Aaron Marcus walks through his home audition setup, then explains when actors and models should use multiple agents. Full-time students should stick with one agent; full-timers might use several if contracts allow, but casting directors often reject talent submitted by multiple reps in the same market.
Hi, this is Aaron Marcus, and here is your weekly acting and modeling video blog. So normally when I'm about to do an audition at home, what I do is, as you can see, I've got a nice screen behind me, I've got a couple lights to the side of me, and I'm about to do an audition as soon as I finish creating this video blog for you. So I just wanted you to see what it looks like. And the cropping, and just so you can get a sense of what a good online audition at home should look like. So anyhow, I'll talk a little bit more about those things at another time, but what I wanted to talk with you about today is multi-listing with many agents. And basically, this is a topic that I would probably spend 20 minutes with anybody I'm doing a private coaching session with, but I only have a couple of minutes here, so I'm going to give you the most important aspects of whether it's good or not helpful for you to multi-list with a number of agents. So one of the first things you want to be thinking of, because there are a lot of factors involved, one of them is how much time do you have to devote to acting and modeling. If you are a full-time student or you have a full-time job, you probably don't have as much time to try to multi-list with many agents, sometimes in the same area, sometimes in various markets, because you've got other things going on in your life. So in that kind of situation, without a doubt, find one agent that you really like And work with that agent. If you are somebody that is trying to pursue acting and modeling on more of a full-time basis, or you have more flexibility, then, you know, if you— depending on your contract, you know, if you are able to work with other agents— some contracts allow that, some contracts don't— then certainly that's something that you can look into. I can tell you that multi-listing with agents in the same market is very complicated. I don't recommend it, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it, but it can get very complicated because quite often one agent is going to get the exact same breakdown for a project that another agent down the street is getting, and then it gets complicated as to who's going to submit you. I can also tell you that in certain markets, there are casting directors that will only allow you to be submitted by one agent. And if you are submitted by multiple agents, they simply won't work with you because then it puts them in an uncomfortable situation. They don't know which agent to call to bring you in to audition. So to make it easier for them, they just won't deal with you. So if you do, um, have multiple agents, make sure that when you are submitted to certain casting directors, you designate one agent for that particular casting director. So basically, you know, it's, it's up to you as to how you want to do it. If you would like to try to find agents in various markets, there are many ways of doing that. One of the things you can do is go to my website, howtomodel.com, and I do have a list of agents. I don't recommend any of the agents there. I simply give you the information, then it's up to you to go to their website and really learn about whether this agent is right for you or not. And if you are interested in my book, How to Become a Successful Commercial Model, I have a whole chapter on agents. There's a whole list of questions that you want to ask, making sure that you're getting certain answers from the agents before you decide if you would like to work with them or not. So anyhow, like I said, it's a very complex kind of question, but there are some very specific answers to it depending on your situation. And if you have any other questions at all, always feel free to go to my facebook.com/howtomodelpage page, or you can also email me at aaron@howtomodel.com if you have any personal questions that you don't want to post on the Facebook/How to Model page. Anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus. I look forward to talking with you again soon.
