In my year and a half as a casting director, I’ve received tens of thousands of headshots. This doesn’t include the postcards, electronic submissions, and photo business cards I’ve also received. I’m talking tens of thousands of 8×10 photos with resumés attached. Obviously, as an indie film CD working out of a home office, a PO Box, and whatever production space may be provided from project to project, I couldn’t possibly keep every headshot I’ve ever received, even if I wanted to. But would I want to? What makes a headshot a keeper?
As I went through headshot submissions for the film I’m currently casting, separating photos into stacks (right for this project, not quite right but worth bringing in just in case, not right for this project but worth keeping in my files, toss), I began formulating a more definitive list of what makes a headshot a keeper, realizing that information could be useful to actors.
Let’s go through the four categories I parenthetically listed, above, in a little more detail.
Right for this project: Obviously, this category exists only when I’m actively casting a project. During the breaks between active casting — unless I am in early pre-casting conversations with a film’s producer and director about its casting needs — the headshots I receive are “general submissions” from actors hoping to get into my files, asking to be seen for a “general” (meeting), or inviting me to a show or screening. When I’m working on a project, though, I’ll look at submissions to be certain that whatever criteria we have spelled out in the Breakdown is being met (certain credits, particular look, vocal ability, age range, ethnicity, type, union status, improv experience, special skills, accents, etc.) and create two stacks within the right for this project stack: know the actor’s work and don’t know the actor’s work. That way, when I am scheduling prereads, I can start with people whose work I know (since there is less of a risk that the producer and director will be disappointed with the work they see, if I know what to expect and prep everyone for who’ll be delivering what type of read, going in) and provide remaining slots to actors whose work I may not know but who come with a referral from someone I know, who have worked with someone I know, or who somehow jump out at me for any number of reasons.
Not quite right but worth bringing in just in case: Even if an actor does not meet the basic requirements the director and producer have spelled out in our early casting meetings, sometimes that actor will wind up being called in. This is because I’ve learned that often directors and producers don’t know what the “right actor” looks like, sounds like, or behaves like, when they’re in the early planning stages. They may have very specific ideas (she must be brunette, he must be over six feet tall, she cannot be Caucasian, he speaks with a southern accent, etc.) as they begin the casting process, but part of my job as a casting director is to bring another “lens” to the experience. If the director and producer wanted total control over the casting process, they’d do it themselves (as many indie filmmakers will try to do… once). When they choose to hire a professional, it is because they value the relationships the CD has developed with agents and managers, the vast database of talent the CD has amassed, and the casting director’s own creative stamp, which will come through at this stage of the process. I will keep the headshots of actors who are not quite right for the role, but who will be brought in for the preread anyway. This is to both show the producer and director “another way to go” with this particular casting choice and to help define the limits of those early conversations. If I bring in someone without standup comedy experience when the producer has underscored the importance of this particular item on a resumé and the producer falls in love with the actor I’ve taken a chance on, I know now that the producer is willing to have her vision shaped during the casting process. It is also at this point that I learn how rigid a producer or director may be, in terms of his or her restrictions.
Not right for this project but worth keeping in my files: This is the broadest category, for me, as I go through headshots on any given day. There are more subsets to this category than any of the others. Some of the most common reasons I’ll hang onto a headshot include the following: I know the actor’s work, I know someone the actor has worked with, I respect the theatres at which the actor has done stage work, I respect the people with whom the actor has trained, I have no other actor of that exact type in my files already. Less common reasons I’ll keep an actor’s headshot include a really fantastic cover letter, interesting or unique marketing tactics, or that impossible-to-quantify “something special” that makes me rescue that otherwise doomed-to-be-thrown-away headshot from the “toss” stack. I can’t explain what it is that makes those headshots “keepers.” They’re just the ones I keep coming back to, and they end up staying in my files “just because.”
The subset of this category that is not going to make anyone love me is the one I call WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!? submissions. At first, I threw away these types of submissions, figuring I was getting some very odd, out-of-market responses from people who had misread the line in the Back Stage West listing about transportation being included along with copy, credit, and meals. Envelopes doused in cologne containing self-portrait snapshots attached to letters describing how the aspiring actor from the middle of nowhere had recently dreamt about being cast in a project with “this exact title” and getting to move to Hollywood to become famous seemed better to toss than keep as examples of “bad” submissions. It was only after I began regularly receiving inappropriate yet “professional” submissions from actors truly pursuing their craft that I created the What were you thinking? file. It’s a small file, mainly containing headshots of shirtless men oiled up and flexing, of actors airbrushed beyond recognition, and of actors posing with their many pets. The most common addition to the What were you thinking? file is a cover letter that includes my name (Bonnie Gillespie) and then begins, “Dear Sirs.” There’s also one from an actor who loved my work casting the series Girlfriends (note: I did not cast that series) and the worst promotional postcard I’ve ever received (too disgusting to even detail here). The most frustrating item in this file is the regularly-received “great headshot, great credits, NO CONTACT INFORMATION” submission. I cannot imagine why it is that actors would spend a small fortune on a photo session, 8 x 10 prints, reproduced prints, envelopes, postage, and such and then not include information about how to reach them!
Finally, there is the category of toss, which simply means I toss out the headshots that don’t meet my needs as described above. Sometimes, I just have too many perfect 20-something blonde actors with “enhanced” breasts in my files and there isn’t room for any more. After every project I cast (each one yielding anywhere from 500 to 5000 headshot submissions), I’ll rebuild my files. I’ll purge the headshots of actors whose work I don’t know but whose headshots I’ve held onto for a year, yet never found a reason to call in for an audition (unless they represent a type I otherwise do not have in my files). If my audition sessions on a recent project have allowed me to learn the work of ten actors whose headshots were previously in my files without my having known their work, I will make sure I’ve added my notes to their headshots (weighs 20 pounds more than in this headshot, plays much younger than this photo would indicate, strong with comedic timing, has a very thick accent, cannot take direction, brilliant with subtle choices, only okay, etc.) and keep them in my files, even if I don’t plan on calling the actor in again soon. It’s important for me to know what I thought of a particular actor’s work, once I’ve seen it. I don’t tend to toss headshots of any actor whose work I know.
Actors have asked me what makes a headshot stand out. The best advice I can give on that specific question (to which there is not one specific answer) is that actors should take any opportunity to intern in a casting director’s office. A busy day of opening submission envelopes right after a Breakdown goes out could be the most eye-opening experience an actor has, when it comes to headshots. You may feel as if you market yourself in a vacuum, but it’s quite obvious when you’re on the receiving end of thousands of submissions what works and what does not. Marketing gimmicks, insincere cover letters, inflated credits, over-airbrushed photographs, and obvious lack of research (submitting yourself — a male actor — on a female role) all stand out when you’re sorting through the mail. Yes, you want to stand out, but in the right way: professional, observant, appropriately marketed. There are just some stacks you don’t want your headshot to end up in.
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000058.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.