February 6, 1992
Tonight's adventure in the showcase world was fun, but served very little tangible good. Victoria skipped the one-on-one part of the evening, so the personal exposure step was unfortunately skipped. She opened up with questions & answers, while going through the headshots one by one. For mine, she said my eyes weren't right because one is smaller than the other (this happens when I smile too hard.) Plus, she recommended glossy or pearl finish instead of matte. She ended with, "Nice smile, though."
Victoria's big thing was getting a good headshot. "It's your first agent," she quipped, and, of course, she is absolutely right about the importance of the 8 x 10. Or, in the examples she was waving about, the 10 x 8. This was the first time I had ever seen this, but she had about a dozen examples of horizontal headshots. And half were upper-body shots. It's tempting to jump in and go for the avant-garde, the cutting edge, the wave of the future. But does any other casting director in L.A. like these things? Or is it Ms. Burrows own pet-peeve? Are they a fad that will be over in mid-February, just as my reprints come back from the lab? I guess it couldn't hurt to look into it, so I'll call the photographer tomorrow. Victoria convincingly assured us all, "I'm not getting any kind of kick-back from this, I just know she does good work. I even had her do me." That sounded believable to these ears.
The scene portion of the evening was good. My partner was an attractive Texan woman a few years older than me. We did an eager younger man/older woman morning-after-sex scene. It went well. In fact, Victoria's comments after we went were: "That's the kind of reading that would get you right into the producers. It was engaging and I was very interested in your character right from the beginning. Your timing was right on all the beats. Nice work." I guess she didn't think I had a problem with comedy.
As I returned triumphantly to my seat, she threw in a final word of advice: "Get yourself some new headshots.' And so I should.
STUFF:
Green/Epstein Prods.