Agency photo's Abacus

[Coco]

We recently had our dd's photos taken with Abacus for the Spotlight book. Does anyone know whether they ask us to select our prefered photo's or do they chose the ones they want ? Some of my dd's pictures are very nice and some I don't think do her justice. I'd phone and ask them, but I don't want to sound like a control freak. Obviously I'm a control freak, but I'd like to keep it hidden as long as possible !

[missmoneypenny]

They choose them - but if it's any help the ones they have chosen for my little ds have been great since we joined 2 years ago. In fact this years was my fave from the millions on the disk

Hope they pick the ones you want x

[Coco]

Thanks missmoneypenny. I hope so too

[pg]

I hope you are happy with the one they choose. Having said that, the advice usually given to drama school graduates about choosing casting photographs is: "Don't ask your Mum"

I know that the photo my son has on his Spotlight page does not show him in the way that I think of him, if you see what I mean. He had one which showed him with quite a cheeky grin, as if caught mid-laugh, which for me really summed him up. I had to concede though, that this was his Mum thinking of 20+ years of upbringing as opposed to giving a flavour of the sort of roles this particular young drama school graduate would be best suited to. Sometimes it is better to leave it to someone else to decide!

Agents have a lot of experience which will help them to choose a photograph they think will be most useful in terms of casting. It is also possible to have more than one photo on Spotlight, so hopefully there will be at least one you like!

[janine]

HAHAHA!! Coco, your post made me giggle , I keep checking my daughters Spotlight pg to see if they have changed her photo yet & to see which photos they choose. The lack of control is HORRIBLE!!!!

[missmoneypenny]

It is Janine - I am glad I don't have the update password for my ds - by some fluke I do have them for my girls and I am always soooo tempted to have a fiddle!! I keep telling myself that the way I see it, and the way the agent and CD's see it is 'possibly' not the same lol

[Coco]

Aha, a fellow control freak Janine ! You have no way of knowing if they just randomly chose any photo and stick that in, and unless they are asked to go for an audition, you'd never know if they ever put them forward for anything. I hate that ! I really hate that !!

[wissymo]

Im in the same position but with A&Jmanagement!
my ds had some pictures taken for their website a few weeks ago and i keep on checking to see when his page changes...
i have checked loads of times now but it hasn't changed yet! also can't wait to hear his new voice recording...im ssssooo impatiant

[janine]

HAHA!! We all sound ever so slightly mad!!
Coco, Think we get a list every year of all the submissions, made for our child.Just have to wait a year to view it & then we can quietly & from the safety of our sofas verbally attack every Casting Director who refused to see our child for a casting........ HOW VERY DARE THEY!!!!

[stagecoach2007]

Abacus have there work cut out going through all the photos.... i have selected my favourite piccies it will be interesting to see whether Abacus think the same.... this is the first time our ds will appear in spotlight anyone know when Abacus new kiddies spotlight profiles will be up and running?

[Irishdancer]

I have ds pin so as ds looks a lot older then the photos that where on Spotlight have put 1 photo on there, when Abacus come to change the photo they can put the 1 they want feel as the photo is so important I wanted cd to see what ds looks like now, do not want to ds to go for an audition then cd look at him and think he looks a lot older then his photo.

[MILLET]

My dd's agents photographer only took 6 pics of her, all particularly awful.
She hasn't had 1 proper audition since she joined agency last September.

[Irishdancer]

yes the photo is most important ist thing cd see so if photo is not up to date and dc looks too young in photo when cd sees them will not have as much chance of getting the part . Before Christmas ds did a few things he got with out auditioning as we knew the producer a few people said oh he looks so much older than his photos ds had grown about 6in in a few months and looked older, so even if u are not that happy with new photos and yr dc photo makes them look a lot younger than they look, its better to have a photo which looks like they do now even if u are not that happy with it, than a photo that makes them look too young.

[Coco]

That's disapointing Millet. I had a similar situation with an agency attatched to a theatre school that my dd attended when she was about nine, until she was twelve. The photo's weren't ever brilliant, and so I never knew whether she wasn't getting any auditions, because of the pictures of her, or whether the agency was just a bit crapola. I suspect the latter, actually. It was extremely rare to be contacted by the agent and when we did it was always something really bizare. A real favorite of mine was, 'can your daughter scuba dive'? Given that my dd was nine and had only just had her arm bands off, the answer unsurprisingly was 'no'!

[Romeha3]

he he..loving all the comments...PG you always sum up everything so well! yes I probably would choose the 'mummy's' photo too but it would be the wrong one...lol...it does take a while before the photos get changed...they are so busy... Mine definately need updating as Irishdancer says my ds has also changed and grown and my youngest dd no longer has her milk teeth and needs to have her photo updated...

When we first joined I remember thinking okay phone ring castings all the time etc...but it does take a while so don't get disheartened - I remember 'pestering' (not too strongly) them asking if kids had been submitted and when they said yes thinking okay but are you sure?? ...lol...but you do get the magic list (August/September time) and you can see - my ds was actually submitted for nearly 100 things last year but only got about 15 castings....so then yes you think why didnt they want to see him?.. but this year seems to have been a lot busier - not sure why! maybe because he's been on the circuit awhile now - always surprised by how many different CDs there are - thought we'd been to them all and then a different one comes in - I am really beginning to know LOndon very well!

Anyhow hope all goes well and can't wait to hear all the exciting jobs everyone's going to get x