Blog title: Nikon Event - Ulu Yam
Date:12th to 13th Jun 2008

Blog title: Our public audition in JB
Date:20th to 22nd Jun 2008
Written By: Michelle Chan

Did our first round of audition in JB today,... and honestly we are mighty impressed with the turn out and the quality of the talents.



Audition was conducted by Michelle Chan, Sharon Lim and Trisna Lim.
Congratulations to Liselle, Liz, and Mary. Well done, you three ladies are in!

Check out the photos below.


Liselle Koh (above)


Mary Khoo (above)


Liz Chong (above)

Don't miss out this audition. We will be in Johor Bahru from 20, 21 and 22 June 2008. Audition will be held at the swimming pool area of Puteri Pacific Hotel from 6pm to 8pm daily (except Sunday, which is 1pm to 5pm).

Come, and be part of the ever-popular SGXFaces modeling agency.
For further info, kindly contact us at:
012-370 6822 (Michelle Chan)

Blog title: Nikon D60 public workshop and SGXFaces Public Audition in Penang
Date:13th and 14th Jun 2008
Written By: Andrew Boey

We had two simultaneous events in Penang last weekend. Nikon's D60 public workshop and our agency's public audition in Vistana Hotel. Mei Sze (top left photo) & Vinnie (top right photo). Vinnie was selected to join our agency as a result of our audition in Penang.
Bottom left photo: Jeslyn Lee, modeling in the Nikon D60 workshop.
Bottom right photo: Sharon Beh modeling in the Nikon D60 workshop.
SGXFaces takes this opportunity to welcome our new models, Mei Sze, Vinnie and Sharon Beh.

Blog title: Searching for a Brand Ambassador
Date:7th Dec 2007
Written By: Andrew Boey

Is SGX Faces a typical modeling agency, you ask?
More than that, we must answer.

We believe it's more than just matching a pretty face to a photoshoot.

One of our key business is Image-Brand Representation Management.

Image-Brand Representation is the a subset of Brand Management, where a company who owns a certain brand utilizes a person, mostly a celebrity, to represent the brand itself.

Image-Brand Representation, in turn, is the umbrella-process where a company hires an agency like us to devise and search for Brand Ambassadors suitable to represent their product or the company's image/brand.

Note: No! It is VERY unlike the Brand Ambassador who stands distributing brochures in an auto-show. Despite the frequent abuse of this term in the local talent-management industry and despite what these agencies are telling you, that is NOT a Brand Ambassador, but an event-girl, mind you! It is just like calling a Flyback Minute-Repeater a watch, if you get what we mean...

Having a Brand Ambassador will allow consumers of the brand to establish loyalty, affinity and also trust towards the brand. This stem from the consumer adoring and believing in his or her favorite idol, and thus building that loyalty and trust towards the product or the brand directly.

Sometimes, the most challenging of all engagements would be where the clients want an agency to build/create a fresh new celebrity just to be in tandem with their brand (Remember Adam King? That was a classic case-study!)

SGX Faces specializes in this area of Ambassador Search & Ambassador Management, where clients hire us to:

- formulate the underlying concept of how brand ambassadors should be associated to the marketing characteristics and value of our clients' brands.

- perform candidate-searches and also matching our talents' portfolio to the role and image formulated from the above.

- interview, organize auditions and the complete selection/shortlisting process.

- negotiate the package and remuneration, efficiently act as the go-between the client and also the talent (this can be one of the most challenging and most fun of all the processes)

- legalize and formalize the appointment of the selected brand ambassadors.

- bring-to-market or bring-to-public the new appointment of a brand ambassador.

- perform the complete public relations management for our clients and ambassadors.


One of our most recent and successful Brand-Ambassador search and appointment is the winning combination of THE Gym, an up-market fitness club, and Shireen Ng, a successful business lady, of being their Gym Ambassador.

The whole process took almost 4 months, from image and idea conception to the final media announcements.
One of such announcements and advertorials can be witnessed in Dec 2007's Malaysia Tatler, one of the world's most popular high-society publications.

THE Gym's requirements were established very early on to seek candidates of such aptitude:

- a successful business person (a male ambassador and a female ambassador)

- a financially independant person (afterall, almost all the members of THE Gym are people of strong financial status)

- possess a business related to the lifestyle and wellness industry

- a solid academic background

- fit physique and good physical looks

- a mature and established looks

- good communication skills

- excellent public-speaking skills

- a clean and legally-healthy background

- not overly popular, but someone on the rise in the high-society circle

- someone that THE Gym's affluent customers would relate to, admire and adore

As you can see, looking for such a candidate in Kuala Lumpur is a tall order, since those who meets the top 9 criteria would have been over-publicized already and not suitable.

In short, SGX Faces, had to, in a very short period of time, springboard their ambassador to a celebrity status.

Our search for the female ambassador ended with Shireen Ng; a brilliant and exquisitely charming lady, who meets all the criteria above with flying colors. Shireen graduated as a lawyer, but decided to concentrate fully on her pharmacy businesses almost 9 years ago.
She now owns 5 of such businesses. She's a very established and well-connected business lady in the pharmaceutical industry.

Her good looks and communication panache were way above the rest.

And for that, we are proud to be the agency that made this brand ambassador search a flawless one.
Congratulations, Shireen! Congratulations, THE Gym.

Click here, to see some of the media placements.

Visit THE Gym's website here.

One last funny note: during our evaluation processes, we met a candidate who insisted that her being the finalist of 'Miss Malaysia something-something' is a main criteria for her being chosen,... well, now you know why it is not.

Blog title:Nikon's D3 and D300 official launch in Malaysia
Date:20th Sept 2007
Written By: Andrew Boey

Who did Nikon hire to provide talented models and also their emcee for the launch event of their highest range of professional cameras?

SGX Faces of course!

We are proud of Ben, Nicole Chiah, Christie Loong, Angeline Yap & Jill Moo for being such talented and professional talents to work with.
Mag, was the emcee of the day, you were outstanding, girl!

Everyone was given less than a day to prepare! Amazing!

This time, SGX Faces went to the extend of hiring a very talented professional dance choreographer; Yuki Yeoh, to customize two dance sequences for our models for the launch.

Credit goes to Eunice Phang, for the stunning themed make-up.

Team, well-done! We are proud of you...

Note: SMS from Nikon boss after the event reads "Great job done! Thank you!"

All ready for action!




The media poses, one of the highlights of the event.


Mag preparing her emcee scripts,... a true pro at work!


Yuki at work, at 12 midnight, ensuring the models get the moves perfect.


Yup! You nailed it girl!


Were they hot or were they 'Cool'? Look at the customized costume.




For the CoolPix launch, the theme was 'Ice Cool'


For the D3 and D300 launch, the theme was 'Speed'

Blog title:The Gym's photo-shoot was fun & successful!
Date:5th Sept 2007
Written By: Andrew Boey

The pro fitness trainers at The Gym,... Guys! You are all welcome to be part of SGX Faces, anytime. No audition needed!


The man who made this photo-shoot happen,.. Jerrick, the humble GM of The Gym. Thank you, Jerrick.

Blog title:The Gym's models are NOW ready to rock!
Date:23-Aug-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey

The Gym has finally found their last talent.
So,... its production shooting from now on.

Congratulations to Winnie Lim. You are way cool! Look at her biceps!

Blog title:Client 2nd Audition
Date:21-Aug-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey & Sue

Andrew ,our in house posing guru teaching a talent how to hold a fist.

Blog title: Another excellent work from our models
Date:19-Aug-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey & Sue

The Camps & Apparels' 2-day photo-shoot went well?

Answer:
Look at these shots below, testaments of how well our Faces models performed.
Exceptional performance from Scott, Ivan, Mag and Sabrina Q!

Sweat, sunburn, early morning shoot schedules, complicated poses, looking like school kids and snakes did not bother our magnificent talents one bit.
YES,... we are all proud of you. Camps & Apparels, one of Malaysia's biggest uniform manufacturer, is very pleased with the professionalism you all displayed.

Models: Scott, Ivan, Mag & Sabrina Q of SGX Faces
Apparels & Props: Camps & Apparels
Styling by: Andrew Lye & Margaret
Professional photographers: Andrew Boey & Sean Liew
Professional Make-up artist: Suk Leng
Lighting: Sue Yee
Assistant photographer: Joe Loon
Logistics: Zul
Studio Coordinator: Michelle Chan
Posing Coach: iMac (yup, that's him at work in the 2nd last photo)












Andrew Lye (middle; in civilian clothings) is the brainchild behind this well planned photo-shoot.






An unbelievable shot nailed by Sean Liew using Nikon's Creative Lighting System.
The hurricane lamp was never lit. He hid a Nikon SB600 flash on orange gel behind the lamp.

* Note: All photos above courtesy of Camps & Apparels



iMac correcting Ivan's pose *woof*


Will someone please feed the Pose Coach? Poor iMac goes around begging for food... tsk tsk tsk...

Blog title: Client audition
Date:14-Aug-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey & Sue

An up-marketing gym conducted their audition in our studio today, to select their models and talents for their photo shoot which will be used for their advertising and marketing materials. Talents shortlisted for this audition performed exceptionally well. Take a look at the photos of this fun-filled audition:





The client was looking for these qualities when selecting our models during this audition:
Talents who are photogenic, possess mature and that established look, with healthy and sporty life-style.

So during the audition, models were asked to pull some exercise poses. Tough for them?
Nah,... a walk in the park for our talented models,... as told by these pictures.

Was it good? Did the client find their models? Well, let this picture below answer your questions... :)

Blog title: Nikon D40/D40x Workshop
Date:12-Aug-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey & Sue

The Nikon D40 and D40x workshop turned out GREAT! Having Andrew and Sean as the speakers really take the dullness out of what we used to experience in workshops. They both spice things up with jokes and humor to enable the participants to enjoy the workshop.With them on that day was Ariff who assisted the participants when they have any inquiries throughout the workshop. Ariff is a professional photographer shooting on behalf of SGX Faces. Mag did great on her emcee job and Natalie, Elaine together with Syhue did tremendously well on posing for the photographers. The girls have to be spontaneous with their poses but they manage to pull it off and look professional. It was a fun day for both the models and the photographers. Great job everyone!

Mag; the emcee of the seminar, introducing the speakers. Impressive emcee work!



Andrew introducing the models to the seminar participants:

Blog title: Aug 2007 Audition
Date:5-Aug-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey & the gang of SGX Faces and Fotomentary

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICS!

Fabulous turn-out and we found some SUPER talents!
Great work; why not we let the pics do the talking, eh?


Natalie & Elaine


Check out the Behind The Scene pics...


Christie, we are proud to be able to host your portfolio.
You can definitely call Faces your HOME!


Elaine

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICS!

Blog title: Congrats, Evonne!
Date:26-July-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey & Team at Faces and Fotomentary

Evonne, you did well!
How do we know?

Simple:
-the client likes you
-we like you
-you are good at your job
-the photos, below, speak for themselves...

(Note: Photos provided courtesy of Les Studio.)

Everyone,... let's put our hands together for Evonne, a talent SGX Faces is PROUD to have in our portfolio.

Isn't that a smile of a pro model? A pose that she pulled effortlessly...


Great photography + great lightings + great model = Super Result!




Evonne's professional make-up artist at work


The pros at work, making sure the poses were perfect.


A glimpse of the production crew at work (not an easy photo assignment, mirrors everywhere). Take note too of the huge number of lights used in a professional commercial shoot.

A big crew:
- 2 pro photographers (Andrew Boey & Sean Liew)
- 1 lighting assistant (Sue Yee, of SGX Faces)
- 1 pro yoga instructor from Les Studio (Camy)
- 1 shoot director (Mr. Les himself, the owner of Les Studio)
- 1 pro make-up artist (Angie)
- 2 pro models (Evonne Laing & Irene)

Evonne, thank you, we are happy working with you!

Blog title: Macro Beauty
Date:23-July-2007
Written By: Andrew Boey

What is Macro beauty? Macro beauty are super close-up shots on beauty and glamour subjects. With ZERO post productions and ZERO touch-ups, these pictures are all done on the spot. These photos must have some tell-tale signs and flaunting the zero touch-up, such as lights reflecting off facial hairs or fine facial pores on the model. Perfect models, flawless make-ups, perfect lightings and pin sharp photos are the orders of these shots. The composition of each shot must be breath-takingly creative.No expensive high mega-pixel medium/large format cameras are needed. All my equipment used are 100% Nikon and the camera used is only be a Nikon D80. We are merely left with tonnes of creativity, perseverance and a GREAT team to work with. A simple macro beauty shot can easily take up to 2 to 3 hours to prepare. The idea is to DOLL up the model so that she looks unreal in the photographs. One important thing in macro beauty is that the makeup has to be flawless. It is after all close up shots. This method of photography is a discovery made by me that consists the combination of Macro photography which is limited to shooting flora and fauna and Beauty photography. For more info and shots of macro beauty, feel free to drop by my blog.

Clapper board	Boom	Teleprompter	Cue cards

Hide that arm.
Never have we met a lady who thinks her arms are not fat (despite shooting professionally for so many years).
So, please hide and tuck that arm. You will look more slender and more elegant, plus those thunder arms will not scare anyone away.

Don't show that armpit.
Unless the creative director hired you to be doing an ad for a client that makes armpit-hair-removal cream.
There are ways to put both your hands up while still not bearing that dreaded pit. Check out the photo below...

Head down, eyes look up at an angle.
This is the classic Princess Diana look.
Body language experts have proven that men love this look because they seem to evoke the 'i need your protection' feeling in them.
But guys, if you do this, you would look like your are staring at the subject and looking for a fight. So, unless you are posing for Die Hard 4's new poster, then you should avoid this pose, guys.

If you cross your arm...
Then please show your fingers.
You will look more elegant and at the same time portray that 'stable and professional' look.
Tucking your fingers in, will automatically make you looked stressed and defensive.

Protrude your head, away from your neck.
This will give that 'I am exciting/excited' and 'ready for action' look, as if you just 'ran' into the camera's framing.
If you do not protrude your head, and stand straight, you will look either of this two:
-like you are falling behind
-like you are a snob, even worst, we have seen poses that ended up looking like the model is picking a fight

Chin Up.
Yes,... but not too much, otherwise, you will look like a snob (because your nose will be higher than the camera if you chin up too much).
However, unless if you are doing a laughing shot, then the best way is to tilt your head all the way to the back and really do a hearty laugh, with your mouth opened and eyes almost closed.
Try this. Laugh with this pose, while you laugh and tilt your head down,... which one seems more naturally more funny?
If you ever need to do a pose that involves you laughing your tush off, then this would be the best way!

Avoid Square Frontal poses.
Unless you are required/paid to.
Posing this way puts in you in a confrontational look.
Men should almost always avoid this pose. To look friendlier and more approachable, men should almost always stand 90 degrees perpendicular to the camera, then turn their body and head towards the camera, tilt the head to either left or right (more on that soon) AND smile... Go, try and find out which side if your favorite side, infront of a mirror.

Blog Title: What you should know about studio lightings as a model
Date: 29-June-2007
Written By: Sue and Andrew Boey

Ever wonder how a particular photograph manages to evoke some sort of feeling in you? Ah ha! That will be the job of our good friend, the lighting. Lighting is very important in coming up with a good photograph. With different light sources coming from different angles and directions, it will create different moods and ambience to a photograph. The first thing a photographer can do is always to visualize the image that he is trying to achieve. Having an image in his mind, he will know where and how to set up his lighting sources. Having the light at the right places, we must also know how strong of power the lights that we need to have to achieve the shot that we pictured. We really do not want a portrait photograph having too much light on the model’s face. Having just enough ratios of lights firing at the model’s face will create a different feel to the photograph and making it more unique rather than showcasing the model flat. There are many things that we can play around with the lights. A very good example would be using umbrellas to soften the light and giving it a softer feel to the photograph. That’s not all! By using different color gels such as blue or green, we can create a different mood and ambience to the background of photograph. There are more fun ways to create the photograph that you desire to shoot. With the lighting at the right places and the right amount of exposure, as well as good composition, I believe you can shoot the image that you desire.

However, you must now be wondering why we are writing about photography lighting in a modelling website? Good question! This is because quite frequently, we see models pulling poses BEHIND a backdrop light. A backdrop light is used to light up the backdrop, not the model! When a model pulls a stunt like this, it can be embarassing, because the photographers would now know that she's an amateur.

Typically, in a studio shoot, the number of lighting varies. Despite so, typically there would be no less than 3 lights. 2 to light up the model and 1 for the backdrop (the piece of scene at the back). Never stand PAST the backdrop lights, as it would create hard shadows.

Another common mistake that we see frequently is that the model pulls a pose, the photographers and the lighting assistants would then adjust the location of the lights to fit the pose. But once they have completed placing the lights correctly to accomodate the pose, the model changes post and sometimes even as bad as changing the location she was standing. This will alter the lighting set-up again.

So, to be a successful model, one must know some basics of studio photography lightings, otherwise it will only show how inexperienced the model is. Beware...

Blog Title: How to create that stunning and crisp eyebrow?
Date: 29-June-2007
Written By: Sue (talent scout of SGX Faces)

One of the most common mistakes that woman do their eye brow is that they tweeze them too much. If you’re of the lucky women out there to have well shaped brows, you can do without make up. Even so, never forget to brow shape them. If you want to shape them real well, here’s something you can do. The space between your brows should be equal to, or a little wider than, your eyes. To find where your brow should go, take a long eye shadow brush or pencil and hold it parallel to the side of your nose. Where the brush meets your brow is where your brow should begin. To find the end of your brow, extend the brush diagonally from your nostril, following the outside edge of your eye toward the brow. Where the inside edge of the brush hits that is where your brow should end

Using a pencil with a soft tip, apply it towards the direction of the hair growth. The idea here is to create the appearance of hair. Do avoid using the pencil and going it all the way to then end of the brow as it will create an unnatural look. After that, we move on to using eye shadow to blend the color in. Dip an angled brush or a clean mascara wand in eye shadow. Brush the powder along the brows. It should stick to the pencil, while also acting to blend in the color perfectly. For more staying powder, dampen the brush slightly before dipping it into color. To keep the brows in pace and neat, you can always spray hairspray on your hand and damping it on the brow.

I really hope that these tips can do you good for managing your eye brow. Men too need to groom their eye brows. All the best!