Read some of the postings about Black Box - Never Pay an Upfront Fee. It is Illegal in the UK to charge such fees as it should also be here.

Dixi

Jeff Watkins
Perth based Actor/Performer
Fight/Sword Choreographer

http://au.geocities.com/labrug

A friend of mine signed up with NOTM last yeat - paid them the money and has never heard from them again.

I once overhead one of the actors from Zeal Theatre say that he had gotten rid of his agent. He said that he was quite often getting auditions for parts that he was being typecast into, or parts that he 'looked right for'. So he fired his agent, and started marketing himself.

He said he was never happier (despite some obvious difficulties with marketing yourself) working this way.

Perhaps there is a myth that having an agent is the only way to go? (Of course, Zeal actors are pretty good and have lots of previous experience, so for emerging artists it might not help).

Just wondering what other experienced performers think?

The Prompt Copy
Networking emerging theatre professionals
www.thepromptcopy.com

Sticky Apple Legs
http://stickyapplelegs.artsblogs.com

http://www.notm.com.au/

Strictly speaking, no upfront fee required. You may join for nothing and get.... well....

But download their powerpoint presentation and you get the blurb on "Service Pack 1". Yours for $150:

"Online introductory training course"
"Online marketing material"
"1 year audition and job notification service"

or "Service Pack 2" for $750 all of the above plus

lifetime notification
photographic portfolio
professional makeover
creation and distribution of show reel
acting and or modeling advanced course
updates with acting courses

and get.... well....

$150 for a year's newsletter subscription and a few course notes might be value in some peoples' books, depending on the quality of content.

Some people might even think $750 reasonable for a lifetime newsletter subscription (however long that is), photos, makeover, showreel, acting course (wonder if that's online too?)

Note that while there's plenty said elsewhere in the presentation and on the site about the vast fortunes to be made in the entertainment industry ($25 - $5,000/hr) none of the paid service packs say anything explicit about actually representing you and getting you work.

But they do mention somewhere that they'll only charge 10% commission - take that BMA!

Mind you, collect enough $150 and $750 fees and you can probably afford to forgoe the extra 10% - or perhaps any commission at all.

Buyer beware.

Cheers
Grant

thanks everyone, deep down i thought it was dodge cause the guy i talked to was more enthusiatic on getting his hands on my money than actually telling me about the jobs i could get afterwards. their website is very vague and doesnt really say anything.

I suggest having a fish around business.gov.au after finding these guys on my career and seeing their website i found them to be a strange to say the least. After doing an ABN check it looks like NOTM's abn has been registered and reregistered a few times. Not to mention the fact there has been two partners with vary dissimilar names. Further to that they arent PTY Ltd. Now okay yes this isnt a big deal but i'd imagine if they are out to pay good money people decent money they can afford $900 and get themselves a good shelf company.

don't do it, I know 5 people that have stupidly spent their money only to be left wondering and waiting for the "real jobs" that just never seem to eventuate!!