If you're interested in the commercial modelling industry, super-organised, have a passion for working with people, and enjoy the thrill of managing and coordinating lots of different projects at once, then becoming a Model Booker might be a good career path for you. Our success is all about collaboration and our different divisions working together harmoniously towards a common goal. In this blog post, we will be exploring the career paths of three of our bookers here at SR, Head Booker Jessica Tracey, Actors Booker Katie Shipman (who started at SR as an apprentice booker) and Maria Campbell-Green, our Juniors Booker. As well as hearing from our Client Account Manager, Emma Keal, who was previously our Head Booker.

READ ON TO FIND OUT WHAT ITS LIKE TO WORK AT SR...

MEET OUR HEAD BOOKER, JESSICA

1) What was your career path before becoming Head Booker?

My career path at SR started in 2011 when I applied for a job ad as a new model booker. I had an interview and was invited in for a trial and loved it from the start. I worked on the stills division, getting to grips with everything and learning all about our models and clients. I worked really hard at this for a couple of years and was then asked whether I would take on the role of Head Booker from Emma, who was moving to a part-time role following the birth of her first child. Even though I probably didn’t feel ready, I took the role and have pretty much loved every day since!

2) Would you say becoming a Model Booker is a rewarding career?

Absolutely, it was never a career I thought I would end up in as when you go to school and they ask what you want to be when you're older, a Model Booker never comes up. I don’t think I had ever even heard of it until I saw the job advert go out. It’s so rewarding to see the jobs you work on go live, from getting the brief in, to seeing the model’s face on a billboard or starring in a TV commercial for a beautiful brand. It’s great walking around London or on the tube, spotting your models on a poster or in a shop window - it’s a really lovely feeling. We’re fortunate to work with lovely talent and clients who are always friendly and you feel like you can pick up the phone at any time and have a chat, just like they’re a friend.

3) What is it like to lead the booking desk and are there any particular skills that stand out in Team SR as a whole?

Everyone that we employ is genuinely fantastic and cares about the business, clients, and models so much. They always want to do an amazing job which shines through and makes my job easier as they’re a lovely team to manage. I think the whole team gels very well together and supports each other as they always want the best outcome for the models, clients and everyone involved.

The team are always on hand to help each other, for example, if you need to stay late then you know that you will have 10 other people who will ask what you need and how they can help. That sense of community and family makes it so much nicer. When the job is tough (sometimes it can be long hours and quite stressful), when you’ve got all your friends around you, supporting you and backing you up, it makes it so much easier.

Our MD Tessa is also always there to support me, and all of us, and we always know she has our back and really appreciates the work we do so that also makes us want to do a great job.

Click here to meet our team 

Managing Director, Tessa and Head Booker, Jessica. 

MEET OUR JUNIORS BOOKER, MARIA

1) You have worked at SR for 20 years now, what did your career journey look like?

Before becoming a model booker, I spent a few years travelling the world as a flight attendant with Japanese Airlines and also worked in hospitality. I had an interview with SR, and was offered a job with Emma on the booking desk. We didn’t have separate divisions at that time so all used to book stills, video, adults and children - I think there were five of us in the company when I started. I worked full-time on the booking desk until I had my son Noah, and since then have been part-time, job sharing with Sarah, on the juniors division.

2) How would you say the booking process has changed?

Pretty much everything was done over the telephone and by fax and post then - it is so different now! We used to have to send all our confirmations to clients by fax but most of the models didn’t have fax machines so their confirmations had to go out in envelopes, we would have to put stamps on them and catch the 5 o’clock post if we had a booking the next day to make sure that our models would get all shoot details confirmed. When I joined, we had just stopped sending out printed books to clients as SR used to put books together with binders and have them biked to clients with all of the model cards. Everything just took so much longer but gradually the website was up and running which I would say is one of the biggest changes, everything is so much quicker now.

I remember when there were only 5 of us in the office, we all had a phone line and they literally wouldn’t stop ringing all day – the minute you put the phone down from a call, it would ring again.  Now, there are 20 of us and the phones hardly ever ring as everything is done digitally. Also, clients used to have several weeks to get any shoots pulled together as they needed time to get model books and arrange castings whereas now, clients will come in the day before a shoot sometimes and we can get suggestions and availability over to them in a matter of minutes.

Juniors Booker Maria with Coco & Team.

3) Would you say that networking has an important part to play in the role of becoming a model booker?

I would say as I noticed the shift to digital, I think that the whole conversation aspect has changed. We used to meet up with our clients in person for a coffee or at the office to chat through things and that whole side of it seems to have changed now, as everything works so much faster. It is sometimes hard to gain that connection over email, but it does mean that we can work with many more clients, within a smaller time frame. I still find value in picking up the phone and having that more personal conversation and Tessa & Jess both really encourage our new bookers to get on the phone and speak to their clients and talent as much as possible. It’s lovely that we have our social media so our clients can still get to know the team a bit more personally.

3) What has it been like to work on the Juniors division, and what do you think the driving force is that has helped this division grow?

When we split the booking desk into Stills, Actors, and Juniors divisions, what really helped grow the Juniors division was having a talented team working together consistently pushing the division forward. It starts with having fantastic kids who are comfortable on camera and taking direction and parents who understand the industry and are also friendly and professional to deal with. As a junior booker, there is extra legislation that the stills and actors bookers don’t have to deal with such as child licencing, risk assessments, and requirements for children on set so you do have to always be on top of this and able to advise clients.

Another big thing has been having a great new website, just for our kids and families because now we are recognised as a family and kids agency first, rather than being only a division amongst the others. We send out regular newsletters and consistently post on social media too. It has also been so helpful to have Jess as our Head Booker as well, she’s great at her job and I know I have her to lean on and ask for advice.  As a team, it’s great how much we all bounce off each other.

MEET OUR ACTORS BOOKER, KATIE

1) What was it like completing your apprenticeship through SR? Do you find that you use the skills you learned often?

Definitely. I loved completing my apprenticeship at SR. I always found it difficult to learn in a classroom, so I thought an apprenticeship would be the best option for me. I did the Customer Services apprenticeship which covered how a business works and lots of customer service skills. It was great and it worked well for me, as you also go to college every Wednesday which gave me a chance to reflect on everything that I have learned and meet other people doing the apprenticeship at other companies.

I was doing the apprenticeship for a year and it went by so quickly. The course was so worthwhile and I learned so much more coming to SR than I would have done at full-time college, I feel like combining work with the course was so helpful. As in every workplace, you need a different set of skills but now I feel prepared. I feel really proud to have this job, I feel like you never usually hear of a model booker job so I jumped at the chance of joining the course. I had an interview with Tessa and thought "Wow I want to work here!" I had one trial day and loved it, I felt so welcomed by everyone.

2) Do you think it's important for you to build working relationships with SR's talent and get to know them on an individual basis?

The closer we are to our talent, the better it is for the client, the talent, and us. On a lot of our shoots, the clients have certain preferences, so it’s important we know our talent really well so we can get the right suggestions straight out to the client without delay. Our talent completely put their trust in our hands and know that we put them forward for any briefs suitable for them, but also it's important for us to know their preferences, as some may not want to work for certain industries or brands.

Creating a strong working relationship also really builds trust and confidence. We need to know that we can trust the talent to do an amazing job on set for our clients. It’s really lovely that we get to meet our talent in person as well, you can talk to them on the phone and on email, but it is always much nicer to catch up with them in person.

3) What are the main skills that you need to be a Model Booker?

I would say organisation is the main skill you need, as there are so many deadlines in the role and you can’t keep everything in your head. I remember once I had four different briefs on the go at the same time where all the clients were called Natalia, all with similar briefs and shooting on similar dates as well, so it can be easy to get confused! The industry is constantly changing so you need to be on top of this. It’s important to stay on top of new trends and anything new that could possibly impact our job - we went to an AI workshop recently and learned so much about this and how it could affect the industry.  That’s the benefit of having a big open-plan office, we all work together and some people have better experience in certain areas so we share knowledge. Teamwork is so important and we are lucky to have the team that we have here at SR.

MEET OUR CLIENT ACCOUNT MANAGER, EMMA

1) Your career at SR has evolved throughout the years, what have you found most rewarding about working here?

I started at SR in 1999 at 22 years old, and the briefs were so different from what the bookers get now. One of the first jobs I ever booked was TV series ‘David Copperfield’, a period drama, and I had to book 200 artists. I remember going home to my mum and bursting into tears saying “I can’t do it!” because I had to find models that had shoulder-length hair that wasn’t coloured which seemed impossible. I did it though which made me feel amazing. We used to get a lot of filming briefs then, such as Eastenders, The Bill, and other TV dramas, as well as promotional work. I remember booking 50 girls for Kit Kat and Twix to stand at different football stadiums. I called a girl in Liverpool and the phones then didn’t stop ringing as she had told all of her friends and they were calling in and saying “Hey, I’ve heard you’ve got a job on Saturday”. 

Seeing a job you have booked through the whole process and then the end campaign on screen, in a magazine or in-store is lovely, and also the incredible models and clients I have met over the years who have become my good friends is really special, I have been really lucky. Our reputation as being one of the friendliest agencies is our biggest strength and we have some lovely models. 

The team often have to work long hours due to the briefs, and a lot of people don’t see all of the work that goes on behind the scenes which can be stressful and exhausting as there are always tight deadlines, meaning that the girls work crazy hours when there’s a big job. I know from being on the production side of things, as head of our locations division, call sheets often don’t get produced until the very last minute which can be really difficult when you’re waiting for details, especially when they’re huge jobs.

2) What has it been like working closely with our Managing Director Tessa?

The powerhouse, Tessa who doesn’t say no to anything! "No" is not in her vocabulary. It’s been incredible and we’ve been on a huge journey which has resulted in a great friendship. I would class Tessa as one of my closest friends, so being able to work for her is a real privilege. We have gone through huge changes in the business together, we have laughed, cried, and done everything together. Our production division started organically as our clients were asking us for photographers and locations alongside models, so we thought it was the right time to start it. We were called Norfolk Production to start with but have since evolved and changed to East Coast Locations.

3) What has changed over the years?

Well I know that the younger bookers laugh at me when I talk about this, but we had no mobile phones, no computers and no digital cameras when I first started!

Having a website has been the biggest change. In the “olden days” we would get a call from a client requesting suggestions for a job and we would have to get index cards and books together and biked over to the client.  Sometimes the client would want models’ entire portfolios so we would have to bike these over, then get them back and over to another client… looking back, I can’t believe we did all of that!

Also, photographs all had to be processed so the films were sent off to be processed into contact sheets, then we would have to look through the contact sheets and choose the best ones to blow up as prints and these would have to be retouched and printed.  Now the process is just so brilliant and quick.

Technology has changed the agency enormously. It’s been a real privilege to have seen every part of the evolution of Sandra Reynolds Agency and I’m truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to have a great career at such a fantastic company.