Your Headshot: Choosing the Right Photographer
I promised around a month ago to cover headshots and resumes, but some recent experiences compelled me to write about other topics first. One of those experiences was an audition for a lead role as a killer in a feature-length digital video movie. Sure enough, the audition went very well, and the director is struggling to decide between me and one other person. The inside word tells me that they're leaning more toward the other guy because he is more the killer "type," though my opinion is that casting too "on the nose" is a sure way to prevent your project from being interesting. No one believed Ted Bundy was a killer, which is why he was so effective, and so scary. At any rate, the point I want to make is that what I write here is based on personal experiences behind the camera and as an actor, and I practice my own advice. If I don't get this role, it won't be because I didn't nail my audition. In fact, I heard from two different sources that the director and producer were "blown away." At a certain point, casting becomes an artistic choice on the part of the creative team, and you have no control over that, so don't think about it twice. What you should do is remember that you can control how the audition goes, and you can make sure that when you go in to that room, you have the training and focus to do the job. So, now that I have drilled that home with a fine example, I will get on to headshots and resumes, because you're going to need those before you can even book an audition.
An acting resume merits a good deal of discussion, so I will cover that in two weeks. In the meantime, you should start getting your headshot together, since that will take longer than you imagine. This week I will cover finding the right photographer and next week I will address getting the right pictures.
Headshots are probably one of the all-time dreaded acting expenses, particularly since very few of us are rolling in money. There are a number of ways to get around this, but every time I've seen pictures that people got for free, or in trade, the pictures look like you'd expect: cheap. It's worth the money to hire the right photographer for 2 or 3 rolls of great photos that will last you. I stress "the right" photographer, because there's a lot of people out there with cameras, and very few that are actually doing the right work for actors, much less the right work for you personally.
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