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MJ have 650 kids on there books that is a lot Sylvia Youngs has less than them, so if you have that many kids who do you pick to go on auditions. If I was looking for a new agent for my ds think I would pay out to get spotlight books and see how many kids they had on there book and if any of the kids looked like my child. Abacus only have 150

Interesting thread! How do you get copies of the Spotlight books then? Never reaslised we could do that. As members are we entitled to them or can anyone get them? Presume payment is involved?

Thanks,
Penny

You can only get the Spotlight book if you are an industry professional. One of the NAPM works at a theatre so has been able to have a quick look inside the books so was able to see this information. Indeed it seems to be that MJ has an enormous amount of children on his books as that is how they are placed into the book, the agency with the largest no. of children appear first then those with less children appear later in the book. Young performers I believe are at the end. You'll have to thank Cops22 for this information and enlightening us BUT to clarify you CANNOT go and buy the Spotlight casting directory (which is what it's called) - it states on the website it is only free to casting and production professionals only.

Mimi-cat wrote:You can only get the Spotlight book if you are an industry professional. One of the NAPM works at a theatre so has been able to have a quick look inside the books so was able to see this information. Indeed it seems to be that MJ has an enormous amount of children on his books as that is how they are placed into the book, the agency with the largest no. of children appear first then those with less children appear later in the book. Young performers I believe are at the end. You'll have to thank Cops22 for this information and enlightening us BUT to clarify you CANNOT go and buy the Spotlight casting directory (which is what it's called) - it states on the website it is only free to casting and production professionals only.

it appears some agencies are more like databases than anything else, I can think of another just like that.......

If you are in London can go to spotlight and have a look at the books so can still have a look at agency's and decide which agent looks good. You can ask when you auditon for agent to look through spotlight as all agents who have children in spotlight have a copy then you can see haw many children are in the agency like yor dc.

Hi Tic Toc

Did you accept the place at mark jermin , my friends girl has been offered a place an is undecided?? she doesn't know what to do, i have no history of them so cant ofer any advice, what did you decide ?
thanks

I am a bit in the same situation, been offered a place for my dd and don't know what to do after reading this thread.
I know I should follow my gut instinct (which is, take the offer because I can't go to auditions without an agent) and I can always change later. Does anyone know how long you are bind to the contract? MJ asked for an headshot and 105£ to get in Spotlight, and said that later will send the contract. I would rather prefer to know it before. Is it common practise?

The Spotlight fee goes to Spotlight and lasts a year. If you change agents during the year you just contact them with your new agents details and they ammend them on your profile page so you don't have to worry that you would have to pay out again if you swap after a few months.

MJ contract will be for 1 year. If you decide to leave before the year you can do so if you give them notice, however if you then go on to find paid work after leaving them, but before the year is up, you would still be liable to pay MJ their commission ( can't remember but it may be 20%). You also have to pay for photos with their 'preferred' photographer, but you do get copies.

You get a copy of the contract to see and keep, so you don't have to commit until you have read all the details.

hth

tikka

This is a really informative thread - thanks everyone for sharing all this info. Very useful.

Spotlight fee is only £90 though!!!! not £105

I think the extra money is put down to admin fees, not 100% sure. Good luck for the future.

Thanks everybody for your information. Very useful. Still don't understand why in their standard "congratulation you have a place" they ask first for the Spotlight fee and photo (it looks like you can provide your own one) before send you the contract.

Tp be fair, I think most agents would want you to be on Spotlight and to approve your headshots. The only difference for us is that we are responsible for DD's Spotlight membership so we pay them direct, so no admin fee to the agency.

Good luck!

We dont pay admin fee for Spotlight either. Agent sends us the renewal forms and we send them and cheque direct to Spotlight