No longer making paid customs....

[EvangelinevonWinter]

We talked about it and we realized that its become counter productive to continue making customs for clients.
It always throws a monkey wrench into the works, makes shooting much more difficult, and what we charge for a custom is roughly exactly what we are paying for the model so we only make whatever is bought after the fact. This last part can be tough because some customs are so complex...so detailed. and just reading it gives a slight sense of how difficult it is. Sometimes troubles come when trying to film something and things start going horribly wrong because of how complex it is. Suddenly a 2 hour custom shoot is now a three hour custom shoot and we have not only lost an hour to shoot our films but we are now in the hole for another paid hour.

Also....and this one is important.
Its too easy to get a bad name because of failures.
I like making the customs because they give me insight into the community. things that we didn't know existed, aspects we never saw. things we never figured. its a great thing....but if things go wrong....
Well its pretty bad.

Many times its something that is not in your control.

A booked model will flake.
And she is a traveling model so there is a chance she wont come back around for a whole year!

Sometimes locations dry up.
this is a big issue. We were set to shoot a custom and the location suddenly disappeared. no longer available.
And we had no choice but to quickly re-write it and shoot it in a different location and since the new place isn't the original place the script has changed....but the script was written by the client. how much is this going to sour the clients enjoyment....
All it takes is for this to happen too often and too close together and suddenly you have a bad name.

I would rather loose the extra content and keep my good name.

Its not worth it.
And honestly I can only control those aspects that i have my hands on!
things like locations and flaky models is out of my control, however still have the ability to impact my good name.

Its a lot of headaches for little reward.

So the customs we have outstanding will be made...No new customs will be taken.
No new orders will be taken


Now the good news!

We will still be taking Story-lines.
You write them, we film them. No money is exchanged.
If something goes wrong no-one is bent out of shape and nothing is lost.
If a story takes 4 months to shoot no-one is angry that they had to wait.
If I have to whittle the long ass story down to fit time restraints no-one is offended

We ask that you do not write names in because we cant guarantee you will get those models. just write the female lead as Evangeline and if there is a second or third female write it as female #1 and Female #2. this will make it lots easier tot shoot i guarantee.
You can send them to me as PM here and i will store them and print them.
you can always email them to me if you wish
(Attachments will be ignored....sorry)


Now I know some of you will be tempted to post recommendations about how i should change my practices to continue making customs...and I thank you for the concern...
I am sure some producers will find fault in our choice and might post publicly or privately about it...and thats your choice to do.

However you must all realize that if I had as few customs as some producers do i wouldn't have a problem.
If we were talking about 1-4 customs a month this wouldn't be an issue.
But I cater to over 12 niches.
We shoot between 20 and 40 customs a month!
12 hour days every weekend
the sleepy customs count as over 10 a month just within that group!
every month.
Without fail!
With that many balls in the air its only a matter of time before they start crashing down and no producer
(no matter how good they are or how long they have been doing this) can maintain this many customs in the air.
It is one of the reasons for Willies heart attack in July....too much pressure...,too many customs in the air.


So.... thats my Story.
I will not be taking customs anytime soon.
Perhaps in the new year or after a full year I will start taking small orders from longtime clients.
But maybe not.

There are plenty of wonderful producers in this community that have the ability to make customs just as good if not better than we do.
We hope that you will look to them to continue servicing your needs.
And if you really need me to be in them....
Contact a producer and ask him to fly me out...LOL


Thanks bunch you guys.

[Brytestar]

<sigh>