Alternative Model Contest: April Casting – Part Two

By Dee

 In my last article I focused a lot on the contestants who took part at the A.M auditions at Banana studio. As brilliant as they are, it is also worth considering the other people who made this event happen – namely the Judges. On the day applicants were seen by a total of three judges on an individual basis. The two judges I was lucky to borrow for five minutes were Anna Holt, and last year’s winner, Daria.

 

Speaking to Daria first I wanted to know how life had changed for her in the past year since winning the title of Alternative Model of The Year 2011. Thanks to the competition she was now taking part in more photo shoots and agreed that her confidence had gone from strength to strength. When asked how she celebrated the day she won and the emotions when she was announced the winner she was totally hyper and treated herself to a few lovely drinks!

 Having gone through a similar process you could see how Daria was an ideal judge because she could relate to the contestants so can understand and appreciate the mixture of emotions this whole event creates. The key bit of advice she pointed out to me was to be confident and not afraid. This was something she saw more of when she was monitoring the 17-20 year old category.

Another of the brilliant judges I spoke to was Anna Holt from Urban Halo (click here to see what Urban Halo do) . I spoke to her at the end of the event, and she was delighted to see how well the day had been. Although she didn’t give anything away to me, it was agreed that there was a lot of good talent that turned up on the day, so it would be difficult to pick a front runner just yet. The categories that impressed her the most though were the Men and the younger ladies.

 Take note of this next bit for anyone who considering being a future contestant. It’s always imperative I feel that we have a basic idea of what to expect when we attend any auditions of this nature and what the main things the judges are looking for when you take centre stage in front of them. The two main things for Anna were:

 Sense of individuality

 Ability to use imagination.

 Sounds so simple but its amazing how something as basic as this can make a whole lot of difference. She went onto say that when the contestants were to take part in the action shots; this was the ideal opportunity to not only strike a pose in front of the camera, but always to express your emotions.

 The good work does not stop there however. You sometimes here things about people being discouraged at model shoots – well there is no sign of this at all when I went to the April Castings – because the whole team of judges had a completely caring and friendly approach, which I know helped deal with any nerves that contestants may have had on the day.

 Anna, Daria and the Alternative Model Team – You Fecking Rock!!