The internet has democratized media in almost every arena. Cheap technology and free distribution has lowered the barrier of entry to zero on the fringes of industries which less than a decade ago were elite and exclusive. From publishing to advertising to the recording industry, the new standard is no standard.
The modeling industry has been wildly transformed by the digital age. Inexpensive camera and computer equipment has created an amateur photography boom that floods the internet with hundreds of millions of images a year.
Whereas traditionally a professional photographer would approach a modeling agency looking for new faces to "test shoot" on a "time for prints" basis, now in almost every city Craigslist is filled with ads by amateur photographers looking for amateur models for TFP or TFCD. Websites like Model Mayhem and One Model Place allow aspiring models, photographers, and anyone with access to the internet to sign up for an account, upload a couple of snapshots, and instantly start networking with other people on the site to set up shoots.
The result is a bewildering mix of amateur porn, trial-and-error photoshoots, tattooed pinups, and more than a few breathtaking images from hobbyists and professionals alike, all shot at the expense of the models and photographers themselves.
Welcome to the new world of modeling, where import tuner girls have replaced Playboy Bunnies, fitness models frolic in the Caribbean sea for photographers on weekend "workshops", lipgloss has given way to gasmasks, "glamour" means "nude", and it's not porn if it's artistic.
Time For Prints is an in-production, feature-length documentary by Toronto editorial photographer and filmmaker Chris Frampton. Time for prints follows models with diverse backgrounds, experience levels and interests over the course of a summer as they pursue their goals and try to improve their portfolios in the internet-driven community of TFP/CD photography in Toronto.
In addition to telling individual stories of models and photographers, Time For Prints examines the experience and business of being a professional and amateur model in Toronto, with interviews with agents, photographers, designers, webmasters, hopefuls and hangers-on, from the most well established to the most unknown. Time For Prints looks at the TFP modeling community as a secret world, with its own rules, politics, good people and bad.
Time For Prints is a feature-length film shot in state-of-the-art HD. Principal photography is taking place over the remainder of 2008, and the expected project completion date is June 2009 for submission to film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival and Hot Docs. Possible distribution channels include international theatrical release, DVD release, and release on specialty channels such as FT and the Documentary Channel.
Chris Frampton's unmistakable pictures have been called smart, fascinating, and alive.
“In every one of my pictures you’ll see a relationship,” he says of his portfolio. “I’d rather get a blurry, chopped off photo that makes you feel you know something about the subject, than a perfect photo that doesn’t.”
Chris's west Toronto studio produces cutting edge editorial, commercial and publicity images and media for hundreds of clients a year in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
If you're a model, photographer, agent or webmaster and you'd like to get involved in the film, email us at contact@chrisframpton.net
We're looking for experts, opinions, and stories good and bad, from success to sleaze, heartbreak to the hero shot.
Models and photographers, if you use the internet (Model Mayhem, OMP, Craigslist, etc) to develop your portfolio, we're still looking for principals to follow around throughout the summer.
Whether you're struggling to make contacts or are rolling in cash, think you're a failure or think you're god's gift, email us and share your story!
If you're a festival or media programmer and would like more information about this project, please contact Chris directly at chris@chrisframpton.net or by visiting his website.
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