The site is called ArtsOracle and the web address is below. Go and check it out especially as I am going to be doing an advice colum where I might end up as the 'Agony Aunt of Actors Headshots' - perish the thought!
http://www.artsoracle.com/
By Nick Gasson
For most jobbing actors, traditional acting work makes for only part of the income we need to survive and carry on paying the rent. For other income, we try for work associated with acting, like doing murder mysteries or other corporate entertainment. And for many, corporate role-playing is also an interesting and lucrative source of income.
If you haven’t been involved in corporate role-play before, it can be difficult to get started: we role-player providers prefer to use experienced people. But the biggest role-play companies do provide training days and conduct workshop auditions to take new people on.
For the other companies, there is little point in applying if all you can provide is your acting CV and a covering letter saying how keen you are. As a medium sized role-player provider, we’re always looking for experienced people only. So here are a few tips to help you get your application considered, hopefully successfully!
Do’s
Always have an up to date role-play CV ready to send out
Include a photo that can be copied and pasted, or a link to your Spotlight or Casting Call Pro page
Include companies worked for and role-play companies worked for
Include your playing age within a five-year window
Include where you are based
Include any specialist skills or qualifications, like NLP for example
Email your application with your CV as an attachment
Have a short covering email – two or three paragraphs only
Include your mobile number
Don’ts
Never apply for role-play work just using your acting CV unless you’ve never role-played before
Don’t call the role-play company. Write only, preferably by email. This gives the highest chance of your application being looked at and considered
Never leave a voicemail asking the role-play company to call you back
Don’t write your life story in your covering letter. Be concise and to the point, outlining the breadth of your role-play experience
Once a role-play company has used you and likes you, there are various tips for continuing to get work from them. With the recession pressurising profit margins, the most efficient way to run our businesses is electronically. This means you need to be on broadband and access your emails several times every day. Companies will email or text you in the first instance to assess your availability for jobs, so you need to be able to respond quickly. Role-play materials are also sent via email attachments. You need to be able to print these quickly. Many of our role-players now have Blackberries which makes responses even quicker. Role-play companies quickly grow tired of offering work to actors who take days to respond to an availability check.
Professionalism is also a must. Actors should treat a role-play engagement just like an audition or a rehearsal for a play: arrival 10 minutes before your call time is expected. Actors who prove to be unreliable in this regard are quickly dropped.
Some jobs outside of London will require travel to be booked up-front and on occasion, a hotel bill to settle on check-out. You need a credit or debit card that isn’t ‘maxed out’ for this. Of course, these costs will be reimbursed. The role-play industry standard for settling an actor’s invoice starts at 30 days. Our company sticks with this, although you should be aware that many role-play companies won’t pay actors until they have been paid by the client. This could be anything up to three months, and in the worst case scenario, even six months later.
Many actors find role-play work extremely rewarding and, for some, their skills become honed to the extent that role-playing becomes a career. Many help with facilitating the sessions with the client’s own facilitators, and clients request actors by name because they are so skilled and respected. However, this is not an income stream that actors who are working frequently in theatre and television should pursue! We are often approached by well known faces having a small blip in their successful acting careers. But they tend to be less experienced in role-play, and are more likely to be unavailable for jobs. Worse, they are more likely to drop out of a role-play commitment when they are suddenly offered the next big thing at the Royal Court, or Spielberg comes a-calling!
Nick Gasson
Nick Gasson is proprietor of Nick Gasson Associates, provider of Training Consultants and Role-Players to business. See www.role-players.co.uk
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( 2.9 / 79 )I just thought I'd tell you about a new web page I have called Headshot Photographer. It's a Squidoo lens ( page ) and it has loads of info and tips on actors headshots and everything involved in them.
Give it a try, leave a comment and you can even rate it if you want to.
I'd appreciate any comments on ways to improve it. This is the link.
http://www.squidoo.com/headshot-photographer
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( 3.1 / 74 )By foxnews.com
Mariah Carey may be relishing in the rave reviews and Oscar buzz surrounding her new drama “Precious”, however her 2001 film disaster “Glitter” still brings some painful memories to the surface.
The film (and Carey’s performance on screen and on the soundtrack) was slammed by almost all critics and labeled as one of the worst of all-time, eventually prompting the pop princess to be hospitalized amid an emotional breakdown.
However Carey isn’t accepting full responsibility for the “Glitter” gaffe.
“Being here is definitely a milestone. But I had one milestone that almost had me under this stone,” Carey told us as the AFI screening of “Precious” on Sunday night. “I didn’t realize you really have to be selective with the people that you work with and you have to have that support system and you have to work with people that you feel are geniuses.”
Speaking of genius, Carey’s physical transformation into a run-of-the-mill, unglamorous New York social worker for the flick is quite a work of art in itself. And coming from a pop diva who imposes a monstrous set of rules when it comes to filming her (on one recent occasion where Pop Tarts was present, Carey refused to be shot from the waist-down and had her own Director of Photography on-hand to ensure the lighting and frame size were exactly as she wanted), this was quite a personal challenge.
“When it first saw the film I thought I looked hideous, I felt completely rancid. I’ve kind of gotten over it… Have I gotten over it?” she motioned to hubby Nick Cannon, who was quick to disagree.
“Not really,” he laughed, shaking his head. “But the performance was phenomenal. I love her in every look. It’s Mariah!”
And hey, at least Ms Carey was bold enough to admit she needed a break from fame and glamour and come back down to earth and look a little “ordinary”.
“This was such a liberating experience and yet humiliating. But I needed that,” Carey added. “We all need that, we need to understand how to be humble and it’s a difficult business to do that in. But I’m definitely inspired to work out of my comfort zone after this.”
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( 3 / 78 )In a manner of speaking anybody can take a headshot, you frame it across the shoulders and simply shoot away right – wrong, there’s a bit more to it than that. What about the important technical things such as, good lighting, correct framing and cropping, correct exposure, choice of background, choice of what to wear and advice on how to pose, of where to focus and how to get that all important wow factor in your shot to make it stand out. What about the bigger implications of a poor shoot, the damage and missed opportunities that a bad headshot can have on an actor’s career.
As a busy photographer shooting actors headshots in London all of these things are second nature to me, processes I do without consciously thinking about them, things I’ve learned to do over the years and shooting thousands of actors headshots. I think that as soon as some one wants to call themselves a headshot photographer and charge for their services as a photographer then they have a duty to behave as a professional and be aware of the consequences to some of their clients of their actions.
Furthermore I’m sure nearly all of theses self-proclaimed photographers have some kind of experience with some form of image editing software such as Photoshop and often spend as much time retouching or should I say recovering an image as they do taking it.
I strongly believe that it’s imperative ‘to get the shot right in the first place’ rather than have to fix all the technical mistakes at a later stage on the computer. I have to say that these things should come naturally to an experienced professional photographer, as should the decision to use a reflector or not to pick the eyes up a little or bounce some extra light into the shot. When and where to crop a picture and how to crop that shot to give extra impact for a commercial headshot as opposed to a more serious actors headshot. There are many, many attributes to a great headshot and all of these attributes must work together in harmony to produce the perfect headshot.
When and if an actor gets that perfect headshot then they are generally much more confident about their career prospects. They will feel as though they are moving forward especially if they find themselves getting to the audition stage, having a chance to prove their acting ability at an audition rather than simply banging their heads against a brick wall with no forward motion. They’ll feel encouraged to apply for more roles and even feel as though they have a better chance of securing an Agent.
A great headshot has a wide-ranging effect on the psyche and the prospects of an actor in particular on the younger / inexperienced person. Therefore it’s crucial to get things right, give good advice and encourage them to express themselves in front of the camera.
This is the essence of being a professional headshot photographer.
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( 3 / 76 )I myself have no ‘proper professional or paper qualifications’ nor do I have any memberships to the ‘so called professional bodies’ but do have almost 20 years experience as a full time working photographer earning my living solely by taking photographs. I have over that time built a strong reputation as an actors headshot photographer in London and the UK. This is because I am an expert at taking actors headshots – it’s my speciality.
However over recent years and with the introduction of brilliantly technological advanced DSLR cameras and the availability of easy to use, yet very sophisticated automatic cameras there has been a massive influx of people calling themselves photographers yet being nothing of the sort. Anyone can pick up a camera, advertise and start taking pictures and charging for their services. Is this right? I think not. How many people have had their wedding day or their prize giving ruined by under prepared and under qualified photographers. But more to the point, how many young and up and coming actors, dancers and performers are languishing in an uncomfortable limbo because of poor headshots. Unaware and not understanding why they aren’t moving forward, I’m sad to say that on many occasions it’s because their headshots are just not good enough and are in effect holding them back?
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