Theatre Australia

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Rip Off Agency joining fees? Lets Out them!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012, 10:31 pm
BongoBill15 posts in thread
There are several so called 'agencies' that either require a 'Joining fee' or cloak it when saying they dont charge joining fees with 'portfolio pictures' and it's obvious that it's the only way they make their money. A lot of them advertise in the newspapers trying to acquire talent and on websites saying things like 'easy money in films an tv- earn up to $5000 a day!'. Basically they are just rip off merchants that take advantage of new actors as well as experienced ones.(Most experienced actors probably are aware but some fall prey to it from desperation). There is one in Sydney, (several actually) but one in Bondi to be precise that offers 'casting opportunities' for major 'Hollywood projects' as well as "promotional opportunities for Red carpet events" (i.e. serving drinks at night clubs)...get my drift- They then rope people in on the premise that they are casting for major productions and then try and sell people 'packages'..a 'portfolio, a 'web page', visa help and offers of meeting LA talent scouts for about $4000!..yeah like the hideous wannabe Glamour model on their website got to....you know what I mean. Anyway we all probably know who they are and without slandering anyone I suggest we all work together to combat them. I have purposely not mentioned their names as to avoid getting my post deleted as I think that everyone needs to stand up and avoid these Ars*holes as well as spread the word to save actors from being ripped off. And lets also look at the children's agencies as that is a whole other scam...for the most part- there are some legitimate kids agencies that dont charge a penny to join but how many kids do you actually see in serious TV roles? Is it worth the thousands of $$ these scum charge to 'join'? Lets take a stand and out all of them and stop them. Thank you.

I was avoiding this thread

Sun, 4 Mar 2012, 02:03 am
I was avoiding this thread for the (maybe not so obvious to newcomers) obvious reason. Bill, this site used to be a vibrant discussion venue for many of the regulars here, including myself. I give you the following advice: *look at how little discussion is here now outside of reviews and posting of auditions and the occasional comment by someone who has a question for a listed company.... then compare it to pre-2010 threads. *look at the previous threads on agencies and see how much of them is left after the comments have been pulled due to threats of legal action/complaints *look at the policy for this website in terms of aforementioned complaints *consider that this is not the best venue to pick a fight Whether or not you think you'd be stating a fact, many facts - and even comments that have supported agencies under discussion - have been removed. If you want to out people, this is not the place to do it. Another website is probably your best solution. My advice Bill: get your own website, post whatever you want. And make sure it's backed up with actual facts. Ie. documents, not anecdotes.

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