Baby Wrangler

Because I know none of you have the inclination to become a tool of the capitalist advertising regime, and I have the discipline to be your mole in the consumer cornfield, let me drop a little knowledge on you about the hierarchy and the different roles and responsibilities of everyone on set at your average commercial photo shoot.

1. Client: the person who actually works for the company that makes the product youre all there to advertise. Knows the company vision and is the one everyone wants to make happy. In a macy's type situation, there is no client, just the...

2. Creative Director: remember the Nanny in the madras shorts and the heavy woman with the heavy glasses? They're the reps of the big Macy*s cheese and what they say about the creative content of the advertisement goes. If they say the hair is flat or the pants look baggy or the lighting is too cool, then it is and whomever's department the offending detail falls under scrabbles to right the insufferable wrong as quickly as possible. They're the ones that say things like "I think the ponytail is fresh and exciting!" and "Those boots are all wrong for that coat."

3. The Producer; Easily the most stressed out person on set, the producer is responsible for all the logistics, the catering, the space rental, the models and the hair and makeup, they do all the booking, though they choose according to who the photographer likes to work with. they send their production assistants to get coffee for everyone in the afternoon and its just generally their job to keep everyone happy and make sure everyone has what they need. Again at a predominantly in house production like Macy*s, there is no producer on set, just someone in an office somewhere who works with the creative directors to makes sure everyone is booked and the food will arrive at the right time.

3. Art Director: micro manages every detail making sure that everything is produced in order to offend the flawless sensibilities of the creative director as little as possible.

4. Photographer and PAs (photo assistants) The PAs run around like crazy checking the lighting. setting up the sets hanging the backdrops, setting up all the electricty. and doing digital tech stuff in the monitor as the pictures get uploaded from the camera. They're generally very artsy, mainly aspiring photographers themselves and are almost all scruffily handsome with some sort of facial hair formation and a devil may care attitude. They are rarely women and often sexy. The photographers really vary. They can really set the tone of the shoot. If they're calm, confident and know their shit the shoot usually goes fast and has high morale. but if they're incompetent and cant get the right looks outta the models it can take way too long to get each picture and everyone gets frustrated (the macy*s in house guy is like that, has a crap eye and the creative director doesn't trust her instincts so its hella wishy washy and takes FOREVER.)

5. Stylists and stylist assistants are usually the hippest people on set with the most unique accessories and the ones with the skinniest jeans, most extreme mullets and most delicate hipply themed necklaces (swallows, anchors, antlers, luck amulets of any kind.) They are responsible for all things clothing and accessory. Their tools of the trade are big orange electrical clamps, clamshell clamps of the office supply variety, and safety pins (all for securing the loose extra material of clothes made to fit the tubby average joe behind the back of the day's sentient hanger) duct tape (to smooth pants closures and make calves of boots fitted),and lint rollers. They spend their lives shopping and returning and questing for the perfect shoe collection. They can justify buying anything, in any size.
They often include a tailor for last min alterations and detailing. The seamstress is often the most interesting girl on set.

6. Hair and make up: the earliest ones on set Hair and makeup arrives with much gear and has to get cracking as soon as there is a model on set. The assistants usually blow out hair and set in velcro rollers for volume, prep skin, moisturize, apply foundation and browset and then run on set with an "on set bag" full of combs, boar bristle brushes, hairspray, anti frizz stuff, blot powder and lip gloss. We dart in and out of the picture adjusting and arranging the hair and then dart back to our post at the fan, making the illusion of action and excitement by giving the hair movment with the "wind machine." You spend most of your time dreading the call "Hair!!! Can we have HAIR on set please?"

7. Prop stylists and prop assistants. Need an indoor lawn? a curtain of Christmas ornaments? A pink tennis racket and balls? Water wings, flippers, goggles and innertubes? Should it be snowing on set? Perhaps an in studio snowball fight! Want the model in antlers? Or maybe the sweater line would look best in front of a wall of evergreens. This is all the work of the prop stylist. Anything that isnt clothes or a model is up to them. They have the most behind the scenes work (covering lawn furniture in astroturf etc) and seem to be the least obtrusive characters on set.

Im sure this isnt a comprehensive list, but it sums up the general categories, and gives you some kind of idea of what gets done.

One more role Ive yet to detail and that I actually just learned about it on this shoot.
Baby Wrangler. You heard me, Baby Wrangler. There arent many, and apparantly they get paid a pretty penny (not enough, whatever it is.) Theses are the insane yong men and woman whose job it is to get good pics out of these kid and make scads of parents buy buy buy so that the thousands of dollars spent wrangling these beautiful children will pale in comparison to the number of tiny pink flared courderoys and children's place brand Crocs flying off the shelves.
On this shoot, the baby wrangler was also the stylist. She was a blonde, highly fashionable lesbian who once worked for non profits in SF but found herself enjoying making real money in NY with styling and ten years later shes screaming "Nobody better call me a....PICKLEFACE!!! (All scream "PICKLEFACE!!")Nobody better say Im a....NOODLEHEAD!!! (NOODLEHEAD! etc) Dont you turn to each other and LAUGH!!! ("Angie his left sleeve is covering his thumb, left LEFT!!") Whatever you do Wyatt dont tell Lee a secret about me!!!"
Depending on the kids age, shes doing anything from "PEEKABOO!!!" and "AAAAAACHHHOOO" (for the infants) to "Who do you think is my boyfriend? Did you know my boyfriend wears a bra and is named JOANNA?? Fatima do you think summer has a boyfriend named CUCUMBER HEAD??" for the 7 to 10 year olds. It was INSANE. The kids love her. Kids are so stupid.