Talent Searches

Well today was a good day to be an honest talent manager. I got to see first hand (it has been years since I had the displeasure) one of these "talent search" companies in action. It was disturbing to watch a fast talking, well trained young pitch man (I'm pretty sure I have shoes in my closet older than he) nearly come unwrapped as I asked him legitimate questions about his company's intentions with one of my models that he was trying to extort about $800.00 (not to mention 20.00 a month thereafter) from. Not only could he not make eye contact with me but I thought his eyeballs were going to become dislodged from his skull they were moving so fast.
This particular company was promising "modeling work" to one of my pretty young teens. He said his company got work for models for companies like JC Penney, Macy's and RUE 21. When I asked him if this was print work he said yes. I called him out telling him that I had been in this business for longer than he had been alive and in none of those years had any of those companies done PRINT work here. They are all done in major cities (ie NYC and LA). He tried to fast talk again and brought up the companies BBB "rating". PEOPLE : HEAR THIS! YOU CAN PURCHASE A BBB LOGO FOR YOUR NEW BUSINESS AND WEB SITE. THAT IS HOW IT WORKS. If you have a business you call the BBB and you write them a check and viola- you have a logo.(more or less)I don't have one and I refuse to "buy" one. You want to know what kind of business I run- GOOGLE me. If you have been in business a short time OR you have changed your business name (as is the case with this company) the BBB is not caught up. Check out all the names the company does business under(I found three plus one infamous one that has been sued repeatedly).
Oh, so - they do business under different names??? HELLO- RED FLAG! Also check out the names of the principles of the company. Oh- they aren't listed on the web site or anywhere? HELLO- RED FLAG!! Call the company- does a live human answer- ever? HELLO- RED FLAG!
You must do your due diligence here. Just as you would with any thing you spend this kind of money on. Remove emotion, engage your common sense and proceed with caution. If you were a plumber and just growing your business, would you pay someone from another city far away 800.00 to be on web site called www.starplumbingtalentusa.com and trust them to get you work in your own backyard? It's ridiculous on the face of it but when its modeling all of a sudden it makes sense??? huh???
Do these companies get you any jobs?- Yes. Mostly promotional work which is handing out product samples and working at trade show booths or Walmarts etc. That is how they get around some of the angry people who come back and say: "Hey, you didn't make me a model and get me jobs". We get this type of work for some of our models that desire it too. We call it special event staffing or promotion staffing. It's not bad work it's not MODELING and it certainly shouldn't cost you 800.00 and 20.00 per month to book it! Do they get people traditional modeling jobs? Possibly. Its like the whole spaghetti on the wall thing- if you throw enough, something has to stick...food for thought...no pun intended.
Oh and beware! Rumor has it this show is coming to a mall near you too...next week I hear.....

How to properly submit to an agency.

Okay- I am ready to throw myself out the window and into a snow bank. I will try not to make this post sound like a rant but it will be difficult. LOL.
I have just opened my umpteenth ill prepared, unprofessional submission and I am a woman on the edge. This post has nothing to do with how the model looks. It has nothing to do with whether they have professional photos taken. It has to do with how people present themselves and how they FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.
Thirty [gulp] years ago when I was starting out in this business and I was looking for an agent I vividly remember typing out a carefully and professionally worded letter explaining who I was and what I wanted to do. I also attached some carefully chosen photos and attached them. There was no wireless anything (I am not sure there were cordless phones). I cared about how I was perceived and the impression I made. None of this matters. Being profession surely has not gone out of fashion. If it has who do I complain to?
When submitting to an agency (especially this one) PLEASE remember that the person on the receiving end of your submission is a professional. They don't want to read a letter that where you have neglected to employ a single capital letter. (there is really no trick to it- just a little old shift button- no need to bother Pat Sajak)
If I had a nickle for every submission where the photos were indecent, colored "Andy Warhol style (really??), duck face puckered (I can't get myself started on this), stats were missing, contact info is missing, the photos were blurry, and on and on. All of the requirements to submit are listed on my web site (and most agencies as well). So even if this stuff is not obvious you CAN find it on most agencies sites.
So to recap- if you want to join an agency don't send a submission like this:

hey i am a inspiring model her are my pics call me
OR
my name is john what do i need to do to model for ur company
OR
i snet my info in last week and i didn't get no response

ALSO Do not send me a photo that you took with your Iphone with you making funny faces with no other info. If you don't take this seriously, how do you expect anyone else to do so?

The proper way to submit is to send via email if you can:
A clear and current, smiling head shot and body shot. Include all of your stats (hgt, wt and measurements- it does not behoove you to lie about this) and don't' forget AGE and D.O.B. I have had people send me photos with no age attached and I have thought to myself; "Wow, that is either a really great looking 40 year old or a really unfortunate looking 25 year old." We need to know how old you are! :-)
Include all contact info as well. I also have all of this listed on my web site:
http://www.amsmodels.com/talent_agency_faq.php
So that is what I have today. If you want to be looked at as a professional then please present yourself as one.

What's a professional model?

Okay- I spent an hour this morning looking at new model photos and thank goodness it was before breakfast because would have had an upset stomach. Don't take that the wrong way. The models were NOT unattractive! The photos and the way they were presented was very disturbing! I am SO glad we are having a workshop this weekend as it has solidified my reasons for doing it. There is so much bad info out there and young people today (and many moms) have no idea how to present themselves PROFESSIONALLY TO A TALENT AGENCY and therefore would have no idea how to present themselves as PROFESSIONAL MODELS.

Professional models are not people playing "dress up" on Facebook. Professional models get dressed up for photo shoots by paying clients to portray bank tellers, doctors, retail clients, spokespeople, sick people etc, etc, etc. What good are photos of you looking off into the distance with your hands on your hips and your spine contorted into an unnatural position standing on a concrete post?? Bragging rights so you can say that you are the "Queen of the Facebook Models" today? I have models with no FB presence that make 150.00 or more and hour with photos of themselves sitting and standing in pretty normal positions. No bragging- just making a little extra money.

Now I am not saying you can't get cool photos done- there is a lot to be said for practice making perfect BUT you should have a mix of commercial, editorial and this dramatic fashion editorial stuff that I keep seeing. (even though there is NO market here for it). I get that it is FUN. Fun is good. But when a model has nothing to give me but FUN photos- I can't get them work. Fun does not equal paying jobs in upstate NY. Guess what? It doesn't equal paying jobs in NYC either. When and IF you get an agent in NYC they are going to scrap all of your fun photos and make you get new ones anyway. All the big agencies want to see the SAME THINGS I DO: a basic smiling shot of your face and a full [clothed for God's sake] body shot. That's it. This is simple stuff. When you are responding to a request from your favorite photog for another TFP (Time for Prints) shoot what so many models are forgetting is the: “What’s in it for me?” part. That’s right- you can make requests. For example if the photog has an idea like they want to shoot you in front of a fire house in a bikini top, bunker pants and a fire hat, that is all well and good but as your agent I would have no use for that shot. It is ABSOLUTELY appropriate for you to ask that photographer if they wouldn’t mind taking a few new head shots of you at the beginning or end of that shoot for your web page or book. It is your TIME too remember. Every good photographer I know is happy to do that! The TFP should be good for both parties. Also there is a point in time where a good model, a professional model doesn’t need a portfolio of 200 TFP shots unless they are changing their look weekly and need those shots to keep current. If you are that in demand you can start charging for those shots. You can simply say “I am very flattered but I have enough prints for my portfolio now- if you want me I have a small fee for my time.”

This morning I opened up a photo of a girl with a "duck face" for her head shot and then a duck face for a full body shot. Seriously?? We get about 100 new model submission a week and are booking models for jobs every day. I don't have time to tell her what she did wrong (it's all outlined on my web site). Another submission I opened the girl had the duck face (which I truly need explained to me 'cause I don’t get it) and a photo of her dancing on a pole in a bar. Uh….I don't know what to say.

Who do these people think opens these emails? My assistant and I are professional business women and our clients are all professionals as well. We respond well to professional emails AND people who can follow directions. Some of these inquires have no punctuation and NO CAPITALIZATION. Honesly that activates a twitch in my right eye. It is just a matter of hitting the shift key with your pinky. Great Ceasar's ghost, you don't have to split an atom to create a capital letter.

I also get submissions from people's phones. No name. No contact info. No physical stats. Just a duck face photo sent to my inbox. At least they didn't have to deal with trying to figure out how to create that confounding capital letter. Sometimes I will get really lucky and it will say "sent from my iphone". Congratulations.

Present yourself as the model you want to be. Every agency from AMS Models, to NEXT, to FORD has submission guidelines- read them before you submit! If you don’t submit properly you may never hear back because they threw your submission away. If they say no make-up and wear a close fitting dress then don’t send in a photo of you in full make-up and a ball gown- You won’t hear back.

I always say that modeling in upstate NY is a hobby that pays and no one is going to get rich or pay their mortgage with the money but you have to put some effort into it. I do have people that make a few extra thousand dollars a year and these are the people that go to auditions when they come up and they have updated photos that are reflective of the market. No they aren't dangling from a tree limb with enough eyeliner to make Marilyn Manson jealous, and they are wearing a lab coat instead of a ball gown but THEY are getting paying gigs.
This post is for the people that are interested in getting paying Modeling jobs. Not Promotional work- that is something else. Not playing the "I have more pretty photos on FB than you do" game but becoming a professional, money making model.

I don't candy coat this topic (if you didn't get that already). If you want to know how it is I will tell you- there are enough people out there that will tell you exactly what you want to hear because they are trying to take money from you or trying to make a name for themselves or they are CLUELESS and have no experience in this industry. I have spent 30 years in this business and the last 11 as an agent. I have kept current and have had a couple of AMS talent go on to NY. VERY FEW. Why? Because it is hard to become a model in NYC- That's why. I have seen thousands of models. Less than 6 have gone on to make it in NYC and do really well. Those are tough odds.
If someone is telling you that you are going to be a big model in NYC then you should take a hard look at yourself and what you are up against. It is good to dream. I had a dream and I am living it. You have to dream to achieve but this is an industry where people PREY on dreamers more than any business I have ever seen. Google is your friend. An honest agent who will tell you the truth and not ask for your money is your friend. Someone that wants to TAKE something from you and buy your dream for a price is NOT your friend, and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Don’t go into this blindly and don’t even take my word for it either. Do your homework. Knowledge is power.

So what the heck do you need an agent for?

Did you ever think about why talent agents or managers really exist? Is it because someone wanted to make a lot of money? TRUST ME that is not the reason (uh- I drive a 3 year old Ford Escape...lol) There are times I think I must be some kind of masochist. This is often a very thankless job. This is not me whining about my job because it is really a great job that I feel fortunate to be able to do- this is my preamble to what and why I do what I do and why it is sometimes necessary to have an agent. Can you get work without and agent? SURE. Can you buy a car without going to a dealer? YUP. Can you buy jewelry without going to a jewelry store? Yes again. You can get what you want pretty much anywhere you want it these days without going through conventional means but sometimes the price that you pay for this is that you don't have professional guidance. Not everyone needs professional counsel but most people DO. The average person does not know what fair payment for a day on set for a TV commercial is. They also don't know to ask "how long is this going to run". Why is that important? Because if you don't ask it can interfere with future work. If an ad you did is going to run "in perpetuity" (that means basically until Christ comes back) then you may never get hired again to do another TV commercial because you will be known as the guy or girl in that forever running OTHER commercial. Now that is all well and good if you got paid substantially for that aforementioned OTHER commercial but if you picked up the gig on Craig's list and made 250.00 then ...well...you just shot yourself in the foot. You still with me? If you had a good, experienced agent they could have negotiated for time limits or better pay etc. That is the reason much of this stuff is out there listed in the first place. I can't tell you how many times new talent or even season talent have come to me and said they have done a commercial and now it is running and they don't know if and when it will ever be pulled. The only way I can promote them is in my other markets. I have also had new talent actually boast of getting these jobs thinking it will boost their careers when they have actually sunk it before it began- because that is how it was "sold" to them.
This is all particularly disturbing when it comes to kids in advertising. There are actually laws in place that protect children in NYS from being underpaid in advertising. (you can look this up on the NYS dept of labor's web site) If you want to hire children in NYS you have to be certified to do so as we are. I heard of a company that hired children to do an all day TV commercial shoot for a local company (who I won't name) and then shot stills for all of their print ads and paid the kids 60.00. 60.00 total. Not only is this an unfair and ridiculous rate by anyone's standards, no one on that set was certified and I think there was a magnet stuck to the bottoms of their moral compasses as well. Often parents are so excited to see their kids in print or on TV that they don't think about anything else. This is not necessarily their fault- they just want to see thier kids in print or where ever, and the money doesn't matter to them but the big picture is they have just allowed a company to exploit thier children's image and other children's images and PERPETUATE a wrong.

There are times when small budget jobs come up or national companies are looking for kids for a big ad and the pay is small, but then there are times when companies are looking to simply get away with something and counting on the people not knowing any better. This is why sometimes you just need a agent or manager and 20% is well worth it to protect your image and your rights.
My job is to constantly walk the line between getting my clients what they need while protecting my models images for the short term and the long term. They are all like my children- it sounds corny but it's true. I would not have been doing this for ten years if I didn't think so. There are other things I could be doing....they might even have gotten me a better car! LOL