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We just had a model who changed his mind after a shoot, and does now want the video we made to be published. Now I am in dubio whether to publish it or not, so put it on hold. The model feels his performance was not good enough, but in fact it came out quite well. I think he just has regrets, and he even offered to pay the cost of production. What would you do?
Quote:
Originally Posted by asiaboy
This is one of those things that depends on the owner of the business and how he/she personally feels in a business situation vs perhaps the "morality" of the situation.
Frankly for myself, if this person signed a contract with you to which he agreed to be paid x amount of dollars for doing x number of things and fully understood what he was getting into, then sorry dude..but welcome to REAL life and why contracts are binding!
If it was his first shoot, he has something akin to "buyers remorse"..he'll get over it!
I always tell the models if they get second thoughts after the shooting, they have to repay the money they got plus the costs of production and I give them an amount how much it would be. They should be really clear about the consequences if they are not absolutely sure if they want to model and change their mind afterwards. It's also in the model contract I'm using.
Actually I never had it happen, but I would just go by the contract. If the model repays all the money, I would not use the material. If not, I would use the material as agreed per contract.
It has happened to me twice - out of 300 shoots. A month later, if the title has already gone to AEBN and the other VOD portals, there's little much that can be done. It has made it through the process, and the majority of people who are going to see it, have seen it.
If it's the same day or so, I'd consider it, depending on whatever else the model wanted to do next time.
I had this happen once-so far. The guy did a few scenes, and then went and got a boyfriend about 2 months later. The new bf didn't want him doing porn, and the model didn't want any of the shoots to be published online. As I hadn't gotten around to editing it, it hadn't been posted anywhere, so it wasn't a problem. So he refunded what I had paid him, plus expenses I incurred.
Fast forward to this past week. Said model contacts me, boyfriend is no longer in the picture, and wants to model for us again. Long story short, I told him no, as I can see the whole thing happening all over again.
This irratates me to a fume. We've had it happen several times. The most recent was a model came to us claiming to be single. Yea, ok. who cares. He signed the model release. We express verbally and in the contracts that once the films or images are completed through the production process they will be placed within the public arenas for consumers to buy. Once they are out there, they never come down.
Apparently, in this last case the model lied to his boyfriend and told him that he was going out of town with his family.
The boyfriend later found out he did not and he was doing porn. The boyfriend gave our model the altimatum to have us remove that video or they were breaking up.
Sorry, nothing we will do to remove the video. Especially after films cost us a couple grand to film. (Model pay, airfare, hotels, meals, etc.)
If you remove the video, your stupid because look at the money YOU are spending for production. For some it may only be $100 for others it may be $50,000. Either way, that's a lot of money to waste and throw away.
Models are adults. They know what they are doing when they sign that release. Your losing your business model by tossing the video / images away.
The only reason I allowed it in this instance, was because I didn't have much invested ($500 per scene max). All together, he ended up refunding a little over $3,000 for me to pull all videos. He contacted me a week ago to see if we could still use him as a model - I told him no as I didn't want this to happen again. The dumb thing was he used me as a refferance for another site! They contacted me to make sure he wasn't under contract - they won't be using him because of what I told them.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. As it is, he refunded us the costs of production now, so I think I will not publish it. Still, it leaves a bad feeling as he reneged on his contract. Lesson learned: I will add a clause in my standard contract to make clear the costs if someone wants his work retracted.
I think this is the key:
Since he offered to and actually did cover the costs, I don't see any reason not to cooperate and I think you did the right thing. One may or may not want to include their own time as one of the costs of production that should be compensated.Quote:
Originally Posted by asiaboy
Yes, he entered into a contract, and he then offered to buy out that contract. One can HONOR a commitment without FULFILLING that commitment.
By being reasonable you helped the reputation of the industry as a whole and your reputation as a fair dealer and reasonable person. That helps you if you ever discuss a deal with us, for example, because I, along with others on the board, have now seen that you handle unexpected situations in a fair and reasonable way. Overall, therefore, I think it was both the ethically right thing to do and the smart thing to do (which may be two terms that actually mean the same thing.)