The Crawford Agency - David Voogd - Maui Does everybody "make it"? Los Angeles California

Before I add a rebuttal to the above report, I want to state that my name is DJ Anderson, I am an attorney in the Fargo, ND, area. I have two children that have been managed by The Crawford Agency for nearly 3 years now. As a family that lives in an area of the country that has little or no opportunity, I am always cautious about any of these acting and modeling groups that find their way to Fargo. That said, I actually contacted Daryl at The Crawford Agency in LA to inform him of the report and ask permission to provide a rebuttal.

After reading this report, which is on a website called Rip-Off Report, I found it very odd that the author needed to complain about a company that she was never contracted with. I also found it very odd that the author did not want to be identified and falsely stated that she was from North Dakota. I say falsely as she mentioned in the opening title of her report David and Maui. I know for a fact that Maui has never been to or recruited in North Dakota. Crawford has been to our area twice, February of 2009 and June of 2006. Both times it was Connie from their Chicago office that was the signing manager.

I want to fully address this report, but would like to give some history of my children's acting history. My children became interested in the entertainment industry over 10 years ago. They wanted to be on television. My wife, who always seems to find these opportunities, heard an advertisement on the radio for a group called ProScout. She took the children, they were accepted, and we paid nearly $1,000.00 each for them to go to a convention in Minneapolis for a weekend to meet and hopefully be discovered by agents. I went with my children and they were not given anything more than a walk past a group of agents. With the birth of the internet, came the birth of these so called casting websites and data banks. To date, my children are listed in 14 of themyes14! I am not sure which 4 the author of this report is talking about, but if you work at ityou can find that there are a large group of companies making casting opportunities their business. Finally, The Crawford Agency came to Fargo. My wife, again, took the children into the audition and they were offered contracts. It was not important to me how many talents were selected or if they selected everyone, as my only interest are the opportunities for my children. I signed my children up and it has been the best opportunity they have had.

After the audition in Fargo, my wife was given passwords to The Crawford Agency website. I did my homework by comparing the audition breakdowns that The Crawford Agency had listed to my 14 casting website sources. There were about 25% of the picture submittals that were the same. I could not find even 1 of the actual script taping submittals. It is important that you understand, again, that many of these websites charge a month fee, a per page fee, or provide scripts that are old or have no direct contact information. My children were on Actor Access, which cost $68.00 per year and $2.00 per page of any scripts that you want to down load. They are owned by one of the companies that Crawford works with that has castings available to Agents and Managers only! I have found that rarely any casting director will accept submissions from talent that are not represented by a manager or agent. I talked with Joey Paul, who cast for Disney, and she told me that her staff usually tosses out any submissions that come from an unrecognizable source, because the acting business is all contractual and a talent has to have representation of some type to move forward. I did ask about LA Castings, which is a great source for Casting Directors to post scripts for talent living directly in Los Angeles. If you live in Fargo, it is tough to find the address to submit the tape and the actual breakdown of the character. Let me, again, tell you that we have been down every avenue, with the exception of moving to LA, that you can imagine.

In fairness to the author of this report, I did research the 2 articles she posted. The first is at bbs.backstage.com, which mainly covers the realistic costs to live and work in LA. The Crawford Agency has a LA office, but is one of the very few management groups that will represent talent outside of the LA market. This fact alone is worth any type of investment. The second is at bisparentz.org that covers the subject on on-line casting sites. I was a bit confused in the statement made by the author. The Crawford Agency is a management group, not an on-line casting company. If the author understood exactly how this industry worked, she would understand that breakdownservices, which owns Actors Access and Show Fax as income generators to the general public, also own the data bank that most casting directors use to post the quality castings to agents and managers only. They only way you can pull an acceptable audition from this service is to be represented. I believe that this is the same situation with castingnetworks.com. There is a great amount of good information in the second article, but I would not say it is a source that discounts the power of having an agent and/or manager.

Finally, let me address the author's report. I find it really interesting that Sheila from North Dakota has yet to give one complete true and honest fact. Also, as the recent litigations against a number of people giving misleading facts continues to grow, I completely understand why she would not give her name and a contact e-mail address.

She stated that The Crawford Agency conducts open calls in cities all over the country. As unimportant as I find this, as who cares how and when they recruit, I was informed by Daryl that the company recently started recruiting again after over 2 years of not signing any new talent. According to him, agents and managers have to have growth with new talent. He also informed me that they represent less then 50 models, 10 singers, and 125 actors. It does not seem that they are doing a very good job signing Everybody. I don't see an issue with a company recruiting when and were they want toas long as they are doing legitimate business and the talents are signed contractually to the terms of their business.

Shelia seemed to be bothered by how the company conducted their search. I am surprised that she would not have gotten up and walked out. I am pretty certain that the group does not post guards at the door and it appears that she took advantage of the entire process. I know for a fact that they do open the opportunity to join their group based on the markets and types that they represent. In stating that, I also know that my sister-in-law was recently at a call in Cheyenne and not one of her 3 children got a contract offer. I, again, am not in a position to cast judgment on a company that has a perfect record with the BBB in all of their office locations and the respect of most every casting director and agent they deal with. They do exactly what their contract says they are going to do which make it hard to find information on them and is the reason Shelia decided to contribute her lose opinion to a website called Rip-Off Report.

Shelia really made the point that the company is not a licensed agency not agents The Crawford Agency is an agency, they are not a talent or modeling agency. There is a company in Minot called Crawford Agency, it is an insurance company. I have never heard or seen anyone from The Crawford Agency, which also includes a large advertising agency in Chicago and several public relations offices in other locations, refer to themselves as talent or modeling agents. Agencies come in many different forms. Just like Casting Agents are really people commissioned to sort talent for producers. I am aware that The Crawford Agency is owned by a corporation and that corporation is licensed correctly in every state they conduct business. That fact, I did check out before signing any contract with them. As an attorney, I know how to research these things.

I could go on, but I think it is time for me to make my final point. My two children have been listed with The Crawford Agency for over 3 years. It took us some time to get up to speed on how their services worked and how representation with them worked. Crawford took our children's headshots, at no cost, and has never posted their headshots with any of the on-line casting sites Shelia described. Crawford also gave us direction on building a resume, but to date, they have never ask for a copy or posted that copy on any site.

My daughter landed a call back within 20 days of listing with the agency, sorry, management group. Crawford had my daughter represented by a top LA agent on a hand shake deal, without even meeting with her, because of the callback. Crawford also had all of the paperwork sent and gave us direction on how to complete it so that my daughter would have the necessary work permits when she arrived at the audition. This included the permission that we needed from her school. They were the best investment we made, and I am certain they are not making a profit from the marketing cost they recommend. If this were the case, the cost would be much, much higher.

My daughter has generated over $67,000.00 in income from work in the acting industry. She has appeared in one commercial, and three television episodes. My son has generated almost $143,000.00 in income. He has appeared in 2 national commercials for Target, as well as a number of other projects. They both have agents in LA, which Crawford arranged the interviews. They both have agents in Minneapolis, which Crawford arranged without any type of interview. Paying marketing cost, including website fees, is pretty standard with almost every agent. When my children renewed their contracts, the cost dropped from $1,000.00 to $350.00. The bonus, Crawford provides my children with training programs, written originally for a high end acting school, at no cost. They work really hard for their 10% commission, which has amounted to little over $21,000.00 over the past 3 years.

My children have done it all, good and bad, in this industry. Getting involved with The Crawford Agency was the best thing that happened to us. My last point, if this company did not do exactly what their contract says they do, the internet would be full of current and former talent complaining about them. There would be numerous complaints with the BBB. I am doing litigation for a individual ripped off in the mortgage industry, which is what drove me to this site for research. If you have any additional questions, especially about getting started in the acting industry, just e-mail me! My wife and I have been down every avenue.