 Hi, my name is Berkika and I'm an actress based out of California and today I want to tell you what I think you should do. These are just my opinions, what I have learned. I'm going to tell you how long I think you should wait before you get an agent and what your general actor package should look like before you even try to submit to agencies. This is probably like the 3,000th time I've said that I only have representation in the San Francisco Bay Area because it's true I'm doing a lot of work on getting representation in other places but as of right now I'm represented by Marla Dell Talent in San Francisco. They only represent me for the San Francisco Bay Area. Hopefully LA representation very, very soon and I will show you guys how I got it when I got it. So basically I'm waiting to get representation before I show you guys but today I wanted to tell you what I think your resume should look like before you get an agent, what your general actor package should look like before you get an agent and just have a quick little chat about agents, what they do, do you pay them, like all of that. If you're a new actor and you think, okay if I have an agent going into it then that's how I'm going to have the best chances because agents of course get you auditions. Well, yes and no because agents want to represent you. Agents want to represent you when they know that you're going to do a good job just like any other employer of course when they're interviewing you they want to know that you're knowledgeable about something or that you can easily develop and learn more so they have to see some kind of potential. So really if you decided today that you're going to be an actor sure you can go try and get an agent and also if you have been acting for 10 years you can try and go get an agent. What it really, really depends on is your actor package like how you're going to be able to market yourself or the ability to do that because if you have a bunch of money like you can just pay thousands of dollars and do it all in one day. It depends on your location as well. So if you live in a different country that's not the US or if you live in a really small town, small estate, whatever that doesn't have a large acting market then it's going to be a lot harder. So let's start with what your actor package should look like. You should definitely have a professional looking headshot. It doesn't have to be professional but it has to be professional looking because of course there's a lot of really great cameras, a lot of phones that have great cameras. You can potentially get a really great shot of yourself or somebody in your family, your friends can get a great headshot. You need a great headshot period. One that at least looks like you because that's the most important part of a headshot that it looks like you because you want to know what they're calling who they're asking to do a soft tape or who they're calling in for a meeting. A resume, even if you are a beginner, something that shows them about who you are. If you don't have anything on your resume, go do something. Go sign up for some kind of online reading or an online class. Just get something on your resume. Create a resume if you are brand new and have absolutely nothing to put on it then make something to put on it. You can create your own work and put it on there for now. Once you do get more work that has been published, then you can add that on to your resume. A reel, of course, so you can show them your acting or some kind of acting clip. Your reel traditionally should be your work, some kind of work that you have been in in the past, but especially right now with 2020, a lot of people are really open to seeing work that you recorded yourself at home or something that happened online. Some kind of reading or play that you were on through Zoom or any kind of platform of broadcasting. That shows them your acting abilities. If you don't have acting abilities and you say, well, I want to be an actor, but I'm not a good actor, then I would highly suggest to, of course, take an acting class that come on. You knew I was going to say that, like take an acting class. If you want to learn how to do something, take a class for it, practice it, read about it, do it. Let's just say for argument's sake that you want to go and get an agent today. Of course, you're not going to be able to get a bunch of training today for acting. I suggest you get a commercial agent. In general, if you are starting out and you are struggling getting representation, focus your attention on trying to get commercial representation because for commercials, often you won't speak at all. It's all about your looks or you will speak a little bit, but it'll be natural. They'll ask you to just be natural, act as if you were cooking dinner with your friends. In general, for commercial acting, especially in the beginner level, it's going to be much easier to get an agent if you fit a look, if you are super beautiful or if you are very specific of something that's trendy right now, something that's used a lot, anything like that, anything that a specific market is needing a lot of. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a lot of tech. So if you fit into the tech look, whatever that might be for that specific agency, then you can go and submit for that agency. A lot of agents allow you to submit online. So if you research agencies, which the best way to research them is to go to IMDB Pro, see what other people are represented by, and then you can start your research from there. There's a lot of states that require, I believe it's most states that require this. I know California for sure requires agents to be registered through the state. So you can look them up and make sure they're registered. There are a lot of SAG after affiliated agents or agent talent agencies. So you can also see it on the SAG after website if they are SAG affiliated. So there are a few ways that you can do your research yourself and go online and see if they are registered appropriately. Even if they are legit and are registered correctly, you still don't know if they're good agents. And what you need to do is again, IMDB Pro, see who their clients are, see who's represented by them, and then you can contact that actor directly and through social media or whatever and ask them, hey, what's your actual opinion? What has been your experience? And you have to understand that everybody's experience is going to be different. I'm sure there's people that have been with MDT who absolutely hated them, who hated their experience. And then there's a lot of people as well that love their experience with MDT, which is the agency I'm with. I have liked being with them. And when you are doing research for agents, make sure they are at the very most three hours, driving distance away. I say that as a general rule of thumb because I say that all of the time. Of course, it depends on so many things, but there are some developmental agents that will allow you to live in other places and help you a little bit distance wise, self-tape auditions, stuff like that, but it gets really complicated and it's very specific to each one. So again, you simply have to do your own research and figure out which one it's going to be for you. If you don't live somewhere like San Francisco or LA or New York, places like that, that you do have access to them very closely. Those production companies are filming in those cities and that's why they want actors in those cities because they don't want to deal with actors coming from somewhere else. Time is another huge factor in getting an agent because a lot of people have a second job or another primary job other than acting. And it's very likely that they're going to ask you during your meeting, if you get a meeting with an agency, how much time you are going to dedicate to this? Like, do you have a full-time job? What is your schedule like? Is it flexible? Some agencies will want you to be a full-time actor. And some of them will understand in markets like San Francisco that you're most likely going to have another job because acting simply can't, you know, you can't make enough money from acting sometimes. So a lot of agents are very open to that, to you having another job, but they still want to know that you have time for it. I would advise that when you actually have 10 to 20 hours a week to dedicate for acting, whether it be training or classes, auditions, gigs, 10 to 20 hours a week that you can dedicate to that. Do you have flexibility or you don't have anything else going on? Because time's going to be a huge thing. If you don't have time for it and you do get booked by an agent, let's say you're a full-time tech employee and you're working from nine to five every single day and they're sending you auditions Monday through Friday. And most of the time they need it within 24 to 48 hours. And you're not sending in those auditions. You're obviously not going to get any jobs. Your agents aren't going to be happy. And your agents dropping you is very likely, if you are brand new to that agency and they see that you're just not putting in that work, of at least sending in the auditions. Because if you're sending in the auditions and not getting booked, like that's fine. You know, they can give you feedback and try and help you out, send you, give you some advice on what acting classes or workshops to take. But if you're not even submitting the auditions, like they're not going to want to represent you because it's going to be a waste of time. You're wasting their time if they're having to send you these things and remind you of all of these things. Like they could just be sending it to somebody else that might actually book the job and, you know, make them money. Because ultimately, that's what agents do. They get your jobs and they get paid from that. So that's one of the questions I have seen. Quite a bit in the comments is how much do you pay an agent? And as far as I know, agents in California, they have to work off of commission. And really, if somebody's telling you like you have to pay them a monthly fee or a yearly fee to get represented by them, I would say keep doing more research and get represented by somebody who will simply take a commission from you. Usually 10 to 20% depending on the type of agent. It will be 10 to 20% of commission of whatever jobs they get you. My advice on if an agent wants to charge you money is don't do it. Do it only on commission. Make sure to read your contract. Of course, make sure that you're not trapped in a contract that's forever. Something that you are able to get out of. Most acting contracts will have some kind of verbiage in it that says the agents can drop you and you can drop them at any time. Usually they want it in writing. So of course, it can prove that, you know, you were dropped or that you decided to leave them. But always make sure to leave it open, especially because you are an artist and people can take advantage of you if you somehow make it really big and they in your under a contract where you're forced to give them 10% of the $10 million you did that year or whatever, which is very uncommon. Let's be realistic, but you should always protect yourself and always read your contracts. And if they're not providing a copy of the contracts that you are signing at a gig or for an agency, make sure you take photos of them because they will come in handy. There are some registered legit agents that charge money, but I simply don't see the reason to I don't see why they wouldn't do what pretty much everybody else is doing. I'm not saying it doesn't happen that people ask for money to be the representation, but just don't do it. Just continue to do your research and find something that's a little bit of a better fit. For me, in my opinion, what I think is a better fit is if they're taking a commission. Of course, your talent level and how much experience you have is important to when you are approaching an agency, but there's so many different kinds of talents agencies that are boutique ones or just really big ones that represent America Ferrera and huge stars like that. But there are all kinds of agents or developmental agents or agents that will not even look at you unless you've been at least had at least five co-star roles. There's all kinds of agents. So you simply have to do your research. And like I said, commercial agents are a lot easier to get than let's say voiceover agents or theatrical agents. But from my experience, let me tell you that I went to college for theater and I had some experience in theater and I had a little bit of work here and there of commercials. And when I submitted to agencies, I actually only to submit it to two agencies in San Francisco. I was treating it as a, oh, this is practice. This is to see what it is like because I didn't get taught in college what that was like at all. So I submitted to those two. I went to my meetings. I brought what they asked me to bring. And they both wanted to sign me. And I was like, oh, shoot, I should have done this as soon as I moved to the Bay Area when I was 18. And then I could have so much more experience because they would have been getting me jobs throughout college and I could have paid for college with some of that money. But go for it. Even if you apply now and you maybe aren't the most developed as you can be, look for the agencies that are willing to take people that aren't as developed, look for commercial agencies and just go for it. Because if they say no now, it can be that you are just not developed enough. You need a little bit more training, more experience, or they already have too many people that fit your same look, your same type. And maybe in the future, they will have need for you. And in the future, you can apply to be represented by them again. They often will have on the website, like how long you should wait before you reapply. I know I talked a lot in this video, but I just, I wanted to talk to you about agents in general, because I've been getting so many questions about it. You can be an actor without an agent. Of course, an agent will help you develop your career and you will get much, much better opportunities through agents. There's a ton of videos that I have made about casting websites, because that's one of the ways that you can find your own work by self submitting. Let me know if you have any other questions about agents, because of course, I didn't cover like everything. I just covered the surface of a lot of things. So I will, of course, make another video like this about agents soon. Thank you so much for watching. At the end of every video, I feature another channel. 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