reprinted from headshots101.com

A head shot is a photograph used by actors and actresses in order to get them work. Head shots are 8 x 10 prints of the performer where the face is clearly shown. This does not mean that the image is just of the head. Trends go in and out on that one. But, the point is to have a clear image of the performer. Also on your head shot will be the name of the performer. This is usually in the bottom right hand corner. Included with your head shot you will staple a resume (facing outward) to the back of the head shot. This resume will include your basic stats. By stats is meant your height, weight, hair color, eye color and the like. As well as your training and experience. You will also include a special skills section listing off various things that you can do that would be helpful for any casting director to know.

Trends go in and out. In most of the 80s head shots were black and white and super tight in, showing only from the shoulders up. In the 90s there was a huge trend in getting three quarter shots. Three quarter shots show the actors from about the knees up. Then when color became inexpensive in the late 90s bright colors became very popular. Also, studio shots with lots of draping fabrics became all of the rage. About five years ago clean crisp greens and blues for the backdrops were huge. Sometimes tangerine orange colors, etc. But those have faded out of vogue.

Currently the trend has been horizontal shots of the performer, making the image a little more "film like." The person is usually a bit to the left or the right of the print making them slightly off center. Also, because digital submissions are popular, a great many people are taking character shots. These can be useful digitally, but are not needed to print. But, you do not want to go too far on this. I have seen people do shots of them as homeless, junkies and prostitutes. Going that far on your character shots, especially for print don't really pay off. Even when you are going for those roles, casting directors not as willing to call someone in that looks like a junkie. If you are going to go that route you need to offset it with a normal image of you to communicate that you are not a slob by nature. But again, the payoff is not really worth the time and expense you might put in taking and printing such images.

But what do you do with your head shots?

Your head shots go through quite a journey. For people just starting out you will need to get an agent and submit yourself for any open calls you can. An open call is when anyone can submit themselves and they do not need an agent in order to get an audition. Once you have an agent they submit your head shots for anything you fit on under the breakdowns and any other projects they might know of that are in pre-production.

Let's talk about getting your agent and submitting yourself for open calls. For getting an agent you would want to send out your head shot to various agents with a cover letter, resume and contact information. You do this over and over until you have an agent. Some people like to print up postcards in this phase to save a few bucks on the mailing. This is an okay option, but really the 8x10 is the best way to go. You can get a list of agents to mail off to in various books at boutique book shops like Samuel French, a bookstore specializing in the performing arts. When an agent calls you in for an audition then you need to take your 8x 10 head shots with you.

You will also want to go ahead and submit yourself for anything you can until such time as you have an agent working for you. There are a few papers like Backstage West, Hollywood Reporter, and even Variety that will give you information on what is called "open call" auditions. This means that you do not need an agent in order to submit yourself for a role. There are also companies that have web sites that provide this information to you. An example of this is LA Casting. You can put your profile up on their site for a fee. You can give them as many images as you can afford to post. They will alert you to any open calls that fit your profile and you can submit yourself electronically. However, for the audition you will still need your 8x10 head shot.

When submitting yourself by mail you send an 8x10 head shot, resume and simple short cover letter. Your resume should have your contact info. These head shots for open calls come into casting directors by the hundreds, sometimes even the thousands. Casting directors sort through these and separate them into piles. Casting directors throw out any that don't fit for what they are looking for. (For example, if you are in your 20s and submit yourself for a bubbly teenager that can sing, but you don't look like you could pass for a high schooler at all...your shot will be trashed.) Most casting directors will trash anyone who submits with 4 x 7 prints or Polaroids. Those mark the novice and the unprofessional, which most casting directors don't have the time to consider with the amount of professional looking head shots that are sent in.

The casting director will go through these sorted piles and either go through them with the director or start calling people in for auditions. It depends a little on the project at hand. Some directors will have the casting director sort through a few auditions before they sit in. Especially in open call situations with projects that have a budget for a casting director. When auditions take place the piles are sorted through again. They will stack up people who showed potential for that specific role and toss those that didn't. Then they will sort through again for overall quality of talent together. This is usually when a director is called in for reviewing the head shots and asking people for call backs. During call backs they take the best talent and shape others around them that will fit well for the project. For example, if they are casting a family there will need to be some defining line that would have it look believable that these people are related.

Once casting is done the production company will have a board up that shows the principle players and sometimes the day players as well. For a theater company they will ask for a fresh copy of your head shot to put on the playbill and on the marquee in front of the theater.

For electronic submittal it is pretty much the same. But the cool thing with electronic submittal you can have many shots in your profile that show your range and you can select the image that you want to send. This is a great tool. You can have all sorts of defining shots of your casting. Like a punker, street kid, cop, lawyer, Mom, etc. This makes it very inexpensive to get your casting nailed down when sending out shots. To print head shots with that much selection in casting is often too expensive. So, electronic submittals offer that for you. But remember little things can communicate character shots. You need not go to extremes.

Now, when you have an agent the only difference is that your agent submits you for all of those casting calls that are not open. Meaning that instead of thousands of head shots being sorted through, there are usually not as many being looked at. Casting Agents will call specific agents sometimes to isolate it down to an even smaller amount of people to sort through. As you move up ladder you are up against fewer and fewer people to a point where people are building scripts around you and all of the other slots are going through the casting ringer. Does this mean an "A lister" doesn't need head shots? Nope. Even Tom Cruise has head shots. But primarily his get signed and sent to fans and posted on the cast board in the production office. He does not have to submit for roles.

So, that is the journey of the head shot. For any beginner you need professional looking shots that stand out. You can get creative with your casting to add defining touches, but don't go over board on it. Simple things will do. Check out the pages on Casting, wardrobe and Commercial vs. Theatrical to get more information to help you shape your goals for your head shot photo shoot.

reprinted from headshots101.com

In the acting industry there are two primary divisions. The commercial and the theatrical. Often an actor will have both a commercial agent and an acting agent. And an actor will have two different types of head shots printed at all times. The commercial and the theatrical.

Under the commercial side of this business you have an agent that focuses only on getting you in the door for commercials. The goal is a national commercial because that has a big pay check, but it can be a local spot sometimes as well. Some commercial agents will also rep you for commercial print work and voice over talent. In this side of the industry they need a certain sales ability on your appearance. Warm, friendly, trusting and vanilla is the primary image that is wanted for the commercial shot. Even though you see thugs, dramatic images of children and so forth in a lot of the commercials on the air today, the image that the commercial casting agent is expecting is smiley and light. Primarily that is what sells as far as getting yourself commercial work regardless of the character and concept of the commercial itself.

Commercial                                                 Theatrical

Because of this you will want bright or soft colors for your commercial shot. Blacks, grays and dark colors often do not work as well for your commercial head shot. I am not talking about the background. I am talking about your clothing and your make-up. Your photographer will help in regards to background choices in the studio or on location. When doing the actual shoot no matter what you are wearing or what your background looks like, you will want to aim a few in your head towards theatrical and a few in your head towards commercial.

Commercial                                                 Theatrical

Now, as a side note I should mention comedians here as well. Comedians have a little flexibility on their shots. But, mostly they take the concepts of commercial and exaggerate them. Meaning, the smiles are fuller, the eyes are wider and they are a bit more zany. Or, they have an act geared around a specific character or mood and get their shots based of that character. Emo Philips is more likely to have an odd possibly pouty look on his face with a bizarre outfit on. Janeane Garofalo on the other hand is likely to have a look that communicates a bit of annoyance or sinister look, especially towards the beginning of her career or after 'Reality Bites'. But Jeff Foxworthy would have had a somewhat normal really happy head shot, maybe with a beer in his hand, but you get the idea

Commercial                                                 Theatrical

Now let's talk about the theatrical head shot. A theatrical agent is submitting you for plays, TV and film work. There is a certain amount of professionalism that is looked for here because it's not just a shoot that will last a couple of days to sell a car or apple juice. These guys need someone who is smart, able and hopefully responsible! Trust me when I say that people are looking for responsible despite the dramas and recklessness of some talented actors and actresses in this business. Once you are known you can be as unprofessional as you want. But I might add you would be shooting yourself in the foot a bit. To hire Courtney Love for 'The People vs. Larry Flint,' the production company had to place a 10 million dollar insurance policy on her because of her known addiction to drugs. But, before you are well known, no one wants to hire a liability. That is why theatrical shots have stayed in that more serious tone. It actually comes from the glamour shots of Hollywood. But to be in an evening gown for a head shot will communicate that you do beauty pageants. To be in a tux you would be classified as a model, not an actor. So, you mellow down the clothing to fit for what you specifically need for your shots. You should read the section on Casting and Picking out your wardrobe to give you more info on this part.

So, in today's times you need a theatrical shots that really pops. It says I am here, I am damn good and I will nail this role with no drama and not be a liability. When you have that, you will get work in spades. That is a lot to say in a photograph. But, as a performer there is a certain amount of confidence and certainty that is expected. Showing that certainty in your head shots, without arrogance, will get you to the top.

reprinted from headshots101.com

Minimally you need two head shots. You need a commercial head shot and a theatrical head shot. Please check out the page Commercial vs. Theatrical to get a full concept between those two. But having more head shots is a great thing to do. It adds diversity and allows you to have more specific head shots for electronic submittal. When you or your agent send a submittal through LA Casting or another service like LA Casting, you can pick from the images that you have uploaded to show up as your primary head shot when the casting director takes a look. In this way you can isolate what types of head shots will work better for certain types of movies, plays and TV shows.

Before getting your head shots you should really think about what your casting is and what you are aiming for. This way you can have a ton of images that communicate what you are going for. Please read the section on casting if you are uncertain on casting in any way. Once you know what your casting is you shape your photo shoot around it. Focus on what you are aiming to communicate in your primary head shots and your casting specific head shots. Then survey which shots are best before printing your two needed head shots. Then take a look at the other shots. See which ones are really specific headshots that would be great for isolated submittals or show depth of range when put next to other shots.

Marketing is a very important step for any performer. I highly recommend services like myactingsite.com and registering on Actors Access and LA Casting. When you have your own website or service site like the two listed above you can really shape your marketing. You can submit specific headshots electronically that seem to fit better for a certain role or director that you are targeting. If you have your own website, which is what myactingsite.com will provide you, then you can put up a ton of images that really reflect what you are going for.

I have a very good friend here in LA who is a character actor. He plays the bad guy, the thug, the circus freak. He was a pirate in "Pirates of the Caribbean." He has 12 headshots that communicate a good deal of his characters. Only three are printed. The rest are on his website. On his headshots he is not extreme on any of these shots. In other words he is not dressed as a pirate. He did not make himself strung out looking to play a junkie. But he did do simple things that slightly change the shots to communicate these various characters. On his website he has a variety of shots of him as a pirate on set, as a clown in a horror film, as a junkie in an indie short did. He has shots as a mobster in a film that he did. His website is where he puts those various images. But he will not submit those for roles. He knows better. Put a taste in of a character and make it a shot that can stand on its own. When you line them up they communicate those characters and his range without looking cheesy.

The cheesy way, which I have seen at least a hundred times, is when an actor makes up each character and stands in front of a brightly colored or white background and gets pictures in each character. What I have seen over and over, which is the real problem with this concept is that you end up with a person in different poses and looks but none of them actually communicate anything other than someone playing dress up.

When I was at a local duplication spot where actors get 8x10s made I was talking to the owner and he showed me a set of photographs that a girl brought in for printing. She was printing up about 6 different pictures. Only one of her headshots was able to stand alone as a headshot. It would have worked as a commercial shot. That was her girl next door shot. But the others could not really stand alone. I could tell that she was aiming for shots of specific characters. But she approached it like an extra approaches their extras submittal page. One was a drug addict. She was all strung out looking and it sort of looked like a mug shot. Her makeup was done to make her pale and sickly. She looked like she had been on a week long drug binge. Another shot was as if she walked off the set of "Revenge of the Nerds" completely over done with pocket protector, taped up glasses, hair in uneven pigtails and makeup added freckles.

So what you think a casting director would get from those shots? How many roles do you think she can submit those pictures to in a week? I can say that if I was casting for "Train Spotting" and got the one looking like she was on a drug binge I would be hoping that it was just a character shot, but I still would not call her in. It was too extreme. Same with the geek picture. It looked like a Halloween costume! Not like an actress with range.

You can pick as many shots as you seem fit to demonstrate your casting and your career goals. But do not be cheesy about it. You do not need to be in scrubs to get a role as a doctor or nurse. Just choose certain colors and poses that can communicate that. Take a look at the page on casting. I have a few samples up that show range within a persons casting. The main thing to remember on that is any headshot, even casting specific shots, should be able to stand on their own as a headshot.

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When you get called in to audition the casting director would like you to look like your headshot that you submitted. So, your headshots need to be kept current. Depending on how much you change will depend on how often you need to get new headshots.

Hair is the primary factor. If you cut it, color it or do anything drastic you will need to re-shoot. Weight is also a factor. If you lost or gained more than 10 lbs, you usually need to get new headshots. Then of course time itself will date a headshot. What you are wearing and whatever trends may be happening as far as headshots in general will demand you to get new headshots.

Kids will need headshots every six to eight months. Agents and managers usually demand that you do this when you have a kid or teen under the age of 16. Some headshot photographers, like myself, have packages for parents of such kids. I charge the full rate for the first shoot and a discounted rate for anyone who re-shoots within six months. I did this because I am both a parent and a woman who changes hair color like shoes.

All promo taps out. This is why there are always commercials being shot and rotated. After a while you have seen it and are bored with it. This is also true of headshots. You can get a new headshot made and suddenly start going out on tons of auditions and get a lot of good work. But after a while all the casting directors have seen your headshot dozens of times and it no longer has the same impact. Instinctively casting directors respond better to fresh headshots. This does not mean that you need to re-shoot entirely. You can simply take another image from the original shoot and use that. If you have planned out your photo shoot and used a good photographer you will have plenty of shots to choose from and you can rotate them to keep your promo fresh.

Headshot trends do shift, but slowly. Headshots in the 80s were super tight in on the face. Top of the shoulders to top of the hair and of course at that time they were all black and white. In the 90s there was a huge trend on three quarter shots, which are from about the knees up. Then when color became cheaper in the late 90s and early 00s then people were wearing bright colors to grab the casting directors attention. Studio shots suddenly had lots of draping fabrics with lots of color. Then in 02 we had smooth back grounds with soft greens and cool blues with the actor now fully out of the three quarter trend into waist up or tight in. A lot of actors in the last two years have been printing their headshots horizontally which ads a more film like touch to the shot. I know a few casting directors who hate this because flipping through is not as steady flowed. But, I also know a few casting directors who love it because it's easier for them to sell the talent to producers and directors who instinctively like that feel to the headshot. It is really up to you and your agent and manager.

Fashion trends do shift and can date your images. If you are looking to take shots and have them be useful for more than a year then you need to take clothing into account. Keep things simple and classic without being boring.

I personally feel that you should get fresh shots every year. If you are under 16 then you should get them every six months. In my experience the actors and actresses who do their shots annually are continually inspiring themselves by creating on what they are doing. Their shots get better and better because they are more and more comfortable with who they are and what they are doing. Casting directors notice new shots and look at it as progress being made on that persons career. It's fun and it refocuses you on what you are doing. Statistically my clients who shoot annually do better.

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There are a few things to know about headshots for kids. Kids headshots need to happen every six months. That is costly. A lot of photographers have a lower rate for kids because of this. It is not that it is less work. It is that you will require shots more often. Some photographers, like me, give a discount for coming back within six months so that it is more cost effective for you. That is my personal policy, but I know a few other photographers that do the same.

Many times parents just getting started will try to take their pictures and turn them into headshots. 99% of the time the shots are not what is needed and wanted by casting directors, managers and agents. It is better to bite the bullet and hire a pro. Your child will get more open doors and more work because of it.

Any time you are scheduling a photo shoot with a kid you need to make sure that it is within the hours of your kids most alert and bright time by nature. If your kid putters out by 3pm then you need to do make sure that your shoot is well before that. If your child takes naps at 11:30am then do not schedule a photo shoot at 11am.

One of the most important things is NO SUGAR BEFORE A PHOTOSHOOT. Sugar is like crack for a kid. They are more easily distracted and harder to keep focused when they have had sugar. Good breakfasts of eggs and fruit, maybe oatmeal or something like that will make your photo shoot go so much smoother. No sugar filled cereals or pastries! Also, no foods or drinks with Blue 1 food coloring within 24 hours. That creates mood swings in kids. I know this sounds a bit hippie, but trust me, there is something to it because I see the difference in my photo shoots very dramatically.

With a child you do not have as much worry about casting as you do with adults. You want to get good crisp images of your child. Smiles and warmth are expected. Also having shots of your kid with a more serious look, but not too serious. Add a few images that are a little different if you are planning to go after a lot of print work too. The kid jumping or on the swings is a great add to a Zed card.

You want to make sure not to have any graphics on shirts like Dora the explorer or Bob the Builder. Kids should wear clothing that does not push any products or cartoon characters. Simple clean cut looks and clothing.

Acting and modeling are not the same as pageants, so you need to make sure that you don't get too cute and frilly. Big poofy dresses and skirts are a not good. Sunday dresses are too much. Boys should not be in three piece suits and mini tuxes for their shots. Not unless you have a manager or agent that is specifically requesting it for a certain mood or look.

If you see your kid puttering out, take a break for water and snacks. Any photographer who has shot kids will know that this will make for better results and they should be patient.

It's important as well to hire a photographer who actually likes kids. Most that don't will say they don't work with kids. Move to the next on your list rather than trying to talk them into it. You will need someone who can communicate well with kids and direct them too.

Kids are by nature cute. But if you do the simple things like good sleep the night before, no sugar, and plenty of snacks with a pro who gets along well with kids you will be able to have a really great set of images that will help your child.

We have two options . . .

A 30 minute mini-session in one outfit or look costs $199. It includes a minimum of 20 poses to select from and one retouched, high resolution digital file, ready for reproduction. Additional retouched files may be purchased for $85.

A one hour headshot session with up to two clothing changes or looks costs $375. It includes a minimum of 50 poses to select from and two retouched, high resolution digital files, ready for reproduction. Additional retouched files may be purchased at a reduced rate of $65.

Photography for CD covers is priced individually. Please call 781-826-8189 for information.