Actors and "type"

divamum

I seem to be hitting all sorts of links today... :rofl

An article about photos+type clearer than any other I've read (I'll be adding it to the sticky for reference). While I wish another casting director would post their own personal views - reactions and taste will vary from person to person, like anything else - I still think this is an excellent set of examples making "typing" choices clearer than any description.

Also, here's her own personal breakdown of types - very helpful to read one CD's take on this complicated subject!!

kdog

The thing that strikes me about that article is that typing the actor has nothing to do with good portrait photography. That first example shot labeled "GREAT JOB AT PEGGING PRIMARY TYPE", is a horrible portrait. Bad styling, bad angle which seems designed to amplify his double chin, bad background, etc. I guess that's the point though, huh? Very interesting.

divamum

As I've said elsewhere, I don't agree with all of her choices (either theatrically or aesthetically). BUT I think the way she analyzes stuff REALLY helps to understand the process better and she certainly makes some great points about typing that you'd never think of if you were only looking at it from the point of view of a portrait. I think her comments on "type neutral" shots are really interesting - frankly, that's what I do a *lot* of for opera singers... but that's what they need. They're selling something different than an actor looking for TV work. For me, coming from opera/MT, the whole "character" shot looks ludicrous, but if you're a character actor selling for TV or film, that becomes an important thing to have if you're submitting for that kind of role.

I guess most important is that headshots are less about one looks like (as in a model shot) and more about what one *is*, or what one can *do*. It's a marketing tool and "visual resume", not a pretty picture

Qarik

interesting. what I basically took away is that the better headshots are ones that take into consideration the type of work the person is looking for and what type of looks the person might best take on. kinda tricky though..as many folks may not know what they want to do or what look might work best for them.

divamum

interesting. what I basically took away is that the better headshots are ones that take into consideration the type of work the person is looking for and what type of looks the person might best take on. kinda tricky though..as many folks may not know what they want to do or what look might work best for them.

Bingo on both counts.

Frankly, any working actor WILL have an idea of their type (or their agent will) - what they get hired for vs what they *want* to get hired for - but students and newcomers need a TON more guidance. Which is where the photographer's knowledge and understanding comes into play and why it's possible for a GREAT photographer to miss the mark on a headshot. I had that happen with my own first set, taken before I went off to conservatory - the guy was a brilliant and very well-known Hollywood photographer (you've definitely heard of him), but he knew NOTHING about opera. I got a photographically superb and flattering portrait... that didn't reflect my personality, or what I do onstage....

fjcvisual

I thought this article and the ensuing discussing is quite interesting. I guess as a photographer how do you come to understand what look / style / type the actor is looking for? In the case where the actor knows how to sell himself, I guess it then is just a matter of taking a good quality picture. But for those who know their type, but not necessarily know what the best pose is to reflect that type, how do you bring that out?

Not sure if I am making sense or not, but it seems like as a photographer, we would have to have specific knowledge about typing to really provide the value to the client.

Qarik

fjcvisual wrote: »

I thought this article and the ensuing discussing is quite interesting. I guess as a photographer how do you come to understand what look / style / type the actor is looking for? In the case where the actor knows how to sell himself, I guess it then is just a matter of taking a good quality picture. But for those who know their type, but not necessarily know what the best pose is to reflect that type, how do you bring that out?

Not sure if I am making sense or not, but it seems like as a photographer, we would have to have specific knowledge about typing to really provide the value to the client.

well for one thing, you can try different facial expressions (smile, serious, brooding, sad, whatever..) and then you have to input your AESTHETIC judgement..not just your the technical photographic judgment.

divamum

we would have to have specific knowledge about typing to really provide the value to the client.

Which is why I keep posting articles like these. Look at the second link in my original post - that gives you a ton of ideas right there. First question I ask most clients is, "What roles do you see yourself doing, and what roles have you already done?" Sometimes there's a disjunct between what the performer thinks they project, and how others see them. In some cases, the actor needs to be gently nudged towards what they can be cast as; in other cases, maybe it takes a new set of pictures with a fresh perspective (playing against type, even) to help a casting director see that other side of their character and personality which CAN do the roles they feel are "theirs".

I think the best headshot 'togs know repertoire - plays, films, musicals, operas etc - and how t he casting process works. As with most things, once you know *what* you're trying to achieve, figuring out *how* to achieve it becomes easier. One fun thing to do is google around celebrity actors you know and like and see if you can find their headshots over the years - sometimes the results can be quite surprising!!!

Of course, some subjects (particularly musicians!) are just really, really stiff in front of the camera. A good film actor can switch it off and on like a light - a nervous student opera singer, not so much . I talk a lot, move them around a lot, try not to let them get stiff and shoot, shoot shoot. Worst part of any of my shoots is culling the duds, but I'd rather they feel free to experiment than that I get nothing but a school picture smile..... This is really where I need to grow the most, I think - I don't do badly, but I do wind up missing technicals because I'm trying for expression (or vice versa). The best in the business nail BOTH, every time.

ETA: I think these are some of her best comments on this (emphases mine):

Knowing your type, marketing yourself correctly, and looking like your headshot make all the difference. Look at it this way: you are in any other business. You get business cards printed up. There is a misprint and your name is misspelled and your job title is incorrect. Are you going to hand out these business cards as if they represent you correctly? Of course not! Yet actors do that every day by using headshots that do not look like them or that do not properly represent their dominant type. This misrepresentation pretty much means the headshot is selling a person the actor cannot deliver when he shows up in the flesh. And while actors are busy trying to get jobs the "wrong" headshots would lead to, the actors could be losing jobs the headshots that look like them--in their dominant type--would help them get.

If you're not seeing patterns from your own history of work, the best way to ascertain your type is to request that people in the know (agents, managers, casting directors, photographers, publicists, coaches, even fellow actors) take a look at your headshot, take a look at you, and give you a list of the first five adjectives that come to mind. You can also ask these folks whether your headshot is off the mark in portraying you the way you really come off in person. See last week's column for specific tactics you can use to test your headshot's type.

BradfordBenn

As someone once said to me, "Dress for the job you want". I have taken it to heart and dress as Batman everyday. So far I have still not gotten the job but I do like the slimming effect of black and the cowl that covers my lack of hair.....

On a somewhat side note, when I was looking for spokesmodels (people to staff tradeshow booths that don't work for us to do things like scan badges) I will say that the headshots that are too glamour and not enough about the way we will be dressing the people will get rejected. So I do know that the headshot has to match the role you want.

[Not trying to get political, but we have found it more cost effective to hire a person to stand in the booth and do literature management for us then to fly someone in to do the same task. However I refuse to call them booth babes as they are dressed appropriately in the same uniforms as all the other employees.]