Tempest7: Blogger

Dragon Eight Limited, The Fraud

Today was just a tiring day, but it can also mean a productive day. First thing was my meeting with Paul, the casting manager, at Dragon Eight Limited (D8). So how did that go? Well, I was all prepared, I had warnings from Priscilla, and of course the anonymous tipster. Basically out of the starting block he told me about all the jobs they have possibly lined up. They see that I'm a fit to shoot with electronic products, and maybe do a few basic commercials. Seems really appealing, but I know from background research D8 isn't really involved in anything big, and a lot of times they seem to produce their own magazines and promotional items. Of course as one of their featured models they wanted to help me setup a portfolio. I asked immediatly how much this would cost me and he said it would be sponsered by the company, and I wouldn't have to pay a dime. Sounds good so far, if they sponser then I'm willing to go for it. Next came the kicker, the training. If I want to do commercials, and catwalks I need to "train". Again I pressed about the cost, and he took a step back telling me not to be so urgent about finding out this type of information. A portion of the cost will be sponsered, but a portion I would have to pay for myself. He told me the cost was not high, not even $10,000 HKD and that after taking the course I would do a few jobs to earn back that amount of money. I know for a fact that D8 doesn't pay well for models, luckily Priscilla and people online have already talked about this little scheme of theirs. I asked what would happen if I didn't want to do the training. I heard already from friends that this wasn't necessary. They quoted (D8) that Starzpeople and Elite both require their models to train, and that it costs them even more to do this. I guess I'll find out later since I had a casting with Starzpeople later that day. I told them I would think about it, and he threw in as I was heading out the door that the cost of training was $9800 HKD. Hah, as if I wouldn't catch that. All I can say D8 is GG.

As I mentioned earlier I had a walk-in casting with Starzpeople. Starzpeople is a well known agency in HK. I find their work respectable and trustworthy. My time frame was tight so I didn't want to be too late. I had already informed Polly at Starzpeople that I needed to work between 2pm-5pm. They gave me the time frame from 3pm-6pm to do my casting, which gives me less than an hour to get there. So I rode the ferry across to Central and wandered around for a little bit until I found the building. It was good that I did this, and I managed to find the shortest distance back to the closest MTR exit. I took the MTR back over to Yau Ma Tei to teach my English conversational class, which happens to be another Tourism Hospitality class. I have to admit one of the younger students is strangely attractive. She seems very shy and quiet but she is a linguistics major so actually her English is pretty good. Sorry Rui, there's no student teacher relationship here.

Class was finished so I rushed back to Central. Following my carefully planned route I made it to Starzpeople in record time. I got up stairs and was a little confused when I entered the doorway. There was no reception. I saw a bunch of people working at desks, pictures on the walls and a pretty girl sitting near the doorway. I knew this must be Starzpeople but did I walk in the wrong door? I walked back out, check the sign and then came back in. Someone finally noticed me and asked who I was here for. I told them that I had an appointment with Polly to do my casting. The thing about Starzpeople is that they wouldn't let me do a walk-in casting without sending them pictures first. I guess I'm proud of the fact that they let me walk in, but honestly there was another guy standing in the doorway that must have been a model. He was tall, young looking, everything I would guess an asian male model should be. But, time and time again girls have proven to me that I don't understand what kind of guy turns them on. Every guy I pick out some girl would shoot down.

The procedure at Starzpeople was a little different. Even though I gave them measurements they wanted to do them all over again. Plus they ended up taking more pictures including some taken at a 45 degree angle. The model at the door gave me a nice smile as she left, which was warming and inviting. Just by looking at the models that were hanging around I can already feel the difference between this place and D8. D8 I saw some cute girls, but really they were very ordinary. Some girls I would never guess could be models either. Hopefully something will turn up from Starzpeople, but I can only hope quality wise I don't think I can compete with the selection they already have.

I headed back over again to Yau Ma Tei to meet up with Kammy and Carmen for dinner. They were still working at SME and as soon as I got in I was trapped by Mr. P L Chou to fix up a tender (or memo actually) for a contract to do training. It has to deal with private medical practicioners in Hong Kong learning about computer systems. Oh this contract has been driving me crazy. I hate correcting people's English reports, but for friends I would rather suffer through it then for them to get a bad mark. I always press Ada to use me as a resource. For SME, I wanted to do this one just as a sign of good faith, but I was regretting it after the first few hours.

By the time I escaped we headed out to KFC for dinner. This is the first time I had KFC in Hong Kong. The chicken just taste different. I think it is because they don't have white meat here; which sucks because I really miss my chicken breasts. They also include the strangest things as part of their meals. Who ever goes to KFC to buy egg tarts? I found out that Carmen's brother works over at Broadway. Since I'm in the market for a phone I hope she can hook me up! Still, any suggestions for a phone?

Labels: Scams

posted by Tempest7 @ 11:00