Complaint Review: John Robert Powers - Salt Lake City Utah

I feel ya, Patrick. Just like Vegas these agencies are built on losers not winners. In rural places like Utah (And yes, sorry to say Salt Lake city is Rural) Agencies like to market on the convenience of being a "backdoor" to LA. This just doesn't happen. If you really want your kids to go somewhere get up and move to LA. Utah is a great place to raise a family and enjoy the outdoors but your children will not become stars there. ETHAN

My little sister was "scouted" at the mall for JRP. Though my mother was concerned, she could not ignore the confidence boost potential modeling gave my sister. This boost did not last long. After a few weeks my sister refused to attend the expensive classes at JRP. Finally after weeks of fighting, she told my mother that she had been humiliated in her monologue class and never wanted to go back. So now my mother is stuck with a huge bill for classes that her daughter refuses to go to. Recently I have gotten my own daughter into modeling. She is now represented by an agency and has had three jobs in the last year. The agency she is with not only required no money down, but also provides training classes for thier models. I have researched this and have found that many agencies offer this sort of thing for little to no cost. These agencies want their models to be successful (after all they get paid if you do) and strive to provide the tools to do so.

Sorry.... Helaina is correct, and any real modeling and talent agency will tell you the same thing.

In response to Helaina, unfortunatly in your comments you contradict yourself by saying that the odds are overwhelmingly againts the single individual of becoming successful but then go on to advise everyone not to do anything to help their child gain any kind of edge over the competition. I hope your not an industry consultant. Successful Hollywood actors, and actresses still works with an acting coach, and why do you think that is? Because they understands how important it is to keep their tools sharp. So you can imagine how important it is for someone brand new to this industry to do the same. You can mail out headshots until your blue in the face your not going to get two agents a month to contact you regarding representation, unless you indeed look like a supermodel. Most people don't and taking classes to improve their image, and self-confidence can really help them, and numerically speaking do indeed help the vast majority of students. It never ceases to amaze me that some people talk about how impossible the claims that john robert powers made to them were, yet went ahead to give them thousands of dollars. It would seem that if you had all that inside information through you job, you of all people would not have been so vulnerable to what you make sound like is a all out lie. I end up wanting to work with someone who I do indeed feel has potential and can't because their parents end up reading stretched reports like yours on this web site. Even though we are not an agency in a way we do represent new talent. We act as a broker between talent, and industry professionals most of who don't have the time or man power to open your and the other two or three hundred headshots they get in the mail every week. Reputable photographer or not. Perhaps it would help everyone out by telling them to look at the big picture. Training and marketing will always help. HELP HELP HELP!!!!! Regardless of what you tell anyone. But there is no silver bullet. NO SILVER BULLET!!!!!! No single thing you can do, or purchase to become successful. Work hard, stay focused and be patient. I have done alot of work in the business and I was with JRP for an entire year before I was signed with an agent. IT DOES NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT! Best Wishes, and stay focused Billy, JRP Director,and former student

Modeling schools hold "open calls" for models in cities around the country, usually at a ritzy hotel or shopping mall. Stage moms take their starry-eyed daughters to these calls and are delighted to learn that, yes, Princess can be a model! All she needs is some polish. Enroll her in our school and we'll get her started. Some have age limits, some don't. This one took toddlers! Some simply send out agents to prowl for victims - excuse me, potential students. Modeling schools as a whole are a ripoff. It is NOT necessary to attend one in order to become a working model. All one needs to do is have some headshots taken with a reputable photographer and start sending them to agencies. I used to work for the Texas agency that licenses proprietary schools, including modeling schools. They operate legally, but their tactics are shady. Remember that they are operating a SCHOOL, not an AGENCY, so their objective is to get students. The students they enroll should be a warning for the customers. Look around at your child's classmates: you'll see girls who are beautiful but only five feet tall (waaayyyy too short for modeling) or have obvious physical flaws, such as scars, acne, crooked teeth, even crossed eyes. So why do the schools enroll them? They have to. Otherwise it's discrimination. They must enroll anyone who wants to attend classes and is willing to pay tuition, even though the possibility of their ever working as a model is ludicrous. Once enrolled, there will be other expenses: headshots, a professional modeling bag, and probably a trip to the International Modeling and Talent Convention, which can run into hundreds of dollars. They wanted a $400 non-refundable deposit for my friend and her daughter, and that's just the DEPOSIT. John Casablancas Modeling School, for instance, draws students in by promising that each and every graduate will be reviewed for a contract upon graduation. John Casablancas (the actual man) is the owner of the Elite Modeling Agency in New York. In response to a student complaint, the Texas Education Agency - Proprietary Schools Division (now a part of the Texas Workforce Commission) conducted an investigation and found that of 33,000 graduates in 1995, only 55 students nationwide actually got a contract with Elite. Don't waste your money on a school or a talent scout who wants money to "train" you. Get some headshots taken and send them to an agent. A reputable agent WILL NOT charge you anything upfront. Going to a school is a waste of time and the odds are (and I'm sorry) that you do NOT have the right physique to be a working model.