As a model (or potential model), it’s important to know certain things that maybe aren’t quite as apparent as they should be. The commercial modelling business is not deceptive, but that doesn’t mean that everyone involved in our wonderful industry knows everything. Sometimes, a little knowledge opens the floodgates of understanding.
We try to give all our talent – be it models or clients – the obligatory information to make the right choices. There’s nothing worse than applying or committing to something without the necessary information, to feel let down or somehow hard done by. We’re only a phone call away, but every now and again, an aspect of commercial modelling is better explained in print. Which brings us on to the subject of production agencies. What are they, and why do they exist?
Simply put, a production agency is in charge of the creation of an event. When we say “event”, this could mean any of the following:
· An online campaign/commercial.
· Printed advertisement.
· Media broadcast.
Production agencies are experts in PR, advertising, filming and photography, and they work according to their client’s desires – but with an artistic licence gained from experience.
All good so far, but our clients frequently don’t know which production agency has been employed to carry out their finished project. The fact is that they don’t need to know, because we have developed professional relationships with a lot of production agencies and so we know which ones are the right ones for the job.
To explain this further, let’s use an example as below (to be unbiased, we won’t use a name of a production agency):
A well-known restaurant chain requires a family of four to be photographed for their latest advertising campaign – to be displayed on their website and on social media platforms. Real people in real environments are gold dust to our clients, and that’s why they come to us – to gain the best PR and advertising exposure through our real models. Our bookings team will know the prerequisites for the assignment, so we’ll make contact with a dependable production agency to generate the campaign. Their input will involve one, more or all of the following:
· Direction – where should models go?
· Dress / costume – what should models wear?
· Lighting – what are the best angles for the most effective result?
· Dictation – what should models say to make the campaign appeal to audiences?
· Timings – when should models perform certain acts to produce the best results?
Production agencies know what makes a campaign successful. This is through experience – and through insight provided by a modelling agency that’s handled thousands of client requests…like us! That’s why our clients keep coming back to us for their modelling needs…even if they don’t know which production agencies put together some of their campaigns. They trust us to get in contact with the right production agencies – and we love it when a plan comes together!
