A New Agency

It seems all my nerves a week or so ago over this casting worked in my favor.  As of last night, I am now a member of the Regal Agency.  This agency is brand new, so we'll see how things go.  I've worked with one of the principals before, but don't know the others, so there's always a bit of getting used to new personalities before an agency really settles into its own rhythm.

I've been giving some consideration to fashion blogging, although what I see in most fashion blogs is little more than a photo or two and a styling card.  I tend to be a bit more verbose than that, and rather enjoy sitting here writing out my thoughts, wherever they take me.  Sure, I write mostly for myself, given I haven't got any followers but one, but that's ok too.  I can still look back and see where I was, and where I am, and if I can remember the account name and passwords for this blog, I might manage to write something more than once a week.

Jumping Back In

So I've been away for a few years.  Not really away ... I've still been in SL, still working for Mohna Lisa, which I have loved doing for over four years now, still doing the occasional runway show, mostly charity shows and the occasional event, but RL required that I step away from the nonstop hustle of casting calls, rehearsals and shows multiple times per week. 

Now that things have settled some, I'm finding myself yearning to get back into the swing of things.  Fashion shows have changed some since I've been away, but in many ways it's still the same.  I'm still a basket case of nerves when attending a casting, as I learned this past weekend.  Nerves make me do things like hit buttons by mistake - little things I call "finger flubs."  Oh, well, life goes on, right?  Funny thing, nerves.  Castings make me crazy, but when it's showtime I'm as relaxed as can be.

I fought tooth and nail not to get dragged into the world of mesh body parts, and I swore I would never change my face all those years ago.  I liked my face.  Fast forward to 2014, and not only do I have mesh hands and feet (which I love and I'm so addicted to slink shoes and nails it's not even funny), but I actually altered my face!  Gasp!

Anyway... I'm looking forward to being more active as a model, and who knows?  Maybe I'll do a bit of fashion blogging.  Fair warning, however, I'm a horrible photographer.  :)

All that said... here's the old me: 

And here's the new me:

(Psst!  Both gowns are by Mohna Lisa Couture)

MPI Halloween Spotlight Show 10/30/10

My first show as coordinator, and boy was it ever a bumpy road getting there, but all in all, things went great, the show was a huge success, models looked fab, of course, and everyone had a great time.

Why, oh why...

I finally understand why some show coordinators throw their hands up in disgust and quit coordinating shows. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get an entire group of models to follow through on their commitments, as I learned today.

I held a casting for a show to be held on Saturday. I gave the show date and time, the date and time of two ... count them ... TWO mandatory rehearsals and one optional before the actual show date. I told the models don't cast for it if you can't do these times and dates. I told the models if you don't show up for the first rehearsal you'll be replaced because I don't want to have to waste the time of the models who DO show up having to teach you the walk and go over things they've all already heard. I asked for 12 models, total. I got 10.

OK, so all ten are in the show - 8 walking, 2 prop models. That's fine. I can do it with 10. So I tell them all they're in the show, remind them of the schedule, work my butt off getting the set built, and today is the first mandatory rehearsal. FOUR models showed up. Three of them sent me notecards with various reasons why they couldn't be there, but where are the other three??? I send out another notice saying we're rehearsing NOW and get your butt over here. No response except from one model who tells me she can't do the show. OK, fine. I quickly send another notice asking for another model, and I get one. She can be there for the next rehearsal. OK, I'll take the time to go to the runway and teach her before everyone else comes to the next rehearsal so we don't have to make everyone else wait around. That leaves two unaccounted for. Two who didn't show up, weren't online, never said a word to me, and now have to be replaced. By whom, I don't know, but it's looking like my 10 models are now down to 8, leaving me with no prop models, which I need for the set to look right.

This is my first show as a coordinator. I figured with no designer, and models able to choose their own outfits and have fun with the styling - it is, after all, a Halloween show - there'd be smooth sailing. Wrong!!! But hey, I can do this. I'll find a way to pull it off, somehow, even if we have to do it with 6 models. The ones who did show up know the walk, can do it well, have mad styling skills, and from what I've seen so far, their outfits are gonna knock people's socks off.

I'm thinking by the time we get to the next show, these models are going to think I'm the most evil, bitchy person in the world. I'm not, really. I just expect people to follow through on their commitments, and I don't have the time or the patience for people who can't or won't do that. I'm pretty straight forward that way. I tell them what I need and expect from them and either they can do it or they can't, but if they can't, they shouldn't be telling me they can. Mama don't play that game.

Wow, Has it Been That Long???

OMG months it's been since I last posted anything here. I'd say nothing much was going on, but that wouldn't exactly be the truth, since a LOT has been happening, both in the world of SL modeling, and in the world of vampires and demons known as Goth City, which I've been managing for a couple years now.

We'll set aside the roleplay sim for now and focus on modeling. In the last few months, I've done a few shows... not too many, really, but finding the time isn't easy these days. Somewhere in there, I managed to land a job as an in-store model for Mohna Lisa Couture, and I'm loving that. Mohna's designs are incredible! If I had the lindens, I'd own everything in the store in every possible color!

Next up is landing the show coordinator at ModelPages International. Now, MPI is where I got my start in the modeling world. I've been with them since June, 2009. When they went looking for a coordinator about a month ago, I leapt at the chance. I'd been wanting to do that job for close to a year, and now here's my chance. So... my first show is coming up, and I'm nervous as all get-out! Thankfully, this first one isn't with a designer. I decided to go all Halloweeny and have the models style themselves up as vampires, demons, witches, ghouls, etc. Little did I know I'd be explaining several times that in spite of the theme, it's still a fashion show, so even though they're spooky, I still want to see "pretty," and no creepy halloweeny masks with skeletons and brains and all that mess. OK, so we get that straightened out. Now here it is 3 days before the first rehearsal, and I still have to finish building the set, work out the walk, and hope and pray everyone shows up on time for the first rehearsal so I don't have to replace anyone.

I can do this... I know I can do this. But OMG did I ever bite off a big chunk for my first time out. Next time, I won't be building the set, so that'll be a load off, and I won't be asking models for extravagant styling, so that'll make it easier too. They understand pretty. They just don't understand creepy pretty. They're new, though, most of them. They'll learn. And so will I.

One Model's Expectations

I'm a professional model. I won't say I'm the best model in SL, because there is always someone better. No matter who you are, someone is always going to better than you are in some way, and I'm all right with that. I embrace my flaws, and part of being a professional model is working toward correcting those. I'd be a fool if I thought I'd ever be able to please everyone, but I do what I do, and I do it well. I studied, I worked, I took my lumps when casting after casting saw me turned down for one reason or another, whether valid or not, and through it all I came out a pretty darned good model.

In recent weeks, I've come across what seems to be a growing trend that troubles me on several levels. That trend is in agencies that fail to acknowledge that maybe... just maybe... the models they hire actually know what they're doing. I see attitudes of show coordinators that more or less say to the models "we don't trust you." More often than not, those same coordinators seem to have a great deal of difficulty getting their own act together, as walk orders, finales, scripts, schedules, and even the walks themselves get changed time after time until no one knows what's going on until the very last minute. I've even seen coordinators "lose" the outfits they're supposed to be handing out because they just accepted them into inventory and didn't bother naming them something that might actually be logical, or put them into a file for that specific show.

Nothing annoys a professional model - and by professional I mean one who knows what they're doing and is always prepared, pays attention, knows how to style, how to pose, and needs very little instruction or assistance, if any. As I was saying... nothing annoys a professional model more than being talked down to and treated as if they'd just left the academy and had never walked a runway in their life. That said, I decided I'd post here a few of my expectations of any agency that wants to attract high quality models.

1. If you have a stable full of models, put them in your shows! I can't even begin to count the number of times I've heard from other models how this agency or that held an open casting, they were in the agency, and someone outside was hired over them. If you hired a model into your agency, you did so for a reason. USE them! If you're not going to put them in your shows, why are they in your agency? I'm a firm believer that all agency castings should be in-house, unless the designer specifically requests an open casting. If for some reason you can't get enough models to fill the show roster from the in-house casting, then and only then should an open casting be held. Hold open castings to hire models for your agency, absolutely, but once they're in there, it's not unreasonable for them to expect you to put them in your shows.

2. I expect show coordinators and runway coaches to know what they want and be able to accurately and concisely convey that to their models. We need to know how many stops, where those stops are, how many poses per stop and how long to hold those poses. That's it. We don't need a lot of other filler. If Model A is at pose stop 2 and Model B is supposed to enter when Model A goes to pose stop 3, tell us so. If you're going to cue it, cue it. If it's automatic, tell us it's an automatic enter when Model A goes to stop 3. And you have the right to expect us to understand and do it without a lot of confusion. Part of being a professional is paying attention to instructions.

3. If something is changing in the walk, the show order, or anything else that's going to affect the models, send us a notecard telling us what the change is! So many times I've gone to a dress rehearsal and been told, "Oh, by the way, we changed this two days ago, they practiced it at 1:00 on Wednesday," only now it's Friday and I wasn't there on Wednesday. Communication is essential to any good show, and if something changes that's going to impact your models, TELL them! ALL of them! Not just the people who happened to be able to make that rehearsal time.

4. There is no reason for any professional model to ever need more than two rehearsals for a show. No walk is so difficult that a skilled, trained model can't get it down in two rehearsals. Sure, if you've got 20 models involved in a show, or if the walk is exceptionally complicated maybe a third rehearsal may be needed for timing, but the vast majority of shows and walks are easy and don't require five rehearsals. A model's time is valuable, and when you consider each rehearsal averages 1.5 hours, five rehearsals is a lot of time. I certainly don't need that many, and I don't know any other professional model who does.

5. And finally, professional models have the right to be treated as professionals. This means the agency that hires us trusts us to know what we're doing, to know how to walk, how to pose, how to style. Don't talk down to us, giving us Modeling 101 instruction on how not to use AOs, armpit poses, hands in clothes, etc. We KNOW this already. We've been doing what we do a while, we have the experience and the knowledge, and we don't need our hands held. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. If you hired me, you did it because I'm good at what I do. Let me do it. I don't mind if at a dress rehearsal you ask me to change hair, or whatever. That's fine. But I don't need one-on-one instruction on how to pose. Don't expect me to "schedule time" for this sort of instruction. I don't need it, I don't know any other professional models who need it, and I won't do it. Call it diva if you want. I see it more as I won't let you insult me by treating me as if I'd never done a show before.

Guess that's enough for now. I needed to vent a little, apparently. :)

One Model's Frustration

OK, so I did a show... I won't say for whom... It was a mess. Never have I ever felt like a complete idiot on a runway, but this was a first for me. I think I need to learn to roll with the punches a little better. I always thought of myself as a reasonable, even-tempered, helpful sort of person, but when everything from descriptions of my clothing being wrong, telling the audience I'm wearing something I didn't even have, skipping me completely in the second walk, sim crashing, and restarting two walks ahead of where we were at when it crashed so NO ONE's descriptions were right, and then getting yelled at by several other models because I happened to point out precisely where we were in the script, only I used the terms from the script notecard instead of the term from the walk order notecard so I couldn't POSSIBLY have any idea what I was talking about... That's almost a few too many punches to roll with.

Forgive my rant. I don't often write in blogs, but sometimes it can be cathartic. I really do love what I do. :)