Once you get signed, the hard work really begins. Shoot days are fun, but they also can be grueling. On days when you're not shooting, you may be working another job, like Alex who is a trainer and teaches all kinds of awesome classes in NYC, or Suzanne, a former Wall Streeter who is a sommelier and runs her own wine consulting business. But on a shoot day, what can you expect? First, an early call time. "I typically get a workout in early in the morning before my call time," says Alex. "This is simply because shoot days are very draining and I know that by the time 'wrap' is called, I will just want to go home and go to sleep! Sometimes I also have to head to the gym to teach a class or train a client after the shoot, so I like to know that my own sweat session is done for the day."
Next comes hair and makeup. "Every shoot starts with hair and makeup, which still feels like a treat to me and is a nice way to decompress from the must-arrive-on-time transportation hustle," explains Suzanne. "At some point, the creative director or trainer stops by to walk you through the shot list for the day. Then you'll visit wardrobe, have another hair and makeup touch-up, and you're in front of a camera."
Now, the real work starts. "As a fitness model, more often than not 'shooting' involves some sort of exercise and is typically pretty physically taxing," says Alex. Suzanne agrees, saying, "I recently shot a campaign for Technogym's new stair-stepper and must have run two long flights of stairs, full speed, no less than 50 times—all for a five-second clip in the commercial!" Yep, that's a lot of stairs. "The finished product was a full two minutes in length to give you an idea how much work goes into it. I couldn't walk normally for days afterwards!" Ouch. Today:1
