Going to a John Casablanca modeling agency open call. Is there a chance that you can get into an agency?

Question

I heard they make you spend a lot of money. Is there a chance i can be good and not have to spend money? What would I have to do? Do agents from other agencies normally come to the open call?

Answer 1

This is the typical ploy of Casablanca's, Barbizon and alot of the other places just interested in your money.

The tactic makes alot of sense really.  They put you in a room with a bunch of other girls - spend a few minutes talking with you and then tell you they'll call if they're interested.  Then you get a phone call and the only thing you think to yourself is "out of all those girls they remembered me!"

What they don't tell you is that they call back just about everybody....everybody they think they can suck a couple thousand dollars out of.  Casablanca's doesn't offer "free rides" becuase of how their (and pretty much all the modeling schools) business model is set up.

Here's the thing - they're business is training, that's what they do. And when you spend your entire week trying to get model hopefulls to buy classes it doesn't leave alot of time to book work for the models. See where I'm going?

I've been in this business for over 8 years and I have yet to meet a model who did the school thing and felt the overly inflated prices they paid were worth it. And none of them got any work from the school they enrolled in.

The open call will just be for them - other agents won't be there.  It's possible the school's photographer might be there but an open call for these guys is more their screening process to see who they get money from - then those people get a callback.

If you want to get into modeling and your serious about it then I would encourage you to work with people who are serious about developing your talent - not just interested in your checkbook. A great place to visit would be OneModelPlace.com - it's a huge online community. You can network, find photographers to worth with (many of which will help you build a portfolio for free) and depending on where in the country you are you might even find some work there. Best of all, for models, OMP is free to join. As with anything on the Internet, DO YOUR RESEARCH before working with anyone. Check references and always bring an escort with you to any shoot.

if you have other questions feel free to contact me. Good Luck!