stay with an agent or give up or move on?

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tikka
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stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by tikka »

Hi
DS, now 17, is with an agent who takes on children and young adults. Its renewal time for the contract/spotlight/photos.

Need some help decision making.

Ds is 17, started college so only avaliable if he asks for time off, apart from his day off and weekend etc. Most auditions are in London, so an expensive day out on the train, especially now he's too old to use the family rail card. Work from the agent hasn't materialised. He is serious about a career in performance and can't imagine doing anything else!

Is it worth signing up for another year and paying for spotlight/photos, which at least keeps his spotlight page running, knowing that the chances of an audition are pretty slim. Or would he be better off saving his money and just sticking with local unpaid work for experience. I can see being in Spotlight is useful etc

What do kids do when they get to the nearly 18 stage, do they move on to an adult agency, is it easy to find an adult agent if you are already with a kids ones?

thanks for reading
Tikka
titania
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by titania »

Hard call this one. At 17 even if you list with spotlight you dont get the email casting calls so you cant apply directly, so would need an agent to be aware of whats casting. Adult agencies are hard to get in to unless you have a recomendation or get very lucky. Maybe stay where you are but you do have to be in spotlight to have a chance of being spotted and wait until he finishes school before having a look again. It is ok to say no to any castings that are offered so maybe only take a day off when you both consider there is a good fit between the brief and your son.

Good luck with what you decide.
tikka
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by tikka »

Thanks, Titania. If you leave your agent can you still keep your Sptlight listing going when you get to 18? Don't really knowmuch about how it all works, or about the emails you mentioned.

I'll rng the agent and have a chat, seems daft not to stay with them I suppose, you never know, he might get lucky!.

tikka
pg
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by pg »

I think it depends on whether he has the right sort of credits for adult Spotlight entry. I was registered with Spotlight before I had an agent - quite a few adult actors are. You do need to have had paid, professional employment though - I think they used to ask for at least three paid, professional credits though this might have changed, you might only need one now - and Spotlight look at individual applications before making a decision. I don't know whether it's like Casting Call Pro where they state that you need accredited training or paid professional credits and then allow loads of people with non-accredited (or non-verified) training and amateur credits :? . CCP definitely don't have a tight screening policy! It's impossible for the general public to assess whether this is the case with Spotlight as you have to pay to see everyone's profiles.

You might find that he can't have Spotlight entry as an adult even with agency representation if he doesn't have the right credits. Spotlight (or your agent?) would be happy to advise. You can get Spotlight entry in the Graduate directory as a graduate of a CDS school.

Re emails :Spotlight has changed the system so that adult actors can see some of the jobs - most will still be agents only or selected agents only. The information that goes out to actors is rarely anything to get excited about!

If his agent is happy to keep him on (with the understanding that he is going to be less available for work) then I'd be inclined to stick with it. Getting agency representation is tough as an adult. Getting good agency representation is very, very difficult : even excellent graduates from top drama schools can spend years establishing themselves and getting work with a high enough profile to interest top agents.
tikka
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by tikka »

Thanks pg.

Can I just ask.....what happens to lots of the kids who are in Spotlight when they get to 18 , or I guess the end of the year when they are 18, .........do they just fade away? If they look young for their age then their is still plenty of castings for characters under 16 so do they stay with kids agents till they start to look too old? :?
pg
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by pg »

The honest answer is that I don't really know...

If the children have professional credits then they can presumably just stay in Spotlight and move in to the adult section. I know that some agents that started out as exclusively for children have extended their representation to adults - presumably so that they can keep their successful clients (or try to).
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Genevieve
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by Genevieve »

are there problems that could arise changing agents too many times though..such as commission fees and having to pay commission still to previous agents ? (which I understand happens if they'd had any part in directly or indirectly gaining work that they've got through their new agent). Can anyone shed some light on this ?
pg
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by pg »

Yes, the problem over commission could crop up. There could be a dispute about which agent's work resulted in the actor getting the job. I don't think it's all that common though.
tikka
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Re: stay with an agent or give up or move on?

Post by tikka »

Thanks everyone.

Had a chat with the agent and have decided to stay with the Agent, accept that there isn't much work out there (but you never know) and in addition join some extras agencies to try to get some pocket money.

DS has done a few days with Skins recently and they are such a nice production team to work with. I did a couple of days too. And the catering was amazing.

tikka
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