I wonder if anyone can help. My daughter has sucessfully auditioned for a Company called AMTC which is American based, but are auditioning for the first time in Europe. Basically it is a conference which is held in Paris where casting directors/agents etc attend. They hold numerous showcases where you can perform and be seen by these agents etc.

Everything sounded ok until I was asked for 2,000.00 for the privelige.

Has anyone had any dealing or know anything about this.

Any comments would be appreciated

Thank you

we are also in the same position HAVE you heard from any one yet?

I've not heard of them but I would be VERY wary of parting with ANY money for something like this.

It's a completely different kettle of fish if they are providing, say, a week's training and teaching, before staging a performance for these people, but if they're literally taking your money for the privilege of being in the same room as these people then I would tred very, very carefully.

At the end of the day, £2k is a good chunk to go towards fees at a drama school. My feeling would very much be to put it towards something like that, that is more easily checked up on and probably ultimately more beneficial.

Perhaps try ringing Equity and see if they know of them and can advise?

Hi we decided to give it a miss sounding a little bit suspect and after all 2,000 is a lot of money

Regards

My daughter went to one of these auditions on sunday 7th sept. We had no intention of taking up any offers made and just went really in support of her friend. She was offered a place and we stayed out of interest to listen to the callback information. I didnt actually stay for the whole meeting as I walked out in disgust at the rude and arrogant attitude of the incredibly unpleasant woman who is the regional director.(I wont mention her name here but if you've been you will know who I'm talking about.) My husband and daughter stayed to listen and at the end my husband (who is a sales manager) siad that he felt like he had been in a high pressure double glazing sales session, my daughter, aged 14 was sensible enough to say that she wouldn't want to have anything to do with it! The whole concept sounds attractive, lots of big names mentioned on hand to give advice to hopefuls but how many auditionees are seen at once? How much one to one training is there? It's all very well having the voice coach for the Andrew Lloyd Webber shows on hand to teach but does she teach a class of 1,2,10 or hundreds? None of this is explained. The American website, which is evangelical,(there isn't a UK one) states that for your money you get training equivalent to a year at college. If we had taken up the offer made on sunday we would have just 8 weeks to squeeze all this in. Impossible surely? Although I didnt stay to the meeting I did, out of interest, read all the paperwork given to my daughter and I have to say it made me very concerned. Lots of demands for money, no guarantees for anything. in my opinion you would be a fool to take up this offer. Unfortunately there will always be enough people desperate enough to get their child on the stage and because of that this organisation will survive, however two quotes came to mind when I was giving this some thought, those being, "if it sounds too good to be true it usually is" and " If you are talented they will pay you". I was also reminded of many stories I have heard over the years of hopeful models being taken on by agencies who made them pay hundreds of ponuds for portfolios only to disappear or fail to find them any work. The advice from all the top modelling agencies in these circumstances is NEVER to pay any money up front. A reputable agency who believes you have potential will provide you with a portfolio at no cost. You clearly want was is best for your child and you have obviously have a strong gut feeling that all is not right. Go with your gut,this organisation is dodgy to say the least. I am endeavouring to find out more about them and if I do I will gladly pass it on to you. I wish you both the best of luck.

I believe the way it works is, if your child is not taken on by any agents/producers/companies at this showcase in Paris - they can attend the following year free of charge in the hope of finding work then. Please check this info as I can not be certain this is the case. However, I know two scouts who work for AMTC and they are both genuine people who would not associate with a money grabbing scam. However - I have not heard it costs 2000 pounds! Is this including flights and accomodation though? I was told it was cheaper than the NYT and that costs 1500ish...

Good Luck!

Since my last entry there has beeen a development. Although we had made it perfectly clear that we wanted nothing to do with AMTC my daughter has been offered a full scholarship to attend the conference. I thought this was very odd and we have declined.I have found some worrying stuff on the web which only compounds my first concerns about this company. Please check out www.forum.unrealitytv.co.uk, bbs.backstage.com/eve/forums, manchester-forum.co.uk, zoomonme.com/gallery/view, modelingscams.com/letters/millielewis, whatsonstage.com/board.
I too know a scout who is a good person with a thriving dance school with an excellent reputation. She has not been involved for long and I can only hope that in time she will see sense and detatch herself from them. It is true that you can attend again for free but the free bit is just the entrance to the conference. All other expenses such as transport, food, accomodation and the entry to the individual competitions themselves are down to you just as on the original visit. Anyway if AMTC are so successful at what they do why do you have to go again and again? This whole thing worries me a great deal especially as I know of several people who are considering sending thier children to Paris. Hope this is of some help.

There has been a further update to the situation concerning AMTC Europe run by Lynne Millar. They have now had their affiliation to AMTC rescinded.
This means that AMTC won't be producing the show. I have no idea if the Paris Convention is still going on.
For the sake of the children and,
their parents who paid thousands of pounds to Ms. Millar I hope they do end up with something for all their hard earned cash.

While not directly applicable this sounds an awful lot like any number of property scams that I have had the dubious pleasure of having heard of, been to, and even in one case narrowly avoided participating in. I'll do some research and come back, but it smells like a scam to me.

My daughter is with Italia Conti. Their view is you should need to pay if the agents good. But be prepared to pay for things like spotlight registeration. Agents will charge you for that.

Contis are saying that you should have to pay for a decent agent?! What crap.

The overall structure of the post leads me to believe the poster meant to say that Conti says you *shouldn't* pay. Simple typo, although with radically reversed meaning.

Hi there,

Ive seen so much speculating going on online that as someone who was among the first british people to attend amtc i thought i would try and shed some light on it all. AMTC, as a convention is amazing. Everyone is convinced that its a scam because of the money involved. What they don't realise is that this is not some silly little competition run by a few greedy people. It is massive and must use hundreds of staff just to allow it to run so smoothly. The organisation is just impeccable. Yes it is expensive, however what people don't realise is that for that you get a competition, agents, casting directors, seminars that are given by some of the most experience people in the business. The prizes for the competitions not only give u beautiful big plaques but cash too, i think i made like 200 dollars!!! The seminars are so useful giving you advice on unions, auditions, appearance, just about everything. For the seven days that the convention runs you are busy from morning til night. I came back with an A4 pad full of advice, money, a massive trophy for winning overall dancer and a scholarship to a school in New York.

I went to amtc twice and it was honestly two of the most amazing times in my life. The one thing i would say about the actual convention is that for us as british kids, although we had a lot of interest from casting directors and agents the visa issue caused a lot of problems. People keep commenting on how these agents are probably nothing special..believe me they are. They have people there from mtv, 21st century fox, all the massive modelling agencies for them it is THE place to find new talent.

Now i feel i should talk about this regional director everyone is talking about. I am not with her anymore, however i want to say that she is an amazing teacher. When we went over there was like six of us and noone expected the wee british kids to do anything special and due to her training we won alot of things including agency of the year. Im not sure exactly whats happened with her and amtc but i do agree that she can be disorganised and it seems to me like whats happened is that shes wanted to do it on her own, but considering just how big the convention is i dont see how that would be possible. She is not the most trustworthy person when it comes to money and business dealings.

Now that amtc have taken away their backing for the paris convention i would recommend not going. Kinda feel like im betraying someone who gave me alot of amazing training but i feel like people should know the truth from someone who has been through it all. Carey arben the woman in charge of the real AMTC is amazing, and unlike some people have said..they dont give scholarships to just anyone but they do give them out. Flights and hotel costs are something u can fundraise to get like i did. I would love to see AMTC welcome more british and european agents and casting directors so that kids over here can get the uncomparable oppurtunities that the americans do.

If you have any more questions please just ask and i'll try my best to be honest with you.

Thanks x