Baby Modelling

Kristie, I just wanted to say how gorgeous Louis is. He looks like such a gorgeous little man in the catalogue, I ran straight in to show my MIL when it arrived in the mail today!

i used to think about doing this for the kids (Xander's a redhead, not as much as he used ot be though!) declans a spunky blondie with big blue eyes, and Anneliese is just beautiful (biased mummy!!) but atm im unwilling to pay all that money with no guarantee :( Looks like fun though!!

I just picked up the Target catalogue, he is sooo cute. What a keeper!!:)

Thanks Guys!!!
I went and picked up a pile of catalogues today! hehe. He's on the fridge as well!

I think it I joined just to see how it all worked - I didn't expect to get a call or anything. Also there were 6 boys there on the day and only 3 appeared in the catalogue (but then Louis hogged 3 photos! hehe) You all get paid but there's a chance that your child won't be used and you just have to wait and see when the catalogue comes out.
It certainly was a bit of fun though.
The photo shoot was in a big shed though and it was soooo hot. Louis did so well with all the hot clothes on - and the hat! He didn't grizzle at all. A lot of the other kids were cranky but also it was at 1pm which is nap time for a lot of kids. It's also luck of the draw as to how your child will be feeling on the day - thats why they had the 6 kids there....

I agree Simone - I only went with this one because it wasn't tooooo bad opposed to some of the others that charge hundreds and hundreds. Really, it was just an investement for me anyway as any money Louis makes will go into his bank account....

hi ladies,

i have an appointment with bettina tomorrow... im a little nervous now and am questioning weather its the right thing to do...

after reading all your posts i really dont know.. its not abou the money but weather it will be a good or bad thing for savanna.

anyone had any luck with bettna lately?

tinlids doesnt sound so bad if people are getting work??

thanks

ambz

Good luck! I think it's all just the luck of the draw really as we all have beautiful bubbas! hehe.
From what I can gather there is a lot more work for toddlers and pre-schoolers than for babies....if you look at advertising etc....

Hello,

I have decided to cancel my appointment. I just dont feel right about it as yet. Maybe when she is a little older and can decide for herself :)

good luck to all of you though!

luv ambz

Kris you will have to take a pic of the catelogue and put it on Louis site, i havent seen the catelogue this week.

Well ive just read through this whole thread and the consenus (sp?) seems to be majority of these agencies take plenty of kids but don't often get work. There seems to be positives and negaties for all of them
Anyway i have bitten the bullet and decided to go ahead with Bettina. Nixon has his photo shoot tomorrow so hope all goes well. If it doesn't go well within the next 12months i'll review the situation then, but got to start somewhere right! We will be moving interstate in a few months which shouldnt be a problem because they have an agencies in Syd/Bris/Mel

Ambz Savanna is just adorable!

Hey Nic - I'll let you know when I get around to it!! I haven't updated in ages so need to do it all soon anyway!
Have fun at his photo shoot!

well i took Nixon to have his photo's done today.
he was such a good boy if only some potential casting people could have seen him lol!
there was another young girl (12yo) getting her pics done and they let us go first incase Nixon got unsettled, which he didn't. Then when i was looking at the pics etc the ladies mum playing with him and gave him a bottle (complete stranger!)

anyway pics are good but i didnt think there were AS good as some professional ones i had before xmas (the one on my ticker is one of them) he was smiling but alot are only half smiles because we was so taken by all the whiteness of the place and all the big lights
oh and would u beleive i was clapping my hands to get him to look at me and for the first time he would clap back! hehe proud mummy moment but meant a lot fo the pics his hand/s are bit blury cause he was clapping!

anyway takes 4-5weeks to process so will c how we go from there.

Yeah on everything going so well Nic!

chantelle has a photo shoot for target on monday,yipee!!!!
nikki

Congrats on the photo shoot and Harry nikki :)

Good luck for Monday!! I'm sure she'll do really well!

oh aweseom Nicole!! thats great, good luck for Monday

:p Does anyone know anything about this agency? They want me to bring Sari in for an 'interview' but if they are the type that charge to have your baby on the books, I am not interested..
Thanks :lol: Nets

$400 what a waste of my time! :angry:

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with child/baby modeling agencies and how they operate? Any info, good/bad would be appreciated. I am neutral about the whole concept at the moment.

I sent DD's picture to Bettina as a lark, and they've rung me back to ask her to come in for an 'interview'. From what I've heard, these agencies are known for asking parents to fork out money to have their kids on the agency 'books'. Or to pay for portfolio shots.

TIA,
neuri

We've taken DD to Tinlids for interview and she is now on their site - it cost $250 and that includes a photo shoot. I didn't think it was too much money as I see it more as a hobby (for me!) and something to do and it would be kind of cool to see her on a brochure somewhere! The lady who runs it is VERY professional and caring and I felt totally comfortable during the whole process.

I wouldn't put my kids through an agency as such (becasue I don't have time nor inclination nor the fees, LOL!).......but Olivia has been used for a couple of spreads......pure coicidence really. She is the poster girl for our local branch network of libraries, which makes me very proud.......

I have to be honest, I have not heard great things about any of the agencies.......they all seem to take hard cash off parents for very little return........but that's only what I have heard...it may be different in other states?

We signed up DD to an agency a few weeks ago. It cost about $500, but we decided to try it for a year and if she hasn't had any work by the time it is time to pay fees again next year then we won't sign her up again.

At the appointment they took some gorgeous photos of DD, which we get to keep, plus we get to take more photos in 6 months time at no extra charge, so all in all, I don't think that the fee is unreasonable. Will wait and see what happens though...

I was approached by an agency regarding DD, modelsdirect. They wanted to put her on their books. They do the portfolio and all the other stuff for free, you just have to show up with the kid. They keep some of what they earn but you don't pay a penny to go on their books, though once they work they pay a fixed fee every year (it's less than a pound a week) to stay on the site - for that they update the photos every few months.

I declined as i don't think it's for us, there's no WAY she'd sit through the preening and fuss and i don't want her worrying about how she looks until she's a lot older. To me if you're having to pay for it then how serious can they be about your kid? Like they thought DD would get work so they wanted her, it makes THEM money, not just her...if that makes sense.

Bx

Hi,

(an update from original post)

Thanks for your responses. I do agree that if they want your baby, seems odd to pay them if they want to represent him or her. But then I think that's how a lot of them operate for baby/child talent anyway.

I rang and was told the following: That they charge about $500 per year for membership which includes portfolio photos and other stuff. And if your kid doesn't get any work for 12 months, the next year's membership is waived.

I can see it being a fun sort of thing for a mum/dad and their bub to do if they have the time and the spare dollars for regisatration. But as I don't have $500 to spend on something that isn't a priority on my non-working days, I withdrew our interest.

Neuri

hi there
just wondering if anyone has any recent experience with any of the agencies?

Thanks

Um yeah...dont do it, dont do it, dont do it.
We took our DD#2 in 2008 - she was/is super cute - big blue eyes, very round face. She was 2 at the time. We had the whole interview, being asked if i could make commerical shoots, how would i go driving to movie sets, would i be ok with catalogue work - blah, blah, blah. Then they make it all really important, and say they will have to asses application and see if they will accept my DD (she was in the room with us). 2 days later, got a phone call, yes, we'd been accepted....now if we could come in ASAP for the photo shoot, as there are heaps of opporutnites coming up soon and they really wanted to get my DD on the database.

So $500 later, and a photo shoot...(great photos btw....of course, if we wanted any, we had to buy them) we had our DD on the database.....In our 12mth subscription or whatever you wanna call it, we heard nothing ., absolutely nothing..i called a few times...said they hadnt forgotton us.....but then after the 12mths i knew we wouldnt hear from them again...... :shakehead:.
It cost $500 a year...then for each job she had they took a %. Crock if you ask me.....absolute crock.
So yeah, if you have $500ish dollars to throw away, go for it.......

ETA: Bettina was the child modelling agency we threw our money at....

We were with Tinlids...Louis had one job with them which was lots of fun - he did really well - it was a target catalogue and he got 3 pictures on the one page...but that was it. We never renewed as I've had 3 more babies since then! I'd love to sign them up again even just to do one job for the memories but it is VERY expensive so I don't think it will happen!

Thanks for the responses! Maybe I'll give it a miss!

I had a similar experience to mbear - the agency made a big fuss about how few children they accept so that the ones that they do are almost certain to get work. DD would get two photoshoots a year for the price of one (about $500). The first photos were great, but she only got one casting call and didn't end up getting the job as she wouldn't sit still...
The second photoshoot for the agency was not so good. DD was still in her "wriggly" phase, so wouldn't sit still and got very frustrated. The photographer kept wanting to make her do things that she didn't want to do, so in the end I just told her to stop. We never ended up seeing the photos, even though they said that they would send them to us. DD didn't get any more casting calls.
Needless to say, we didn't renew the subscription the next year.
I think you're right to give it a miss.

Hey Kellie, I just wanted to add that if you do decide to go ahead with joining an agency, check out the vcaa website (Victorian Children's Agents Association). The agents that are registered with them should be reputable. Not all agents charge for photos either so it's worth doing some research.
My little boy was very lucky and was cast in a tv commercial at his first audition, should be coming out really soon!