Well, at least Cathy understood what I was saying.

And this whole thread was not about doing one free shoot in return for an unknown number of paid shoots.

I'm pretty sure the overall theme was someone doing work for free with the assumption she would get something out of it that would land her and the team more work in the future. And she was disappointed when she didn't get what she didn't ask for.

And I'm pretty sure the OP asked for our opinions on what went wrong.

So, yes, this whole thread seems to be leaning toward what can happen when you do stuff for free hoping something good will come out of it.