MONDAY 18/05/09
We had a 5.30 call time this morning which was not easy, as usual our room was the last ones up and ready to go. Daniel drove us to the shoot location, we were given a clue the day before that we would be shooting “in something” so as we drove up to the studio we all saw a huge shipping container and immediately knew we would be shooting inside it. As we got out of our van we saw a van with a bunch of guys who looked like models come out of the van next to us so I guessed we would be shooting with them.
I was pretty amped for the shoot because I’d never done a shoot with other people before but I was a little worried because it was in bikinis and that is definitely not my forte in modeling. As we started the hair and makeup Invy, our photographer explained to us the theme for the shoot. Basically the idea for the shoot was that us girls were going to be acting as captives held hostage by these crazy guys dressed in blue jumpsuits who were attacking/raping us. We were meant to be acting terrified but also be sexy at the same time, we were pretty much portraying hostages who had developed Stockholm syndrome and had fallen for the captors while still being scared for our safety. Invy showed us some photos of examples of what he was looking for and they were quite disturbing and kinky and I wasn’t sure how great I would be at the challenge. The hair we got was very big and the makeup was extremely dramatic to fit in with the powerful setting and scene and of course we were wearing bikinis from Ripcurl and heels. The male models were dressed in blue jumpsuits and had scary makeup and wigs making them look like clowns/joker from batman. Each time a girl would go for their shoot they would be posing with 2 male models and in the background of the shot they would have 2 other girls and guys posing to set the scene. All the girls were happy to be working with male models because we have been so cooped up in the house and have had no human contact with any males other than the crew.
I was the fourth girl up so I got have a look at a little bit of Kat & Ciara’s shoot and they both seemed to go pretty well, Kat in particular. Christabel was the first girl up but I was getting my makeup finished so I didn’t get to see her but she hurt her neck really badly during the shoot and they took her to the doctor to get checked out so when she came back I found out what had happened and that the doctor had given her medication for her stiff neck.
It was good because I got to practice posing while working in the background and had a bit of time to figure out how I would approach the shoot when it was my time to be the spotlight girl. I really thought I would feel awkward posing in bikinis with half naked male models especially considering the subject matter but I really got into it. I was amazed at how relaxed I was with the shoot and posing with the guys because it really was quite a sexually charged shoot and I’m usually very shy but I guess it was a great way for me to let loose and do something completely out of my comfort zone. The male models were very professional, they made me feel very comfortable and weren’t sleazy which made it a lot easier to get into the compromising positions/poses without thinking i was doing anything inappropriate. I’m sure my boyfriend might be a bit jealous knowing i was surrounded by half naked male models but I’ve had talks with him about these sort of circumstances and at the end of the day its a profession and we all there to get a job done and there is no actual emotion involved, of course there is chemistry on set but its all artificial. It doesn’t hurt that the guys are hot, thats just a bonus! I was reasonably happy with my shoot but it was an impossible shoot to say whether you did well or not so i was feeling the usual uneasiness i feel whenever elimination is involved.
I watched a few of the other girls do their shoot and few of them struggled but a few of them seemed to excel in particular my favourites were Anna and Yuen. Ciara was discussing her shoot and asking if the guys helped me with poses when I did mine which they did and she complained that the guys didn’t help her and she whinged about Evelyn getting more frames than anyone else, it seems like wherever we go or whatever we do she has something to complain about and i’m just so over it. Once we were all done the judges deliberated and we were kept in suspense waiting for their decision, we had Charmaine, Elaine daley and a Jeanette from herworld as guest judges. Once they were done they announced Kat & I as the best performers and me as the overall challenge winner which i was so incredibly thankful to be safe from elimination but was very shocked as it was unexpected. The 3 girls in the bottom 3 were announced as Jenny, Anna & Yuen which made no sense to me at all from what i had seen from the shoots. When they finally revealed Yuen as the girl to be eliminated everyone was dumbfounded. It didn’t seem right because in my opinion Yuen was the best model in the competition by far and her shoot got little to no criticism from what I saw. Kathlene lost it crying, I think the main reason she was upset was that she thought Ciara deserved to go before Yuen and I can’t say many of the other girls would have thought any differently. Once or twice she almost blew her cool and went off at Ciara, which has been building up for some time, but Christabel was there to calm her down and kept telling her there was no point.
The decision for Yuen leaving was explained to us because the guest judges didn’t believe she has the right look for editorial. It felt like such a shitty reason because it basically meant the shoot had nothing to do with the decision and it was all based on her face and not on what she could do as a model. Its so unfair it was based on looks, it might sound stupid considering we are in a modelling competition after all but being judged solely on looks rather than the ability to model sucks. We were told we have to realize that the judges are people from the real world and are basing their decisions on whether or not they would book a model for a job and in this case the beauty director of herworld didn’t believe Yuen had a face she would ever book, despite the producers and the photographer not being happy with the decision so we all just had to come to terms with the decision. It was harsh to hear but unfortunately thats the industry we are working in. Its such a subjective opinion, someone else might see Yuen and say they would definitely book her for editorial so its really just luck of the draw and i was just lucky that the judges thought i had a face they would book.
The atmosphere was quite tense after the decision and I really couldn’t be happy about winning the challenge knowing Yuen was going home. I don’t think any challenge winner’s ever get to enjoy their glory because its always so sad to see anyone go. After dinner we all headed home tired, sore and bruised from the day and went straight to bed.
My winning photo
