There are times when a client will call you directly and either forgets or bypass the agency to let you know you are booked for the job you auditioned or were submitted for.
Before you accept or reply to the client it is absolutely essential that you email us that you have been booked do not sign any paperwork, do not reply with any type of acceptance to the client, do not wait till after you do the job to let us know, after the fact is often too late!
There are so many reasons why you have an Agent assist you when it comes to booking and billing for the job.
Proper contracts or legal paperwork may need to be signed. Every type of job in the talent and modeling business can be different and only a licensed experienced agent knows what to do. There are union contracts, nonunion, various types of buyouts and or residuals, what the market size is that the ad or show will be running in etc. All of these issues need to be considered. A good talent or modeling agent knows the going rates and how to negotiate them without losing the job!
Clients that generally go directly to talent may not want to pay you at all even thought they offer you a rate. They know that individual talent usually does not know how to collect or the can legally not pay. They may feel they can get a better rate or negotiate a shady side deal.
Please write all pertinent details of the booking down for billing and future reference. Date, rate quoted, client, name of job etc. This can help your agent track your payment or any questions that may arise. Often we get people asking for some detail about a job from 9 months ago not realizing the agency may have booked hundreds of jobs for thousands of talent in that time period.
There is one issue that drives an agent crazy. The agent's job is yes to assist you finding opportunities, but as with most large talent agencies that only negotiate your deals their main job is to negotiate, book , bill and receive payment for your jobs.
When they find out that the talent decides to book the job on their own or not tell the agent about a booking whether or not the agent helped them find that job. The agent will tend to not want to assist that talent on anything else and probably drop them from their roster.
I cannot tell you how many times over the years probably in the thousands that models and actors have booked a job that the agency let them know about or a lead previously generated by the agency and the talent received the payment and never informed or paid the agency their small commission. Think about this, an agency may work literally two weeks on a project and not book one person or book 20 people for extra work at let's say $90 dollars for the day, at 10 percent commission. If one fourth of the talent does not pay their commission, the agency receives $135 for the total of the job. That is usually split between the number of people and also for the overhead of running the agency. A lot of work for little income. Now that is not always the circumstance. There are some jobs that are easier to book, that pay a lot more but now you can see why many, many agencies first charge thousands of dollars for training, filing fees, websites, yearly promotional fees, or charge an extreme cost for head shots or composites in the thousands of dollars before they decide to promote the talent.
The Crazy Agency does not believe in those practices even though often we have been either not informed of a booking or the talent somehow justify they should not have to pay the commissions or let us know about the booking etc.
We usually find out, and when we do it gives us no reason to want to assist or recommend them. Now on the other side, when we see talent that are loyal and honest, rest assured you are put at the top of the list whenever we have a choice. For some crazy reason (maybe karma or professionalism), they always seem to be the ones that are by far the most successful ,longest enduring, most profitable for themselves and the agency. Regardless if they are represented by us or not they tend to stick with the business and flourish.
As with anything in life, it is ultimately your choice. My advice, treat the people that assist you with respect and honesty, it will come back to you!
All Craze Agency Talent-How to correctly email your photos for projects!
Some of our clients have complained that when our models and actors are asked to directly email a photo to them, the photos are not emailed in the correct format. Usually the files are way too large. This clogs up their system and many times your email is rejected because the file is too large.
When it does not ask for a photo do not email one, we will do it for you.
We want to help you please read and follow these instructions and always use this format. Good Luck
Please follow these simple steps very carefully.
Go to http://pixlr.com/
Next click on Open Pixlr editor (Advanced) or http://pixlr.com/editor/
Now click on the correct type of Image from the menu that pops up to open up the image of your photo. If you have saved it on your computer, click on OPEN IMAGE FROM COMPUTER etc.
Now click on the image you want to open and click open. Make sure when you initially save your image that you note where it is saved so you can find it to open it.
At the top of the screen click on Image and then Image size.
Now make the Image size about 500 pixels wide and 750 pixels long, then click OK.
Now go to the top of the screen and click on file.
Then type in your first and last name-Craze Agency (Example Mary Johnson-Craze Agency) have the format below JPEG and the quality good. Now click OK.
Remember where you save it on your computer.
Now when you email your image, while the email is open click attach file. This will open a box. Find where you saved the photo and click open. This will attach your photo to your email.
That is it!
This will make the photo large enough for the clients to view it and it is a size that is easy to open up and will not clog their email system. This will make it much easier for them to want to book you.
Also typing your name in the format we asked makes it easy for the client to find your photo and know who your agency is.
There are other ways to do this depending on your system. Just Google “how to save photos for emailing” and you can get more help. Thanks
