The Crawford Agency - My Experience

[Krissy]

Last February, I went to a movie audition at John Robert Powers (Indianapolis). That's how The Crawford Agency found me. The contract said that I would take classes at JRP while The Crawford Agency represented me. They sent me scripts via email to audition for: I would tape the audition then mail it out to the casting agency/casting director, or whoever sent the script to TCA. They promised a ton of services, such as having a personal teacher coming out to help you (something like that), crisis management and tons more. It's all on their website. They didn't help me much, nor did I get any of their services.

They took pictures for free and told me to email them about recieving them. I emailed them five different times last year (maybe more) from March-August about the pictures and never got a reponse. I finally got an answer in August; they said that they didn't have my pictures and that I needed to send them a new one.

They post their clients on the website. They never posted my picture on it.

Another problem that I had was that they lost my information twice. The first time, it was about June last year, they stopped sending me scripts. They said that my contract ended and they sent me a contract renewal notice. I told them that it didn't end until February 2007. They apologized and said to disregard the notice.

The other problem occured when they finally responded about my pictures. Again, they weren't sending me scripts. This time it was because they didn't have my pictures to submit to castings and that I had to send new pictures to TCA. So, I'm thinking what the heck happened to my pictures that they took?

I understand that they deal with thousands of people, but really, they should be more organized than that.

Is there something I had to do to get their attention? Did I do something wrong? Or were they just not doing their job? I'd love to know. Oh yeah, I'd like to add that I never got to take classes at JRP because I couldn't pay the entire fee of $1,450. I only paid $500, which a friend loaned to me. But, the contact continued on, strangely.

Oh! Another thing I didn't understand, and still don't, is that they claimed that they're a management, not an agency. So, why is "agency" in their name.

If you want to check them out, their website is www.thecrawfordagency.com You can view the services on the Services page.

[MJ Ferruzza]

Wow!
Of course they seem to be a front for JRP. I have always had to shake my head at their "OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU IS OVER!" routine.

If you want to check just how legitimate an agency is... go to our talent agent page: www.actindy.com/tagent
Every agent listed is professional and reputable!

They have also misrepresented their service by using the title agency.
They can use Casting Service, Office or Director...but Agency opens a can of worms with The Professional Association of Talent Agents and Managers.

And to mail audition tapes out? Wow! That is an expensive venture in and of itself.

Thanks for the post!

[Krissy]

You're welcome and thank you! Haha! I didn't think they were real. I knew that agencies are a lot more involved than that. I'm thankful that they never charged me for anything. I only sent out one tape through all of that. Doing that practically requires someone to be with me 24/7 helping me practice and tape, and my family didn't have time for that.

[MJ Ferruzza]

And now you have found us! LOL
Having taped 100s of auditions for talent all across the area, it would have been no problem!
As a matter of fact...one particular agency outside our area wants me to tape their local talent to save the cost of gas. Still in negotiations on that one.

[Krissy]

I'm glad I found you, and right before my contracts ended ironically!

I hope you can do that! That would be great for a lot of people! JRP offered it, but to drive from the Beech Grove area all the way up to Castleton would cost way too much gas money. We couldn't do it. lol I Hope you can do it.

By the way, this is a little off topic, but is JRP a good place to train? I'm not thinking of going there; I still plan to go to Creative Talent. I've heard a lot of bad things about JRP and I'm curious.

[MJ Ferruzza]

The gas situation has always been a pet peeve of mine. I used to travel a lot for auditions when I first started to be serious about union work in the business. I could travel to Cincinnati 12 times a month, Chicago 10 and Louisville 2-3 times without even blinking. But that was before gas was even $1.50 a gallon. Now...I don't see how a lot of talent are doing it. When I do plan to visit MY talent agents in Chicago, I usually take the train!!! (No kidding!) But even that has to be scheduled correctly. At $3.00+ a gallon and considering some auditions demand a callback, you could literally sink $100 getting there and back considering mileage, meals and wear and tear on a car.
I have a great working realtionship with my own agents and have been afforded the luxury of taping and emailing my auditions from my home. But that took years and the audition tapes had better be good (acting) and clean (quality of the tapes).

I could list 100s of things about JRP from 100s of people with their own stories. I hope they will relate THEIR experiences on this thread. But I will say that some of the greatest (and consistent) compliments come from former JRP members who say to me..."Why didn't we find YOU first!"

[Krissy]

I thought the same thing! I wish I found you first! That whole fiasco with TCA and JRP was chaos! It would've saved us $500. JRP still calls me with audtitions every once in a while. lol I really hope other people can relate to my story, not that it's a good thing.

[MJ Ferruzza]

What would JRP say if you replied to an audition call from them and said that YOU will dictate the Agency Fee for the job if you get it, since they are NOT an Agency? They would probably lose it!

[Krissy]

LOL! Probably. Do they claim to be an agency sometimes? I know that they're just a school.

[MJ Ferruzza]

Anytime you advertise an audition and bring in talent then explain that you will negotiate the contract and do the paperwork on billing & payments, you are taking on an Agency role.
If you told them that you will bill the client on your own and they balk, they are taking offense because YOU are trying to act as your own agent.
They are some sort of school, but they masquerade as an Agency to draw in new (an unaware) clients.

[Krissy]

Ohhhh ok. Wow. That's pitiful. LOL Can they get in trouble for that? I'm surprised they're in business after 60+ years, or so they say they're that old.

[MJ Ferruzza]

They built their business on numbers. Which means they need X amount of students to keep their quota. When they fall behind in their quota they usually bombard the radio and newspapers with some bogus or half legitimate audition.
I can see ad agencies throwing them a bone to fill out a number of actors in a cattle call situation, but local and area producers want legitimate talent. And usually a resume will weed the talent that have the experience or background from some poor schlub who thinks he looks and sounds good and just answered to some model search.
Remember...Looks and personality get you in the door. Talent keeps you working for the long run!

[DJ]

I love looking at old messages. Apparently this person took advantage of a situation in 2007 that was not really available to them. I was at JRP then and I know that Crawford had an agreement to represent their talent as a separate division. It appears that this talent never took the steps to actually work with JRP, so I am assuming the Crawford eventually caught on and eliminated the talent. As for The Crawford Agency being called an agency, Crawford is a large corporation with a number of different types of businesses within it's corporation. The first company was a Public Relations group called The Crawford Agency. The talent division of this corporation has done really well, and discovered Davis Cleveland who plays Flynn on SHAKE IT UP for Disney. Davis was found at the JRP in Houston.