5/17/08

John Wood has decided to create another way to make money from you ITS CALLED PACKAGING!

I Saw this on Craigs List today, John Wood of KARON SHEA MODEL MANAGEMENT LOCATED IN WORCESTER MASS ON 65 WATER STREET,THEY IS NOW LOOKING TO HELP YOU OUT AGAIN. THEY ARE CALLING IT PACKAGING, SUPPOSEDLY THEY FEEL THIS IS NECESSARY,TO GET YOU PREPARED TO GO TO AN AGENT. THEY CLAIM TO KNOW WHAT YOU NEED IN ORDER TO SUCCEED. YOU DO NEED A GOOD PACKAGE, BUT YOU ALSO NEED GOOD REPRESENTATION, I EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY HOW JOHN WOOD OPERATES, HE IS VERY SLICK IN HIS PRESENTATION. I CONSTANTLY LOOK AT CRAIGS LIST POSTINGS TO SEE WHAT IS OUT THERE. I ALMOST CHOCKED WHEN I READ THE AD BELOW. WHEN I SAW THE PHONE NUMBER, I THOUGHT TO MYSELF THAT NUMBER LOOKS FAMILIAR, THEN I REALIZED IT WAS JOHN WOODS CELL NUMBER. I ONLY KNOW THIS IS JOHN BECAUSE HE LEFT HIS CELL PHONE NUMBER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ADD. The funny part is that John works for Karon Shea!

ACTORS and MODELS ... Tired of not getting AUDITIONS? (Boston)
Reply to: Date: 2008-05-16, 7:40PM EDTWe are trying to prepare all talent for the upcoming jobs to the Boston area. Before you can hope to get the call backs that you seek, you must have a promotional package that makes you stand out from the crowd, and meets industry standards. Your promotional package is what the talent agency submits to the casting director for auditions, and is the only representation by which a casting agent will determine if you are worth seeing. 99% of promotional packages are not up to industry standards, and will be rejected. This may be the reason that you are not getting call backs. Many try to enter the industry by creating their own package without understanding the very high professional standards that must be met. Others rely on their talent agencies to produce the promotional package. Although most agencies offer these services, this is not the primary focus of most, leaving you with a less than satisfactory representation, often at a very high price. Our sole business is to create a personal promotional package that will differentiate you from the crowd. Each of our team members has over twenty years in the industry that we will apply to help you meet your personal goals. We know what the industry looks for, and we make sure that your package satisfies their expectations. You are assured that your personal promotional package provides the highest quality representation, regardless of the agencies that submit your package. We are NOT a talent/modeling agency. We are NOT a school. Packaging is the key to your success… NOT your agency. There are no upfront consulting fees. Email or call

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all, I'd like to thank you Marc for quickly opening my eyes to this incredible crap that KSMM is pulling on everyone. I'm not a dumb guy by any means, in fact I'm usually not fooled by anything or anyone, but hey...these guys are GOOD let me tell you! John Wood Lured me right in from his CL ad, and when I met him his beady eyes and fast talking totally hooked me, I mean the guy even looked the part, LA accent and all. When it comes to a pro con-artist, this guy us Tiger Woods!
So I got sucked into the engines of Johnny Wood and $800 and a lousy photo shoot later I find out Bertone is not worth the money. I arrived at the "5-hour shoot" (which was actually more like 3) and not only did I not have my hair or makeup done (as advertised), but I was given no direction as to what to do in front of the camera.(of course I'm supposed to already know this rigt?) Worse yet, I had to listen to him brag about all the girls he's been with and watch him send text messages and take phone calls on his cell for at least an hour or more. Real professional he is. Then out of the hundreds of shots he took, there were 4, maybe 5 that were even close to decent, but most of them the lighting was so bad I looked like a friggin Axe murderer!

Don't waste your money folks, do what I did, sign up with a real full service modeling agency you can get your photos done at a fraction the cost and they will look 10 times better than Bertone's. Think they aren't out there? Keep reading and I'll tell you my success story, all you need is your computer and the brain in your head, do some searches, you'll be surprised.

If anyone else has had a similar experience with Bertone, please post.

Long story short...I've been with KSMM since March of this year and I have got absolutely no go-sees except for some e-mail for some stupid greek festival that pays a healthy ten bucks an hour, thanks but no thanks! These people are truly pathetic!

I got my sugar coated "Golden Ticket" to the IMTA. They basically fluffed it up and gave me the whole shpeil about how all these famous people have been discovered there. Now, I have to cough up $5k and take these 2x/week preparation classes. I've recently started to ask around and have met with other agencies in MA I've been told that the chances of getting discovered are about 1% out of nearly 2,000 people that attend what is nothing more than a cattle call. Bring your lassos!
I did some more research and read testimonials, and found out that conventions like the IMTA are simply big fund-raisers for agents from all over to "booze it up" Yeah, thats right, it's a big party for THEM...you and your five grand just happen to be there to bid you good luck at being "discovered" by agents who are probably laughing at you as they drink their martinis! In fact, one testimonial stated that potential talent, including KIDS were encouraged to hang out at the hotel bar and get all buddy buddy with agency reps!!!

It gets even better, those
who do get callbacks don't necessarily go anywhere special! They simply do this to make it look like it's NOT a scam by calling some people back to make them feel good then deciding that they aren't interested anymore when the talent goes in for the callback! The point is that you don't have to spend 5k to get discovered.
Want to know how Ashton Kutcher was really discovered?, check this out
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:slnpoj7V4M8J:www.wireimage.com/celebrities/Ashton-Kutcher+how+ashton+kutcher+was+discovered&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

He may have attended an IMTA, but was later discovered in a BAR!! Which had absolutely nothing to do with the IMTA!! They are totally stretching the truth, sure, Kutcher attended the IMTA, so did Josh Duhamel, and Eva Longoria, etc, but none of them actaully started their careers because of it! There are no guarantees, even if you win the competiton, becuase thats all it is, a competition...one that has only one guarantee...you will lose 5 grand of your money! I'd rather do American Idol..you get to be on TV for FREE, and win or lose who cares?!! How about Chris Daughtry? He didn't win, but look where he is now.
Enough about that, bottom line is I signed on with an agency this past friday in MA, and THE SAME DAY I already have been casted as a movie extra in an upcoming movie being filmed in MA and I am being paid great for it too! I've already had discussions about how I'm going to fit future go-sees into my schedule. This is a good problem!..Know why? Because Good Agents make their money from YOUR WORK, so in turn they push for you to succeed. Never in my life have I seen anything like this, I feel like it's too good to be true after being scammed so hard by KSMM and others over the years, but it's not, all it takes is reading between the lines and setting your mind to it.
Want to now how much I've spent
with this Agency? ZERO! They even paid for my parking! Open your eyes folks, there are good agencies in the state we live in, there are good paying jobs too.
You'll never get anywhere with KSMM what will happen is you'll spend a ton of money, wait for weeks and weeks to get a lousy comp card from mediocre
Bertone, who noone's heard of and doesn't even have a website, then
you'll wait even longer to get second-rate jobs that are embarrassing to even display on your resume! You're only as good as your weakest link, and KSMM is the weakest link in MA Modeling,don't drain your wallet, thats what they will do!
I hope I educated some people, I had to finally speak out, do the right thing people,I was fortunate enough to nip this in the butt before I spend thousands!

Anonymous said...

John Wood is no longer with us. (over 30 days now)What he does with his own time we cannot control at this moment WE are taking legal actions against him. If you have concerns please contact us info@ksmmonline.com

M said...

Thanks for your posting I have posted this info to be fair as I said I would, I am also glad to see if it is true that John is no longer with the company. I have posted every response I have received. According to Richard Bertone and I have spoken to him on the phone he stated that he is no longer in NEW YORK but does have a studio in Hudson mass. I guess Questions arise when the only available information about him is really on myspace. but thank you for posting. It seems that this blog has shaken up things quite a bit. Furthermore this all started from an ad I posted on Craigs List asking for information regarding your organization. John said check us out so I did and received many many responses. The problem is that many people had very negative experiences with your organization and my blog gave them an outlet to speak up. You have an opportunity now to do the right thing. John Wood tried to SCAM me and a friend of mine, it also seems that he has scammed many people and unfortunately he was part of your organization! He presented me with a contract and insisted on money from me. I was also told that him and Karyon said I had a unique look and wanted to sign me. Ironically other people began sharing their stories that were so very similar to mine. Your organization was not that big to not know what was going on. I did not make this information up it was presented to me and I posted it with the disclaimer I cant confirm or deny what was said to be true. I did say I agree with the postings and would not be signing with them. These are my opinions on my blog along with experiences that other people have had.

Anonymous said...

as far as IMTA. any agency can bring their models to this event. An agency can take advantage of this and the amount of money but not having training leading up to IMTA in NYC. ours however has set up classes that meet twice a week. You need to be top notch for this event. so we are teaching all models the in's and out's. Please google the name Mark Lund. He is one of our teachers here at karon shea. He is helping the models prepare for IMTA in NYC July 21-27.just yesterday they had a full day class (10am-4:00pm) we hired a hair and makeup guy to show the models what would be best. We also hired a photographer who did have a photo shoot with each model. basically the amount of money is for the 2 month training and all expenses in NYC (hotel/ transportation/ food)for 7 days. basically the flack on the internet is from other agencies who have taken advantage and has not put the time and effort into their models before this event

Anonymous said...

Well well people guess what John is at Cinderella agency in NH now and still running the same lines..not sure if they are a scam or what but I'm not wasting my money on it...have fun and beware...