Model VIP PEOPLE

Everyone craves success.

OK, perfect.

We all love a winner.

ALL CHEER

But no-one makes it to the top on their own.

Behind every star is a team of people immensely talented,

powerful, in their own worlds.

-I need two crab on the pass, now!

-Yes, Chef!

But invisible to us, until now.

-Musical director!

-I am an absolute genius at what I do.

These are the stories of the stars

and the teams who strive to make them shine.

Job done.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

This is the world of the VIP People.

Britain's fashion industry is worth over £20 billion a year.

And the faces that front the big designer brands can earn millions.

21-year-old Hannah Cooper

has been modelling for five years.

She's signed with one of the biggest model agencies in the world.

But for Hannah, being a famous face in fashion

is still very much a dream.

It'd be amazing if I could get something like this, you know,

on a big high street like Regent Street. A big campaign.

Modelling is a competitive industry

and, like sport stars, models can have short-lived careers.

You are judged on the way you look.

To make it to the top in this game

Hannah needs more than just a pretty face.

She'll rely on an expert team of VIP People.

From the agent who gets her castings that lead to jobs

to the Head of New Faces teaching top modelling tips.

Keeping her body in model shape is her personal trainer,

and making sure her portfolio is blemish free

is the agency's imaging technician.

Hannah Cooper was spotted by a model scout when she was just 16.

You know, it kind of feels like your star moment.

For Hannah, being told she had model looks

fulfilled a childhood ambition.

I joked as a child with my mum, reading through magazines and things.

"I'd love to do that job. Oh, wow."

Since finishing university she's been modelling full time.

This is a bus stop that I used to be on.

And now it's a £1.49 double cheeseburger.

Hannah is one of around 300 girls signed with Next Model Agency.

Based in London, it's headed by Amanda Bretherton.

We have sort of booked most of the supermodels that you would know,

from Claudia Schiffer to Helena Christensen.

We shoot all kinds of campaigns. Some Versace, to Gucci, Top Shop.

A modelling agency basically goes out and finds work for models

within the fashion industry.

It can be anything from catwalk shows to TV commercials.

This is the main booking area.

This is where it all happens in terms of our industry.

Do take a look in.

The agency doesn't employ models,

they find them work and then take a percentage of their earnings.

We have girls who might earn a million pounds for a few days' work.

And we have girls who are very happy to earn £800 for a day's work.

I'm particularly proud of our iD wall.

i-D covers in the world of fashion are the most important thing to me.

They're more important than Vogue covers.

They're so cool, they're so hip and every model wants one.

Very few models make it onto Amanda's wall.

Most girls at Hannah's level model for online catalogues,

known in the industry as e-com.

Today, she's on a shoot in Liverpool for shopping website, Very.

By working full-time now, I've been able to build up regular clients.

# Bring the action! #

Chin down, eyes to me.

With up to four catalogue jobs a week,

Hannah knows just how to work it.

You try and aim to get a different pose for every click of the camera.

So every time the camera clicks, you change, then you change.

Hannah has her sights set

on becoming a much bigger face in fashion.

I'd love to do a high street campaign

and be able to see my picture in a shop window.

Big smile as well.

But she's competing with hundreds of other beautiful girls

with the same goal.

You could be...you know, the face of the moment and then the next minute

there's another girl that can come in and, you know, she's the favourite.

The VIP Person who first spotted Hannah's modelling potential

is Head of New Faces, Ross Young.

Have you done any couture shows before?

No. Not yet.

Not yet is the right answer!

It's Ross's job to spot and nurture model talent.

Once he finds a girl with the right look

he instructs them in the delicate art of standing, walking

and posing to transform them from girl next door into catwalk queen.

As a child growing up in the far east of Scotland,

Ross dreamed of being famous.

I wanted to be a celebrity. Which is strange and really quite sad.

But then Ross realised he had a talent

for spotting future stars of fashion.

That girl's got a great body.

The whole idea of scouting

and finding someone brand new

and making a career happen for them was pretty exciting.

Five years ago, Ross spotted Hannah shopping with her mum in London.

She...was very pretty.

Tall,

um, a very sweet girl. Still is.

There's a selection here of Hannah's early tests.

She had mousy brown - probably the best way to describe it - hair.

So we took her hair to quite a vibrant blonde.

But we did a lot of testing with her

and that was just to get her experienced in being a model.

Ross has scouted almost 500 girls in a ten-year-career.

Today he's on the hunt for new talent

along London's busiest shopping street with colleague Kellydeen.

Well, we're going to park ourselves up just outside this busy shop,

where we have a lot of teenagers going in and out.

So we'll probably position ourselves here

and we'll wait until we find someone.

Which hopefully will be in five minutes, but may be five hours.

During a year, Ross will find around 50 girls with model looks.

But only about ten of these will end up

with a full-time modelling career.

So what exactly is Ross searching for?

Body size and height are crucial to modelling.

And we could probably fill a whole agency with girls, British girls,

who are 5ft 3, 5ft 4, but we are looking for girls

who are 5ft 9 and above.

It's rare to find teenage girls as tall as the average man,

but after 20 minutes, someone catches Ross's eye.

That girl's petite.

In this case the girl they've spotted isn't another Hannah.

Not quite right.

So how does it feel being stopped in the street by a model scout?

I remember when Ross first ran up to me,

and I kind of thought, "God, who's this guy running after me?"

And, yeah, and then he was like, had I ever thought of modelling?

And I thought, "God, I've got to do this. I've got to go for it and see."

An hour later Ross and Kellydeen spot another potential.

Yes.

If they don't catch up with this girl,

they could miss out on the next Kate Moss or Agyness Deyn.

Hi. I work for Next Model Management, a model agency.

-Are you already a model?

-No.

-Have you ever been scouted before?

-No.

It was exciting, definitely.

I think Mum was even more excited than me as well!

Go home, have a chat with your parents and if it's something

-you're interested in, give us a call.

-You've got a great look.

Despite her height,

this young lady said no to becoming Ross's next top model.

To get modelling work,

Hannah has to attend auditions for jobs called castings.

Castings can be with clients or photographers.

You have to do them to get the work.

So if you don't cast, then you don't...you don't work.

Hannah can attend up to 30 castings a month.

It can be meeting one person or going to one casting

that can open a whole load of doors for you.

-'Hello?'

-Hi, it's Hannah from Next.

-'Hi, come in.'

-Thanks.

Today, Hannah's meeting a photographer casting for

fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar.

She has no idea how many other girls

she'll be competing with for this job.

-Hi.

-Hey.

-Hi. Hannah.

-How are you?

'You do end up in some weird places, especially for castings.'

And you kind of see a couple of, like, tall girls dressed in black,

usually, and you think, "This must be the door."

So, let's have a look at your book.

Photographer Anthony has a good look at Hannah's portfolio,

but isn't giving much away.

Is it for shoots, or...?

-Er...

-..just general...

I've got a bit of a mixed bag on at the moment, really.

-And after a few test shots...

-Really nice. Beautiful ones.

..it's over.

All right, I'll show you out. Amazing.

Unfortunately, this casting doesn't lead to any work for Hannah.

It is disappointing.

You can't help but think that's cos they didn't like me or they didn't...

It is, but then you have to think that's just because you're maybe not

right for that season or that particular advertising campaign

or that shoot.

To improve Hannah's chances of getting a casting

for a big billboard campaign or TV commercial,

the agency has decided to update Hannah's portfolio,

or "book" as it's known.

Hannah, do you want to come over?

The better Hannah's book looks, the better her chances of

getting that big job.

The VIP Person in charge of Hannah's book,

and managing her modelling contracts, is agent Sara Jackson.

It's nice when you're going out on castings that the clients can see

some new pictures and can see that you've been really busy working.

With a list of fashion contacts as long as a model's legs,

it's up to Sarah to find Hannah modelling work.

When clients request a model with Hannah's look,

Sara sends her out to a casting

and organises her diary once shoots are booked in.

Sara studied photography in Australia

and decided to become a model agent

after meeting other model agents in London.

My main job, really, is to marry the models with the right clients

and to make sure their career is going in the right direction.

Sara's been an agent for 12 years

and manages the work of 80 girls at the agency, including Hannah.

So this is Hannah's diary, basically.

All this red means confirmed jobs.

The yellow is when a client has called and said that they might

possibly want to book a model for that shoot.

Today, Sara's called Hannah in to discuss her book.

So these are all the books of all the girls we represent.

We have them here in alphabetical order.

And it's so important to get new pictures bercause the clients

need to see the girls are busy and working,

updating the book all the time.

So what I thought we'd do is keep that one to start

and then get these right up at the front.

So if we take those ones out.

It's always good to have a profile shot on the right side

and on the left side it's good to have something that shows your body

and your long legs.

And I think we'll finish with that, because that's really strong.

What we would really like Hannah to be doing

are some nice high street campaigns

and also some hair and beauty campaigns.

And in order to get to that we need

a few more beauty shoots in her book.

But how does Hannah's book compare

with one of the agency's more established models?

So Arizona's one of our top models.

This is a book full of British Vogue...

French Vogue...

American Vogue...

Italian Vogue.

Hannah's book will hopefully look like this in two years' time.

-Sara?

-SHE CHUCKLES

Before Hannah's book can be sent out to clients,

the new pictures require a final polish,

which is where technology wizard, and the next of our VIP People,

Christian Tucker comes in.

I've always been interested in art and creativity.

I think photography's obviously just another medium,

a way of expressing that.

As Head of Imaging, Christian uses the latest photography software

to enhance the photos in Hannah's portfolio.

By removing pesky pimples or brightening up a bad hair day,

Christian makes digital improvements

to ensure Hannah's book is picture perfect.

Christian started work in a photography studio

and found the job he loved

when he discovered the creative world of photography apps.

At the agency, he is in charge

of over 200,000 digital images of models.

What we do here is anything image-related

goes through this room.

His job involves everything from posting pics on the website

to removing unwanted hair from a shot.

One of the bookers might point out to me

that these strands of hair could do with removing.

I'll literally source a point of the skin which is looking good,

and basically clone it over the hair to remove it.

That one.

It's up to Christian and his computer software

to make sure Hannah's new shots look their best for her book.

-So should we mock up a new card?

-Yep.

-Perfect.

The "card" is an image with Hannah's measurements on it,

from height to shoe size.

Christian has to re-size and re-touch the card

until it's exactly how Sara wants it.

I'd like it a bit tighter.

OK.

-That looks quite nice.

-Yeah.

We might need to decide whether

we want that image to be black and white,

whether it would look better in colour,

whether we'll be cropping it.

Maybe the model has had a bad skin blemish that day on the shoots

and we'd obviously take that out

because we want the model to be looking her best.

-Maybe if we enlarge a tiny bit?

-Yeah, sure.

The only editing that goes on here is just to take out a spot.

Here it's very, very basic touch-ups.

Yeah, I think that looks great!

Really nice.

Thanks to Sara's vision and Christian's talent,

Hannah has a new and improved book

to take to those all-important castings.

It's black and white, and colour.

Great, we'll send it to print then.

100 hard copies.

-Amazing.

-Thank you.

-Job done.

Model Hannah Cooper wants to make the move from catalogue model

to face of a big high street brand.

But competition is tough

and Hannah still hasn't had that dream casting call.

While her VIP People push her new portfolio,

it's up to Hannah to keep her body toned and perfectly posed.

So can her VIP team crack

that career changing, high profile campaign?

Since updating Hannah's book,

Sara's been trying to get Hannah castings for a major poster campaign

or TV commercial.

She's meeting a really important photographer this afternoon

who's got an editorial coming up in a few weeks.

I'm really hoping she gets that.

An editorial is a magazine shoot

which could mean more impressive photos for Hannah's book.

# I love London...#

But dashing round London on castings can be a slog.

It can just be tiring.

Just from one place to the other. The whole time.

And it's not always easy to find the locations.

Wrong door.

Down that way.

While Hannah pounds London's pavements looking for work,

higher profile models have work looking for them.

At the agency, Sara's tackling two clients

who want the same model on the same day.

I've basically got another client ready to confirm on the 31st.

It's in Milan and they're ready to confirm

and it's a really big-money job.

It's quite a juggling act to make sure that the

models are free for the right jobs.

Amazing. OK.

While other models are doubly in demand,

Hannah is still looking for her next big break.

Could this casting be the one?

-Very nice.

-Thank you.

Just like last time, it's difficult to judge how it's going.

-That's it.

-Cool.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

They don't give much away. They're probably up there now talking,

saying something that...

Either that they loved me or didn't think that they were right.

Like, I was right for them or... You just don't know.

Once again, there's no offer of work for Hannah.

That big high street campaign or TV commercial is still just a dream.

But rejection is all part of a model's life.

It is an industry where it is face value

and you are judged on the way you look but...

It's... You've got to keep strong

and not take it to heart and just carry on.

It's Ross's job to teach the models

how to cope when their face doesn't fit.

The biggest stress of the job - the one I feel the most of the time -

is that you're responsible for their health and their happiness.

And, ultimately, their future careers.

Just as he does with Hannah,

today Ross is showing some new models a few tricks of the trade.

Slightly exaggerate your posture,

so your back is coming further back than it normally would.

Take your arm out and drop it.

So you'll be...from the side,

and take your body quite far down, almost as if...

Ross taught me how to walk. Walk a catwalk.

Keep your eyes... Keep your chin down and eyes to camera.

And it just... The angle and the lighting works better.

The best models are the girls who move very naturally.

You can teach the girls a variety of moves,

but the girls who do exceptionally well in the industry,

girls like Hannah, are the girls

who are naturally aware of their bodies,

they know how to stand, they know how to make clothes look good.

Most models need some help to stay looking good.

To maintain her model shape, Hannah manages her diet and fitness

with the help of our next VIP Person,

personal trainer Jon Callaway.

Personal trainer Jon keeps Hannah's physique in model condition.

He advises her on what to eat and how to exercise.

Jon works on Hannah's stamina and posture

so her body will deliver quality poses at the start and end

of a long day's shoot.

Jon wanted to be a PE teacher but found the world of physical training

more suited to his personality.

I've always been active, but as soon as I went

into the gym environment, it kind of took hold of me a bit.

It was like I was naturally supposed

to be training and working out in the gym.

Jon aims to get Hannah into the gym three to four times a week.

When I train her in the gym,

we focus on her posture and structural balance with her hips.

Make sure her body's conditioned - that it looks good on camera.

But Hannah sometimes needs persuading.

It's just trying to drag her - get her in.

I get her in certain days.

I'll say, get into the gym, we'll do this,

as soon as you're done, you'll feel much better.

There, hold it from there.

Squeeze your glutes, power up, belly button in, control it down.

He works me hard. He makes me sweat.

But then I'm probably one of the easiest clients, either.

I am quite moany.

Today, Hannah's made it to the gym,

and Jon's doing an exercise to improve her posture.

One of them is bird dog.

It's for when she's standing all day.

There's a lot of pressure with her so tall, and her posture's bad,

so we try and pull in that core,

try and make sure her lower back is strong enough to hold her upright.

Left arm out. Hold from there. Pull that in, in... Hold there.

The fashion industry has been criticised for sometimes using

models that look too skinny.

So what exactly does Hannah think the perfect model body is?

It's more about definition. It's not necessarily being skinny,

it's more having muscle definition and making sure you're just toned.

And a good healthy size, rather than too skinny or anything like that.

Hannah also believes that how

she treats her insides affects her outside.

If you're going to eat rubbish, you're going to feel rubbish,

and you're going to look rubbish.

But there's a difference between what Jon tells her to eat...

I base her meals around oats and protein.

..and what she likes to eat.

I'd rather have pick and mix, marshmallows and cakes and biscuits.

Once a week. Once a week. No more than once a week.

So is Hannah's fridge a fun-free zone?

Fridge... So, what a model eats.

This is just my own food-shopping for the moment.

So porridge, milk and one apple.

Back at the office the hard work of Hannah's agent Sara has paid off.

There's good news about a recent casting

for a TV advert promoting clothing label Missguided.

Just got off the phone to Missguided

and they said the test TV commercial shoot

they did with Hannah went really, really well.

And she's been booked for the TV commercial.

Which is amazing! She's going to be so happy.

Missguided saw Hannah's book and invited her to a casting.

Out of the 150 girls they saw,

it was her they chose to model their clothes for a TV advert.

I didn't really think much of it at the time, I just had to dance.

It was really quick, five minutes, they looked through your book.

And then that was it. And I found out today through email.

While Hannah's catalogue work is only seen on websites,

this advert will be shown on E4 and ITV2 between programmes

like The Only Way is Essex.

This is the big campaign Hannah's been hoping for,

but she'll be facing new modelling challenges.

This shoot's all about movement.

She'll have to do lots of jumping around, lots of music -

she's going to have to dance.

Can Hannah succeed in a shoot where she'll be out of her comfort zone?

It's 7am, and Hannah is at a studio in Manchester

for the filming of her first television commercial.

-Wow!

-Oh, cool!

As the style team turn up,

Hannah gets to see what she'll be modelling.

Oh, my God!

That is mental!

They are joking with me that I am going to be wearing them, so...

I'm mentally preparing myself. I'll just walk very slow.

To make the shoot even trickier,

the floor she's filming on is very slippy,

and the director wants Hannah to perform high-energy dance moves.

Music on, please!

As the shoot begins,

it's not just the shoes that are giving Hannah a headache.

I feel like my brains are shaking in my head -

going like this all the time.

-HIGH-PITCHED MUSIC

-But thanks to Ross's training,

Hannah delivers the poses the director's looking for.

That! Wicked!

But that's just the first set-up.

There's still another 10 hours to go.

But now we're going to go for another outfit change

and do it all over again.

There's photos to pose for...

Bit out of breath.

Need to get down the gym more!

..video to shoot...

What a job!

-Good to go?

-Yeah.

-OK, you happy, you guys?

-Yep.

It's time for Hannah to put Jon's personal training into practice.

After eight hours of dancing in high heels,

she's still got the stamina to keeping going strong.

HIGH ENERGY MUSIC

And her biggest shoot yet ends in success.

HANNAH LAUGHS

Poked myself in the eye, then it went in my mouth!

Wrap! Done.

Now just a wait to see it on the telly, really.

She's worked very hard to get where she is today.

We've worked very hard on her behalf.

Erm...and it's lovely when that pays off.

No way I could've done it without Ross scouting me

and Sara giving me the motivation

and confidence to be able to do such a job.

Thanks to the help of all her VIP People,

Hannah's modelling career has reached new heights,

and she can look forward to a fabulous fashion future.

Subtitles by Red Media Ltd