I don’t take booking deposits.

Some of us do, some of us don’t. I get asked about it all the time and people are often surprised to hear that I trust them to be professional enough to show up on the day of the shoot, when I have equipment set up, precious time set aside and my makeup artist booked.

Only about 7 times in the 7 years I’ve been shooting actors has someone simply not shown up. That’s pretty insignificant when you consider the hundreds of actors I’ve shot, but it still completely floors me when it happens.

It’s tremendously inconvenient, but that’s not the reason. The reason is that actors so frequently fail to see how they have a reputation for lack of professionalism, and that that reputation discourages casting directors from working with new actors as much or more than anything else.

“And don’t even think about feature films or episodic TV, where in addition to all of those factors you might also have a significant amount of actual acting to fuck up.”

Agents (and sometimes casting directors themselves) ask me for feedback on actors I work with all the time. Sometimes they’re concerned with their confidence or how they look on camera, but nine times out of ten they want to know about a new actor’s professionalism. Did they show up on time? Were they difficult to work with? Were they condescending or rude? How did they treat my makeup artist? Could they follow direction or did they think they knew better? Were they constantly distracted by their phones or Blackberries? Did they pay me promptly?

I’m patient and polite (among other wonderful qualities). Plus you’re my client, so it’s my job to be accommodating and manage the stress of a headshot session for you in order to get fantastic pictures and make the experience fun and rewarding. Whether it’s working out a payment plan or dealing with a little pre-shoot insecurity attack, I’m ultimately here to help you.

But consider for a moment how casting or production sees the issue.

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F.A.Q.s (Frequently Asked Questions) about headshots are usually pretty boring and disingenuous (What should I wear? Something that brings out your eyes!). The cold fact is most headshot photographers are corny hacks who are more interested in getting you to stay behind to do “artistic nudes” than helping you forge relationships with casting directors. More interesting is this F.U.Q. — a list of fears, insecurities and gross misconceptions about the business of actors headshot photography. Unlike an F.A.Q. I’ll only list the questions. I think the answers are self evident. If you do too I just might be the photographer you’ve been looking for.

Chris Frampton’s Actors Headshot F.U.Q.

I hate the way I look. Will I like the way I look in pictures you take?

I think I have big gums/bad teeth/an unattractive smile. If I clamp my lips together though the whole shoot so that it doesn’t show, will it look funny?

Some actors friends in L.A./Vancouver/New York/Toronto say you’re the hot photographer to shoot with right now. I don’t like your pictures, and I don’t want my pictures to look like yours. Will I like pictures you take of me?

I’ve had my headshots done a million times. They’ve never made an ounce of difference for me with casting. I hear you do pictures that casting love, and that you have a collaborative approach that helps actors translate their skills and instincts for still photography. I want pictures like that, but I’m probably just going to ignore you during the shoot and pose or “make my face” like I always have. Is this going to work out?

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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.

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