Hi I would like to share my experience with the child modelling agency called Bonnie and Betty. I have send my DS and DD pictures to this agency , both of them been selected for audition. Iwent with my DS, all went good , he been selected!! The agency asked me a lot of documents plus £60 for been in their web and £65 for have professional pictures take by them in order to put them on his profile. So I did, Bonnie and Betty took the pics of my DS on that day the offer me if I wanted to buy the pics of my DS from them, I refused even because the pics were not great! I did not heard from them they did not give us a single casting. Is Bonnie and Betty a good agency????????
Please share your experience
Last edited by LovelyChloe on Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Agents do not provide castings and auditions. They are not employers and have no jobs to give. All they can do is submit you for suitable roles and jobs and promote you to employers and Casting Directors. One month is no time at all! Even really experienced actors with excellent CVs can go for months without getting an audition. It's a pity they didn't talk to you about what might reasonably be expected before taking you on.
Personally I don't think agents should charge any kind of fee for inclusion on a website. I also think that actors should be free to choose their own photographers.
£65 is not a particularly high fee for a professional photographer (some very well-regarded headshot photographers in London charge around £400) - but you were quite right to refuse to pay if you didn't think the quality was good enough. They do need good quality photos in order to promote you though - do they think those you have provided are good enough? If they don't have good photos the chances of your ds being called in for castings are very slim indeed.
They may well have been submitting details to CDs every since they took you on - it's not up to them whether or not you get called for an audition. I wonder whether you may have slightly unrealistic expectations about how many opportunities there are?
If you are unhappy I recommend having a conversation with them - but you do need to recognise that opportunities and auditions are limited and the number of times you get called for an audition is generally not within an agent's control.
Hi I can tell you our experience of Bonnie and Betty, all very positive. Definitely not a scam.
Yes they ask for website fees and the fees for the photos. You can take the disc for a fee but you don't have to.
My three ds's were with them for 3 years and two of them had plenty of castings and a few jobs, so we were happy.
If I were you I would approach the agency and talk to them directly. I have to say that I have always found them to be very easy to communicate with.
In reply to your very ill informed post about Bonnie and Betty. My dd has been with BoBe for over 6 months and in that time has had over 14 castings and various jobs. I think you should feel very grateful your ds has been accepted, as thousands apply and only about a 100 get selected for assessment. Yes there are many forms to fill in on acceptance, this is safeguarding you and your child's welfare and future commitments. The £60 fee is for maintaining a fantastic interactive web page, the photographs are NOT compulsory, you can provide your own but their photographer is amazing and you have the OPTION to purchase a disc if required. If you read through all of your correspondence you will note it takes around three weeks for all forms/photographs to be processed and your child to be up and running. Many agents don't even bother to see your child before taking them on and ask for ridiculous upfront fees. BoBe are the most efficient, reliable and hardworking team of ladies, take a look at their website/Facebook/Twitter feeds to clarify they are indeed not a scam!!! I suggest a bit more research on here is needed for you. I have one dd at BoBe and the other elsewhere. In the early days of researching this industry, I spent hours looking at all of the very helpful comments on here and suggest you do the same. I apologise if I sound harsh but suggesting a reputable agency is a scam is really quite ignorant. Good luck
Oh dear lovelychloe
You have been with a great, reputable and friendly agency for a few weeks and because you haven't had a casting yet, you think they may be a scam?
I suggest you do some research, read your paperwork and perhaps edit your post as you have done yourself no favours with this accusation.
You can use another photographer and there is no obligation to purchase the photos if you are unhappy with them.
"Tall and proud my mother taught me, this is how we dance" - RIVERDANCE
In the case of BoBe they are a very reputable agency and the trouble with the internet is that key words come up that can damage a companies reputation. For that reason I am editing the word s**m out of the first post to prevent damage being done to their agency.
My DD has just done a fantastic one-off piece of work via Bobe (we are not on their books but they were advertising for a specific job). I knew at all stages what was happening, they were sorting out arrangements during the weekend too, and i found them very fast and efficient. Their twitter feeds seem to me to be second to none. If i were thinking of moving DD from extras agent to acting agent they would be top of my wish list (but for nearly almost all applicants it remains a wish). However for all sorts of reasons we aren't.
I'm assuming your DC has got some good photos on his profile. £60 is a cracking bargain but of course if you don't the result you were right not to buy them. It is really hard to wonder why your child isn't chosen when you see a brief you'd think they'd be perfect for, but on the day DD did the Debbie audition i go to see the vast number of stagecoach kids arriving for lessons just with that one school in that one location.
I think it was a good idea to post your situation here, if there's one thing NAPM does well it's stop people parting with unnecessary money in an industry where people are easily fleeced. i'm sure you will be delighted to learn you have got your DC with one of the really good agents. Good luck getting some castings - it really does require luck.
I think LovelyChloe's post is straightforward but polite. She doesn't really do any accusation. The question "Is this a scam" has appeared lots of time and it is a legittimate question, especially if asked politely. It looks to me that her intentions were very genuine: to share her concerns and in case be reassured (by the way, the photograper suggested by Sylvia Young,for example, charges £55 and give you 5 printed photos of the one choose by the agency and send you all the photos taken via email - not to compare/compete just share informations).
I hope that some of these posts didn't scare off LovelyClhoe
Hi and thank you to all
I have done my research about the agency but nothing helpful came out until I have created this post, all you reply were priceless. Obviously I did not want to hurt anybody with my question that's for sure!!! my doubt come out when I took my DS out from an agency where he was active to one where he is stand by, not all the agency work the same, but it's very hard to understand them all. That's why your experience and knowledge is so important.
Tks
P.s.
Thank you begolina
Bonnie and Betty are of course a genuine, excellent agency. You can see on their website a list of all the jobs their kids have done. I will say that they appear to have expanded greatly over the last 6-12 months: their books used to be VERY small..and were quite a hard agent to get taken on by... but they supply a lot of extras now so appear to have rapidly increased the number of "YES'S" they give to applications!! They will of course submit your DC to all briefs they fit the criteria for...and then its up to the CD if your child is called in. Photos are the key though!!! If you are not happy with your child's photos then maybe discuss with your agent and consider investing in some good shots!!! From what i've heard Bonnie s a very approachable agent, so a quick call for an update may put your mind at rest!! Good luck..hope a casting call is just around the corner!!!
Personally I don't think agents should charge any kind of fee for inclusion on a website. I also think that actors should be free to choose their own photographers.
I am in agreement with PG regarding website charges and freedom to choose photographer.
Bonnie & Betty's website states they charge the 'standard'. 25%/37.5% commission on fees. I'm not quite sure what they mean by 'standard' and I thought 25% seemed very high but then they mention that 37.5% is their new commission structure which I don't understand. I'm confused by the wording in their FAQ section, surely they don't charge this level of commission and this is a typo on their website?
OMG!! I am totally shocked. I've also always thought the 25% commission these new agencies seem to charge was a little high - but assumed it was because the majority of the work they get clients is for modelling/commercials so they got away with it. But 37.5% ?????? On children's earnings????!!!
All the acting agencies I know (and they're long-established big name ones) take between 10 and 15 % on theatre, TV, and film work.
Surely as londontown9 says this has to be a mistake? Can anyone who's with them confirm?
The agency asked me a lot of documents plus £60 for been in their web and £65 for have professional pictures take by them in order to put them on his profile. So I did, Bonnie and Betty took the pics of my DS on that day the offer me if I wanted to buy the pics of my DS from them, I refused even because the pics were not great! I did not heard from them they did not give us a single casting. Is Bonnie and Betty a good agency???????? 
