Saturday, September 9, 2006

Recognizing Professionals.

As our TALON Talent Online Database updates finally get underway (with the reference rating system fully intact as specified in the original design document along with a ton of new enhancements, we are happy to report), we would like to remind models and the industry that the Independent Sites serve that we TALON is NOT intended to compete with portfolio networking sites, as portfolio networking sites tend to be overcrowded with unprofessionals, hobbyists, unethical players, scams, con artists, and those who try to use the facade of a profession for questionable purposes. ANYONE can set up a profile on a portfolio networking site, and no one will question their supposed qualifications; it does not take any professional investment or sacrifice to be able to participate in these sites, which is the reason that they tend to be unprofessional cesspools which tend to undermine any positive perceptions that people have about models booking work on their own without an agency. While we will have portfolio networking-like features (sans the portfolio part and more about the networking) on the Independent Sites eventually (The planned feature is fondly referred to as "the sewer" by our staff, and, yes, it does have a purpose, much like sewers have a good purpose in life), this will never replace TALON or any featured professional profiles on the sites. TALON may serve as a back-end of all of the sites, but it will have a level below it eventually.
What is TALON? It is a professional reference and contact directory, with an emphasis on listing qualified professionals and omitting anyone who is obviously either unqualified or unethical. We’re going for quality rather than quantity, as there is more with less in this situation. If you want over 100,000 profiles, of which maybe 1% are real professionals, then we will suggest using a portfolio networking site and wasting a lot of time and effort weeding through the endless profiles. If you want a professional reference contact database with over 90% professionals listed, but only a few thousand profiles, then we have your ticket. It is unlikely that you will find some guy with a camera who is doing endless TFP’s (free “professional” shoots) just to meet pretty girls listed as a photographer in our database, and it is even more unlikely that you will find a questionable business listed, an unethical “professional”, or anyone that our models and staff have a legitimate professional issue with listed. Although we cannot guarantee that the contacts are legitimate and may not be able to check out every contact, if we have trouble locating a business license and checking references, then it is very likely that we will play it safe and refuse to list them until we feel comfortable doing so. The majority of the contacts listed will be qualified professionals who operate ethically and with REAL INTEGRITY. You will not find them using integrity as a marketing slogan while their actions and lack of ethics betray their words.
We have a list of over 100 characters in the Tampa Bay area and in the rest of Florida who will not ever be eligible for listing in TALON, and many of them know who they are. We expect that list to grow as some people who manage to get listed decide to have us remove their information, which we may decide to do after we emphasis that they will not be able to get listed again if they ever change their mind. We will be happy to see more of their competition listed, though, and they will have to realize that their competition will get free exposure while they do not.
We are going to be thrilled to make sure that professionals are referred to all the other professionals rather than certain people. As long as reputable professionals find other reputable professionals and get what they need, we are happy.
Not happy with your rating? How high it goes is really up to you. Get other professionals to send in references, and your rating should improve.
It is true that we have some people listed who are also on model and talent agency referral lists. Since we agree to disagree with agencies on many things, when we are in agreement this should be taken as a very good sign. On the flip side, however, if an agency refers you to anyone who is not on our list, there may be a very good reason why they are not listed, and it wouldn’t be because we don’t know who they are. We may simply not recognize them as professionals. Agencies are not always right, and half of the time we have to wonder, unless they are getting illegal referral kickbacks, that the booker or agency representative who is doing the referring is not some undertrained, minimum wage person who has no real clue on who they are referring people to. Play it safe. If you want to use a photographer or some other service that an agency is referring you to, at least check to be sure that they are also listed in TALON. If you look, you will find some matches, and at least you are being smart and safe. Susan Jeffers and Michael Cairnes are two photographers who are on most agency lists AND on TALON, and you cannot go wrong with either of them or anyone else that you find a match for (please note that contacts listed in TALON do not necessarily endorse or support our sites, and any opinions expressed on our sites may not be shared by them. In fact, over 75% of the contacts listed in the database probably are unaware that they are listed at all, as a lot of TALON information is gathered from public sources and compiled).
TALON is intended to be a professional resource. Models and other professionals will be able to use it to contact others much like agency bookers use directories to find jobs for models and auditions for actors and talent. Don’t know how to contact people? Don’t worry...... The instructions are only a click away.

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