Do you have a shtick?
June 15, 2009 | 2 comments
By far the worst actors to photograph are film & TV veterans.
That may sound backwards, but generally speaking I will get more killer pictures out of a sweating, nervous newbie than I will out of someone who’s been on every Canadian TV show since Littlest Hobo. Do you know why? It’s because veteran film & TV actors develop a shtick – an act or routine that they can easily call up and deploy. It allows them to stop listening and concentrate on making it look a certain way. It allows them to control the performance.
In front of the camera a shticky actor might nod or laugh at a joke, but they’ll never break the pose or position they’ve put themselves into. They’re constantly working against you as a photographer because, hell, you’re only a photographer, right? They know what their “angles” are. They know how to “find the light”. They know they’ll look thinner on a 45 degree angle. To hell with the emotional language of the picture. They’re actors! They have a shtick for that! I’ve actually had actors drop to the floor for a few quick pushups when they’ve thought I was pausing to tell them a story.
You can’t blame them really. In film & television acting is usually competitive. You worry about how much coverage you’re getting, why you aren’t in more scenes or shots, whether your best take happened on your closeup, if the light’s better for you or the other person in the scene, if the director likes you, if you’re screwing things up for the continuity person, if your lines are going to be cut, and you worry about all this stuff compared to the other actors.
So since nobody’s worrying about all this messy “acting” stuff — listening to the other people in the scene, letting go of your vanity, taking chances even if they might make you look foolish — you’re free to concentrate on other things, like figuring out if you’re in meal penalty. So you develop a shtick. It can be a great shtick (Diniro has a shtick), but it’s shtick nevertheless.
So what’s the problem? The problem is that the more you give in to your shtick, the less able you are to let go of it when you need to. The shtick is the posy headshot of acting. It’s selfish, meaningless and uninsightful. At it’s heart it’s not acting at all, it’s simply meeting expectations.
What’s this all mean to you? Well if you’re Paul Gross, nothing. Carry on. If, however, you’re struggling to make a career for yourself as a film & TV actor, shtick should be your kryptonite, because when you’re doing shtick you are 100% incapable of blowing someone away with your performance because shtick, by its very nature, is about things we’ve seen before. It’s a shorthand that works because we don’t really have to process it. It’s generic.
In headshots, shtick is the kiss of death. If you can’t show a casting director who doesn’t already have a relationship with you something authentic, interesting or original in your headshot, why would they think you’re going to do anything but shtick in the audition?
I think casting directors like my pictures because my goal as a photographer is to reveal the actor. I’m a shtick-hound, and I try to stamp it out wherever I see it.
Do you have a shtick?
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This might be a bit off topic, so I’m sorry but while reading your post, I was interupted by my friend calling about Charlie’s latest interview. He really needs to get some help! What do you guys think? He calls it winning, I call it losing!
This has made me think.