In the past 10 years of running CastNet I have seen literally tens of thousands of actors’ headshots. Although there are several factors that will determine the employability of an actor, I can often tell just by looking at a headshot whether or not an actor will get work. Even in this age of internet and online showreels, your headshot is usually the first thing an employer will look at to consider your suitability for a role. I hope this article will help you the next time you update your publicity shots.
Casting directors, drama schools and agents will often advise actors to have a natural headshot taken that looks much like their every-day appearance. Casting directors don’t want to select you on the basis of your headshot and then have you turn up to the casting looking like somebody completely different. This is a waste of their time, your time and could embarrass them in front of the director or producer. Actors are also frequently advised to get neutral-looking headshots that can cover a wide range of roles to avoid getting “typecast”.
Many actors who have been working in the business for a few years will soon discover that unless you were born with the most interesting and characterful face in the world or are lucky enough to be stunningly beautiful/handsome; a neutral headshot will get you absolutely nowhere.
Neutral headshots get Neutral Results
However much some actors would like to think otherwise, you are now running your own small, single-product business. Just like any other business you have to make sure that a) there is a demand for your product and b) the packaging and marketing of your product give it the best chance of being seen by the consumer.
If I were to launch a new brand of breakfast cereal, I am not going to succeed if I advertise Danny’s Oats as “Much the same as any other breakfast cereal!” even if they really are the same. If people wanted to buy a cereal that is the same as an existing brand, they will buy the existing brand. They have no need to take a chance on unknown and unproven Danny’s Oats. No, I first have to find out what the public want to buy and then make sure that Danny’s Oats are either the crunchiest, tastiest, healthiest or most chocolaty of any cereal on the market.
The first step in creating your product as an actor is to do some market research to find out what people actually want. I have compiled a list of the most requested adjectives that casting directors use when they submit a character breakdown to CastNet. Here, in no particular order, are the top 20 terms from that list:
Attractive, Confident, Bitchy, Arrogant, Business Type, Beautiful, Sexy, Serious, Pretty, Charismatic, Strong, Authoritarian, Aggressive, Handsome, Glamorous, Ruthless, Intellectual, Neurotic, Sophisticated & Victim. (See the full list here)
These adjectives are the equivalent in acting terms of crunchy, healthy, nutty and chocolaty. They describe the qualities that employers are looking for in the actors they wish to hire.
This is not to say that every actor must have a photograph that conveys one of these qualities, not at all. In the same way that a few people may want to buy, say, a wheat-free cereal, there will always be a demand for actors with niche qualities that are not in demand by the mass market. In much the same way that a small business can often succeed by catering to a niche, so too can actors successfully market themselves for specific role types that they become known. Whichever way you do decide to market yourself, “neutral” marketing is never an option.
When a company commission marketing shots of their products, they employ a photographer who will take images of the products that show them in the best possible light. That doesn’t just mean making the products look good. It means taking images that highlight the particular and individual merits of that specific product. Take a look at some of the marketing images used to sell cars. The images will highlight the sexiness, power, safety or capaciousness of that vehicle. By the time the image is lit, shot and touched up on a computer, that car must look like the sexiest, most powerful, safest or most spacious car that has ever been made. If the photographer fails to achieve this, they simply will not get hired again.
Women in the 20 to 35 age group outnumber all other actors by a factor of about 3 to 1. Most of the women in this category have neutral headshots taken that convey the qualities of “White, middle-class, educated, fairly attractive actress type”. Every day there are hundreds of actresses in this age group having headshots taken that meet that same description. They march along to the photographer, looking their best, and then have 200 photographs taken that look identical. Some may have the hair up, some down. Some may have the actress wearing a business suit, others more casual. £200 later the actress walks away with a set of photographs that look much the same as every other actress in their age range. What a waste of time and money!
FACT: Casting directors and employers do not look for actors. When they sit at a table wading their way through 500 CVs and headshots they are not looking for an actor, they are looking for a character.
Some actors have a real problem with this. “Why can’t casting directors have more imagination?” they complain. “Don’t they realise that actors can transform themselves to play roles that are different from their natural self?”. You may have noticed that in most TV productions and film roles, actors are largely chosen to play themselves. A very well known casting director when questioned on this issue replied, “I choose an actor to play themselves because I don’t like to take unnecessary risks. However nervous or inexperienced that actor turns out to be on the day of the shoot, the one thing I know they can do reliably is play themselves”. If you find this insulting, then you need to realise that this is a business. People get involved in businesses to make money and to be successful. They are not here to help you further your career or to provide you with an artistically stimulating journey through life. In an industry where unemployed actors outnumber the amount of available work by about 100 to 1, most employers and casting directors will understandably choose not to take unnecessary risks on unknown and inexperienced actors.
Established directors and casting directors will already know a lot of actors that can play many of the roles they need to cast. They will always prefer to work with someone that they have worked with before and who proved competent, amiable and reliable. If you are not on that preferred list of actors, then your headshot and CV needs to convince them that you should be.
Your Marketing Strategy
The first stage of acquiring a set of headshots that will get you results is to get a reliable and objective opinion of the type of roles you are most likely to be asked to play based on your appearance alone. You will not be able to answer this yourself nor can you ask your friends or family. Their opinion will be heavily influenced by what they already know about you as a person.
Members of CastNet may use the Headshot Assessments facility that provides them with honest and objective assessments supplied by thousands of other actors. We soon hope to launch a version of this feature on a stand-alone website for all actors (watch this space). If you are not a member of CastNet, then you will need to find some other way to get reliable and objective assessments made about your playing range and playing age.
You will hopefully now have a list of qualities that you are most likely to be asked to play based on your appearance alone e.g. flirty, ruthless, cold etc. Try not to be offended by any negative terms that may come up. You must try to be as objective and dispassionate as possible about the product you have to offer.
You may find that the opinions of others differ widely from your own. Many women dream of playing roles in period dramas dressed in beautiful gowns when in reality they may be more suited to play a WPC in an episode of The Bill. Some male actors see themselves as the next Jonny Depp but are seen by others as a Chartered Accountant! As a result, actors often have headshots taken that convey the type of characters that they want to play rather than those that they are likely to be asked to play.
Headshots that are mismatched to the actor are one of the biggest reasons why actors fail to get invited to castings. You must be certain that your headshots highlight and exaggerate your natural qualities rather than try to force an image based on the roles you want to play. More mature actors will often try to market themselves for younger roles and then wonder why they are not getting any work.
The Photo Shoot
Once you have a clear list of role types, you must then go to your next photo-shoot fully armed with that information. You do not under any circumstances allow the photographer, to whom you are going to pay a large amount of money, dictate the way that your photo session will go. Do not allow them to take 200 identical shots with just a slight variation of pose, hairstyle or clothing.
You must consider the photo-session as an extension of the casting process. You are there to play a number of roles and to have photographs taken that make you look as much like those roles as possible. For example, let’s say that you have established that you are likely to be asked to play a seductress, femme fatale type character. Make sure that the photographer is absolutely clear about this look. Take along some photographs of other people portraying this look. You must end up with a photograph that makes you look every inch the seductress with no room for interpretation. You clothes, hair, facial expression, posture, lighting, background and pose must all convey the impression of a seductress to the extreme. This photograph must make you look like the most seductive seductress that has ever walked the earth. The more that the photographs end up looking like stills from a movie, the more effective they will be.
Characters in plays, films, commercials and TV series are rarely written as subtle character types. Prostitutes look like prostitutes, Businessmen look like businessmen and judges look like judges. Directors like an audience to know who a character is supposed to be before any dialogue is ever spoken. Your headshots must do exactly the same job. Every single person looking at that image for the first time should be able to describe the role that it evokes within 5 seconds of seeing it. If they can’t, then you do not have the right photographs and need to start again.
If your personal list of character types are bimbo, prostitute and bitch; then you must be able to come away from the photo session with a least 1 image that clearly conveys each of these 3 character types. In addition, you will also have a couple of more general headshots taken to cover roles that may not fall into one of the categories for which you are ideally suited.
Armed with this collection of headshots you can now start targeting castings for projects seeking these character types. You use the headshot most appropriate to the role being cast and tailor your CV and covering letter to give the casting director absolute confidence that you could play that role without any effort at all.
The casting director will be faced with a large pile of CVs and headshots. 90% of the actors will have submitted bland, neutral images. When your headshot arrives on their desk looking exactly like the character they had in mind, it is highly unlikely that you will not get invited to the casting. If I see a headshot that clearly conveys the most beautiful, most neurotic, most dowdy, the strongest, most glamorous or most victimised actor I have ever seen, I know that this actor will be regularly invited to auditions.
The Casting
When you do go along for the casting, you must then recreate the role that was conveyed when you had the headshot taken. You wear the same makeup, the same hair, the same clothes and wear the same expression throughout the entire meeting. They do not want to meet anyone different from the person they have seen in the photograph.
Unfortunately many actors choose to take a passive role in their own careers. They allow the photographer to take images that looks identical to every other actor that has visited their studio. They then allow their agent to decide which photograph will be used when submitting for a role. It is vital that you take control of your own career; nobody will ever do a better job than you at running your own business.
I have made this article available via the UK Actors group on Facebook.com and also at blog.castingnetwork.co.uk. If you have found this information useful, please do invite other actors to join this group or read the blog. If enough interest is generated, I will be happy to write more articles on a variety of topics aimed at helping actors to find work.
If you have any questions, comments or criticism please email me at danny at castingnetwork.co.uk
Danny Richman
CastNet
Addendum:
Many thanks to everyone for the positive feedback I have received since writing this blog entry.
Several actors have asked if I can recommend a good photographer for headshots. In the spirit of this article, I am intentionally not going to recommend one.
Many actors think that if they could just find the perfect photographer, they will acquire magic headshots that could transform their career. By recommending a photographer I would only be colluding with this nonsense.
Any competent photographer with experience of taking headshots, the right equipment and the right attitude should be more than adequate. You do not need to spend a fortune nor will using the best-known headshot photographers compensate for the groundwork that you must do.
If I was hiring a commercial photographer to take advertising images of my imaginary breakfast cereal, I will be making it absolutely clear what attributes and benefits I need to get across to my target market. I certainly would not leave this decision to the photographer or even ask their advice on this matter.
You must first decide what statement/s you want to make in your photographs and then find the photographer that knows how to make those statements. If the image you want to convey is mean, dark and moody then find a photographer who is strong at indoor shots and skilled with artificial lighting. If you wish to convey a free-spirited childlike quality then perhaps outdoor shots will work best.
I would also recommend grabbing a copy of Spotlight or popping into their offices. The names of the photographer are listed alongside all Spotlight images. See which photographer has taken images that tell the same story that you intend to tell. When you attend the shoot make sure that you control the session. Make sure that your message is completely clear and don’t take no for answer.
Finding a photographer is easy, deciding what story you want them to tell is the important part and is something only you can decide.
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