|
Forums >
Model Colloquy >
john casablanca babrbizon and others.....
Just a question to models and photographers. What are your toughts and idea's about modeling schools/agencies like these john casablanca babrbizon and others..... I'll post my views later:) Oct 01 05 05:30 pm Link blacquejack wrote: Waste of money/time. Oct 01 05 05:33 pm Link Jordan wrote: I'll second that! Oct 01 05 05:34 pm Link Never meet any Model or Actor who got any real work from them. Or any reasonable knowledge of the industry from them. But the Model/Actors did pay them alot. M Oct 01 05 05:34 pm Link John Casablancas and Barbizon are not agencies but They make you think they are...but Barbizon's motto is something like "Be a Model...or Just Look Like One" Oct 01 05 05:35 pm Link markEdwardPhoto wrote: hmm, well I have meet many who have gone trought the progam, not gotten work from them, but have later become PROFESSIONAL models!!!!! Oct 01 05 05:35 pm Link IsabelAurora wrote: you right, but they do provide some promotional work, so they operate as a semi agency, just to bring the young ladies in:) Oct 01 05 05:36 pm Link blacquejack wrote: You can become a PROFESSIONAL model without wasting your money. Oct 01 05 05:37 pm Link blacquejack wrote: Do you work for a modeling school such as Barbizon or Casablancas? Oct 01 05 05:38 pm Link I agree with the others, they are mostly scams as are conventions, and a lot of the online agencies such as Trans Continental Talent. If you have any true potential as a llama all it takes is a few snapshots, send them into an agency and they will tell you if you have any potential or are interested in working with you. I know plenty of llamas who are signed with big agencies who never paid a dime in their lives on classes, or paying a photographer (no offense to the photographers out there, because i know you need to make a living  Or if you want to go the web llama route, just find photographers to test and build your book with, until you gain enough experience and a good enough portfolio to ask for paying work (this does NOT come after doing 2 shoots by the way)Oct 01 05 05:45 pm Link Well here in Vancouver JC's is a working agency, must be different in the states. It's a school as well, but I know lots of models they rep are working. http://www.jcvancouver.com/ Oct 01 05 05:57 pm Link Printmakeup wrote: right on....best reply so far:) just make sure your snapshoots are representative of your talent, so the agent can see you have talent, that's where most models fail:) Oct 01 05 05:59 pm Link I've worked for both plus JRP, back in the bad old days. "Scam" is too strong a word. They offer classes that some really do need, they do place a few models (that could just as well have walked in with polaroids if they knew they could do it), and they serve as finishing schools for some (a pro ball player's wife back then really needed it and got finished pretty nicely). I look back on the "portfolios" I shot for students and think how bad they were, but they were still more together than the webcam and Cheez-Wiz pix I see on many ports here. But they don't have any magic connection that will get someone into an agency that couldn't have done just as well walking in the agency door with three polaroids. -Don Oct 01 05 09:20 pm Link I think they are pretty much a waste. I did however take their make-up artistry class a few years ago, didn't teach me a damn thing and I didn't really expect it to, it did however give me the certificate I needed to impress and then land a managerial position at an upscale department store. To model hopefuls, I would definitely say don't bother. Oct 01 05 09:24 pm Link blacquejack wrote: Run as far away as you can.......They are a total scam. Oct 01 05 10:59 pm Link i can teach a model more in a day then they do in a week Oct 01 05 11:54 pm Link None of the models I know that went to Barbizon ever went anywhere and complained that it didn't teach them anything. I personally think it's a scam and would never recommend anyone go to these modeling schools. Oct 02 05 05:38 pm Link The three top-selling (in terms of revenue) on my site have never gone through any model training at all. The next two went through a very limited training that their manager gives to all of the models he represents. After that, you have to go quite a ways down to find someone with formal model training. Actually, considering what I do, I'd prefer some acting training/experience vs. modeling...but that's just my site and what I do. YMMV Oct 02 05 06:03 pm Link Scam scam scam. Even if they do route work through, the instructors get the best gigs, not the students. Oct 02 05 06:26 pm Link Vancouver wrote: I visited them once, because they called me. However, according to them "the only way I could get work from them was by going through the school." Oct 02 05 09:27 pm Link I cinsoder JC and others using the same sales picth scams. They deliberately misrepresent themselves to the fullest extent that they can get away with. If they just said "we're a charm school. wanna be charming?" then I wouldn't call them scasm. Oct 02 05 10:06 pm Link theda wrote: I agree. They don't go out of their way to say they are NOT an agency, but a charm school. Oct 03 05 06:54 am Link Sewverla years ago a rep from JC explicitly told me they were both an agency AND a school and had contacts with Elite. That's where the scam comes in. I can't speak for the business practices of the others. Oct 03 05 09:37 am Link they will teach anyone that has the money. stay far far away from them. Oct 03 05 09:42 am Link Jordan wrote: I totally agree,well said. Listen I've been there,spent thousands,now I have paid my father back,I learned and keep on learning in this industry,now I'm signed with two agencies recently and I'm getting tons of work for next month on Oct 03 05 09:43 am Link you never ever pay for an agency. Oct 03 05 09:57 am Link theda wrote: John C owns/founded Elite. i don't know if he is simply licensing his name or if he owns the schools too (i wouldn't doubt the latter cuz he likes his money). all i can say is i never met a model from elite who came through the school. Oct 03 05 10:09 am Link I used to think they were a waste of time, but after being invited to visit JC for a few classes, I am inclined to think differently: THey have programs that can really shape a model/actor's confidence level inhow they move and see themselves. I watched a friend of mine's son from the time he started until the time he got out (10 weeks) and the improvement was phenomenal. He had such self confidence and poise. Even if these kids/adults don't get into the business after, they've just helped their self image 110%. The one I visited does not say they are an agency, only that they can help you find one or that if they think you are promising, they have a seperate division they can refer you to. The price includes the class, photos, port, headshots and compcards. It's expensive and I certainly wouldn't do it, but the connections and the experience can well be worth it for some. BTW: I've never taken any of their classes. I just had an issue after my daughter was approached in the mall when she was four about how their operations run and wanted to visit and see what they thought they could teach my four year old. Then, my friend's son started going. No, I never put my daughter in a class. It's too expensive and she was four. Oct 03 05 10:10 am Link This link can provide you with LOADS of information on John Casablancas, Barbizon, John Robert Powers, IMTA and ProScout... in my opinion, some of the biggest scams out there... http://www.modelingscams.org/modelingschools.html Oct 03 05 10:18 am Link Barbarizon is a waste of time for sure. I know many girls from my old High School who went there, wasted hundereds and thousands of dollars and never saw any work. One of my friends here at college paid for a comp card from Jonh Cassablanca's and never recieved it and never got any work from them either. They have been harrassing me for the past three weeks now and will NOT quit calling..... Oct 03 05 12:42 pm Link Things you need to know: 1. You donât need to go to modeling school to be a model. In fact most real model agencies would prefer you hadnât. You will get the experience and training you need through test shoots, experience on the job, through conversations with your agent or personal manager, and, if necessary, from brief classes arranged, usually for free, by your agent. 2. A lot of what modeling schools teach is wrong! Itâs a pretty good bet that the instructors are models from years gone by, from places you will never model in, and are types of models you will never be. Thatâs if you are lucky. A lot of instructors arenât models at all, and never were. They are just graduates of the schools, imperfectly passing on what they learned. Or worse. They probably donât really have the skills a professional model needs, and probably donât know what skills you need. 3. Pictures from modeling schools arenât what you really need. Thatâs not always true, of course. Once in a while a school gets lucky, or the manager is really good, and they get real, professional quality pictures done for their models. But the vast majority of the time they get junk. The school counts on the students and their parents not knowing any better, and they are usually correct. So all the money you spend on pictures is wasted. You could get selected by a real agency with simple snapshots just as easily. 4. They donât tell you what you really need to know. At least, not if it keeps them from selling you classes, or pictures, or attendance at expensive conventions that they say you should attend. They are a business. They make their money by taking it from you, not making it for you. So you can count on them not to tell you what keeps them from making money. What are some of those things? a. There isnât much modeling work where you live. b. You canât be a model in a big city unless you live in the big city. c. Unless you are a skinny, long-legged 5â10â? 16 year old girl, you are going to have to pay all the expenses of relocating to where there really is modeling work. And with no guarantees of ever actually getting any. d. Unless you are that same 5â10â? girl, no model agency in any major market city is going to make you an offer to front expenses to work with them. Even then they still might not. e. People who hire models, and model agencies, donât care that youâve been to modeling school. f. You donât need to know how to walk on a runway. OK, maybe if you are that tall skinny 16-year old you do, but the agency will teach you that in an hour. Nobody else needs to learn the runway walk. Thatâs not the kind of modeling they will do. g. A photographer canât take good portfolio pictures of ten people in a day. Now the above isnât always true, but itâs so commonly close to the truth that youâd better assume it is true until someone proves otherwise in your case. Oct 03 05 07:21 pm Link blacquejack wrote: honestly i went through the program(casablancas - boston area) and became a professional model... BUT i also think that the few that do make it DENY ever having gone there LOL like i do most times. But those who make it aren't trying to get work from them. luckily i didnt pay to go there they thought it was a good look for their hustle to have me in their classes. THIS WAS B4 i grew my hair, hmmmmm. Oct 03 05 07:26 pm Link john photographer wrote: This one is absolutely true. Sometimes 14 people a day. Once in awhile I got lucky. Mostly the pictures were simply adequate for the purpose. If one thought of it as an exercise for models to be in front of a camera it felt better. Oct 03 05 07:54 pm Link I went to JC for a day and cancelled. It was a joke. There were a few girls in my classes that walked with their knuckles dragging the ground. Not to mention, I would of had to travel like 4 hours every other Saturday just to go. I got some crappy books, really crappy brushes that fell apart two weeks after using them, a t-shirt, and a big JOHN CASABLANCA'S bag to put all that junk in. I really hate it when girls give places like that credit in their ports. To me it's saying, Hi, I'm a really stupid girl who paid a lot of money to learn nothing. Maybe I'm dumb enough to be taken advantage of. Oct 05 05 03:19 pm Link It seems there is alot negative about these modeling schools. Here is a question. Are model searches at local venues a waste of time. What are the negatives. Is there anything positive. Oct 05 05 03:29 pm Link I agree those school are a waste of money. I went to john cassablancas and told them I dont want to take classes and they said i needed too. a week later they agrreed I didnt now they want me to do promo work and after the last promo I did I never want to do it again, lets just say I get tired of people screaming at me over stupid stuff like crest is dumb or claroll is a scam. then get a box of hair dye thrown at me. these classes are supposed to make you look good, no it is to make it seem like you are getting the chance of a life time, fatchance.but then like some of you have said there are those who have benefitted from it but they are few. Oct 06 05 11:20 am Link I went to Barbizon.I'm not American,so I didn't know that they are scums.I learned several things from that modeling school,but nothing special.I don't think I made a big mistake by taking the classes,but I wish I knew the truth about them before. I want what I paid back!  Oct 07 05 02:45 am Link I have a sister that is currently attending barbizon and it don't think that it is too expensive. lets compare: Barbizon $1700.00 Ballet: $3,000.00 per year? Cheering 1300 per year if make to competition? Soccer, Football, Band? all of these activities require money from the parent/participant, even if you don't go on to be a super athlete, or a ballerina, or professional cheerleader. all of these activities add up over time. Barbizon never guaranteed that you would get work, they can't make you perform well on a go see, or audition. they can give you some basics to build on, they can help people with self confidence, which everyone needs. modeling like anything else can be an interest and not develop into a career. so really, what are your expectations when you go in, do u really think that someone can create some magic formula for how to get modeling jobs and all u have to do is plug yourself in and its fool proof everytime. this isn't the basic math were 1+1 always equals 2. you are the variable that can change from moment to moment with regard to your own performance. also we should take into consideration that someone, not the school has decided what they want their model to look like. if you are auditioning for jobs whose criteria you don't meet, well then whose fault is that really? Don't knock something until, you have tried it with an open mind and a clear understanding of what their goal is for u. now I can't speak for JC, because I haven't attended their classes, but it seems to me that you get out of a class what you put into it. Oct 07 05 03:24 am Link I went to John Robert Powers for a while, and I quit because everyone that went there did nothing but complain about how they think the place is a scam. Plus quite a few people in my eyes weren't very good looking to put it lightly. There was a guy in my acting class that was not attractive, a really bad actor, and he was 34 years old(not that age has too much to do with success). They had him in modeling, acting ,and singing classes. The girl that ran that particular school was telling him that they were going to make him a pop star and all that crap. I felt bad for that guy because he was really excited and he was spending A LOT of money. They trick you by saying that they picked you out of hundreds of people to join their school. It makes you feel good about yourself and you fall for it. It's easy for people to be scamed when they want something so badly. Oct 07 05 06:26 pm Link Modellica wrote: 'I didnt know that they are scums'... LOL! On top of being 'scums', they're also scams... Oct 07 05 06:43 pm Link |
