At one time it was possible to freelance by using small agencies, contacts, and referrals. Today, if you don't have an agency behind you, you're sure to get lost in the hordes.
The ideal would be to have an agency represent you that would take you on and send you to at least several go-sees per day. With the current status, there are many models who could be the perfect one for the client, so it is just that much more difficult to become established.
Small agencies are able to push you a bit more but may not have the bigger clients, while the large and more established agencies have many more models to choose from who may take some of the potential work from you. Also there are certain styles and characteristics of all the better-known agents. Often the youngsters sink or swim due to the mentoring relationship of their agents. They have a vested interest in you as you will be the one making the fees that keep the agency afloat. You pay them the normal 20 percent and the client pays them as well. So there are many reasons to have as good representation as is possible.
You may be thrilled that an agency has agreed to take you, but if you feel that you are not being handled to your best advantage, you can always consult those who have been there and then go on. In the past, some of the bigger models in particular have sought their own personal managers to guide their tremendous financial contracts. Agents, like all others, can be wonderful, or not so wonderful. Personal agents are only as good as the return they can get for the both of you.
SELECTING THE RIGHT AGENCY FOR YOU
It is up to you to choose the agency that you think could use your particular look to the optimum. Every agency specializes in a certain style. Familiarize yourself with the various models that each agency represents. You will see the similarities in their overall look, and you must then judge where you think you fit in best.
Weigh the advantages and the disadvantages of the smaller versus the larger agency prior to calling for an appointment. A smaller agency would more than likely be able to get you more work, but its pay scale could be as low as half of what you could make at one of the bigger agencies! One tremendous advantage to working for a smaller agency is that if you are completely green, you will gain experience and become polished in the interim.
The bigger agency is in a better position to pay the larger fees to models. Your pay scale could be doubled with a large agency. However, though you may be sent on nearly twice the number of go-sees as the smaller agency could send you on, the larger agency has more models for that same client to interview for the same job.
After you have made an appointment for an interview at the agency of your choosing, you will start the process of making what you hope will be the perfect match.
At that all-important interview, let the interviewer do the talking. Listen carefully and answer all of the questions as concisely as you can. Most of the questions will be to establish your height and measurements and to get a reasonable understanding of what you expect from the modeling world and how you think that the agency will fit into the scheme of things.
Questions like "Why do you want to model?" and "Why do you think that you would be good at it?" are just two of the things they'll be likely to ask. Remember that they can be very personal, and you should be prepared to take personal questions in stride.
At your interview do not be modest, but do not brag either. Any extra talent that the agency may be able to promote for you is money in both your pockets. If you are a good athlete, dancer, skin diver, or even were in many serious dramatic productions, be sure to mention it at your interview. There are many occasions where a model is required to show off ski gear, and it may not be from a chair-lift alone! Don't exaggerate when it comes to your actual ability. You may get caught in your own little deception and find yourself at the top of the hill with all the cameras on you waiting for you to actually ski down!
No one can tell you beforehand if you will be hired by any agency; on the other hand you may be offered a contract within minutes of your interview. Be prepared for both possibilities. You cannot take the lack of an offer as a personal rejection, as the interviewer may honestly believe that you might fit in better somewhere else, in which case to hire you would be a disservice to both of you. If an interviewer sees no future in creating a business relationship, you must take it as a positive statement and simply look into another agency. It is less likely that you will have to go to more than one interview if you genuinely try to understand who the types of models that each agency represents are. One very pretty young woman worked in an agency for a few months; having been employed in their office, she then set out to try the modeling end of things. She got up her courage, sized up all of the agencies, selected the one she thought best for her, and she was hired on the spot. Working on the inside for a summer gave her the discerning judgment to know which agency she fit into.
Having been just hired by an agency, you cannot even imagine how much it can guide your destiny. It is up to the agency to send you where you can potentially perform at your very best for both of you. You are in business together, and though it may be able to open some doors, your own caliber of work and self-sell will have to keep those doors open.
An agency will sign you only if it believes that the contract will be mutually beneficial. This means that the agency will do everything in its power to promote you, to get auditions and interviews lined up for you, and to make you into a more salable look. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that you and your agency be not only compatible but really honest and straightforward with one another.
Fees
The agency must set your fees wisely for the various types of work that you will be doing. The agency will set up your go-sees, and it is up to you to give it all you've got-to get to the appointment on time looking great, make the right impression, and present your book and yourself as professionally as possible.
The agency is there to protect you. Once it has set your fees and you have done a job, the agency will bill the client and collect your fee. You are responsible to your agency for a percentage of your fee for services rendered. There are no set percentages, but you can expect to have your agent charge 20 percent. That seems to be the usual rate, but some agents charge per big contract. Be certain that these things are spelled out clearly in your contract.
THE AGENT'S JOB
The agency is your answering service, business manager, bookkeeper, secretary, advisor, tutor, and even your guide as to weight reduction, hairstyle, makeup, and diet.
The agency protects you from unscrupulous clients and unprofessional people with whom you may come in contact. A model does not have to accept a particular job if he or she does not wish to. The power of the agency can make it more difficult for less than legitimate contacts.
The agent sees to the right model selection for go-sees. It is his or her business to comprehend what the client wants, and that model will be dispatched. It behooves the agency to have very clever people in its employ for discretionary selection. If agents judge incorrectly, a model from another agency gets the job.
When the agency sets up the go-see, the model is always advised about what to take to the particular appointment.
Frequently the garment to be worn is see-through or nearly so, and one wise model says that she never goes anywhere without bringing a bra, as she's found them required many times when the agency would never have thought of it.
Once under contract, you have to be sent on many go-sees to get started. If you are working in a small, slower agency, you could see three to four clients a day. A larger agency might send you on as many as seven or eight go-sees a day.
You will have only a few months; then if you do not start to "move," the agency may lose interest in you. Those first weeks are the make or break probationary time, so you have to convey your uniqueness, charm, and effervescence in a hurry.
If you are planning to move to a large city to work for an agency, it will often help you find housing. Ask your agent about this possibility if you are going to have to relocate to work.
Agencies are divided into different divisions if they handle large numbers of men, women, children, and a variety of television, runway work, and shows. There is so much complex work involved that it would be next to impossible to cope with the needs intelligently without having the various sections. Most models take advantage of as many kinds of work as their agency can offer them.
Many models feel that you are not taken as seriously if you try to freelance (work without being represented by any agent). A city like New York is so big that unless you have many personal contacts and know all the ropes, you are likely to find it nearly impossible to operate as a freelance model. The major benefit to being a freelance model is that you would not have any agency fees to consider in your budget. But if you cannot get any modeling jobs without the aid of the agents, then, of course, you have saved half of nothing.
Zed Cards
Most big agencies help defray expenses for your composites by supplying Zed cards. These are rather small cards with several photographs of you arranged in some sort of fashionable array. The composite is made of several of your selected photographs and is left as your calling card at the clients' when you have completed a go-see. This little card often gets you work at some future date, as the client can then open a file; though you may not have been perfect for the original job, you may be for subsequent ones.
Portfolios
Portfolios can be dreadfully expensive, and the book itself could cost $800. One roll could easily run $45 to $85, and you'll need at least ten to twelve different prints. By the time that you will have completed a good portfolio, it will have cost about $2,000. However, a good agency will help you build up your portfolio by "testing" (they send you to the photographers, and in return you and the photographer will each have prints) and spare you the cost of paying for the best photographers.
Your portfolio is extremely important. It is your most necessary tool of the trade. The clients must see how you look in print. The photographs in your book should give the widest range possible of your "looks" and allow the clients to have some insight into how you potentially will look in their commercial or print advertisement.
The agency should also help you to select the photographs that are the best ones for your portfolio. Its keen eye for what is good is honed through many years in the business, and its experience is financially valuable to both of you.
Control
An agency has a great deal of control over whom you will or won't work with through its selection of the models sent on go-sees. A good agency behind you can literally make you, as opportunities are made available for you to work your way up the ladder. The agent sets up the critical connections, and you have to cement them. With a large amount of luck, pluck, and energy, you can make it in the modeling field. The hardest part is getting started. Now that you know that the agency has put its vote of confidence in you, the rest is up to you!
