Modeling & Acting 101 - A Model/Actor's Diary

...if you're sending your agency submission via regular mail, it is recommended to include a brief, 1 page, typed cover letter with your materials. Even if the agency website doesn't ask for it, do it anyway. It's a formality and is a professional courtesy--not to mention it helps agencies know who you are, instead of trying to piece it together through random snapshots. The cover letter shouldn't be longer than 1 page and should be super simple: - Introduce yourself - Tell them you're interested in seeking agency representation (you can mention what type of modeling you want to do, as well as if you have any experience. Even if you are inexperienced, it's okay to put that in your letter) - List very briefly what your skills/strengths are and why you think you'd be a good fit for their agency - Don't forget to include contact info This cover letter should be formatted to look just like one you'd send when applying to a traditional job. Fre...

There's a very talented portrait artist named Clothilde d'Adamo...I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from him, explaining that he loved my photos and wanted to do a free portrait of me. So I gave him a photo and here is the final result: Pretty cool, huh? Clothilde also does wedding and celebrity portraits, among other types of work. Check out his site to see more of his talents: https://www.etsy.com/listing/ 101941747/custom-wedding- portrait-clip-art-designs Thanks, Clothilde, you are awesome!!!

For a long time I've been wanting to do meet and greets with my Modeling 101 readers. At first I wanted to do a seminar/workshop type of arrangement but with the economy not being so stellar, that didn't really get off the ground. While I do still plan on doing a seminar or workshop to teach models how to get agency representation, posing techniques and tips for putting together their portfolios, I figure why not start out simple by inviting my readers to get together for fun (and for free!)? So, here is my offer to you: for my readers in the San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California), as well as those in the Sacramento area, I am giving you the chance to do a meet and greet with me. It will be very informal and in a casual, public setting, where we can all get to know each other, you can have your questions answered by me directly and I can help anyone who needs advice or guidance in their careers. What I need from you is your feedback and participation. The more peo...

Here are the fruits of my and the other models' labors! Because the catalog isn't out yet (it is still summer, after all), I cropped out the actual shoes being advertised. It is important for models to understand that while it is fun and exciting to share their tearsheets with others, they need to make sure they aren't going to be ruining things for the company in the event that they don't want anyone to see the actual products until they're available for sale. Sometimes that requires permission to share the images or just being smart about what you show and where you show it. This is especially true when posting tearsheets online. In my case, I've cropped out the shoes listed in the catalog. Should the client contact me to remove the images anyway until the fall season comes around, I'll respect their decision...but until then, here they are! :-) Cover: Me, Jenna and Oasis. With a fun SF trolley passing by in the background. This is the scene w...

Finally! It was time to shoot the catalog! Needless to say, I couldn't sleep all night and had no problem waking up early to make sure I was in San Francisco for my call-time, which was 8am. I drove to the hotel where the crew and client had set up (most of them came in from the LA area the day before) and had valet park my car (the client was paying for all meals, parking and other related expenses). I met with Jay, the photographer, and he took me up to the rooms where I met the casting director in charge of the shoot, as well as the other 1-2 people there representing the shoe company. There were two rooms: one filled with all the shoes we'd be shooting, wardrobe (which they provided although we were asked to bring some basic supplemental items) and storyboards that detailed the times, locations and looks that needed to be shot that day. There was also a table with food for us to snack on in between shots. After checking in and signing a model release form, I ...

The cover of the shoe catalog. A few posts back I talked about a great modeling opportunity where I was in an international shoe catalog for a company. I hadn't done any posts about the actual casting, shoot, etc. because at the time I didn't have the actual catalog to share...but now I do! I decided to do a 3-part blog post series about this particular gig instead of just writing one long post about it (you know I tend to get long-winded in my writing, lol). So this first post will be about how I got the catalog shoot. It's actually pretty crazy because I got this job without even submitting for it! As per my usual routine, I was submitting to stuff on Model Mayhem (one of the resources I use for finding modeling work) and received a message via MM from a local photographer, named Jay. In his message he explained that he was casting for a huge shoe catalog and was in need of a few more models. He asked me to check out the details of his casting call and to let him ...

Hello, readers! This is a quick post to let you know that I've been super busy with projects these past few weeks. It's been one of those times where stuff just keeps coming up and I've been living out of my car and couch surfing at friends' houses in order to be everywhere all at once...shoots, fashion shows, castings, auditions and acting gigs--you name it, I'm doing it! LOL. Rest assured, I've received the latest reader questions via blog post comments and I haven't forgotten about any of you...bear with me while I get around to answering emails and sorting through which reader questions I need to answer/update my other modeling blog with. And of course I have many more modeling related posts to add to this blog as well! I literally just got a "day off" starting tomorrow and the first thing I plan on doing is sleeping in, haha. Then I'll get online and start knocking out the things on my "to do list." So don't worry, I...