The Stage

False front

Published Monday 16 April 2007 at 15:30

With reference to the latest DTI announcement on their up-front farce consultation, which finishes on May 30, 2007 (to download the DTI consultation document, see my website www.anactor.net).

It is my personal belief that there should be an outright ban on all up-front fees. As we have clearly seen, there have been many Internet casting agents setting up over the last three years, since the DTI last announced its last (sham) up-front fee ban. Consequently, there has been huge increase in the numbers wannabe actors and models, sucked into what can only be described as an overpopulated industry. But do they get any paid work?

In the last consultation I hounded the government on the issue of whether agents must tell performers the date the agent was paid by the hirer. This regulation came into force from April 5, 2004. Yet three years later, more than 75% of agents still do not do this. Fines must be introduced, that is the only way to get agents to comply with these regulations.

Taking up-front fees under false pretences is not illegal. If it were, then there would be prosecutions. Agents make any outrageous claim they like on the internet and in adverts. The DTI will do nothing. There has never been such a prosecution, yet Equity has consistently refused to highlight this glaring fact. Why?

We need Equity to stop whimpering, we need Equity to roar.

More casting agents mean more would-be performers who do not get work, as casting agency directories do not result in more offers of work. They result in fewer and fewer offers of work, as they are spread amongst a greater number of directories and even more wannabe performers vying for these jobs. Remember, legitimate agencies do not charge up-front.

Nobody, it would appear, has conceded to this very simplest of facts, otherwise known as the law of diminishing returns. It is simple economics. There should be a total ban - no work, no fee. That way, only successful agencies that do actually provide paid work, will survive. Performers would only pay a fee if paid work is found for them. What could be simpler? Should agents be rewarded for failure, where there is no legal requirement whatsoever to find you actual paid work?

Look at www.youtube.com and www.myspace.com. All paid for by web advertisements. This is the future. You can upload all your video clips, photographs and CV’s for free.

The internet has changed our industry for ever - we cannot live in the past.

Clive Hurst

Equity councillor

Address supplied