DD offered talent agency representation. Anyone with experience?

[UnPushyParents]

DD1 is 8. She’s always shown a love of performing, and is happiest on a stage. She’s got a bit of a flair for it.

She recently attended an audition experience day run by her drama club (one of the big nationals with lots of franchises). It was sold as a fun opportunity to see what it would be like to audition and she was keen to go. However, DH (who took her and picked her up) came away thinking it was all very serious and full of pushy parents. I was quite surprised, re-read the details to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood the primary purpose described (I hadn’t) and we laughed about it. That was that…until we were contacted by an agency wanting to represent her.

DH has pretty much shut down the whole thing in his initial response. “No good can come of this, don’t tell anyone”. He’s very much coming from a place of love. I get it, he doesn’t want to “put her out there”. He won’t even allow her photograph on school websites, though.

I might well ultimately conclude it’s not the right thing. But 10% of me is thinking “why not?” We’re not selling her soul or signing anything in blood at this incredibly early stage.

I also think the chances of anything actually coming of the representation are incredibly slim. Maybe the agency is just trying to build their books and made offers to loads of kids? There were 90 there. Even if not, hundreds of kids get put forward for every role.

Anyone have any experience of this, or words of wisdom to help us come to the right conclusion for DD?

If he doesn't want her picture on websites, and you've agreed with him, that I don't think you should be pushing him to change his mind for a potentially wider audience.
An agency is going to need you to be happy for her to be put forward for things that will be photos and videos that will potentially be seen by the wider public.

It’s not that I agreed with him about the school website, it’s just that I didn’t see any point in pursuing a different approach that has no benefit to DD anyway.

Perhaps I should have been clearer, we’re just looking for some insight into what would actually be involved here, so we can discuss it properly together. DH is a lovely man who will consider what is best for DD. He is intensely private and has no online presence himself (really, nothing) so that’s always going to be his point of reference. But he accepts that DD is her own person, with her own passions and that these are going to necessitate a very different lifestyle to his own! We often joke about the 2 enormous extroverts we’ve created in spite of our own personalities.

We just have no real idea what we could actually expect.

If they ask for cash " to make a portfolio".

I would think twice.

You should to have to put any cash into this.

Should not

No cash involved, except a subscription to Spotlight, which I understand is normal?

I was briefly represented by an agency years ago (slightly different field) until I realised I’d just been flattered to be offered and really didn’t want to do the job, so I know a little bit about the contract side. Also a lawyer.

I think the DC that do well in child acting are the ones with parents who are able to drop everything to take them to an audition the next day even though nothing may come of it. I don’t have that time or flexibility in my life so I’ve turned down similar offers for my children.

I'd say it totally depends on which agency it is and without knowing that it's impossible to give you any advice

I know someone whose son has done similar and he's been in aoen stage plays and done an advert. He's older than 8 and although I dont know the name of the agency but it must be a reputable one

Bottom line, some will rip you off, some will be genuine

Hi @UnPushyParents it might be worth reporting your own post and asking MNHQ to move your thread to 'ExtraCurricular' as there are quite a few parents on there with experience of this sort of thing.

I have a child who does modelling and some acting - he's been in lots of adverts. What is the agency? I might be able to help!

We did this for a couple of years. No harm in trying it for a year and then reviewing? It’s a short window for kid actors anyway so it tends to go quiet before exam/teen years for most.

can you take them to castings with a day notice? Ok to pay for travel? Is your kid ok with getting lots of nos? Even successful kids mostly get nos.

mine did a couple of adverts and professional theatre. Theatre was not well paid at all and cost us really in our time but was great for experience. Commercials get well paid but they see a lot of kids to find the ones they use. You have very little say in the ad when it’s filming eg would you all be happy if your kid is dressed as a sprout? On the whole I say give it a year and then see how it goes!

First question above all others is the legitimacy of the agency. There are lots of scams about. A real agency makes money by taking a cut of any jobs you get while on their books. If they are asking for any fees straight up to join, I would say no thank you without any further discussion. There are a handful of legit agencies who charge a small admin fee (like under £40 a year) but most don’t charge at all. There are two start up costs that are legit: the listing fee for Spotlight, which is like the online yellow pages for actors and costs under £150 a year, and headshots. If they say you need to pay hundreds (or even thousands!) for a headshot, it’s a scam and run for the hills. You can get lovely, suitable headshots in the £40-£75 price range and do not need to pay more when getting started (or possibly ever).

If they pass those tests, ask if they are AYPA members. This is another way to see if they are legit or a scam. But then go double check online as a scam will happily say they are members when they are not. Treat AYPA like the Ofsted of agencies.

In terms of whether it’s for you and your family: joining an agency is no promise of any work, but if you are requested you are expected to drop everything and do what you’ve been asked. You’ll need to ‘self tape’, where the child learns a script very quickly and you tape them at home with your phone in front of a plain wall. You read the other parts off screen. The turn around for these is often two nights, sometimes one and sometimes a luxurious three. Other times there may be in person auditions, which may involve missing school for her and work for you to travel wherever you need to go.

If the agency uses social media, your child is likely to appear there, so if being in school photos is a problem, I’m thinking this might be a problem too.

If it’s something she lives to do, then I would say it can be the step toward living a dream. It was for my DS. But I have no other children to schedule in and work for myself so I can work weird hours to take him where he needs to go. He does a lot of homework on trains and misses some school. It’s not a normal life, and the not normal part starts before they ever get a job, because they need to train and audition and train more and audition more. If you join an agency thinking you can cherry pick taping for just the most perfect projects ever, you won’t be submitted much at all and will be dropped at the end of your contract. You basically agree to try for pretty much everything, and you know if they get a job you might not be able to go on holiday or school residential or long weekends to stay with family. (DS isn’t allowed to leave the M25 except the one day a week the show isn’t on, and that’s very normal for west end young performers.)

If you decide it’s not for your family, there is no reason not to take it as a lovely compliment and move on, stress free.

Two of my boys were represented by an agency for a few years.
We had fun, they both got some work (adverts) but we stopped eventually because it all got too much.
If we lived in London, or if the one who loved it had been an only child, we'd have carried on. But we live in Kent and the casting process is a pain unless you love it.
We'd get emails at 4pm, while we were doing swimming lessons for example, telling us one boy had a casting in Covent Garden the next day at 5:35. That amount of notice is standard. I'd schlep up there, his brothers in tow, fill out all the forms, he'd be in with the director for 15 mins then we'd have a quick dinner and head home. He might get a call-back, or a job, he might not. If he got the job I'd need to do more forms, get the licence from the council sorted, get the day off school approved etc.
This would happen once every couple of months on average.
That is what it's like. It's not glamorous - until they get a job, then it's great fun!
It's not something to do if you don't want photos of your child out there though.

If you think this is the right step, you might also want to investigate other agencies. 8 is a great age to sign because the laws around child performers change at 9, so a lot of jobs are looking for 9 year olds who can play younger. Signing at 8 gives you time to learn to tape and so forth before that important ninth birthday. But your comment that it’s an agency attached to a large franchise drama school makes me think your DD might end up a fish in a very full pond, and it is possible you might have a better experience elsewhere. Definitely worth a google of the agency you’re considering to see if people are online singing their praises or if they come up in bios of working kids.

We went with the first agency that approached us originally and it didn’t go as planned, though they were fully legitimate. They were just overwhelmed. We moved to another that was a good fit and it made a world of difference and they aimed to help DS develop as a performer, not just treat him as a headshot in a book.

I would take that on board while you decide.

Also second the suggestion of moving to the Extracurricular board, as there are quite a few stage parents there, and most of us are surprised we managed to raise these extroverted performer types.

Thanks all.

The insights into timescales for tapes/auditions are extremely helpful. Exactly the sort of thing we needed to know- and probably the nail in the coffin.

He won’t even allow her photograph on school websites

I'm not sure there's much point given this stance

Friends had an actor child, and this is exactly what it looked like from the outside -- it worked for a while as the child's father was a SAHP for a few years because of various circumstances, but they had to drop it once he went back to work, for the same reason. More than one child, and also in home counties. It might have been doable for longer in other circumstances. I think my friends concluded he'd earned maybe twelve thousand in total, but if you subtracted travel costs etc, less.

My children are/were agency represented.

It's a lot of work and time frames are extremely tight! For example we taped for a project on Wednesday that shoots, abroad, next week. Not only do you need to drop everything to tape/audition, if you're shortlisted for a job it can be very last minute that it's actually confirmed. So you have to arrange your work, childcare etc all around a possibility of getting a job and may not find out for definite until the day before.

However it's also great fun! We've had some amazing opportunities and experiences. The money they earn is also a great nest egg for their futures.