I used a model for the first and last time (many years ago) and paid her for her time.  I then had to pay her for the model release.  Is this a normal practice?  Extra money to sign the model release form?  It cost me an extra £100 on top of the £30 per hour charge.

Help me out, I'm going to be doing it again soon and I need to know the score

Cheers

Michael

It is not normal practice to pay extra to have a release signed.

Discuss all things up front first. Agree upon the hourly wage and make sure the model knows a release will be expected. And based on some other threads I've been watching you might want to have the model sign the release first.

  Communication is the key; no surprises is a very good thing.

Actually, I don't know if it is normal or abnormal.  One thing that is unclear to me is when you paid her and when you asked for the release.  If you paid her the thirty pounds an hour but hadn't requested a release as a part of the deal and then asked for a release six months later, I can see the model asking to be paid extra.  In that case, there was no release requested at the time of the shoot and so the model presumed that it was a "non-release" shoot.   The pay rate for models is really based on usage and if you never told her that there would be publication, I can see how she would want to be paid for the additional usage.

On the other hand, if you did the shoot and presented the release, at which time she demanded extra payment, then I see an issue.  Generally speaking, one would presume that if you were being paid to shoot you would be expected to sign a release.  The question is whether you told her that before you shot?

Whether you did or didn't, it was a paid shoot, but it does show the importance of communicating clearly.  Likewise, whether she was right or wrong, there was a disagreement which could have been avoided had there been clear communications.  I can tell you with great certainty, if you book a model from an agency, they would not want a model to sign a full release, even for a paid shoot, unless it had been negotiated in advance.  Typically they will generally discuss the terms of a release before the booking. That isn't to say that they won't consent to a full release.  They will often condition it to limit the extent of usage.  Again though, I have no idea if you discussed this in advance.

Finally, since I am an unusual person, on the third hand, if you had told her in advance that there would be a release, negotiated your hourly rate and then she made a deman for additional money, there is never an excuse for that. 

Bottom line, discuss these things in advance.  There are always two sides to every story.

What did the release form entail? Normally that is absolutely not normal, but if the release entitled you to something different than usual than maybe. I can't exactly think of what situation would warrant that, but ya never know.

I would suggest you agree a fixed fee before the shoot.  That's the usual way of doing things.

Thanks everyone for your comments, I feel a lot clearer how things work now.  As I said it was a first time thing (I didn't even know what one was before - I had to buy Richard Kern's book to get an example!)

The shoot was strange -  it was a nude shoot, the image was to be used in the bottom of  a pool in an opera show I was part of directing.  I hired her through a friend who ran an agency, and at the end of the shoot, I paid her, asked her to sign the model release and she said it was another £100.

Now I know what to do after your advice - I paid because I was naive, but I also didn't want to be accused of ripping someone off.

Again, thanks for the advice