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Latest Shoot: Cisco

After being signed to Scout Management for a little over a month, I got booked my first print job through them! It was for Cisco Systems, which is a huge tech company that's worldwide but based in Silicon Valley. There was no casting or go-see for this gig...I didn't even know about it until my agent called me randomly out of the blue one day and asked me to submit two snapshots of myself to email to her (headshot and full body shot), which she would send to a client that she told me was interested in using me for a print job. At the time she didn't tell me it was for Cisco. After getting my snapshots done, I sent them to her and a few days later she told me I got the gig!

Below are the actual snapshots I sent to my agent. They're terribly unflattering but, hey, like I said, clients see things in these types of pictures that we don't. All I know is that these images got me hired...'nuff said! LOL



A few days before the shoot, my agent emailed me blank vouchers to bring with me on set, which the client would fill out at the end of the day. There were two copies: one for the client to keep and one for me to mail to my agent. The voucher form is what allows my agent to invoice Cisco so that they can get payroll to cut a check. There were both freelance as well as agency represented models hired for this shoot. Freelance models were paid $800 flat. I know the agency repped models will get paid more but I wasn't informed what my actual rate would be, but I'm guessing it's going to be $1,000 (give or take), plus an additional 20%, which is my agent's commission. Both types of models were contracted out for a 10-hour shoot day.

I was playing the role of a college student and was given a call-time of 8AM at Santa Clara University. Similar to the Visa shoot I posted about before this one, Cisco will be using these images for their marketing/advertising campaigns. However, the difference is that these won't be for their stock collection but for their actual campaigns. A representative from Cisco was on-set to help direct the shoot and he told us that our images would be used worldwide in different countries to target certain markets. I thought that was pretty cool! So you international Modeling 101 blog readers, be on the lookout for anything from Cisco either online or in print that you may see me in! ;-)

The production crew set things up in the library of the university on the third floor. We got our own section to store our stuff and I was happy to be on this shoot since it was fully catered. They brought in a bunch of different breakfast and lunch options, as well as coolers filled with beverages. The hair and makeup folks set up in the same room, which was pretty spacious, and the wardrobe stylist had her rack of additional clothing on hand. There were about 15 models total and we were each given instructions as to what wardrobe options to bring to the shoot. I brought along my garment bag and displayed my clothes for the stylist to look over. I got to keep my light pink turtleneck sweater I showed up to the shoot wearing but had to change out of my black skinnies into dark blue, wide-leg pants with black, closed-toe boots. She finished off my look with a really cute pink and red striped scarf. I arrived camera-ready (we were told to have our makeup and hair ready to go just in case the makeup artists didn't get to finish everyone in time for the first shoot). However, the makeup artist did freshen up my face with powder and lip color.

Because there was a large group of models to shoot, we were broken up into smaller chunks and taken to various parts of the school's library, where we were given laptop bags, notebooks, pens and other "props" so that we could accurately portray college students. These were all candid shots with natural expressions and the photographer called out directions from time to time when he needed a specific pose or expression. After shooting in the two library computer rooms, we went outside and shot in front of the library doing stuff like walking around campus, sitting at a table checking our phone, etc. After about 4-5 hours of shooting, we took a one hour break for lunch then moved indoors to one of the cafe areas where more shots were taken and then inside an actual classroom where the additional models--who were older and supposed to portray college professors--came in and pretended to give us a lecture/presentation using the Cisco tech products they wanted to feature.

All in all it was a super long, tiring day but so much fun and the models and crew were really cool to work with. I ended up making three new friends and hope to possibly work with them again in the near future. The production crew said that if I wanted to request photos from the shoot, all I had to do was contact the photographer, which I'll probably end up doing but I definitely want to see if I can get the actual digital tearsheets once the official images have been chosen by Cisco--remember, tearsheets are ALWAYS better than the regular picture by itself.
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