Larry Garrison - Breaking into Acting For Dummies

The photograph should focus on your face and hair, reflecting what you honestly look like. A good head shot

Makes you look natural. (Deliberate posing can make you look phony.)

Shows you looking directly at the camera.

Shows you smiling (for comedy), relaxed, and friendly. Furthermore, head shots can also show your serious side (for drama), your business look, and any other role you’re able to portray. For instance, you may have a gang member/biker look that may get you in for that particular role.

Makes casting directors say to themselves, “I’d like to meet that person, or that’s who we want for the role!”

Make sure your head shot looks like you.

We suggest you update your head shot during your acting career to reflect the way you look now (as opposed to three years ago when you might have gotten your last head shot taken). Also, every time you make a major change in your appearance, such as cutting considerable length from your hair or dying your brown hair blonde, you should get new head shots to reflect your new look.

A head shot serves two main purposes:

To get an agent interested in representing you. As a beginner, this is the main purpose of your head shot. A good head shot can attract the attention of an agent and make him or her want to sign you on as a client.

To get a casting director interested in calling you in to an audition. After you audition, your head shot also helps the casting director remember what you looked like and what he liked about the way you acted and looked.

The most common head shot captures your face and part of your shoulders, as shown in Figure 4-1. The actor isn’t wearing distracting jewelry, and her makeup is conservative and flattering. ( Note: You should apply makeup sparingly. You want to look natural in your head shot, so makeup shouldn’t be obvious, unless you’re pursuing a particular role.) She’s looking directly at the camera, and her hands aren’t covering or obscuring her face. In she appears relaxed and looks natural. Figure 4-2 is another example of an effective head shot.

Source: Dellon Thomas/Pexels

FIGURE 4-1:A standard head shot.

Photo by Sean Garrison

FIGURE 4-2:Another standard head shot.

Not all head shots are equal. Depending on what type of acting you want to pursue — for instance, commercials, theater, or film — you may need a different type of head shot for each market (or multiple head shots for a single market). For example, one head shot may show a glamorous view of yourself for theater auditions, whereas a second head shot may show a simpler yet bubblier version of yourself for commercial auditions.

You may also want to get different head shots to project different looks when targeting the same markets. For example, you may have a nerdy look, a business look, and a tough-guy look in three different head shots all targeted for the television commercial market. You can improve your chances of landing a role by submitting the head shot that best matches the type of person casting directors need for a certain role.

As an actor, you should show you versatility in head shots. Personally (Larry) has a business head shot, a smiling comedy head shot, a dramatic head shot, and others for appropriate roles that may show up in the breakdowns. This gives your representation the ability to submit you for numerous projects. The following sections discuss two types of head shots you need.

Commercial head shots especially need to emphasize your smile and show your personality.

As a result, the perkier, happier, and more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed you can appear in a commercial head shot, the better. Your commercial head shot should radiate a feeling of unbridled cheerfulness that makes advertising agency executives want to jump up and shout. On occasion, the casting director may want a grandparent that might have a serious look. You may then submit a different type of head shot.

When shooting a commercial head shot, make sure that you don’t wear any clothes that display a corporate logo or name. After all, wearing a shirt with the Coca-Cola logo stitched across the front won’t do you any good if you have to audition for a commercial being developed by Pepsi.

Unlike a standard or commercial head shot that captures your everyday look, a theatrical head shot can capture a specific quality that you want to project — such as a sexy, sophisticated look or a thoughtful, introspective look. Also, with a theatrical head shot, you can emphasize a certain type of character, whether it’s a crafty villain or a confused, bumbling, everyday man. (If you can play a crafty villain and a bumbling person, consider getting two head shots that reflect both of these characters. That way you can choose which head shot to use when auditioning for a particular role.)

Just make sure that if you project a certain image, you can also act well enough to support that type of a character, or else the real image you’ll project will be a bumbling amateur who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

The clothes you wear for a theatrical head shot can be more varied than a standard head shot, too, depending on the image you want to emphasize. For example, you may want to wear a suit or an evening gown.

Your head shot may be the first (and, in many cases, the only) impression casting directors get of you, so your head shot needs to present you at your best. To get the best head shot possible, you need the following:

You all by yourself, looking neatly groomed and well rested. (Leave the kids, pets, relatives, and friends at home.)

Clothes that fit, are currently in style, and won’t distract from your face.

The best head shot photographer you can find. Look for examples of the photographer’s work and any current known celebrities that photographer may have photographed. Many professional photographers have a website to showcase their portfolio.

Note that if you’re taking a picture of a young child, use your own pictures because your child’s looks change rapidly.

The following sections help you create the perfect head shot by hiring a professional photographer to take the photos, selecting the right look, and ensuring you use the photo session to ultimately get what you want.

A professional photographer is a must. Unless one of your friends or relatives is a professional photographer, don’t even consider having them take your picture. Trying to save money by using a phone and having your friend take the picture is pointless, because a poor head shot will ultimately cost you when nobody takes you seriously as an actor.