Posted by T.M. on April 05, 2005 at 22:18:43:
Location: Washington State
I'm 18 years old, male, and recently swept up in talks of modeling...I have no previous experience modeling, but I sent some snaps to Mode Models International (Offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Portland, and Spokane) a couple months ago, and within a couple of days they responded. The president's name is Kelly Streit, and he forwarded my pics to a man named Darrin Dyck (owner of Mode Portland and Spokane) with a brief note: 'he looks cool', along with a few attachments from other people I don't know, probably the folks who sort through the pictures they get sent... with these notes still attached, Darren wrote to me and said: "Hey anthony, You look really good in these snaps, could you meet us in the spokane offices sometime this week? call XXX-XXXX and speak with XXXXXXX to set up an appointment between 5 and 6pm! Thanks, Darrin" That was the jist of the email, I still have it if anyone wants details. So after i read this email, i assumed that it was an automated response to lure me into some open call or something... well i called the offices and actually spoke to the woman he referred me to and she was very nice and we set up an appointment for me to meet with her at the offices. I came right out and asked her if the email i had recieved, with attachments from Kelly Streit etc, was an automated thing. I also asked if they invite everyone who sends snaps in to meet at the offices. She explained that she completely understood my skepticism, and it was good to have it, but that Kelly and Darrin don't waste their time or my time unless they actually see something. she kept explaining, and was convincing enough to get me to ligten up and look forward to this meeting. She was very friendly, gave me the hours i could call her in the offices with questions, and said she looked forward to meeting me.
Well meeting day came along and I went to the offices (pretty nice, freshly moved into a beautiful renovated building, nothing suspect... a few pictures of their model's magazine covers and stuff - pretty nice)... the woman was young and friendly again, she talked to me about how things work with a mother agency and the local and international side of things... pay, transportation - she answered all my questions and had me fill out a little form that had my height, weight, shoe size etc... then she said she had to take a couple more snaps of me, just over the desk - so i sat there and she took one from the front, a profile, and a smile... She emailed them off to darrin and we said our goodbyes. I got back home and called her to give her some info i was missing at the appointment, and she said that darrin had already responded and "loved the pictures" so she said darrin was pretty confident that they would be offering me something - and if international didn't want me, he would want me at least for regional work out of his offices. The next thing they said I had to do was meet with Darrin himself, and eventually set up a 'polaroid shoot' ($75 to pay the photographer - NOT Mode models - "That all goes to the photographer")... So time went by and eventually i met with darrin. Very nice guy, met him at the same offices while he was in town for a couple days. He explained things in further detail, said that he thinks i could model for them, that i am tall, lean, have a 'very strong face' and an edgy look - i was the right height etc. So he seemed fairly excited, as did I, probably. He said the majority of his working male models earn around $4-5k per (long) day of work, but when you start out with Mode its usually around $1500 a day... He said they take a 20% cut, and cost of transportation to shoots is generally my expense, OR the agency they place me with will pay for it up front and take the cost out of what i make while i work with them... Unless i get to a level where they have the bargaining power to get those things taken care of. As for the infamous 'portfolio' - He said it was possible to work off of my polaroids for a time, but at some point it would be beneficial to invest in some portfolio shoots at about $150 per look - and over time those shots plus work that I do will comprise a nice portfolio to present to potential clients etc. He said that the sooner I can get a portfolio started, the better because its tough going against people with a portfolio when all they have to show for me is some polaroids.. "Polaroids may work to place you with agencies, but alot of clients just don't have the imagination - they need to see the finished product." Didn't sound too bad, and I had been told from the beginning that timing etc of the portfolio costs was somewhat negotiable. Sounds good to me. Toward the end of the meeting he started talking about International potential for me. he said he'd been scouting for Kelly Streit for over ten years and pretty much knew what he liked and wanted - and that he was almost certain that kelly would want me for the international branch of Mode. But only the polaroids would tell for sure, because the polaroids from my upcoming polaroid shoot will be sent to kelly and he will give a quick 'yes' or 'no' for international. He sat back and smiled, he looked pretty optimistic about it all and said 'I want to see you go on a trip' and I was like "oh yeah? where to?" and he said usually on men's first trips they are placed in New York or Milan, but not to hold him to that, cause there's also Australia or Germany and others. In the end he was very friendly, helpful, answered all of my questions (seemingly honestly), and as i left he gave me his number and email so that I could ask him any questions that i come up with until the shoot. So Here's where I stand - Its tuesday night, the polaroid shoot is on Friday, its gonna cost me $75, and then after that I have 'New model orientation' directly after the shoot. He said to bring a parent to that and they would discuss the detailed business side of things and let parents know what exactly is going on. All of this has happened over the past couple months. www.modemodels.com seems totally legit, and it looks like their models are quite active, theres lots of contact info etc... Things are looking good! PLEASE let me know what you think, what you know about Mode Models, Kelly Streit - Does it sound like this is real? I'm pretty much convinced, and $75 isn't asking much for upfront costs... but i'm no dummy... Please comment!! I hope to know whether this is legit by friday! I'll be checking often so if you have questions for me, ask away and i'll reply quickly! Thank you thank you thank you!!