About Modeling Schools and Online Sites for Models... Should I Spend the Money?

[BetteT]

OK .. one more.

This article was written by a person I know of personally (through his daughter) and his background is commercial modeling agent and commercial/fashion photographer. He knows what he's talking about ... so this is the reality of the agency modeling biz.

 

[Blunier]

Unfortunately there are no reliable listings of scam (pseudo-)"agencies". Even for example BBB (Better Business Bureau) listings or official licenses legally required in some locations like for example France are not an absolute guarantee for fairness. Further some not-so-legitimate "businesses" appear overnight and mysteriously vanish later. Often the same persons operate several businesses and relocate from time to time.​

Best is to develop a good feeling to detect scams as there's often a whole set of more or less obvious details (red flags) which will allow you to determine if an agency is legit or not. Some common sense will already help a lot, just make sure to not be blinded by some fairly well trained people who'll try to make you feel very special.

It's not always easy to define what is a scam or not. If you pay for overpriced useless low-quality tests or to be listed online by some random online-only pseudo agency it is not necessarily formally illegal if there are no false promises, you just paid too much for something useless (but about the same happens most of the time when you purchase a lottery ticket).
Another point concerns names. Some major agencies have offices in various cities but not all. You can find some agencies in small to zero market areas which have the same (or a very similar) name as some known agencies but which are totally unrelated to the legit agency (not to be confused with licensing which can be some sort of perfectly legit franchising system, there are some odd license practices when it comes to some modeling schools though).

If you ever get contacted online, be it by e-mail or Private Message, make absolutely sure that the sender is legit. In case of doubt find the agency phone number or e-mail mentioned on their website (not some other online source) and just shortly call or e-mail them.
If an e-mail address is directly something like @agencyname.com (but make sure the domain name after the @ is 100% identical with the agency website, pay attention to dashes and what follows the dot) it's likely to be legit.
Free e-mail addresses like e.g. @hotmail.com etc. are not necessarily scams though often they are. Some legit scouts, bookers and even a few legit agency offices use such e-mail addresses for various practical reasons.

Overall most scams can be avoided with some common sense but unfortunately it's not always that easy. There are a couple of known schemes but new tricks appear from time to time.

Follow you instinct, if something seems fishy it probably is and even it if is not, if you've a bad feeling, it's likely that it won't work well. Modeling is a lot about personal relationships, trust, confidence and communication so if you don't "feel" something you should be careful.

Blunier

(I'm not a native English speaker so I apologize once for my English as this is my first tFS message.)

 

[pinksatin]

OK .. one more.

This article was written by a person I know of personally (through his daughter) and his background is commercial modeling agent and commercial/fashion photographer. He knows what he's talking about ... so this is the reality of the agency modeling biz.

THanks, I read it and it seems like logical common sense but for some people those are the first things to go when pursuing a dream. Good advice in the article. Karma

 

[BetteT]

Welcome, Blunier! It is easy to understand what you are saying. Thank you for your very good advice. It's right on the mark.

Pinksatin: Thanks! You are correct, too. Common sense usually goes right out the window when an aspiring model gets swept up in the excitement of possibly becoming a model ... and there are many who take advantage of this fact.

 

[model_mom]

Amen to that.

 

[Blunier]

To make things even more complicated there are no hard and fast rules. Very often the best answer would be "It depends". Generic answers are not always helpful. Practices vary, it depends on the location, the agency, the model and other parameters. Also things can change with time.

Obviously this variety makes it even more difficult for aspiring models to find the right answers and make the right decisions. What is legit in some city may be considered as close to a scam in some other. Also, in very small local markets there may be something like unholy alliances which will oblige everyone who wants to start to have to comply with ethically questionable rules.

That said, things aren't that bad. As mentioned above, with some common sense, and making sure to think twice whenever required, most problems can be avoided. There are many scams, but in most cases the victim shares his/her part of responsability simply because he/she hasn't done his/her homework.

Blunier

 

[URBAN]

Wow I didn't expect this much replies. Thanks guys. Sorry I haven't been able to reply back because I had school and summer assignments. Lol Thanks!

 

[lll0228]

I am assuming that you are talking about real world, commercial/fashion modeling, not "internet" modeling.

Models.com is completely legit. It is actually just about the only legit modeling website that's connected to the real world of commercial modeling. If you fit the usual modeling criteria, it does not hurt to put up a profile there, it's free (unless you go for the Pro accounts); but waiting to be "discovered" is never a good way to go.

There are no hard set rules, but there are "rules in general". There are always some exceptions, but there really aren't many. Take a look at http://www.newmodels.com/ and see if you fit the commercial modeling criteria. Read over it, understand it, then figure out whether you could be a model or not, or even whether you still want to be a model or not. It is not for everyone, and mostly it's nowhere close to as glamorous as you might think it is. It is insanely hard work, you will get insulted and rejected a lot. You have thick enough skin?

Once you have read and understood NewModels.com, go to open calls of your local agencies. You have to be where the jobs are. That's your start. The rest I'd let you read about on the website.

Almost all modeling schools are completely waste of money. Forget it.

 

[BetteT]

Hi, ll0228 ... Leo! I know you through FOF although I don't post often, I've worked with Darryl. Welcome to tFS!

Thanks for joining this conversation ... and for providing some common sense information about this issue.

 

[lll0228]

Hi, ll0228 ... Leo! I know you through FOF although I don't post often, I've worked with Darryl. Welcome to tFS!

Thanks for joining this conversation ... and for providing some common sense information about this issue.

Hi Bette! Small world. Good to see you here. Darryl is a great friend of mine, a fantastic mentor.

 

[URBAN]

So models.com is a legit site, but only for commercial modeling. I actually wanna do high fashion, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it.

 

[lll0228]

For Commercial I meant real-world, brick and mortar, agency level modeling. If you look under the agencies participating on the Models.com website, you will see that they are all top fashion agencies.

What you want to do is actually kind of irrelevant to what you can do. It's a business, and honestly no one cares about what you want; people care about whether you have the look to get booked and rake in money.

If you still haven't read NewModels.com, please do. It has all the answers you will ever need.

Then go to open calls if you fit the criteria. Height, weight, look, attitude and location. You have to have all of them lined up. Again, if you think you will be discovered through Models.com just by posting a few pictures, then you will be in for a lot of disappointment.

I have no idea where you are, and what you look like, but the best thing you can do is to go to open calls (assuming that you have the measurements already), and see what the agents say. That's it.

 

[URBAN]

Wow that is a really good read. I only read the parts that I was interested in though, but I'll read the others later.
I get what lll0228 is trying to say now. Thanks.

 

[BetteT]

Yeah ... how you become a fashion model for a legit agency and what your stats need to be have all been dicussed in the "So You Want to be a Model?" thread ... so take a long read there, too.