[Headshots In LA By Vanie Poyey]
For most actors, getting an agent or even a new agent is exciting news 🎉 because it means being able to audition for more high quality productions!
Getting a new agent can also mean having to get new headshots.
Sure, sometimes it’s good to get new headshots and hit the road running, especially if you’re due. Your new agent likely has a preferred list of photographers whose headshots do well for them. It would be wise to choose your photographer from that list.
BUT… if you just got new headshots and your new agent still wants new ones? Well, there are usually three reasons why a new agents asks for new headshots.
Ashley Tapia: Customer Service / Urban Hip / Student
1️⃣ Your headshots are of poor quality and your new agent can’t work with them effectively. If this is the case, then your agent would be well within their right to ask for marketing tools that are more effective in getting you auditions.
You’re probably going to end up spending more money than you did on poor quality photos, but as they say… time is money and the lnger you wait, the more time will pass where you’re not auditioning.
Catie Smith: Grad Student / Blue Collar
Varak Kaloustian: Young Office Guy / Best Friend
2️⃣ A NEW AGENT MIGHT ASK FOR NEW HEADSHOTS because your headshots are not specific enough.
If this is the case, you’d be well served with better, well thought-out marketing looks in your headshots so they work for you.
But…
What if you recently had a photoshoot and you didn’t take shortcuts? You actually shot with a photographer who understands industry standards, your headshots are of great quality, AND you got specific with your looks, but your new agent still asks for new headshots.
Hannah Shay: Upscale Business / Love Interest / Heroine
Ben Buehler: Blue Collar / Creative Professional / BBQ Dad
Mandie Hittleman: Office Girl / Bohemian Friend
3️⃣ THE THIRD REASON reps ask for new headshots is because the headshots you present to them aren’t what they’re looking for. What this means is that although you did everything correctly, there’s one thing you didn’t do and that is, you didn’t present your new agents the big picture.
Instead, if you took your headshots, say three months ago, YOU ALREADY CHOSE YOUR FAVORITES, retouched them, and uploaded them to casting sites. With those headshots, you submitted yourself to casting calls, as well as to potential meetings with reps. Once you signed with your new agent, they asked for a re-shoot.
👉 MOST ACTORS AREN’T GOOD AT PICKING THEIR OWN PHOTOS.
Vanity gets in the way, and they end up picking the most flattering pictures of themselves for each look. This results in each look having the same expression the actor is partial to, so agents don’t feel as though they have a big enough variety to work with.
Phillip Anthony: Casual Office / BBQ Dad
The best thing to do in THIS case is to show your new agent the entire photo session by presenting them with a web gallery.
Pro photographers pay for services that provide web galleries for actors, making it easy to view all their images and even pick favorites to compare side-by-side. Showing agents your images with tools that make it easy for them to browse and choose your headshots effectively is the key.
Rebecca Buckley: Creative Images / Heroine / Hipster
Sophia Palmero: Love Interest / Hipster – Artist / BBQ Mom
✨If this means contacting your photographer and renewing a recently expired gallery, do so!✨
🚫 Don’t make the mistake of emailing a bunch of headshots to your agent, because they don’t have the tools on their computer to view them all at the same time. Instead, they’ll have to open each image one at a time and try to commit to memory, the ones they like the most. This is not an effective way of choosing headshots and it likely will result in your agent not looking at all and still asking for a re-shoot.
🚫 ALSO YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE THE MISTAKE of sending them a Dropbox link. Dropbox is a backup app; NOT a photo viewing app. It simply backs up your images to the cloud. Dropbox does not allow you to view all the images large enough, and upon clicking for a bigger view, each image is only viewable one at a time, without the ability to pick favorites and compare them.
Paulette Mihale: Heroine / Love Interest
Making it easy for a new rep to see all the images from your recent session– one, makes it hard for them to ask for a re-shoot– and two, shows the range of looks you may have captured that they didn’t see in just the few you picked out for yourself.
So next time you get a new agent, show them a web gallery of your latest photo session, and save yourself the trouble and cost of having to re-shoot!
—
I love helping you by putting out this free information (often written on weekends and evenings) so please help me spread the word by commenting and or sharing this post on your social feed! 🙏
0 Comments