Shoot Workflows

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First off, thank you to everyone on Twitter who shared what they would want to see me blog about!! Creating resources for fellow SWers is something hugely important to me. I don’t have the bandwidth to help 1 on 1, despite the fact that I always want to help my peers. I really hope that my blogs & occasional tweets are helpful to my fellow digital SWers!

Workflows. Whew. What a topic!! I can only share what works for me and ways others have shared with me that work for them. My ways may not work for you, though I would like to think that they are a good baseline for you to develop what works best for you! My workflows are constantly changing and evolving. They have to! That’s how the world is. Accepting and keeping up with changes is important. PornHub is a great example. If you asked me 4 years ago if I would WILLINGLY upload content to PH, I would have laughed at the idea. But now? Now I am working on growing my PH channel and turning it into a profitable channel.

I have a feeling this is going end up as a longer blog than anticipated, so I am going to try to break it down into Pre-Shoot Workflows, Shoot Workflows, and Post-Shoot Workflows.

A couple things to keep in mind: I intentionally shoot for the purpose of building up a backlog. I post 7 NEW/unique videos every single week on my clips4sale store. Just because I shoot something this week does not mean that it will be posted on my stores this week…it may not get posted for weeks or even months.

A recommendation: Have a content calendar. Does not matter if your calendar is digital or handwritten, but know when your content is going out and plan. My calendar is a desk calendar that I handwrite clip file names onto so that I  know when content is going up. It’s also noteworthy to share with you that I have 4 core categories that are assigned different days for posting. Category 1 goes up on Sundays, Category 2 on Mondays, Category 3 on Tuesdays, and Category 4 on Wednesdays. My categories are likely different than your core 4 categories. I like to color code each clip to make things easier for me! Here’s my June 2020 calendar:

Clips4Sale Content Calendar by Sydney Screams

Ok! With that stuff out of the way… Let’s get started on workflows!!

Pre-Shoot Workflow

Ever since COVID hit, my pre-shoot workflow actually starts the day before I plan on shooting. I don’t always have spoons to do everything in one day, and I try to anticipate my own needs as best as I can. Check out this Twitter thread of videos if you prefer to hear/watch rather than read:

Day 1 (these are in no particular oder other than doing my nails LAST thing if I’m applying press-ons):

  1. Clean/tidy the area I plan on shooting in. I have 3-ish places in my apartment I shoot: my bedroom, my guest room/office, and my living room.
  2. Set up lights. Pretty self explanatory, I think. My lights go up approx where I’d put them while shooting. They’re lightweight ring lights, so they’re not as big as umbrellas. If I plan to shoot in my bedroom, rather than put them where I’d have them while shooting, I put them in the corner/out of my middle of the night stumble to the bathroom path.
  3. Skincare/Body care rituals. For body care, dry brushing the day before is good so my skin isn’t red. Applying a lotion and/or body oil. Doing a gentle chemical peel OR a sheet mask on my face. Treating any acne spots with a spot treatment, followed by serums and finally moisturizing.
  4. Write down my shoot goal AND ideas. If my goal is 4 clips + a photoset, then I write it down. If my goal is 2 weeks worth of OF content, I write it down. Then, I write down my ideas + some extras in case I don’t like some of the ideas the next day//don’t have energy for the ideas the next day. When I shoot, I try to hit at least 2 of my Core 4 categories. I also recommended writing down outfit ideas, just so you don’t spend long periods of timing staring a shoot clothes wondering WTF to wear.
  5. Charge camera batteries. All of em, the backups and everything. Batteries for cameras I may or may not use because ya girl uses different cameras for different things.
  6. Meal prep. Shoot days tend to exhaust more of my spoon collection, so if I can prep 2/3 meals for the following day, it’s one less thing to think about on shoot day. Usually, I prep breakfast (overnight oats) and dinner (marinade a meat, cook rice/pasta/whatever carb side).
  7. Do my nails. If I’m painting them, I’ll do it when I know I won’t be touching much in the next hour or so. If I’m applying press ons, I do this last thing before I go to sleep. Reason being for that is because nail glue or adhesive strips will last longer if you don’t let them get wet for several hours.

Day 1 in depth explanations: I like to set up as much as I can so that when it’s time to shoot, I have less work to do. For me, that means picking which of the areas of my apartment that I want to shoot in, cleaning it/tidying up as best as I can, setting up my lights & tripod, and then not touching it until Day 2 when it’s actually shoot time. If I’m shooting in my bedroom, this is hard because I can’t sleep on a perfectly made bed! However, I try to make it easier for me to get that area ready for Day 2. Instead of throwing my comforter off the bed, I’ll neatly fold it over so all I have to do is straighten the sheets, unfold the comforter, and put my pillows in place. Also on Day 1, I’ll do appearance preparation… paint my nails or pop on some press-on nails if I don’t already have them on and then paint my toenails. I’ll usually also wash my makeup sponge because bacteria is yucky and I have very acne prone skin. My favorite part of appearance preparation comes right before bedtime! I do a light chemical peel on my face (I use Kate Somerville’s Liquid Exfolikate or The Ordinary’s AHA/BHA Peel) after washing my face and prior to applying my serums & moisturizer. I also take the time to cover myself in a body oil mixed with a lotion. I like to do this because I use unscented lotions. Body oils add an extra bit of moisture plus a nice scent that’s not going to give me an eczema flare up (I use Snakes or Love body oils from WitchBabySoap).

Also on Day 1, I look through the content that I have planned to go up in the next few days and see what kinds of categories I could touch on. That helps me plan for the categories I could do when shooting. Write the list down. Do it. Doesn’t matter if you write a physical note on like a post-it note or in a notebook or if you just make yourself a note in your phone. Write. It. Down. We can try to remember, but we’re human prone to memory errors. I usually write it down as a list with space between so I can add in some things I want to touch on when filming that specific category. For example, if I write down “Virtual POV Sex”, I would also write down the theme I plan to do: taboo MILF, vore, babysitter, BBW, home wrecker, etc. I will write down at least 4 ideas AND 2 extra ideas if I’m doing this part on Day 1 because as much as I can anticipate my needs, I can’t anticipate my energy levels, and certain categories take more energy to make than others.

Shoot Workflow

Day 2: Shoot day (in order of my workflow).

  1. Breakfast. If I don’t eat something, I won’t have energy to make it thru my goals.
  2. Ask a friend to hype me up. Whether I ask on Twitter or text friends directly, I always let a friend know I’m shooting because they are my best cheerleaders. If you don’t have someone to hype you up… @ me on Twitter. I gotchu.
  3. Shower, skincare & body care. Since I dry brushed the day before, I do a gentle wash then when I’m drying off, I’ll apply a body oil or lotion. I’ll also apply my serum & moisturizer to my face.
  4. Blow dry or style my hair. This depends on if it’s a hair wash day or not. If it was a wash day, I blow dry my hair. If it wasn’t a way day, I’ll use dry shampoo and/or texturizing spray to do something with my hair like straighten, curl, or add in extensions.
  5. Set the AC at a good temperature. When I’m shooting, I tend to have my apartment colder than when I’m not shooting, because lights get warm and I’m a sweaty baby.
  6. Good music while doing my makeup. I listen to Disney music because I’m a weirdo and that’s what works for me. Find something to hype you up while you apply your makeup.
  7. Set up camera. My camera moves a LOT when I’m shooting and no joke, I rotate between 3 different tripods and 3 different cameras depending on what I’m shooting. I have a main tripod & camera that I always set up first because that’s usually what I plan on using.
  8. Shoot! Every clip I shoot requires camera & light movement, even if just a little bit, so expect to move things around as you need them.
  9. Snap photos. Between each video, I try to snap a couple photos in the outfit I’m wearing. Sometimes that will be a full photoset using my remote & main camera, sometimes that will be a couple cell phone selfies. Just depends on my mood that day.
  10. Cross off/check off clip ideas after shooting them. It helps me feel like I’m getting shit done when I mark off that I shot them.
  11. Put away lights, tripod, camera.
  12. Drop files onto computer and back files up on external hard drive + online storage.
  13. Optional based on energy: edit everything I shot ASAP. I won’t convert to multiple file formats or make GIFs, but I will do the basic edit as soon as I can. More on post-shoot workflow to follow below.

Shoot day explanations: By splitting my shoot process into a two day process rather than everything at once, I’m saving my spoons as best as I can. Shooting is a LOT of work, and honestly I am unsure how I managed to work a full 8 hour day, come home, cook dinner, and then shoot for another 2-3 hours when I worked a full time job prior to COVID. My workflows have completely changed out of necessity because of COVID though, so what you saw above is the most up to date version of my shoot workflows. As someone who has lost content by not uploading it to my computer immediately, this is an important step for me. If I were to shoot two days in a row and accidentally use the same SD card, format it, and then shoot… I’d have lost all that content. I’ve done it before. It’s why I always encourage everyone to drop files onto computers, hard drives or cloud storage ASAP. Having to redo something I already poured so much time and energy into is really frustrating.

I *always* try to shoot pictures when I film because those can easily be used as promo materials and/or OF content. Because I tend to use my camera rather than my phone for taking pics, I’ll often set up my phone on a tripod to record me taking pics and post that on OF because why the hell not?

Because my lights are ring lights and pretty compact, I don’t break them down entirely. I have a little nook in one of my areas that they tuck away out of the way pretty easily. Prior to apartment living when I had umbrellas and/or soft boxes, I’d just leave them put together in a room I didn’t anticipate using for a few days. But since many people don’t have that luxury, I would highly recommend either investing in lights that don’t require unscrewing bulbs every damn day such as LED panels or ring lights.

I think I’ve mentioned it in past blogs, but one way I get thru my shot list is by tricking my brain into thinking “one more clip” rather than “3 more clips” or whatever my goal is. So you’ve done your hair & makeup and you’re ready to shoot. Rather than looking at the big, intimidating picture, I find it extremely helpful to go clip by clip telling myself “one more” until I cannot possibly do one more. Between every single video I shoot, I drink a few sips of water. Depending on what time I get started shooting and how I’m feeling, I may pause between my 2nd & 3rd videos to eat lunch or have a snack. Develop a system that works for you! Or copy mine! I don’t mind at all.

Post-Shoot Workflow

  1. Editing. In most cases, I already edited everything the same day I shot it because I shoot during the day and then will spend a bit of time after dinner editing. But I tend to shoot most content as single take videos with no cuts needed, so this is easy for me.
  2. Make MP4s & WMVs. I post 4 formats of every single video on C4S: 1080 & 720 in both MP4 & WMV.
  3. Upload all files via FileZilla to C4S. Using a FTP uploader just makes it easier and faster since C4S is notoriously slow for uploading. It’s also helpful since I rarely make something and post it the same day or even next day.
  4. Upload MP4s to ManyVids, membership site, and dropbox. These are sites where I don’t immediately have to post what I upload + cloud storage.
  5. Use the 720 MP4 to make a 20-40 second preview. This has a couple benefits, which I’ll outline in the explanation below.
  6. Use that 20-40 second preview to make a GIF. If you’re an Apple user, buy & download GIFBrewery. You’ll need to play with your settings, but trust me this is a HUGE time saver.
  7. Map out my content. Sorry for those who love lists, but this is involves some explanation IMO! I try to map out a week at a time. I look at my backlog, what I shot most recently, and see where I can make it so the week is a mix of videos I shot most recently, videos from a shoot maybe a few weeks ago, and videos from a shoot maybe a month ago. I can’t tell you what will work best for you because I don’t know your backlog. If I shoot 2x a week, it is very likely that 1 clip from each shoot will go up within any openings this week or the first opening next week. For some categories outside of my Core 4, I will add those videos to my calendar sometimes a month in advance just so I know to work on other non-Core categories when I film. Some of this is very specific to C4S because it is the only site I update daily.
  8. Write descriptions, add categories & schedule on sites. Because C4S is my main source of income, it gets my attention first. Plus, it’s really helpful to have ONE site that you always use to write things out first, to then copy/paste to other sites. By already having my content mapped out, I don’t have to think as much about “ok what goes up next” because I already know! For C4S, since I am posting 4 formats of every video, I schedule them all at the same time (not going live at the same time, I just do the work all at once).
  9. Cross post videos. This is probably the most time consuming and least fun task for me. It’s also one that is annoying to me because not every site performs as strongly in every single category, so I have mental notes of what works and where. If a category does well on PH, then I’ll post it on PH! If it doesn’t do well on MV, then I skip MV. I copy/paste descriptions & categories because why type everything out multiple times when you can make your life easier.

Post-Shoot Explanations: The reason I make a 20-40 second preview with *every* video I make is because I can use that preview on a number of sites: ManyVids, Clips4Sale, and PornHub! I take 4-6 sections of the video, usually 6 seconds long each, and put them into a mini video. It’s an extra step that has definitely paid off for me long term. Clips4Sale allows previews, ManyVids basically requires previews, and PornHub… well. PornHub makes it so I can profit off those previews directly! How, you ask? I post the preview on PH for free, and the full version of the video on ModelHub for sale. Since views=$ on PornHub, having those previews posted there means that I am slowly but surely profiting off of them. I already put the work in to make the preview, why not make some money off of them?

I wish the post-shoot process was as easy as shooting, because fuuuuuuuuck it is time consuming. I often dedicated 1-3 days a month just to cross posting on other platforms for the entire month. That usually means that other sites are anywhere from 1-3 months behind on getting my latest content because MV, IWC, PH/MH don’t have daily updates for me. PH/MH, I’m testing out daily updates currently, just because I’m only recently putting time into the platform and seeing it pay off very very very quickly. I want to see what the scalability is of the platform, for me.

There are some other work tasks that I don’t even include on here, like emails and posting on social media. They don’t really fit into my workflows tbh. I make time for emails when I have the spoons. I try to post on socials regularly, but sometimes I don’t post as regularly as other times. With both emails & social media, I often just… don’t have it in me? I’m too tired, my brain isn’t performing strongly, I don’t have patience for it, etc.

Thank you so much for reading. I’m a wordy bitch, but I hope this was a thorough and helpful look into my workflows. Like I’ve said before: What works for me may not work for you, so I really encourage you to develop a workflow that best suits your individual needs. If you have questions, want feedback on how to make your workflow more streamlined/effective, or whatever, please either leave a comment below or Tweet at me!

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