<p>IN POST #39, just to be clear....I was saying that head shot and resume, when used for professional auditions, should be 8 x 10.</p>
<p>It's true that many submissions are done online, but all live auditions require a paper photo & resume. They should absolutely be 8 x 10, no other size is currently acceptable for purely practical reasons: they must fit in a file cabinet or folder, and if yours is larger, it's going to stick out and probably get damaged. I would assume that's also the case for college auditions, but that's just an educated guess.</p>
<p>Well, onstage, I don't think that's the real reason. If 8 x 11 paper fits easily into files, then so would an 8 x 11 resume (theoretically). The reason 8 x 10 is the standard is because, back in the olden days, you didn't want to give them an 8 x 11 resume stapled to an 8 x 10 picture. It tended to make the two not want to stick together, and made the files a bit messy.</p>
<p>Now that you can print on the back of an 8 x 10 photo, this is no longer even a consideration as far as I'm concerned. You can do away with the paper altogether.</p>
<p>Should headshots be printed on printer paper?</p>
<p>I'm assuming so, but just for reassurance...</p>
<p>My D's resume is not printed on the back of the head shot. The resume gets updated frequently (actually it needs an update now with new roles) and so it is a separate document. </p>
<p>freedom....not sure about head shots on printer paper. My D and most I know have them reprinted. Hers are printed by Reproductions which you can use from any location in the country via mail. Your headshot should have your name on it, preferably in the white border.</p>
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My D's resume is not printed on the back of the head shot. The resume gets updated frequently (actually it needs an update now with new roles) and so it is a separate document.
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<p>????? I don't know of anyone who permanently prints on the back of their head shots. But everyone I know prints on the back of their head shots using a computer printer. What were you trying to say?</p>
<p>freedom: I also don't know about printing your photo each time on a computer printer. I suppose you could, but that's expensive considering that you can get them printed by a professional printer in lots of 200 or so for cheap.</p>
<p>Tarhunt, I was assuming printing on the back was in multiples and might waste expensive headshots if the resume keeps updating. I haven't run a headshot through a printer. My D simply prints out her resume and attaches it to her headshot. I gather based on your post that many run the headshot through the printer to put the resume on the back but my D has never done that and I don't know that she is that unusual. Does anyone else ATTACH their resume? I had never thought to run the resume through the printer.</p>
<p>Tarhunt -- you're absolutely right about the "olden" days -- I have to admit I even remember them. But I have been specifically told by agents that they really hate to get oversized pix/resumes because they stick out of their stack of photos/file folder/etc. One agent even told me he throws away anything that's oversized -- and of course, that's the last thing you want an agent to do with your p/r!</p>
<p>Onstage, my knowledge regarding agents and casting directors is that they want both the head shot and resume to be standard 8 x 10...and different/larger ones do stick out in a pile or file....have heard this reason many times, as you have. </p>
<p>Is my D the only one that attaches the resume to the head shot either by four corner staples or glue stick? I didn't think attaching it was unusual and is an option as opposed to having it printed on the back of the photo.</p>
<p>onstage:</p>
<p>Makes sense. I hadn't thought of the fact that it would stick out of a stack. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I've always just used the 8 x 10 format because everyone else does.</p>
<p>Soozie: One HUGE advantage of using an inkjet printer on the back of the resume is that you can get the back printed with extra photos. Everyone with my agent uses that format, except that most have four extra photos and I have six (my agent's idea). The extra photos are very useful for on-camera work, and I've never had a theater director complain about getting more insight into different "looks." My extra six include a daddy shot (with kid), a professor (with glasses), a cowboy (with five o'clock shadow), a cab driver type, a wacky type while making a funny face, and a businessman type in a suit. The photos are arranged in two rows, vertically, down about two thirds of the back. I print in between, expanding across the whole back at the bottom.</p>
<p>Truthfully, I don't know of anyone who attaches a paper resume to the back of a photo anymore. I did talk to some people from New York who said that some directors like to write on the paper, but it seems as easy to me to write on the back of the photo. Besides, it's the rare audition in which you don't fill in some form that gets attached to your photo, often with a Polaroid shot taken on the spot. Directors can certainly write on that if they like.</p>
<p>Tarhunt, perhaps you do more work in film? I'm not aware of the young musical theater actors I know having any photos on the back of their head shots. My D has two head shots for two different looks and opts to use certain ones for certain auditions, etc. </p>
<p>I also didn't think my D was unusual in attaching her resume to the back of the head shot. She's in New York. Not sure where you work out of. She does theater, not film.</p>
<p>soozie:</p>
<p>I've done more theater than on-camera work (film and tv). But I do both. It's just a hobby, now, since I'm pretty busy during most days, but there are long stretches where I can audition and/or rehearse.</p>
<p>I don't think there's any problem stapling a resume to the back of a head shot. It's just a bit old-fashioned. I assume she gets her head shots printed on cover stock and isn't using a photographic process? </p>
<p>Really, the head shot/resume is just a marketing tool. It should do what it can (and that's not too much) to help you get work. The extra photos are an excellent marketing tool, and I've gotten roles I might not have gotten because so many directors can't see past the way you look right now to how you CAN look.</p>
<p>Actually, soozie, why don't you ask her agent what's best? He/she will know the local scene best.</p>
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I assume she gets her head shots printed on cover stock and isn't using a photographic process?
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<p>Hmm, I'm not sure the terminology to the paper it is printed on....she has had her head shots professionally reproduced since about age 11 through Reproductions in New York City. It says on the site "photographic paper" and I don't know which of the two terms you used that fits into? :confused: If you look at their site (no need to bother, just saying), that tells what they are printed on in multiple copies. It's not flimsy...feels to me like a, well, photo, not regular paper.</p>
<p>soozie:</p>
<p>It sounds like they're using a mass photographic repro process instead of an offset printing press. I have my resumes done on a printing press, which makes it easy to print them on two sides. The paper is about the weight of a good, sturdy business card.</p>
<p>As I said, it's best to talk to her agent about what's most appropriate for New York. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don't think it matters all that much. I sit in on a lot of auditions with a good friend of mine who's a wonderful director for sound and lights, but can't recognize acting skills very well (he tends to choose the two dimensional actors, and they've learned this about him so everyone goes as far away from subtlety as possible at his auditions). I think the main thing is that the resume has to say, "I've done this before, and I know what I'm doing." Departure from some sort of narrow, standard practice is generally not important except to the worst of curmudgeons, I suspect.</p>
<p>I agree there is variation in how folks go about it within certain parameters. My D's head shot photographer was recommended by her NYC agent when she was just a kid and we've used him every since. He recommends Reproductions for the reprints (well known place in NYC for this) and we've used them also since she was a kid and up to the most recent headshots last December. We've been pleased and so haven't changed anything. I had never thought to put the headshot through the printer.</p>
<p>She continues to update the resume with new credits and then prints it out. She also has TWO resumes....one for musical theater as a performer and one is a music resume with her musical directing, arranging, accompanying credits and the like (which she does work at for pay) and also has two different headshots. So this is what she's been doing but not saying it is THE way. :D I appreciate your input from your experiences. Also, film/TV work can be a bit of a different animal than musical theater. Even the NYC and LA markets differ in some of this stuff. As well, an entire semester of senior year in the BFA program (hers, anyway) is devoted to this entire audition process and the students work with casting directors and agents all semester long workshopping and so I imagine they will be keyed into whatever they need to do in this regard at that point as well.</p>
<p>What's really odd about this is that New York seems to be stuck in the 80s. I wonder if it's because Reproductions has been around so long, and very few places like it were available elsewhere. So, the rest of us adopted new technology and New York didn't?</p>
<p>Seriously, if someone from where I live were to use a photo process resume photo and staple a resume to the back, it would look very, very quaint.</p>
<p>I do musical theater. I also do legitimate theater. Same resume photo, different printout on the back.</p>
<p>I don't know what to tell ya, but Reproductions is quite well known in NYC and it is ALSO in LA and they ship around the country. I use 'em and I live in Vermont! (we ARE quaint here in VT, LOL) Seriously, many of the well known head shot photographers recommend Reproductions for the reprints. You can see a list of well known head shot photographers right on their site. Perhaps others who have gotten head shots in NYC can weigh in if they attach their resume to the back. I can't imagine my kid being the only one who does this? If so, then we are behind the times. However, Reproductions is quite well known for head shot reprints and in the major theater capital of the world, NYC, and in LA, as well, so I don't know.</p>
<p>Does anyone else's head shot get printed on photgraphic paper/stock and have a stapled or glued resume with it?</p>
<p>PS...In looking at their site, you can order certain stock which can be run through an inkjet printer if you want to print your own resume on the back. So, it is not as if Reproductions is advocating stapled resumes. It IS an option to run your head shot through a printer and print the resume on the back. I just never have done it or thought to do it. But it can be done with their head shot reprints. So, the issue of how you put the resume on the back has nothing to do with Reproductions. As far as their photo process, headshot reprints are their business.</p>
<p>By the way, when my D lived at home, I used a glue stick to put on the resume on the back. I honestly don't know what she does while at school for auditions. I have used staples before or a glue stick. I suppose I could tell her to run her headshot through the printer.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, Reproductions has info on their website about how to print the resumes on the back of the headshots, using inkjet printers.</p>
<p>There are several other competing firms around. While I'm sure Reproductions is fine, if anyone is in the market, they may want to compare prices online with other companies. There is quite a range of prices, depending on the # you need. For a high school senior, I don't think they need to be in the market for 500 at at time!</p>
<p>We cross posted but while you were writing your post, I had added that they do have that information on their site about printing the resume on the back as I had gotten curious and went to visit the site. </p>
<p>You can get as few as 50 reprints. We get 100 as it doesn't cost that much more than the 50. While an applicant doesn't need 50 for college admissions auditions (hopefully doesn't need more than about 10!), it makes sense to have 50 if you are going to audition for shows IN college, as well as in summers, for a couple of years.</p>
<p>What happens if your child is a lead in an obscure play? How do you identify that?</p>
<p>How are people sending these? Are they uploading them or sending them via mail?</p>