We had a number of major problems with the first version:-
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Some dropped out early, some in a day or less from joining, some within a week or two. These tended to be the younger ones, who missed their mums, friends, or boy/girlfriends.
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Actors became very good far faster than we had anticipated, but we wanted them to become super actors not equivalent to other screen actors. They however knew they had more skill, and were reluctant to put in more time and effort, wanting to go after assignments.
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We paid for everything putting them up in a nice house with acting studio, swimming pool, all meals provided, giving them season tickets to see all films at cinemas and paying all their costs. This meant they had no cost at all, it was for some too easy a ride, and when they dropped out they had put no investment into it at all, it had just been a long free holiday.
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We had expected them to work within the agency for a part of each day, not only to offset some of the costs but to give them a n understanding and contacts within the industry. This they tended to view as slave labour and avoid, loosing the benefit of it.
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We had planned to put them into a shared house without supervision, but had a period first in our centre, some just did not want to move out and some were not adult enough to be trusted to.
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In concept they would when ready sign up to be represented by our agency allowing us to share in the profits of our efforts. This had the effect of allowing some to justify doing less than expected or in taking the view that they owed us nothing as we would recoup rewards many times over from those who did success.
..... continued
