Aaron Marcus: Acting & Commercial Modeling Workshop

I guess first I just wanted to say congratulations to all of you. And you're probably wondering, why is this guy congratulating me? I really haven't done anything, you know. Well, let me just tell you, I run into so many people who tell me, you know, I've always wanted to look into acting, always wanted to look into modeling, and they couldn't do it before, and now they're in a place in their life and they really can't get to it. And What I find is that what it really boils down to is they don't have the courage that you all have. This is difficult stuff. This is scary. You know, we're not selling encyclopedias. When you knock on somebody's door and they say, we're not interested, you go, okay, well, you didn't want the Britannica, we'll go to, you know, go to another house. When you go to an audition and you don't get the job, what they're saying is, We don't want you. That's harder to take, especially when you consider, for somebody like me, most of the auditions that I go on, they're telling me they don't want me. So this is a tough business, and most people are too scared or too afraid to go out and try it. You guys are doing it, and I know what it's like to get started. And so— and I really mean this from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, what you are doing is really incredible. Even if you walk out of here today and say, you know, I really learned about the business, it's not for me. Still, I would say congratulations because you are not the kind of people that are too afraid to try things, and most importantly, you won't be haunted like most people who are always wondering. You know, they see a movie and they wonder, I wonder if this is something I could have done. You see an ad in a newspaper or in a magazine and you wonder, I wonder if this is something, you know, I could actually do. No matter what, you guys are giving it a shot. And for all those other people in the world that don't go out and pursue things, they don't pursue their dreams, they will have nightmares constantly wondering, I wonder what if. So anyhow, I just wanted to say congratulations. Congratulations. And, you know, I just have so much respect for what you all are doing. You're welcome. Hey, the other things I want to make sure you guys know about this thing, it's called a model release form. And actually, if you turn to page 74 in the book, you'll get a chance to see it. This is a legal document that you absolutely have to know about. I know people who have lost thousands of dollars because they don't really understand what model release forms do and they don't know what changes you need to make in every model release form. Here's how they work. At the end of every modeling job, you should be asked to sign a model release form. The photographer will give it to you. Basically, they're all the same. They're pretty standard. It's a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo stuff, but basically what it says is you are giving the photographer permission to use your image in this ad. So you have to sign the release form. If you don't, you could be up on billboards across the United States, and if you don't like the way your eyebrows look, you could say, hey, take it down. I didn't give you permission. So you've got to sign the model release form. But here's the catch. In every model release form, you will find either these exact words or very similar words, and I put them in bold in the book so you can see it easily. It will say that they can use your image for any purpose or through any media whatsoever. They can't. Your agent negotiated a fee based on its usage. Remember we were talking earlier about If it's being used in a magazine, you get a certain fee. Newspapers, it's all the same fee. Brochures, direct mail piece. But if it's in a high exposure format, billboards, posters, sides of buses, on the internet, you should get a bonus on top of your hourly fee. So if you do what most models do, and at the end of the job you fill out the model release form, you sign your name at the bottom, if that company loves the shot, And it's going to run in a newspaper ad. But they love it so much, they decide they want to put it on their website. You just gave it away. They don't have to pay you any additional fees. So this is how you do it properly. When you find those words that say they can use it for any purpose or for any media whatsoever, you scratch it out. Write in there specifically how your agent said the ad will run. Remember, that's one of the pieces of information you need to get from your agent prior to going to the set. And I gave you that list earlier. It's also in the book. One of them is, what's the usage? The other thing you absolutely need to know about are vouchers. And that's on page 72 in the book. Essentially, what it's going to say is it's going to have your name, the product. It will have the photographer's name, the date, your hourly fee, if that's how you're getting paid. But also, it will have the time period that it's being used. That's another very important question you need to ask your agent before you go to the set. How long are they going to use it? If you did a certain kind of pharmaceutical ad and it's going to run for 3 years, and then all of a sudden you go to a go-see or you find out about another pharmaceutical, they might say, hey, do you have anything that deals with diabetes? Well, if you do, because this one's for 3 years, that could potentially cut you out of the job. Your agent might say it's a buyout, in which case they're going to be able to use it forever. Hopefully you'll get a bonus for that as well, and then it's up to you to make the decision as to whether you want to accept the job or not. Now, the one that I did for a pest control company where I'm on billboards, it's a buyout, and I took a gamble. A buyout means there is no set time period in which they can use it for. They can use it forever. Essentially, I could be cutting myself out of other pest control company ads. But they were paying, I don't know, I think it turned out to be about $2,000 for the ad plus a buyout. And I figured, you know what, I've got a choice. I could either say, no, I'm not going to accept this. And then hopefully I'll get a better pest control billboard someplace, or I can, you know, make a few thousand dollars and take a chance. Yeah.