New Year -- New You

There is nothing more frustrating for a director than spending hours watching monologues, setting his heart on one actor, only to lose that actor in a pile of headshots because the picture looked nothing like the actor. Or to spend a year or eighteen months sending your headshots to agents, get the call, only to have the agent be disappointed because they really needed a twenty-five-year-old brunette, and you're a thirty-year-old blond.

Do you think those are exaggerated examples? Not at all! Many actors think that their audition and talent will land the job, but that's only true some of the time. There are many, many casting directors out there who think that if you don't have enough sense to keep your headshots current, you're not really serious about your career. Is that fair? Maybe not, but when the choice comes down to two actors, both of whom are perfect for the role, do you really want the director staring at a five-year-old shot to help him make up his mind?

Two Archetype clients came back to update their looks. The first was Brian Coleman, a Northwestern student who has been selected for their New York showcase. This was Brian's shot: It's a great shot of Brian, and has gotten a lot of attention from Archetype clients. But, in just a few short months Brian's look had changed.

In the second shot, the lighting and color schemes are almost identical, the pose is similar, but the viewer responds to Brian in a very different way. He's more mature and stronger in the second picture. The same person, pictures only taken months apart, yet each picture is going to get Brian very different calls.

The second Archetype client is Mary Anne Bowman. Mary Anne is a brilliant actor, who for the past few years has been focusing on stage combat, working with Babes with Blades. Being a company member meant that she wasn't submitting her headshots to other companies for work. The Babes kept Mary Anne pretty busy.

While she's anything but a typical talent, Mary Anne is very typical when it comes to having her headshots done. She hates doing it, and because she was working with directors who were familiar with her, she didn't feel the need to keep her headshots up to date. Then one day she looked at her headshots and realized that it had been nearly ten years. Yes, the shots were recognizable as her, but they didn't communicate anything about the depth or complexity of the roles she was now able to to undertake with ten years of experience under her belt. In addition, she'd updated her look so she came back to us for a second session.

Before:


After:

It's not about having a headshot that makes you look good, it's about having a headshot that communicates who you are as a person, professional, and artist.

In January, Archetype Images is making it very easy for you to update your marketing materials. The photo session is FREE. You only pay for the shots you like. What could be better than that.

See http://www.archetypeimages.com/ for details.