Preparation and body care before the shoot

Preparation for an erotic shoot is ninety percent appointment planning and ten percent cosmetics. Anyone who makes the right two phone calls a week beforehand and goes to bed early the day before is better prepared than someone who spends three hours in the bathroom on the morning of the shoot. The following plan runs backwards from the shoot day: a week before, the day before, the morning itself. On top comes what productions actually expect, what they expressly do not expect, and which preparations shortly before a shoot do more harm than good.

A week before: arrangements and appointments

In this week things are settled, not groomed. First check your test result: is the panel on the shoot day still within the agreed deadline of 14 to 30 days? If not, now is the moment for the appointment, not in four days. The costs are borne by the production. What is examined exactly and at which intervals is in our article on health on set.

Second the arrangements about appearance. Whether a genital shave is wanted, full or partial, whether body hair should stay, whether a certain hair colour or style belongs to the concept: that belongs in the pre-talk and in the booking confirmation. Negotiating that on set is the wrong place and the wrong time, because you then decide about your body under time pressure.

Third the appointments that leave traces. Waxing, sugar paste, laser treatments, chemical peels, new active cosmetics, tanning beds, fresh tattoos and piercings need distance from the shoot day. As a rule of thumb: at least two to three days, and for anything that irritates the skin preferably more. Fresh tattoos and piercings are a case of their own, because they need weeks and also change the continuity of a series.

Why aggressive treatments shortly beforehand are a bad idea

Studio light is unforgiving. It comes from several directions, it is hard, and the camera records at a resolution in which every redness, every ingrown hair and every pustule is visible. What you barely notice in the bathroom mirror stands clearly on the monitor.

That has practical consequences. Irritated skin means more time in makeup, more cover, more interruptions for corrections, and in doubt a shot that cannot be taken. For you it also means: irritation plus friction plus hours under hot light is an unpleasant combination.

The rule from that is simple. In the week before a shoot try nothing new. No unknown cosmetics, no new shaving gel, no first treatment at a new studio. Stay with what your body knows, and move experiments to the time between two bookings.

The day before

The day before is about sleep, food and logistics, not about looks. Eat normally and in familiar amounts. Heavy food in the evening, unusual spice or a large portion of pulses is not a good idea on a day when you work half-dressed next to other people. Drinking helps more than any cream, because skin with enough fluid looks better under light.

No alcohol. A glass the evening before is not a drama, but a night of drinking shows the next day in eyes, skin and concentration, and on a shoot day you need concentration more than radiance.

Pack the bag ready, put the papers on top, set the alarm with a buffer for delays and go to bed early. A shoot day starts early and ends late, and tiredness is the factor that makes the day most noticeably harder.

The morning of the shoot

Shower, brush your teeth, light familiar care, done. Bring the hair clean and dry, but without an elaborate style and without much product, because makeup prefers to work on a neutral base. You do not bring makeup into the studio if a makeup artist is booked; if you are meant to do your own, that stands in the overview beforehand.

Eat breakfast, even if you are nervous. Something light is better than nothing, because there is catering on set, but not at the moment your circulation needs it. A snack in the bag solves that problem.

Build in a time buffer for the journey. Punctuality is what decides your reputation on set, clearly more than any detail of your preparation. How the path there is organised and what comes in writing beforehand is in the process from application to contract.

What the production expects and what it does not

Expected is: punctual, rested, groomed, sober, with the agreed papers. Also expected is that you say if something does not fit, and early.

Not expected is a certain body image. Productions cast differently, and the market for performers beyond a narrow scheme is larger than the visual language of the industry suggests. Also not expected is that you permanently change your appearance for a shoot. Anyone who demands a redesign that goes beyond hair and makeup says that beforehand and pays for it.

And not expected is that you take on preparations that are excluded in your limits list. What is excluded there is not demanded, not even against a supplement and not even as a request shortly before the shoot.

Alcohol and drugs on set

Neither has any place on set. The reason is not morals, but legal validity: consent given under alcohol or drugs is not reliable consent. With that the basis on which shooting may happen at all falls away.

On top comes the practical side. Anyone who is not clear cannot draw limits reliably, cannot read signals and cannot carry out directions cleanly. A set on which something is circulating is therefore a warning sign and not a loosened atmosphere. If you come into such a situation, you stop and report it. Which rules apply on serious productions is under safety on the film set.

Menstruation

A period on set is not an exceptional state, but a known circumstance that is handled professionally. Say so early, preferably already when the date is arranged, if the cycle is foreseeably going to fall on the shoot day.

In practice there are three paths. The date is moved, which on plannable productions is often possible. The shoot plan is adjusted so that on this day shots arise for which it does not matter. Or shooting happens with the usual aids that have been used in the industry for decades, with corresponding breaks. Which of those comes into question you decide with, not the production alone.

What does not happen: that a reproach is made of it or the fee is cut because you raised it. A production that reacts that way says more about itself than about you.

Note: This article places the practice in general terms and is not a substitute for medical advice. On health questions the doctor is the right address.