew that she had managed to squeeze in 2 days into another country. I don’t blame Alex… I might be a bit pissy with the producer that snuck her in just before us, we are all spanking companies, we know girls take time to recover, yes… even legendary Alex (Spankee of 2014 no less, I should add!) – and we had deliberately chosen the date carefully to allow her to get over the dreaded jetlag and start her tour of the UK as she had work with other producers too at a later date. Still, shit happens – I made her cry and felt shit at the time as we had discussed a judicial caning scene and I wanted to save it for the end of the shoot. I had a wardrobe and the studio had a specific set (it was my sole reason for choosing it to be honest, and having a cool school room set) – I of course then realized and dropped the plot immediately and was prepared to finish there and then but Paul did a rather cool and loving film with her and of course this worked out more than fine… in fact I could see something develop between them in this film almost like when I filmed with Sarah at the  Shadowlane Party later that year… bizarre!

OK, that is my experience – now imagine when a girl just doesn’t bother to turn up or gives one excuse hours before she is due to appear after I have gone through all the above checks to ensure she is Ok etc… I still remember getting an email, not a call, not even a text, it came through on my phone – the cowardly one where there’s a distant relative death in the family or in this case a pet had died, just BEFORE the shoot was due to start (right!!!) For fucks sake – grant me the decency to say you don’t want to do it than this half arsed excuse! I don’t want to sound heartless, but when I used to work for XER all those years ago, the same tired excuses would appear for no shows and only once did something close to that happen when a girl received a text towards the end of her shoot that her father had died. She was in tears and sobbing, naturally… I was tasked with taking her back to the train station and ensuring she was OK… I still remember her guilt of being there, 3 hours from home and not with her dad, it was truly heartbreaking. She wasn’t a flake, and had been at several filmshoots so knew what she was doing… so as a producer, those models that just bum us out cause us all manner of grief. Look at the preparation, the logistics, the planning, hiring other people to film as cam guys etc… all this down the toilet cos they could not be bothered to turn up. I bite my lip, I vow that I will never give them a second chance and move on. Girls who do that to me – after all the detail of preparing that I go through… it’s their decision, I won’t hire them unless they call me and explain as things, of course, can go wrong and to be honest, we all know when people are lying. But usually girls who are decent like that call in advance as they know something is up… to do so on the day of a shoot usually means something else, sadly. & I am sharing this with you as it is RARE… but I want to put things into perspective when I tell you about part 2 and a model going crazy at a producer for cancelling (and his reasons and her reaction to it).

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Which finally brings me onto the 2nd part of my rant… when we as producers cancel on the model – and then they get all mad at us and start demanding cancellation fees or threatening to bring in “their lawyer” – again, I am not impressed and I am not naming names here – not unless they persist and I will name and shame them and and I don’t give a flying fuck what they think. As this behavior (as you’ll read below) is totally unacceptable.

I have written copious paragraphs about how things as a producer can go wrong when a model doesn’t turn up. Sure, I get angry and am mad as hell. Do I sue? Do I threaten? Do I try and claim back financially my hours of prep, my hotel fees or studio rental fees I have told you about? No, I tell other producers exactly what happened, the sort of producers I would think they would want to work for… and let them know. Essentially we will “blacklist” them. It’s up to the others to decide if they want to film with her, I give them my reasons and let them make up their minds. I have no issue if they want to hire the girl I might have mentioned that I would never approach again… that is not for me to decide.

So getting back to when a model gets upset if we cancel. I understand, we all have schedules, but there are some things that are beyond our control. Now if this happens to be 2 weeks in advance, I think, “it is a pain…” but you could possibly reschedule (depending on the location) or have 3 weeks to find other work in that area. I know this happens to Sarah all the time… usually with male sub sessions (which I guess is NOT that surprising) and in many cases a deposit can be required as male subbie types tend to flake out 80% of the time. Producers, and this producer in question, would not ever knowingly flake out unless it was for a damned good reason. & it was – the reason is not pertinent, just accept for now that it was – I know he will read this so I don’t want to start writing more on this than is necessary, this post is already turning to be a bit of a monster (sorry, you guys are not normally used to this from me, are you?)

Now add to that I have seen the communications on a Fetlife messaging system – and as far as I know, he hasn’t actually talked on the phone to her. A rate was set, he somehow accepted a very high starting non nude rate (which I have to say I wouldn’t, nor would Sarah who I talked to this about and I know other spanking producers wouldn’t either) then when he wanted perhaps thong and then panties down, as most of us would… the rates increased to something we wouldn’t accept. OK, perhaps that was his fault, it was only a couple of hours, not a full day shoot… hell, we have all negotiated a bad deal once (I say once as I just don’t do that shit anymore) and he knows I will be having words with him on this… but hey, that was the rate, so be it. Cool. However, as I said, something happened, he wrote to her to cancel the shoot for then… it just couldn’t go ahead. So cue the threats that he had to pay a cancellation fee, that if he didn’t pay up it would increase to her full cancellation fee of $150 (why was she doing him a “favor” in the 1st place?) and then, of course, I had forgotten to tell you they had somehow agreed that she shouldn’t get marked? WHAT??? He owns a spanking store that essentially has girls spanked and getting red bottoms. I’m not saying he has to be mean and welt them… but they are going to get a red bottom, it’s a spanking and his site generally has punishment spankings on them. How the fuck can she not get marked? Maybe I have misunderstood, probably no lasting marks then, like… gone in 24 hours or the next morning… usually a hand spanking and leather strap etc is good to heal quickly, but as we know, each girl is different in how they react so it is hard to call… I say this to every girl who does spanking, each day is different, each spanker different… do NOT go to a glamour shoot a day or 2 after a spanking shoot (unless you really do have buns of steel and there are a few girls I know can easily do this) but for the rest of you girls… do NOT impose this idiotic rule on spanking sites. We just won’t hire you. We will hire a girl that WANTS to be spanked, it is our core niche, it is what we do. If you don’t want to be marked, then stay the fuck away from a spanking or bondage site. Period! Just do your fetish photography or other fetishes that don’t require marking like cosplay or POV, humiliation etc… it’s a niche we are in so respect that, please, ladies.
I WILL REPEAT: Don’t show the sites who you are trying to gain employment off a massive disrespect by pulling this stunt! So of course I will let all spanking sites that want to know (based in the US) who she is in private (you guys know my address or Fetlife msg me) – I will guarantee you won’t have heard of her as she isn’t in our niche – well, I haven’t seen her spanked on our sites!

So currently I am hearing she still wants to extract the cancellation fee and is getting mightily upset that he won’t pay it. Well, with 20 or so days to go, I’d not pay either. Do I start chasing the models who flake out and let me down BADLY? No. I have explained what a fucking pain in the ass it is and how fucked off I am when this happens but I won’t hound the girl or go after her for money and time I think is owed to me and expenses I had already paid out! I had it recently and shared the cost of the location and got little content but that is the way it sometimes goes. You, young lady, if you are reading this, need to just accept that circumstances beyond a producer’s control happens. if a model called 2 weeks from a shoot, I would be able to reschedule another girl, I think. This shit just sometimes happens in our line of biz… it’s far from ideal, of course, but there you go. As I said… He will have no doubt spent time planning his shoot before already, we all do in advance as I had METICULOUSLY explained earlier. So we producers tend NOT to flake out as a rule. Those that do soon get a bad rep!!! Now I did once earlier this year and was so apologetic to the girl I consider a friend that she was cool and we re-arranged and shot a few days later (my car was out of commission at the time and getting repaired). See? Shit happens in our biz. Stop bitching and deal with it in a far more civil manner than threatening people on Fetlife and hounding them with messages that I felt I had to say something – that ain’t gonna go down well.

Rant over. More to come, if this persists on their part.

My apologies, I now will get back to writing an update post then finally think about updating you all with my latest US exploits which should be FAR MORE light hearted! Thank you & God bless!

It could be worse… imagine being stuck on this commute to work!!!! LOL!