Options - "It's like dangling sweets infront of a child"

I wanted to give you an insight into what options are in the modeling industry and the often frustration of them. Options are extremely common and often are used by clients to delay a decision over which talent they want to use for jobs. It is simply a shortlist. Like with any jobs, this is often the case when going through the process of employment, but imagine that on often a weekly basis? The waiting, the anticipation, the nerves, all those emotions you have when your waiting to hear about a job. This is something that I go through literally every week.

In my previous post I wrote in detail about the "Remington" casting I had and that it was for a lot of money, which for me can make the difference with so much in my life, especially with my intention to go back to Los Angeles. I was put on option for this job, and asked if I was willing to cut my hair short for the job too, which I took as a very promising sign. Then comes the waiting and trying desperately hard to put the thoughts into the back of your mind, instead of thinking about exactly what you would do with the money received for this job. If you speak to any model, they will often say the exact same thing. In their minds they are buying Ipad's, new phones, going on holiday, shopping spree, the lot. For me it is one of the most difficult areas of the industry to deal with. One job can solve so many problems in my life. One job could make the difference between flying to LA straight away, or staying here longer. That is a tough position for anyone to be in and is certainly how I feel.



A client could phone up my agency and put me on option for a job worth £100 to £100,000, with the first client to option you for the day given the first option on. This again can actually prove to be a big hindrance to the model. The reason why is that if another client (say Nintendo) wants to book you direct, and you have an option holding with (say Sony), then Nintendo has to wait for the option with Sony to be finalised or released. Do you think Nintendo wants to be waiting around for that? No. So they move on to book someone who has no options holding on them. Imagine how it feels to be the model when Sony then releases their option on you, and you have now missed out on a guaranteed job with Nintendo? Frustrating doesn't even come close to describing it.

The agency has a big role to play when it comes to options, as they must have the models best interests in mind. I would say 90%, maybe a bit higher, of the time this happens and the agency will ensure you book the guaranteed job first. However, unfortunately due to the climate of today, and the need to please and ensure the client stays booking through their agency, this doesn't always occur. It can become a very tricky time for both models and agencies when options are used.


I hope this gives you a bit of an insight into options and how they work within the industry. It's not as simple a business as people think hey?!