My Casting Call Experience: HMM

No, I'm not saying "Hmm" in my post title (lol). HMM is short for Halvorson Model Management, which is one of the more successful boutique modeling agencies in the Bay Area. Located about 30-45 minutes South of San Francisco, I'd been eyeing this agency for a while now--I just never had the time to attend their open casting call, which is every Monday.

I've run into many girls on gigs that were represented by HMM and had nothing but good things to say. Luckily, I was finally able to coordinate my schedule to attend their casting call. I arrived early and took a seat in the waiting room. According to the written instructions displayed on the table I filled out a short form with my basic information (stats, contact info, experience, etc) and waited. After a few minutes I was called into the office and sat down with the owner of the agency, Traci Halvorson.

We chatted easily while she looked through my book (portfolio) and reviewed my resume. She was very impressed with the amount of work I'd done and she really liked my look--mainly the more commercial/happy images. She said my look was very ethnically ambigous, which is high in demand these days and because I looked so young for my age, she believed I had another good five years in the industry (of course I plan on being around for a lot longer than that when it comes to modeling lol but coming from an agency owner, that is definitely a huge compliment!).

The only downside was that they had just signed a girl that had "my look" and the cutting part was that she was of fashion height (5'8" +), which meant that she could easily cross over and do print as well as high fashion. Grrrr...I tell ya, I am so tired of fashion girls taking the print work from us "shorties" but that's another vent for another day.

Because of the new girl they just signed, HMM wanted to keep me on a "test" trial, which basically meant that the agency wouldn't offer me a contract but would instead shop around my comp card to clients to see if any were interested in casting me for projects. Should anything come up I'd have the option of booking the gig through HMM and then consider a contract at that time. I was told, however, that this season is their busiest for their fashion girls and then they close down for two weeks for the holiday season. Basically I would be put on hold until the end of January, at which time I was told to contact HMM again to do a follow up and resubmit myself if no castings came up for me.

While it wasn't the results I had hoped for (darn that new girl!) I did enjoy my casting experience. The agency was very friendly, easy to talk to and I wasn't rushed in and out, which was refreshing. They took the time to talk to me and really get to know me, which was nice. I don't believe that I'll have a chance at signing with HMM anytime soon but should conditions change, I wouldn't mind resubmitting myself again. Just got to get the timing right. Until then, the search continues!