Tip! Interview with model agency boss Stephan Czaja (CM Models): become a model

Model coach: Training with a model professional

Lutz Marquardt has been a professional male model, musician, actor and model coach for over 25 years – the perfect contact person for you and your modeling career. A gifted coach, who approaches the models openly and funny and tries to ease the tense atmosphere. Exclusively for CM Models, he works with the girls for a whole day. In advance we were allowed to have a short talk with him and ask some questions:
I love to improve people and to make them happy and to give them something to take with them on their way, social intelligence – inner joy – charisma are things that the youth of today needs more than ever.

How important are modelcoachings for beginners?

Model coaching as such does not really exist. It is important if you want to achieve success quickly, to educate yourself further, to draw knowledge from your experience. I would have wished that there had been such coaching in my early days.

What do you have to be able to do as a model?

At the beginning the question is asked what you should be able to do as a model. The models answer briefly: Self-confidence, openness for new experiences, motivation, thoroughness and being able to sell yourself. But with Oliver Rudolph and Lutz Marquardt we learn that there are many more points a model should stick to.

Model photographer: fashion & advertising photography

Oliver Rudolph is a professional fashion and advertising photographer, accompanies the girls at CM Models as a scout and gives some tips for model coaching.

What belongs to the model to become a model?

The motivation of a model is the A&O in this industry. You don’t become a Heidi Klum or a Gigi Hadid overnight. You need a lot of patience and discipline – with yourself and the industry – to get closer to your dream. Communication with the agency is advisable. Your agency wants only the best for you and can only get you work and jobs if you are motivated and show initiative. They expect 100% from you and as soon as they notice that you are no longer actively involved as a model, they quickly lose interest and the cooperation becomes weaker. With shyness at shootings or castings, you take the interest of the employer. Your charisma is responsible for how often you are booked and how often you gain in success. Especially test shoots, as a beginner, are a perfect opportunity to train and learn how to deal with photographer, team etc. Models are often booked abroad depending on their success. Not every model has the prerequisites, but many have very good chances. As a young model, you should think about this important topic. To become better as a newface, modeling must be your number 1 priority. Training, studies and foreign countries are an important topic for the future, especially in young years. But as soon as you are registered in an agency, you should know that you have to give 100% in order to work for Burberry or Philip Plein later on.

Training & Tips: Become a model

Lutz Marquardt wants to show the most different girls, with different training units around posture, voice, looks and sportive units, how versatile you can present yourself as a model. Especially as a professional actor, Lutz Marquardt knows exactly how to stage his body energy. It starts with an introduction round for all participants. Each girl has to present her name, her age and a hobby to everybody. No matter if shy, crazy, open, sexy, loud or tough – Lutz Marquardt tests each model and tries to bring out different sides of the girls. Aura, arrogance, shyness or the look – something you always find to present yourself, you just have to find out what presents your strength.

Posture: Castings & Jobs

Posture works immediately. Especially for commercials or castings a certain acting talent is required. Your energy has to appeal 100% to you. Depending on the topic of the job – you have to be able to switch and be changeable. You should be able to handle your body and also dare to look ugly or ridiculous. At castings it is important to make contact in the round and force yourself to move your head and get out of yourself, so that only everyone can see that you are important. Everything else is uninteresting – the energy should go into you. Lutz Marquardt makes the girls dance or do sports. Thereby the girls become relaxed and present. Especially with different camera angles it is important to emphasize different body parts well. For a close-up, for example, it depends on the head position. As soon as your chin is higher, it looks more arrogant. Feet and hands make the room bigger and involve everyone.

Voice: Commercials & Castings

As soon as your voice is clear and loud, you appear confident. So you can make the room big and fill it with your presence. For example, shy models can show self-confidence with a loud voice, although their posture may be less advantageous.

Look: Posing and acting

In everyday life you can practice different looks. Eyes play an important role and present yourself in the way you want to present yourself when you make eye contact with the person opposite you. Sexy, shy, attractive, interested – no matter which emotion you want or should present – there is much more to the eyes than you think.

Become a model: Posing tricks

Photography & Posing

Photography is part of the models’ everyday life – with every click of the camera, you should be able to change the pose. The photographer assumes that the models know how to deal with gestures and facial expressions. The couch as a shooting location – Lutz gives instructions how the girls should pose. Whether alone, in pairs or in a larger group. The girls have to manage to pose with the keyword of Lutz. A special flair is created as soon as you invent a story for the shooting, which makes it easier for you to show the different poses.

Speciality in posing

In-between – the movement or talking while posing, brings the photographer a lot of material. Everyone knows the typical poses, but it becomes more individual as soon as you start acting while taking pictures. It is said that 98% of in-between poses are useless, but the 2% of the photos become perfect footage for the photographer. During a longer shoot, models often get empty eyes. No matter which pose, the eyes always look the same. The trick is to look at the ground every second time you look at the camera, to change your view to camera every time you look up. A picture often becomes exciting – as soon as the golden section exists. As soon as the pose is no longer stiff and straight – but becomes softer by coordinating legs or hands or looks differently than usual – you create an extravagant shooting!

Present fashion at the shooting

Fashion shootings are not directly about the models, but about the product, such as a bag, jacket or cap. Especially experienced models know how to put the product in the right light. Often designer pieces have logos or bags or other patches that the photographer should photograph. Catalogues or online shops usually show pictures in portrait format. Therefore the space is limited during the shooting. Practice – Your mirror in the room is your best friend. You can practice poses in front of the mirror. The more posings you like, the better you become in front of the photographer.  Especially test shoots are great for practicing and trying out which pose is best.

Model training: Catwalk exercises & tips for beginners

Catwalk

Conquer the catwalks! Running elegantly is not so easy. Especially if you wear 12cm high heels. What looks relaxed and well-organized for a spectator at a fashion show is more stressful behind the scenes than you might think.

Choreography

Mostly there are choreographers for fashion shows who explain the process on the catwalk to the models, down to the exact second. Especially at high fashion shows the models do not just wear one outfit on the catwalk. Backstage the models have to change their clothes and adjust to a new choreography.

Basic rules

• The right shoulder crosses the right shoulder of the other model – whether the catwalk is narrow or wide
• The first step on the catwalk is always on the right
• on dismounting, first put the right foot back
• A lunge at the front of the catwalk tip is advantageous, because the press photographers need time to take a picture of you and the outfit
• Tact is very important in this business, otherwise it can happen that the choreography is changed and that everyone gets out of step

Where can a model still work?

It doesn’t mean that you have to look good as a model only in photos. If you want to work on an international level, you will also be booked for high fashion shows, road shows, trade shows or showroom presentations.

3 important tips for beginners

• Love yourself #1
• Work on your charisma #2
• Be with everything you do right now #3

With Lutz Marquardt you choose the ideal partner, who can provide you with the necessary know-how and support. No matter if it’s a catwalk or presenting clothes and accessories, he always has some good tips for you.

Tip! Interview with model agency owner Stephan Czaja (CM Models): Become a model

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• Our recommendation: Model Book

The casting agency: “STIL stands for love of detail”

FIV – Why did you found the casting agency?

For our customers it has always been important to get everything from one source for advertising campaigns, video shoots or even fashion shows, ideally. The fewer agreements between the individual team members of a production or fashion show are necessary, the more time we waste. The few advertising or event agencies want to lose time for their customers. That’s why you rely on intermediaries and partners. Especially in media agencies, advertising and marketing managers naturally give absolute priority to working efficiently. They give their all to save as much time as possible in their projects. When it comes to digital know-how, we are of course the perfect contact. Since we have been working in the industry for a long time and bring along our technical skills, we wanted to dedicate ourselves to an intelligent system with a new concept, STIL Casting. We are managers from the heart, we like to go to work and love to create new concepts with our customers! Therefore STIL, it stands for attention to detail.

Casting, Knowhow, Network – Everything from one source

Here we go. Good management, strong media, a lot of reach and a personal casting network. All from a hand and from one agency! That is very efficient and time-saving. Thus also each large advertising agency has for their photo Shooting only one partner, if it concerns a Casting to organize and organize. Every project manager knows exactly who his contact person is. Whether it’s for an advertising campaign or a client’s fashion show at Berlin Fashion Week.

More than talent – Good looks, special skills and smart appearance

Although we specialize in models, talents often overlap. That’s why we also communicate with presenters, actors and influencers. We can also offer our clients a larger casting pool of talent as an agency! This increases the chances of finding the perfect candidate for yourself. Often in normal commercials, models with special talents are needed, as well as martial arts or dance. Very often it happens that an acting performance is demanded by the client. With the higher number of models (sometimes also moderators and actors) we can cover the individual needs and demands of our customers even better and more individually.

FIV – Who books you, for whom makes a casting agency sense?

Our clients come mainly from the agency sector. Of course, there are different players here, as well as advertising agencies, marketing and PR agencies, but also social media agencies are coming. While in the past classical photo shootings were booked more often for campaigns, nowadays campaigns for social media such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook are more frequent. The reach of social networks is enormous, which is why we as an agency also cast bloggers and influencers.

Influencers and bloggers are part of marketing for companies

Influencers in particular are becoming increasingly important for our customers. As bloggers or almost public figures, influencers ensure that their own campaign gains even more reach than it achieves through the company’s classic advertising channels. That’s why companies are increasingly looking for you to market their products. In addition, influencers give our customers the absolute advantage that their wastage is minimized. Due to the blogger’s community, the target group is not widely scattered but very fine. If a blogger then wears the new fashion collection of XY several times or uses the new smartphone for the photos, it arrives directly at their followers. So companies can address pretty much exactly the person who follows the blogger, model, influencer. Always an ingenious concept.

In addition, of course, our customers are also classic companies who want to save themselves the entire workflow of the mediation. We can quickly and easily organize castings in all major cities and with our network we have absolutely reliable and renowned partners when it comes to model castings. Also by our own expert’s assessment and media work for many years, we know on which individual conditions with the planning in the apron arrives, if one is on actor search. To organize a casting and I work properly!

FIV – Before you have these interesting talents in your pool, what does such a casting look like, how do you find models and presenters for you and your clients?

At the beginning of a placement phase, it is particularly important for us as casting managers to know the client’s individual requirements. Only when we understand exactly which goals the company wants to achieve for its own brand or its awareness can we understand whom we want to cast for the agency or the company. We don’t just talk about outward characteristics, but, as mentioned before, about various factors such as facial expressions, gestures, attitudes and much more. Of course, there are also various sporting and musical talents. From this we then create a first catalogue of requirements.

With our finished concept, we then go specifically to our partners in the casting network. We write to the various agencies and bookers whom we know personally and whose work we always trust. We have various partners throughout Germany, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, but also throughout Europe in Milan, London, Paris and Barcelona. We can also provide the right talents worldwide. For example in Los Angeles and New York! So when our customers are looking, we collect all the information they need and use it to get out into our network.

Our partners then send us the best suggestions and options that might be suitable for our clients. We as a casting agency then make an initial pre-selection for our client and give the first options to the agencies, so that the models are definitely available in case of booking. We guarantee this security for our clients with every single booking.

The client makes the decision through setcards, e-casting or live model casting

Then the customer decides! Either on the basis of a simple setcard. In it are mostly only photos of the model, sometimes also Polaroids. Or the customer decides to do an E-Casting. At an e-casting, models or presenters and actresses send in a digital video. This can be quite simple, with a simple performance, so that you can see and hear the people live, up to the spoken script and played scenes, for example for a commercial or for a new series.

What most people know from the television of Germanys Next Topmodel are the live castings. Live Castings are however mostly only held in the large metropolises, since the organizational expenditure is very high not only for the team, but also for the different Models. For larger Castings and/or often booked, well-known Models, must be taken over in addition still still failure wages and travel expenses. Live casting is only worthwhile in the metropolises, this is where most creative and media professionals are at home anyway! You can also stop by for a casting in the next quarter.

Castings are usually live for larger commercials or for fashion companies. If, for example, a piece of clothing has to be tried on here, for the fashion show, for the Fashion Week. The same applies to high-quality commercials in which the models have to act or roles to play, or the customer actually only wants to make his own impression of the actor.

Our office is staffed from Monday to Friday for our customers, but of course you can also reach us via e-mail at any time during the weekend. With this special service, we offer customers worldwide, from Hamburg via Paris to New York and Los Angeles a perfect all-round service. We offer the entire casting process from a single source and thus save our customers valuable time when searching for the right actor, for the next advertising campaign or the first commercial!

Thanks for the insights! Who wants to experience more over the agency, finds it on the fire-new Website of the Casting agency .