A commercial I shot late last year started airing in American markets recently and thought I'd share some candids. The advert is a series of vignettes showing employees reaching out and helping customers. I suited up for the role of "Dad with child" and had the pleasure of hanging out with Bruno, Yosuke and their lovely parents. Effortless work when your co-stars are so darned adorable!
5 comments:
Hey Richie, I was doing some research on male Asian models and came across your blog, great job by the way...
I just had a couple questions, I myself am also Asian-American and have been approached several times by scouts that told me if I was interested in modeling to give them a call...
My questions for you are...how did you get into modeling, and what do you think the best way to get into the business is? What is the pay like? Worth the experience? And have you ever thought about using your modeling to bridge into an acting career?
Thank you and I appreciate your time.
hey james,
i took an unconventional route - worked in finance for a few years and started modeling on the side. i'd run out to castings during my lunch break and eventually it reached a point where something had to give. pretty easy choice really.
pay totally varies on what market you're in but editorials traditionally pay pennies and tv commercials are where you earn your livelihood. catalogs and print jobs fall somewhere in between depending on usage (one year? two years?, how many markets, etc).
where are you located? i'd suggest you look up the top five agencies in town and swing by for their open calls and see if there's a fit. if you're thinking of making a serious go at it, the asian markets (hk, singapore, bangkok, taipei) are where a lot of people start out building their books (athens and cape town are other popular starting points). and that goes for non-asian models too - lots of eastern europeans, australians and north americans base themselves out there for 2+ month stints, and many do exceptionally well and return home with top flight portfolios. something to consider...
Hey, thanks for the reply, ironically I am in a very similar situation to where you started out. I just graduated college in May with a BS in Finance, and have since then moved back to my hometown of Orange County.
From researching online, browsing through your blog, etc, I see that this is actually something I am really interested in and might actually consider pursuing seriously...
I've never had professional pictures taken before, so do you think just checking out the open calls would be the best way to try to get my foot through the door? Or should I take some Polaroids and distribute them?
Any help/advice/guidance you can offer me would help tremendously. Thanks again!
James
Jameskpham@gmail.com
Orange County eh? That's where I grew up as well - went to Los Alamitos HS.
You might want to check out sites like modelmayhem.com and see if there are photographers whom you'd like to work with. Some will do TFPs (time for prints/CD), others will charge a couple hundred dollars. I would go that route so you can figure out if it's what you enjoy doing and then decide if you want to show those pictures at the open calls or just go with polaroids. Nothing wrong with the latter - many people have done just that and found success. It depends on if an agency is willing to develop a model or if they're just looking for people who can go out and book jobs straight away.
Don't spend too much upfront to get pictures done. If an agency is interested, they'll be able to see past pictures. They're trained to spot potential.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Cool, I went to El Toro HS...so I'm a little bit south of where your from, but anyways...thanks for the input and help, I'll have a look at the web site...get started... and see how everything pans out...and I'll keep you posted on what happens...take care
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