Hi! I'm wondering if people know of good starter agencies I can add to the list of agents I'll be mailing?

I've been writing for a while now that as soon as I graduated from USC, I'd be organizing a mailing to go out after the holidays. Well, I took my last final exam yesterday (such a weird feeling), and now I'm ready to get to work. I've done a ton of research and have a list of agencies to mail to, but because I've mainly been doing student films, I know my credits aren't strong. I want to make sure that I have some agencies on my list that I'll at least have a chance of hearing back from. I thought people here would be able to help me separate good starter agencies from scammy smaller agencies that often appeal to newcomers.

Thanks SO MUCH for the help!!!

Don't waste your time with Michael Zanuck, Dedicated, Advance L.A., and Sylvia Ferguson. SCAM O'RAMA!

Thanks! Does anyone have any agencies they recommend?

We can't because what might be good for us might suck for you.

Don't limit yourself to small boutique agencies. Send your stuff out to bigger named agencies as well. I personally don't believe in that getting lost in the crowd b.s. Size is irrelevant. What's important is the Agent's relationship with CDs.

Also, if you want to make yourself attractive and marketable, study with the best in L.A. U.S.C. is a good school, but unless it's Tisch (NYU) or Yale, most agents that I've spoken to don't care about the collegiate programs. It's superficial. They want to see names. IE. Improv at Second City/Groundlings, Acting at Howard Fine, Stella Adler, Beverley Hills Playhouse, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by ELDORADO59:
Don't waste your time with Michael Zanuck, Dedicated, Advance L.A., and Sylvia Ferguson. SCAM O'RAMA!

To all talent who inquire about Sylvia Ferguson/SFA

Just in case you do not feel like reading this LONG post… here are some points.

We are licensed, always have been.

A lot of agents now charge non union actors 20%.

I do not know if other agents use etalentnetwork but I do.

I do not know if other agents take headshots of their actors but we do FREE.

I do not know if other agents take the time to audition not hundreds but thousands of actors but I do. That is part of my job, to find talent!

I do not know if other agents work seven days a week but I do!

So you have a choice to make…You can make your goal to be a career “Professional Poster” on this board or your can strive to be a career actor.

I find myself posting once again due to three actors that simply have too much time on their hands. ELDORADO59 with 1627 posts on this site and 1173 post on another site, TRUTHTELLER59 714 posts, and LADelight 330. I see other actors inquiring about me and these three actors are quick to respond and offer their “incorrect opinion as “Professional Posters” not actors as in my professional opinion appear to be NON working actors.

In one of the post dated 6/14/09 Truthteller59 “I did the stupid mass mailing. Out of 100, I only got 5 responses. Only ONE was good. The other four were you guessed it: Michael Zanuck, Dedicated, Gerler, and Sylvia Ferguson.”WHY…why waist a stamp, an envelop and a headshot on me if you hate me so much? Odd!

I am responding to these posts because my clients should not have to defend my agency. My actors should be focused on moving forward in their career instead of writing replies on this forum. If it helped I say great but most of the time because they are not regulars on this board their statements just get dismissed by the many post of the above mentioned “Professional Posters”

If I send you an invitation to audition, and you are a serious actor it is only to your benefit to audition. You may or may not get offered representation but I will see you if you think you are talented. I personally do not attend audition workshops where you pay to audition. If you are offered representation by us, come to orientation. I can almost guarantee you will learn something at my meeting. Only then can you make an informed decision.

When we have a new client orientation I have actors that want to sign the contract on the spot. I do not allow anyone to sign on the spot. Actors have seven days to read, research, and make an informed decision about who they want representing them.

Now EtalentNetwork which is the site that keeps coming up. YES, I use this site
IF you have been to my orientation you will know that I say THIS IS NOT USED BY CASTING! I make it very clear how I use this site. It is not mandatory to sign up with this or any site to be with my agency.

BUT lets be real for a moment. We use four websites. Recently we took one week… ONE whole week on just reconciling Lacasting with Actors Access. We still have Casting Frontier and EtalentNetwork. We were missing half of our clients on Actors Access and this site is FREE. Actors sometimes simply forget, don’t care, don’t listen, or who knows. This affects our work flow, our submissions, the way we represent that particular talent. That talent will miss out. Same goes for EtalentNetwork. If my talent is not on that site, they will miss out! Because I work with this site. The actors that do not sign up on the sites that we use want us to work differently for them. This makes my job harder and their chances slimmer.

Prior to last year we only represented talent for commercials. I still paid my monthly fee to Breakdownservices even though we only used it for ONE commercial casting director who chose not to use Lacasting. One commercial casting director is enough for me to invest in this site, he used the site so I used the site.

I audition thousands of actors per year. I take the time to audition because I want the best commercial talent in LA. So if I have to work weekends, nights etc to see talent that is my time and I would think actors would appreciate it…but agents are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

And one more note. What the heck makes you assume I have a bad rep with casting LOL... These “Professional Posters” do not have enough clout to even get in to see casting. How the heck would they know…lol. We work with ALL Commercial Casting Directors. I have worked with them for the last fifteen years!!!!

I am now exhausted of all this. I can keep going but I am tired and busy….so I wish everyone a great and positive day.

Sylvia

whoaaaaaaa sound like Sylvia did her homework guys. She pulled out the numbers for you guys. It seem like agents, mgrs, and acting teachers frequent this site a lot more than I taught. Because every time a teacher, agents, or mgr gets bad mouth they pop up the next day with a response. lol !!! That's hilarious !!! I curious to hear SAM's thoughts on this matter.

I like that she defended herself and her agency by calling out every accusation and the top accusers on this board. Its easy to say whatever you want on the internet about a topic, and thats just because people can hide behind the safety of their computer screens. The point she made that really just had me laughing is the obvious one of a person belittling her agency but still submitting to it. There has to be people on here who BS about what agencies they are talking to, or what agencies hit them up and then they supposedly declined the offer of representation. What if whoever said they heard back from those agencies was BSing and really just heard back from none of them?

To clarify, I submitted to those agencies BEFORE I found this board. I was either offered or about to meet with them until someone directed me to these message boards and other sources.

DAA (Dramatic Artists Agency)? I heard one of their LA clients is the gal from New World.

ELDORADO59 and TRUTHTELLER59 are probably the same person. ELDORADO59's last post was May 05, 2009 07:53 AM, whereas TRUTHTELLER59's first post was May 07, 2009 12:45 PM. My guess is that it was either an actio ve choice to change ID, or a forced choice due taccount security-related reason.