Headshots

  • February 11, 1992

  • Headshots
  • Linda Krikorian

Headshots. Gotta get new headshots. Will this obsession ever go away? Apparently it won't be cheap. I've tried 85-dollar headshots, and I splurged on 65-dollar headshots, but neither session has cured my need for 'new headshots.' Maybe it's a mind game that everyone in L.A. has agreed to play: Anyone new in town needs new headshots. Anyone who's been in town for a while must convince them of that. No matter how much you like someone's headshot, always say he or she needs new ones. It's good for the economy, I guess.

So now I have decided that a heavy outlay of money will do the trick. If 200 dollars might cure me, and 300 dollars would probably cure me, then 400-dollar headshots seem like a surefire panacea.

Linda Krikorian is the woman that Victoria Burrows recommended at her cold-reading showcase last Thursday. So I went to her studio today to check her and her stuff out.

Once inside the door, one of the first things Ms. Krikorian says to me is that Victoria called her and said that this guy might be calling her for headshots and that he's a very good actor. And, lo and behold, that guy was me, John Ducey, who was apparently described by Victoria Burrows as 'a good little actor with a lot of potential who needed some good headshots.' Wow! Pretty flattering! Linda added that Victoria "hardly ever says things like that about people," and she was surprised by it, and that I must be pretty good.

Well, it wasn't long before I was asking what payment method I should use. And Linda and I are going to town on February 25, two weeks from today, to the tune of 400 big ones.

It took Emily Hsu to point out to me that a simple scam could be going on here. Does every actor through that door hear how wonderful Victoria thinks he or she is? It definitely reinforced my resolve to get new headshots.

I wrote Victoria a letter, asking for her personal guidance as I prepare for my headshot sitting. Her response should shed some light on the truth value of today's events.

I got a fresh haircut a week ago so it would be a real part of me by today. I bought a black T-shirt from The Gap because Linda likes T-shirts in dark colors, especially black. I called Victoria Burrows to see if she could give me "image guidance," but she sadly informed me that she was just too busy, but she was glad I was doing this because I really needed the new shots. And, she said, "Remember, you're very good," and asked me to send her a new headshot when I got 'em. I even called my agent. Yes, it was the first time I had heard Pat Gruney's voice in about a month-and-a-half.

My assignment from Linda was to get five adjectives describing my image as an actor, my "type," and thus the qualities we would be shooting for in the headshots. So, having been dissed by Victoria Burrows, I turned to Pat [my agent]. I told her I was going to get new headshots and I wanted her advice on the image I should go for. She said to get one serious, one smiling. She didn't understand.

I said, "No, I mean what 'type' should I try to capture in my photos?" She said to get one for drama that was serious and one smiling for commercials. I wasn't making myself clear.

I said, "When you go through the breakdowns, and you see a character description, what makes you think, 'Oh, John Ducey would be perfect for that!'?" She started going through the breakdowns... "No, that's not you... no, that's all women... no, this is for a seventeen year-old. I don't want to send you out on any baby parts!" (What? Hello! Is anyone home in there?) And then, unable to grasp the hypothetical question, she finally found one and read off the description, word-for-word.

(Now, it turned out it was something that I think I would be perfect for -- intellectual, well-off, a little snobby, charming -- so I asked Pat if I was submitted for it, and she said that, no, she had not submitted me for it. I asked her why not and she said, "Well, because I just haven't." What the hell is that? Does she spend most of her day in a closet? Does she work at being lame? It turned out Mary, an assistant, had actually submitted me for it, and Pat didn't even know. Is any portion of her brain still functioning? Boy, that's the kind of rigorous support from an agent that most actors only dream about! But I digress.)

So, I took the list of adjectives I wrote down myself, plus the list I asked Patty Goldman to write, plus the adjectives I sifted from my conversation with Pat, and made one final list. Linda hung onto the list, but this is a pretty faithful reproduction, I think... (They are in no particular order.)

OK, so in a way it was ten adjectives total, but still five categories of "character."

For clothes, I brought a great deal of the Ducey collection. So we looked at the adjectives and looked at the clothes. Then, we took Polaroids of all three non-button-down solid-colored shirts (mustard, crimson, black). The black seemed to look the best with the background, so we went with it... and went with it... and went with it. Three rolls were spent on the black T-shirt. Lots of serious shots, Lots of smile shots. Lots of shots.

Then, we went to the green button-down shirt and shot Polaroids. Switching to a darker background, we shot on. Night was falling on the city, and the view from the 12th floor penthouse was, at every stage of dusk, nothing short of breath-taking. Two rolls for the green shirt. But we weren't done.

Linda then wanted to play around with the black sweater and get some "more artistic, less headshotty" shots. So, for a roll, I sprawled across the table and leaned on my arm and hugged my leg, in poses which struck me as typical model schlock. And as I moved into each one, Linda was thrilled with the effect, and eagerly shot picture after picture as quickly as possible. That was definitely the most enjoyable roll from a posing point of view, and the most gratifying from a photographer-reaction point of view.

After 3 1/2 hours, we were done. My clothes were packed and my check was written. I had a fun time. You talk about a lot of random things in 3 1/2 hours -- movies, music, family, school, work, dating, student films, the works. Linda did her job very well, relaxing me and providing a friendly, comfortable atmosphere. One more thing was that I don't think a single shot was taken in the first hour. That was all relax-time, chat-time, make-up, water, and clothes-time. No hurry.

The proof sheets are scheduled to be ready on Friday. I'm excited to see them, but tentative. I hope they're "right," which includes good, attractive, appropriate, high quality, and they get me in the door. I need to put this headshot anxiety to rest. Please. Please let them be right.

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