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Agencies forcing you to pay???
So I went into The Young Agency today and they told me I would have to PAY for comp-cards to be made with their logo. Help me out here- this is CRAP, right? You should never have to pay, right? Aug 10 06 07:00 pm Link Most of commercial agencies charge upfront for a compcard and recommend a photographer for you to test with(you pay for it as well). You can either have the compcards with their logos or order some from OMP or other compcard printing companies. It is worth to invest on your career especially when agencies show interest. Good luck! Aug 10 06 07:07 pm Link Unfortunately, comp cards are something that models with agencies are generally required to pay for. Even if you weren't with an agency, you'd have to pay for them anyways, right? Aug 10 06 07:11 pm Link Thank goodness I know a great graphic designer and he does my comp cards for next to nothing *snickers* I could give out the name and website if anyone is interested. He has excellent deals! Aug 10 06 07:18 pm Link Of course you do, think of it as an investment in yourself, "You got to spend money to make money". Good luck with your career. Aug 10 06 08:56 pm Link Aug 10 06 09:00 pm Link Ahzure wrote: Wrong. Having YOU pay for YOUR comp cards is fair. On the good side, it says they're interested in trying to promote you and get you work. Aug 10 06 09:01 pm Link a lot of agencies (fashion) will pay upfront costs, but you will ALWAYS reimburse them with the money you get from the jobs the get you. Aug 10 06 09:37 pm Link Charging for a ligit service like comp cards isnt wrong. The scammers are more about charging registrations fees or charging large sums to simply appear on their website. There is an outfit in my town that makes a tidy sum charging models $300 to $400 a year to simply appear on their website. They claim the fee only covers their costs, which anyone who knows anything about the cost of a website knows is a lie. Aug 11 06 06:53 am Link Ahzure wrote: Where the heck does this theory come from? Why do models believe that an agency is going to pay for EVERYTHING? Aug 11 06 11:21 am Link Andrea Barnett wrote: Aug 11 06 11:31 am Link Andrea Barnett wrote: The only time I have every seen an agency cover any costs is when the model is so marketable they know they are going to make them money back within one month of signing them. Aug 11 06 11:35 am Link You should not have to pay the agency, but paying for materials that are used to benefit you is not CRAP. I opened this figuring they were telling you they wanted thousands of dollars for modeling classes, which would've been CRAP. If you need training, practice, pick up a couple pose books, no need to pay for that. But actual materials, that's fine. Some models that are starting out, even pay professional photgraphy companies to take pictures of them to put into their portfolios. I probably woud've had an easier time getting started if I had the money to do that. Paying for your own comp cards is ok, but not if you're not ready to put money into it yet. I'm trying to put money into adding more to my wardrobe currently, mostly shoes, before I try to get an comp cards printed. Aug 11 06 01:00 pm Link Modeling is a business not a charity!! Same goes with photography!!! jh Aug 11 06 01:08 pm Link Hon, small price to pay to get where you want to go. If the "agency" is legit. . .then it's an investment. If you don't sign with them. . .you're still going to need comp cards so why not? Aug 11 06 02:34 pm Link Yeah, most models have to pay for there comp cards...good luck!! Aug 11 06 02:35 pm Link It's nice to see good solid CORRECT information given!!! Aug 11 06 04:11 pm Link Apfel Photography wrote: in a commercial agency, this is true. But not usually the case in fashion agencies... they will a lot of time front the cost, but the models first gigs ALWAYS reimburse. If the model makes no money, they are then responsible for paying the agency back. Its in the contract. They wont sign girls that they dont have faith in. Aug 11 06 09:19 pm Link Get a list of costs the agency charges up front. Comp cards the model pays for - and depending on how fast they run out, you'll have to pay for new ones again. Good agents will target the correct models for the right jobs. Bad agents sometime "machine gun" every possible job with as many cards as possible. They can cost you more. In NY, the agencies also charge for delivery fees (cab fare, FedEx, delivery boys). All charged to the model if it's her stuff only for a specific casting. That can run into a few hundred per month, if the agent isn't targeting correctly and it's out your pocket. I tell the models, if it's a good agent they mail it when there's enough lead time. Most agents are always on a deadline. Course, if you're making money from it, great. If not.... All cost management. Always ask for a statement and reciepts, tell them your accountant requires it. Bad agents will also "suggest" photographers that require payment. Some photographers kick back money to agents. Tell them you want photographers that test for free and be picky about the photographers you work with. If the booker/agent is honest, you'll do fine. If not they may send you to crappy photogs. When that happens, change agencies. Aug 11 06 09:29 pm Link Ahzure wrote: $ 100 for comp cards = ok Aug 11 06 10:48 pm Link Y'all know that this is not only about comp cards... it is also about agency charges for [getting placed on the] agency head sheets; and, usually optionally, having a page in the agency's [annual or semi-annual] talent book. If the model wants to test or develop a book but there are no photographers to do it as free tests... the model will be expected to pay for her photos. If working and particularly in the big market areas, and where the model is away from home, the model will generally be expected to pay for principle travel and then for shared accommodation in a model apartment... her meals... the lot. Once there the model will also pay out of their pocket to attend go-sees [travel and meals] As mentioned already, courier services... and other things. And on and on. All these are legitimate business expenses for the MODEL that they agency won't pay for and expects the model to do so. IT'S A LOT MORE THAN A FEW COMP CARDS, GIRLS. ------- On a related series of events: Interesting documentary story shown on British TV got to the truth of it. The documentary crew followed this model for a total of ca 8 weeks, including a week prior to events and a week after. A British agency [quite legitimate as agencies go] sent a young Brit model to Japan for 6 weeks. She was just so-so looking and with very limited experience. The objective was to build her experience and build her book. The model had to borrow £5 grand [$ca 8,000] from mom to front the trip including her plane ticket, personal expenses, accommodation, meals, day-to-day in city travel, ect. Indeed, once there, the Japanese agency she was sent to work with tried to find her as much work as they could... but that's up to the clients [to hire her] not the agency. For the first three weeks she got a couple of paying jobs while running her ass of doing go-sees. The last three weeks, she was still running her ass off but actual paying jobs slowed dramatically. When she returned to England she had £5,500... more or less, and from that had to pay mom back the 5K. The programme ended with the agency wanting to send this same model to Paris [again on her dime] and she was madly trying to borrow the money from mom [again] to front that trip. The moral of the story was, if only she could have seen it, that she would have been better off, financially, after taxes, working in McDonald's for six weeks... and probably not bothering with Paris at all. The concluding comments in this documentary were telling... in London the average working life span for a model is three years and the average paying job makes only £350. Now, by comparison, London is [now and recently surveyed] the highest cost city in the world to live in... where a simple flat/apartment [and we're not talking the luxury end of town here] would cost upwards of £400+ A WEEK. And the model, if she wanted to work for a London agency and she would have to live in London to do that, was expected to pay for it. You do the math. Now all that being said, if a model is freelancing then she is STILL going to have to front the same costs... so the fact that an agency was involved, here, made no difference in the least except that they were able to generate SOME paid jobs. The freelancer would, more likely, just go broke. For someone, like the OP, already whinging about the cost of only comp cards... they don't know enough to even be in this business. They, frankly, don't have a clue. Studio36 Aug 12 06 03:13 am Link Ouch, that's harsh- I never said I was Giselle. I just asked if I should pay for costs such as comp-cards... If I can't ask questions, how am I supposed to learn how the commercial world works? C'mon, ease up~ Aug 14 06 03:58 am Link |
