An interview with the modelling agency
by Shang Lee
Not exactly Friday the 13th, but it is one week after the omen on 6|6|06. I signed away my soul to an insurance company. Now to lead a life of misery and torture… Ok ok.. it’s not that bad. It just feels relatively worse from the free days I’m having now. Although I probably need to thank the stars for gaining employment! Hurray! And speaking of employment… the model agency called me for an interview today… it was “interesting” to say the least… 
It was a small corner lot in an old building. I walked past it the first time not noticing it was there! When I walked in, there was another girl sitting down filling up a form. She was on the phone, so I couldn’t see her face. I walked up to the reception, and just told them that I’m here for an interview. They gave me a form to fill in as well. So I just sat beside the girl. There was probably only room for another person to sit down!
Now, the form has the normal things like name, address, contact etc. There was a bigger space for a photo than what you normally get from a passport application. You can put a 4″ x 6″ photo there! And below the photo were some measurements required. Height and weight – ok, i’ve seen this in medical forms. Shoe size – now, that’s new. Chest size, waist size, hip size – hmm… apart from waist size, i don’t actually know the others! Maybe it’s more important for females. I was tempted to peak at what the girl beside me filled in… (I didn’t have the guts!!)
Turning over the form, there’s more to fill in. Have you been in any activities below e.g. roadshow, advertisement, events, posters etc. (no, no, no, no, no….) Next, what talent do you have, tick where appropriate – singing, dancing, catwalk, drama, acting, hosting etc… I ticked the “other” box and put in “martial arts”. I have to at least put in something right?
And finally, what kind of jobs are you most likely to accept. Er.. i ticked commercials and advertisements. There were catwalk (me catwalking?!!), hosting, roadshow etc. Ok, sign on the dotted line.
After passing the form back to reception, which was just a step away, i sat down, not knowing what to expect. And then a tall hunky guy walked past with a goatie who could have passed off as Hugh Jackman! Ok, maybe just the goatie can pass as Hugh’s, but he was tall and has strong jawlines – a manly man. I suddenly shriveled into non-existence. Just when I’m doubting why exactly am I here, I was called in for the interview.
“So” she said, going through my application form, “you are a Malaysian?”
“yes”… and then we went on for some small talk.
“So, have u taken any photos like this before?” directing my attention to a wall of advertisements and some poser shots.
“er.. only once, when I got married.”
“ookaaaaay…” and then she starts explaining what they do and think i have the looks for older people.
Mental note: late 20s is OLD for modelling.
I can’t just not ask her the question. “Why did you you choose me in the first place?”
and she said… “you mean you haven’t been asked before?”
“No…” shuffling around uneasily… “although i did have a very geeky pair of glasses for most part of my life! until I considered laser surgery…” and the conversation took into a different direction – on the hows and the whys of the eye laser surgery. she did answer my question eventually.
“we do need people in your age group as well. it depends on the client.”
“ok…”
“u know, this is a modelling job after all. is your wife ok with shots like this?” showing me some marriage shots with another woman.
“er.. i’m sure she’s not”
“just bring her along to the set. we employ a lot of students, and we usually encourage their parents to come along as well.”
and finally, she said “ok, we will need to make a portfolio of photos of you so that we can send them off to our clients. We’ll subsidise most of the fees, but you will still have to pay something, $388 to be exact.”
Aha! Finally, the catch! “I’ll discuss it with my wife”
“Why? you mean you wouldn’t do it if your wife says no?”
“yes” although, probably it’s more of me saying no, but using wife as excuse! i don’t need to let her know that…
“ok.. but it’ll be such a waste!”
“sorry, i can’t make this decision now. don’t worry, i’ll let u know very soon.”
And so it ends. As I was walking out of the agency, everyone was checking me out! hey, it’s the modelling industry, looks is everything! And I chuckled after realising that we are checking each other out! 
Alternatively, you can subscribe through RSS.
REMEMBER, if you think this post can help others in their journey, do share the love.
Related posts:
My 1st thought when I read your previous blog about you being asked to be a model is it is a scam. I read a lot in some forums about girls in Singapore being asked to be a model but when they went to interview, they have to pay for the shooting of their porfolio. Then those so called agencies will ask them to wait for their calls for assignment. Of cause they never get any calls.
Is the agency iModel? They have been approaching people at certain MRT station to become their model. Ask them to pay you if they wanna take your photos.
Feels funny to admit, but I went thru a similar thing in my teens. I was approached during my high schools career fair! Anyhoo.. the headshots costs like $500 in my case, but afterwards, I actually did quite a bit of local stuff from: commercials, print ads, runway, etc. It lasted for a couple of yrs and then things just faded. It was an interesting experience
A lot of ppl warned me about the “model-scam” aspect of it. so, i have to say that i agree with moongster about “pay me if u want me” route. i guess there goes my modelling “career”!
wujimon, did u make back your $500?
Hi Shang.
What they did for me was to start booking me right away without “formal headshots” and only then required that i needed the formal ones “soon”. I eventually got the headshot after my like 2-3 gig.
I easily made back the $500 within the first month. I did the gig for a couple of yrs, so made quite a few bucks
I do agree with the warning for the scam aspect of it, but I think you can kinda tell pretty quickly what they want. If they really want to use you, I think they’ll have gigs lined up and start booking your right away without waiting for all the other stuff.