Well hello! It’s been a while! I’m 100% back on the parent end of things
after spending a rewarding and very fast-paced year as a print agent in NYC and
another year dealing with some annoying health issues. I want to be able to share some of my “double
wisdom” from being on both sides of the desk.
I may even repeat some older topics with some greater emphasis – we’ll
see!
There’s one thing I’ll throw out there right away: while I
was working as an agent, the business itself was pretty much exactly as I
imagined it. My intuitions and insights
as a savvy parent kept me grounded in day-to-day operations. A few surprises, but nothing too major. I also walked into the agency with some
pretty good insight in to industry parents (from my own interactions) and
parents in general (from my teaching career).
This leads to where I’m going with this post:
Are giant castings worth it?
There are as many types of castings for print work as there
are clients. Each client seems to have
its own slight variation on their typical casting. I’ve taken my daughter to the giant two-hour
plus waits and to meet one-on-one with a client in her design studio. Some castings are done with a lot of back and
forth photos and maybe a video clip.
There are so many submissions and direct castings that you don’t even
know about happening on a daily basis.
But we all know the ones that stand out are the ones most parents refer
to as “cattle calls” which are usually still request castings – just giant. (Cattle calls are typically not request castings
but maybe open to entire breakdowns and sometimes even open to the
public.) Some are so big they go over
two or three days, dividing up ages or agencies to spread out the volume of
kids. Some actually try to see a zillion
kids in one day (or maybe 400+).
Usually the name of the client is pretty exciting, so
parents will gladly hop on board the casting train, excited about the
opportunity regardless of the hassle of whatever wait there will be. (Will they complain? At least to each other? Yes.)
I also want to remind parents or let you know if you’re not part of this
loop: one of the NYC CDs who holds the biggest castings advertises her
breakdowns online so any unrepresented parent can submit (emphasis on unrepresented
– she does NOT like it if you submit AND your agent submits, so DO NOT do it). Whenever this CD posts, agents will
invariably receive 5-10 emails that day from parents asking if you submitted
their child. Yes; yes we did.
So there’s this parent (clues seem to indicate it’s a dad
who’s relatively new to the industry) who thinks he can shake up the industry
by encouraging parents to refuse large castings because “there has to be
another way.” If all the parents refuse
the large castings, then maybe they just won’t happen anymore! Apparently, the goal is to end large castings
and have everything done via photo submission.
Cute, right?
I didn’t know about this little movement until a friend
pointed it out to me and, well, I have some thoughts. A lot of them!
Here’s my first reaction: you know when you have a job in a
company or group and things go pretty well so you decide to take on another
employee? And you get this new employee
right out of whatever school and that person comes in and points out everything
he/she thinks should be done differently after like, a week on the job? I sense this is what we have here. You can have the best job ever but still have
to write the TPS report. Or muck out the
stalls. Or track down the non-compliant
patient. And those things are always
going to suck and no matter what, you’ve tried it all, there just isn’t another
way to do it.
So, yeah. Think back
to your initial meeting with your agent.
We told you there could be direct castings, in-person castings, and
giant castings. We said pack for the day
– snacks, changes of clothes, toys, comfy shoes, and be ready to hurry up and
wait. And chances are, once you’ve been
with your agent for a couple of seasons, you’ve done them all. But I want to emphasize something: you need
to know that when you go to a casting, you will be meeting with a casting
director, a production team, the actual client, or a photographer – or any
combination of one or more of those people/teams. Chances are, if it’s a giant casting, you’re
with a CD and a production team or photographer. If you’re going to a callback, then the
actual client might be there. So just tuck
that into your mind so you know the cast of characters and that different
castings may actually be with different people.
How does a giant casting work on the agent’s end? We would get the breakdown, which tells the
genders, sizes, and probably height ranges of kids needed for the campaign or
project. We would then put together a
sampler (generated by our website) of everyone who fits that breakdown. So we would sort for all boy babies, 9-12mos,
size 12 mos and create a sampler for that and make a link. The CD would click on the link and see our babies
that fit those specifications. We would
make a link for every breakdown and package that all together in one email to
the CD. After a week or so (or maybe even
a day, depends on the CD’s timeline), we get a list of requests. THEN we send the requests with all the job
info to the parents, get confirms (track down confirms as well) and send the
confirms and unavails (you should have booked out!) to the CD. That cycle continues back and forth through
the callback. I just want to remind you
of something and this is a fact and not an “oh poor me” – the only time agents
get paid is when kids book. So, all of
this is done with the goal of having up-to-date info, great photos, and
cooperative parents BECAUSE WE WANT YOU TO BOOK.
But “there has to be a better way” guy wants some reasons
why CDs/clients still hold these castings when they are sooooo inconvenient and
torturous to little ones and their parents.
Let’s get this one out of the way: these people are not early childhood
advocates and it’s not their job to be sure little Simon is happy and
entertained during a giant casting. It’s
not their job to make sure nap times are upheld or you didn’t have to put
little Tina in a car for too long and pay a lot in tolls. You are wandering into THEIR business where
they assume you are ready, willing, and able to take part. They may see 400 kids today and 200 adults
the next day. Their job is to pick
people who are right for their project.
No more; no less. (Note that this
is different on set – usually there are more plans in place to keep kids
cooperative and relaxed during a shoot.
This is where the wranglers come in.)
But here are some very practical reasons why castings of any
size are not going anywhere (because someone wanted a list):
1)
A lot of kids do not look like their
photos. They are not always up-to-date (AT
A MINIMUM: babies need to be every two weeks; toddlers every 3-4 months; school-age
every 6 months… and when you get to six or so and up, pro pics are great BUT we
all know they are styled and edited. Really,
though, great snaps need to be added regularly – ideally, once a month.)
2)
Can the kid handle the photo shoot, or is a
little one super clingy and shy?
3)
If it’s an older child, is the child surly or
bratty?
4)
Parents are not reliable about size
updates. Sorry – they just are not. And even when they are, a measurement at a
casting never seems to match any other casting or what we have on file. And that’s not something we can argue
with. (UPDATE SIZES MONTHLY!)
5)
Is the parent a hot mess and someone you don’t
want on your set?
6)
How does the kid’s hair look in person? What’s the texture like? What types of looks can be styled with that
type of hair?
7)
Does the vibe of the kid match the brand?
8)
The agent only sent one pic – from the chest
up. What does the child look like
full-length?
Those were just off the top of my head in the morning,
before coffee. Dude comes back with:
Well, perfect world, yes.
And an agent is not going to send anyone who is difficult to work
with. However, as parents, we know that
kids change on a dime and they may have been totally cooperative a week ago and
now they are going through a new phase. I may have a baby who booked everything at
nine months and now that she’s eleven months, she’s impossible to work with because
she just started walking. How many times
have you met with your agent? Were you not
on your best behavior? I know we
rejected gorgeous kids who seemed impossible at the initial meeting. But agents do not see their kids very
often. With our daily load of work to book
jobs, seek new clients, create samplers, meet new models, we simply cannot meet
with our kids more than once a year. We
rely on parents to tell us when the kiddos are “not into it” or at an impossible
age – and unfortunately, sometimes we will find out the hard way when things
don’t go well on a job. We DO NOT WANT
THAT – because it makes us look bad and it puts the client in a position of
having to pay a kid they couldn’t work with.
And we’ve had difficult parents blackballed from brands because maybe
they were having one bad day. (I’ll tell
you all about my daughter’s COLOSSALLY bad audition in another post.)
I also used this analogy: I would not hire a contractor to
do an expensive job on my house without meeting him/her/them first no matter
how highly recommended that contractor is.
Hiring 15 models for a few days’ project ends up being big money for
that client. If they want to meet the
kids first, they are entitled.
Anyway, this parent who is starting this movement says that
things will change if parents refuse to go to big castings. A few more pearls of wisdom for you: if you
refuse castings when you are not booked out, that’s a great way to get
dropped. If a different agent is willing
to pick you up afterwards, go ahead and try that again. I can predict how each office in NYC would
respond to that. If you refuse, I can
find three parents and children thrilled to replace you – because agents can
sometimes make a couple of replacements in these circumstances. I also probably have a few hundred
submissions in the inbox I haven’t gotten to yet. I need kids on my roster who will book. You refuse castings? You’re not booking… so… next.
But – are the giant castings actually worth it? Yes.
Kids book. There are kids who go
to the same CD and client and book on the fifth time. First time.
Never. Maybe they will not book one
client with that CD but will book a different client with that CD. Maybe a kid will book one division (say, a
circular) from big castings but never book another division (like store signage). You never know. It’s just part of the whole scene. Some smooth and simple castings and some that
are huge. You may even hit one that’s
small BUT you still wait two hours! You
just never know.
Remember, you have chosen this industry for your child. It is a business. I think if you read through my blog posts you
will see over and over and over that THIS IS A BUSINESS. Your child is passing through a business that
has been around a very long time and will be there for a very long time when
your child is done. You have agreed to
the travel, the tolls, the parking, the waiting, and the inconveniences of
wrestling around a busy city. There are
many joys and certainly – like any job – many pains in the butt. But if the business if not for you,
gracefully bow out. Your child is not
entitled to a smooth casting for every brand.
Everyone wants that, but things happen – there are going to be
doozies. This is not youth soccer where
everyone plays, you can go to the coach or board with complaints about playing
time, or the hours of the concession stand.
You should be incredibly fortunate that your child has the chance to
participate in this industry – I participate in national advocacy programs for
child models and actors and there are parents and children everywhere would do
anything to be close enough to a major market to participate – and they do some
pretty stupid things thinking they are getting a real shot at this business.
So maybe turn the table a bit. Be grateful and endure the challenges. You know what’s best for your child. If this isn’t it, so be it. If you don’t know all the ins and outs of a
business, don’t think you can jump onto the scene and make a great movement to
change it. It’s really not realistic. If you’re really bent on sticking it to the
man, may I recommend taking on DMV in Connecticut?
Check out my Instagram for dog and family and some modeling/acting
posts @thebizzymama or my daughter’s @bizzyholland and follow the Bizzy Mama
facebook page (I announce new posts there) or feel free to comment here or
email at thebizzymama@gmail.com
Totally agree !!! Thanks for share ..
ReplyDeleteTiffany.iad