Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Headshot 4x6 Proofs from a Lab or Store
For proofing new pictures, do you use lab prints or drugstore prints? When choosing new headshots agents and managers (both commercial and theatrical) often ask for 4x6 printed proofs of 5 to 10 images before making a final choice on which to print out as 8x10s and upload to casting websites.
Commercial casting is done with virtually no printed headshots involved (at least in LA) and for the moment theatrical casting is mainly paperless until an actor actually arrives at the audition with the printed headshot in hand. So for both, the digital image of the headshot as seen on a screen is identical to what casting will use to decide whether or not to call an actor in to audition. Agents and managers will never be using the 4x6 prints to pitch actors; these 4x6 prints are just for actor and rep to select what headshots to use in pitching.
Photo labs charge between 10 and 20 times what drugstores charge for 4x6 prints from digital files (one lab in LA charges $3.00 per print, a drugstore $0.19 per print, a discount warehouse $0.13 per print). In general it's good to cut expenses if the end customer won't experience a drop in quality; 4x6 prints are never seen by casting, producers, directors or audience.
Do you have any experience with presenting less expensive prints to an agent or manager for them to proof? Does it make sense to spend more money on physical prints when casting is now almost all digital images on screens (that money can go to other actor expenses like a reel, the photo session, 8x10 prints, classes, food, etc.)? Please leave a comment.
Labels: agents, technology
You should follow me on instagram here and twitter here.
Subscribe to the feed
this posted by David August at 5:25 PM 
comments:
I used drugstore (Walgreens) to print 4x6's for presenting to my agent. They were fast, cheap, easy and my agent didn't notice or care.
As for reproductions, I definitely don't use as many as I used to a couple years ago. Unless I'm doing lots of target mailings, I'll never need more than 100 repros of a picture.
# posted by 
TerriJFreedman : 11:44 AM
