Modeling - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Hi people,

So I thought I should continue on to finally catch up with today and get everyone updated on how I got to where I am now etc. Also i want to tell you all about the industry from my eyes too, things that not a lot of people (if any) know what I have been through too.

Life at Models 1 was extremely hard. I was new to the industry and constantly casting with models who have been working for plenty of years, full of confidence and experience. It was extremely daunting, stepping foot in a room where everyone judges you and worst to follow was that I started to judge them too! Then put in front of a client who clearly has no time for people their just not interested in was probably the worse part of all. Barely look at you or your portfolio, constantly talk about how good the guy before was and all the great stuff in his book, whilst they flick at a fast pace through my book. It was tough to take at times and took a long while to realise that it wasn't personal. And when I say a long while, I pretty much mean the first year and a half and even sometimes now still its tough.

Work became scarce thanks a lot to that absolutely f**ker that hit us all, the credit crunch! Advertising was the first to get hit as companies spent less on this area of their business to save money, which meant modeling work went shockingly downhill. I reached a point where I eventually had maybe 1 casting a week (if that at times) and was extremely frustrated with it all. A lot of you reading this will probably think, 'whats he complaining about, a week off work having all that free time, amazing'. Yes at times it was great. But other times it became extremely lonely, I felt vulnerable, had no income coming in and felt completely lost with life. So a change was needed.

Insteps my amazing Booker at Models 1, Donna, who I now consider to be a really good friend of mine. I suggested I should move agencies and heard of a couple, one being MOT models, who deal with smaller clients than models 1, however would mean I hopefully would become busier. This was agreed by Donna to be quite a good move for me and so MOT it was. A smaller agency based outside of London, but an agency that gets a lot of work and I have also worked with quite a few of their models before on past jobs and was known by them (which is always a compliment). First job, like with Models 1, I land a corker! A cheesy corker at that, but a big TV Commercial. It was of course for Nintendo DSI and the launch of their new console. I'm embarrassed to put the link for this one up but here goes ha ha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y4A_E501iA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT6EAJkl5v4&NR=1

There was about 3 or 4 different versions of them all, with some classic lines that my mates kept repeating back to me! ha. But got me a great start with MOT and I have never looked back since. Works busier now than at any point since I started. The agency are great to me and I'm on their front page of the guys site which is great for me.

Website is www.motmodel.com.

Some of the ugly parts to the industry include trekking round London to a casting that when you get there their looking for a guy between 35 years old and 40 years old (happens a lot). Getting to a casting where your waiting around in a sweaty room for over 2 - 3 hours, finally get in and the client has clearly already decided who they want. Rude clients, rude models, you name it! Its all out there. The key is to not let it bother you and to stay calm. This was tough when i was still living at home up to 4 months ago. It would cost me in total over £20 each day I came in, plus a lot of time consuming too. So if a casting wasn't right for me it was like throwing money away all the time.

I'm sure I will have many more modeling stories to tell you all as I go on, but hopes that gives you a little insight into what its actually like.

James