A question for photographers about their clients.
 

Do you usually deal directly with the company owners or "content managers" and/or "Submission Managers"?

I prefer to deal directly with owners. I've found that the owners are usually quicker to respond, more professional, and generally don't dick you around.

[rant]

Over the last 5 years, some of the companies I've worked with have put content managers in place. As a result, I find myself dealing with people who do not seem to respect the relationships I've built with their companies.

I'll give you a couple of examples:

A few years ago I took on a new client after working out the details with the owner. I then received a $4,000.00 pre-pay for the first shoot. After that, the "content manager" contacted me and said he had additional requests for the shoot. I spent the next 7-9 months chasing the "content manager" to get a complete list of the specs. It got to the point where I had to go back to the owner where I complained about the communication issues with the other guy and offered a refund. The owner responded by sending me a doc with the new specs and I completed the shoot the following week.

Another client always responded to every model submission I made within 3 business days. They would either tell me yes, or no. It's that simple.... Since this client put a "content manager" in place, I've submitted dozens of models and haven't heard a single word about any of them. The content manager writes me asking questions about the kind of gear I use & how I recruit models as if I've never worked with the company before. I went back to the owner and they approved over half the models I submitted.

In most (not all) cases, these other people in the mix create additional delays and other problems that I do not experience when dealing with owners. WTF are they paying these people for?

[/rant]

Anyway, just curious about the experiences other shooters have with this sort of thing.

No need to name any company names as I'm not looking for dirt or drama here. :glugglug

So how do you recruit your models?

i'd say that depends on the size of the company...

from over here the most annoying thing are time zones - with clients from Europe, America and Australia i feel sometimes like i'd need to be awake 24/7 ;)

I troll school yards with an icecream van.

:winkwink::thumbsup

Why's that? Does your email time out after a few hours or something? :winkwink:

because i rather have things solved right away than waiting 12 hours for a reply ;)

but in general i cant complain at all about the people we deal with - owner or content manager

There are a few guys? Where if you said that, I would believe it.

Wait just a second there buddy....Are you insinuating that I'm a liar? :mad:

Well...I won that bet. :1orglaugh










(jk'ing)

For sure its much easier dealing with the owner directly.

That made me laugh out loud... :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

I'm here both to entertain and to be entertained. :upsidedow

I have a content manager I am communicating with now...and it is s-l-o-w b-o-a-t t-o C-h-i-n-a getting responses...and he's more concerned with the equipment, which is very current...and on the site, I can tell that some sets looks very low end.
It's frustrating, because what "current" camera body I have, would not necessarily be the camera body I would use for shoots for this company. If they had a certain digital camera sensor size requirement (for full frame, for example), and the shoot parameters and payout were worth it, I could just go snag another body.
But, I can't see what I currently use has to do with whether they would, or would not want me to shoot sets for them, or not.
</rant>

P.S. >>>

That's every line, man :upsidedow

The boss speeds things along because he's got better things to do

The employee slacks prolonging his employment

Amen

and then there's that.