Acting : Headshot & Personal Branding recommendations in LA by Lindsey Loon

With 20+ years experience, as producer/director and a professional photographer - the ONLY thing a legitimate casting director is concerned with is that YOUR PHOTO LOOKS LIKE YOU. The rest - quality - photographer - etc - so long as it is reasonable is absolutely beside the point. "What? Of course it will look like me," you say. No. Let me illustrate: I have an actress friend who is very talented and quite pretty. She has a natural womanly and mature aura. However, in her eyes she wanted to play the ingenue and cute damsel roles. So she dressed the character and got photos taken, selected those few which made her look young and naieve. She got tons of auditions and NO callbacks, even though she is an accomplished professionnal actress and probably nailed the performance. Why? Because the casting director is looking for the person in the photo. When you come in and you simply do not have the same aura or natural character about you - they just get pissed off because they were hoping to see the ACTUAL person. You just waste their time and yours. And they DO have a very good and long memory. The question of "branding" depends on what you mean... if "you" are your brand then the above applies. If on the other hand you are a stunt-performer or such then you might want your images to portray your natural physicality - but they still must be YOU not your "character." Now I qualified the above with the word "legitimate". Any casting director who is looking at whether your image is on ligho or photo paper, or whether it is done by a certain photographer, or if it is color or black/white and decides whether to call you in on that basis is NOT a good casting director. Agents who are absorbed by such details are not that good, either... That is not to say you don't need good headshots. You actually need great ones. But a great shot is one which presents the real (currrent) you without distracting the eye with out-of-place background, color or imperfections. If you have those (and they are current), and someone suggests you get new images, take it as code for the fact they are not as smart about the industry as they pretend...

Hi Lindsey, I think David Muller here in LA best "gets it" as a photographer from any of those I've seen/experienced lately. He's pretty dialed in. And is on most of the agencies "recommended list" as a result. Most of my shots on my LA Casting profile were done with him. lacasting.com/chrisconnell. Thats my 2 cents. Hope this helps :) Chris