Investment

Modeling is a business, and like all businesses requires investment by you. These investments may be in time and effort or in money, but you cannot hope to be successful as a commercial model without making them. At a minimum, you will need to invest in the following:

1. Pictures The single most important thing you need are good pictures, in the proper style, to represent yourself. You may find qualified photographers who will shoot you at reduced or no cost, but that is by no means assured. Generally, models must be prepared to spend several hundred dollars at the beginning of their career, and to invest more on a regular basis to keep your “book” or “comp card” updated. Some models (typically young women) may find that they can get pictures done free or for greatly reduced rates, but all models should be prepared for the likelihood that they will have to pay for pictures.

2. Comp Cards/Headshots You must have printed “composite” cards. “Comps” may run $100-$200 or so. Some specialty models (very old, very young and character, for instance) can start with only a printed “actor’s headshot”, but a comp is much preferable as soon as enough good pictures are available. See Also: Composite Cards

3. Self-presentation skills We discourage models from taking “modeling classes” – they are not required and often are counter-productive. Still, a model should have a good basic understanding of makeup and wardrobe, and may require some guidance on posture and other self-presentation issues. There are a variety of ways to get these things, some relatively inexpensive, and some costing in the hundreds of dollars. If you have not already gained those skills your agency should be able to advise you on their necessity and how to get them.

4. “Bag of tricks” Even though many assignments will have professional makeup artists and stylists to prepare you, some will not. You must have the materials and skills to do your own makeup in a variety of styles, and a wardrobe and shoes appropriate to basic modeling situations. You can reasonably expect that these things, if you do not already have them, may run to several hundred dollars or more, depending on how much you wish to invest in flexibility to easily take a wide variety of assignments.

5. Modeling Skills Although we do not require or recommend “modeling schools”, we do want our models to have extensive experience in front of a camera. The best way to get this is, quite simply, to do a lot of shooting. Ideally this should be with a photographer who is skilled at working with models in commercial-style shots. Still, any kind of experience is helpful, and even shoots with relatively new photographers often help you gain self-confidence and posing skill. See Also: Test Shoots

6. Advertising You need to get your pictures in front of photographers, art directors, casting agents and others that make hiring decisions. Your agency can assist you in this by including you in the agency head sheet book that is mailed to such people, or in a website, CD ROM or promotional mailers. As is customary in the industry, agencies must recover our costs from you for these promotional items. Depending on the degree of promotion of you that the agency does, the cost to you may run from $75-$700 per year. Each agency has its own policies on these services and costs.

7. Communications This is a fast-paced business. If your agent can’t find you quickly, you may well lose a job that could pay you thousands of dollars. There are a variety of solutions that models use: cell phones, beepers, good answering services – but one or more of these is necessary to a successful modeling career.

8. Living Near the Market This is a very expensive item, but also a critical one. We do not advise commercial models to move to New York just to be a model there – but if you aren’t within an hour or so of the city, it is very difficult and expensive for you to compete for jobs. It’s possible (remotely possible, not likely) that you may be flown to a job at client expense some day. It happens. But it only happens after you have been selected for the job – and that takes place where the client and the market are.

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This is a competitive business!

Clients call agencies and tell them what their requirements are for upcoming jobs. The agency matches those requirements against the people in their files, and selects the models they think are likely to be chosen for the job. The comp cards for those people are sent to the client, who then selects the models that he actually wants to see – and those people then go on a “go-see” or “casting”.

Sometimes the first part of this process is omitted, and agencies simply have their models “go see” the client. There can be as few as one and as many as hundreds of models at these go-sees, and usually a considerable majority of them sent out by their agencies won’t be selected for the job. This is a competitive business, with lots of competitors and, at any given moment, few winners. You don’t get paid to go to castings, go-sees or auditions, so a great deal of a model’s time is spent on things like go-sees that don’t actually make them any money. And nobody pays your expenses to get to these things, either. That may be OK for someone that lives in the area and can afford to take time off from whatever else they do for an hour or two. But it is simply impossible for someone who lives in Ohio, Texas or even Maryland to commute to these things hoping that they will get a job.

The economics don’t work. There is a limited amount of “direct booking” of models from comp cards. Most frequently this is done for catalog (“commercial fashion”) type jobs and is very rare for commercial print. If you are going to be in the commercial modeling business you have to live within a reasonable commuting distance of the marketplace. We generally advise no more than 100 miles away, and even that makes pursuing a modeling career very difficult.
 

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What counts is what you look like!

What counts is what you look like, not how old you are, and by law they are not allowed to ask that question. If there is a data sheet to fill out, do not list your exact age or birth year. Rather, list an age range appropriate to you in the role you are being asked to play (for instance: 27-32) and if birth year is required, select a year in the middle of that range. The exceptions are for people under 18 (who should indicate exact, true data) and ads for tobacco or alcoholic beverages, which require that the true age of the model be over 25.

For contact data on the data sheet, list your agency phone number. Do NOT list your own phone or service. If there is a reason for the photographer or stylist to have it (sometimes there is) it will be provided by your agent.

Sometimes a photographer will attempt to renegotiate the terms of the deal (different start/stop times, different pay rates, additional usage of the pictures) either at the go-see or later, when you have been booked. In all cases you should decline to any such agreement and refer the question to your agent. Frequently these seemingly innocent questions have the effect of costing you a lot of money; it is your agent’s job to recognize when that is true and to protect your interests (and the agency’s interests as well).

It is not unheard of for a photographer or client to ask to book you direct, not through your agency. That is unethical, and they know it, but they will sometimes ask anyway. In all such cases you should politely decline and report the matter to your agency as soon as you can. Models who accept such offers may get that job, but agencies who find out about it will drop them immediately – and the word gets around.

Under no circumstances should you sign a release of any sort at a go-see. If asked to do so, politely say you have to call your agency for permission. Normally the photographer will back off at that point, but it is best to allow the agent to take on the “bad guy” role when this kind of thing happens. The model should remain friendly and polite at all times.

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You have been booked, the appointed time is near, and you are about to have a lot of fun. You should be relaxed and enjoy yourself – you are about to get to do what models all want to do. But some rules apply at the shoot that you should be aware of – both to protect the substantial amount of money you are about to earn, and to make the client want to have you back again:

1. Be prepared. For men this means having a haircut, ideally about a week before the shoot. For women it means have your hair attractively styled in a manner consistent with the shoot. For everyone it means knowing before you get there what role you will play. Unlike fashion shoots, most commercial shoots require you to have a wardrobe appropriate to the shoot (a small selection of clothing and shoes that fits the role you will play). It should be clean, pressed and ready. Even if you have been told that there will be a makeup artist present, bring your own makeup. Get a good night’s sleep!

2. Show up on time! This is the single most important rule of all. If you are late, you are liable for all the overtime you just contributed to – and at the huge hourly rates of other models, the photographer, stylist and others, you really don’t want to have to pay that. And “on time” doesn’t mean the time scheduled – it means 10-15 minutes earlier, so you have a chance to get your makeup on and ready yourself for the shoot. At the appointed time you need to be able to step out on the set, ready to shoot. If a makeup artist is provided for complex makeup you can do this “on the clock” – but sometimes a scheduled makeup artist is cancelled, and you need to be ready if that happens.

3. Introduce yourself to everyone. Or at least everyone who seems to want to meet you, and that you won’t interfere with. These are the people who can make you look bad or good, who may or may not want to hire you for the follow-on TV commercial that goes with your print ad, for instance. Do what you can to help them look good in a pleasant way, and they will return the favor.

4. Do not discuss rates or terms. If someone on the set brings these things up, politely refer the question to your agency. Never change the terms of a shoot without your agent being involved.

5. Shoot what was booked. But no more than what was booked. If you are doing a TV commercial and someone asks to “just take a couple of still shots,” call your agency immediately. Never put yourself in the position of having to be the one to say no, but don’t allow any shooting beyond what was booked without your agent’s approval. If you do, you may give up rights to thousands of dollars worth of usage fees, especially if the photographer asks you to sign his release.

6. Sign the voucher. When the shoot is over you should fill out the portion of the voucher that shows how much time you worked, and the rights being purchased at the time of the shoot. Time is computed from the time the shoot is scheduled to start (if you were ready on time) until the last shot is taken. Lunch and other breaks are included in the time. When the shoot is shorter than what was booked, you get paid for the booked time. When it runs longer, you get paid for each 15 minutes extra that you worked. Use a little common sense in this – good relations suggest that a 61-minute shoot shouldn’t be billed at an hour and a quarter. Sign the voucher, have the photographer or client’s representative sign it, and take one copy for yourself and one for the agency. Leave a copy with the photographer.