UGC is the shortest line on our rates card and the one that gets the most questions. Five thousand rupees per video, next to a full shoot day at twenty thousand. Models ask whether it is a smaller job or a different one.
It is a different one. Here is what the brand is paying for, how the clip is made, and what makes one worth using.
What UGC means on our page
Our casting page defines it in one line: short clips made for a brand's social media, filmed on your phone or ours, and nothing is posted from your own account unless your booking letter says so.
Three things in that sentence matter.
Short. A clip runs seconds, not a shoot day. The ones in our own Shot with us section are between twenty seconds and just over a minute.
For the brand's social media. The brand posts it, on its own accounts. You are not being asked to post to your followers, and the clip is not a trade for exposure.
Your phone or ours. The look is a phone, not a studio camera. A try-on filmed in a bathroom mirror, a walk by a pool, a set held up on hangers. The brand wants it to read as a person showing a garment, not as an advert.
What the brand is actually buying
A brand that books a UGC clip is buying three things, and the fee covers all of them.
Your time. Filming a clip takes less than a day, which is why it is priced per video and not per day.
The garment on a body. Flat product photographs show the cut. A clip shows the fit when you move, the fabric in daylight, the straps when you lift an arm. That is the part a buyer cannot get from a photograph.
The right to use it. This is the part people forget. The clip has you in it, so the brand needs your permission to post it. That permission is the model release, and the release says where the clip may be used, in which countries and for how long. The fee covers the use the release lists. Any use outside it is a separate agreement and a separate fee.
So when a brand says "just a quick clip", the honest answer is that it is quick to film and not quick to own. Read the release the same way you would for a full shoot.
How a UGC booking runs with us
The booking follows the same steps as any other booking on our casting page, scaled down.
1. A written offer. The booking letter gives the fee, what you are wearing, where the clip will be used and the release, so you can read it before you say yes. 2. The garment list, in writing. Nothing is added on the day. If a clip would need something not on your list, you can say no, and the fee stays the same. 3. Half the fee when the booking is confirmed, half the day after. Same as a shoot day. We never pay in cash, and you never pay us. 4. The clip is filmed, on your phone or ours, and the file comes to us. 5. The brand posts it, on its own accounts, within the terms of the release.
If the booking letter does not mention your own account, nothing goes on it. If a brand wants you to post from your own account, that has to be written into the letter before you agree, and it is a different thing from UGC as we define it.
What a good clip looks like
We watch a lot of these. The ones that get used share the same habits, and none of them need equipment.
Daylight, from the front. A window or an open doorway, with the light on you and not behind you. The red lingerie clip in our Shot with us section is lit by one window and nothing else.
The garment in the first second. A clip for social media is judged before it finishes. If the first frame is your face and the garment appears at second four, the brand cuts the clip or does not use it. Start with the garment on.
One idea per clip. A try-on. A walk. Holding up the set, then wearing it. Do one. A clip that tries to do all three is three clips badly.
Phone held upright. Vertical, nine by sixteen, because that is the shape the brand's feed is. Landscape clips get cropped and lose the garment.
A still moment. Somewhere in the clip, stop for two seconds and face the camera. That is the frame the brand uses as the cover, and it is the frame a buyer pauses on.
Your own voice, if there is sound. A sentence about how it fits is worth more than music. Say what you would say to a friend.
What a brand does not want
A few things that come up often enough to list.
- Filters. The brand needs the garment's real colour. A filter that warms the skin also turns a navy set black.
- Other labels in shot. A clip for one brand should not show another brand's logo on a bag or a towel.
- Anything not on your garment list. If it was not agreed in writing, it does not go in the clip, and we will not ask.
- The clip posted elsewhere. Until the brand has posted it and your release allows it, the clip stays private.
Where UGC sits next to a shoot day
A full shoot day gives a brand a catalogue: every style, every colour, lit the same way, from a camera. UGC gives the brand one garment on one person on one afternoon, looking like real life. Brands use both, and they are paid differently because they are different jobs.
For a model, UGC is the easier way in. It needs no studio, no travel, and no experience beyond knowing how you look in daylight on a phone. If the clip is good, the next booking is often a shoot day.
What to ask before you say yes
- Where will the clip be used, and for how long? It is in the release. Read it.
- Is anything expected from my own account? If it is not in the booking letter, the answer is no.
- Whose phone? Either is fine, but you should know before the day.
- What is on my garment list? Ask for it in writing if it has not arrived.
Send your card from the casting page if you want to be considered for clips. Applying is free, and a UGC booking runs on the same terms as everything else on that page.