Case Study: Stephanie Terrero

Stephanie started as a brand new actor who just left school. Within a just few months of shooting with us she found representation and went from never having a paid acting job to making over 30% of her yearly income from acting!

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Background

Stephanie was in need of professional guidance and some great headshots to move her acting career forward. She'd just graduated from college and signed up for some online casting websites such as www.backstage.com and www.nycastings.com.

After a few months of only being able to audition for free student projects, she decided she needed some professional headshots and a little help to find out what to do next.

Stephanie took to the internet and stumbled across City Headshots, where she read our great reviews and free tips about what makes a headshot great. After doing a bit of research online, she decided to book with us.

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"I chose City Headshots because I loved the style of the photos. I had been researching for over a month and the way your images looked really captured my attention."

The Challenge

Stephanie's biggest issue was not only that she needed headshots, but that:

1. She was unsure of her brand and how to capture it in a headshot.
2. She didn't know what to do on-camera and wanted guidance.
3. She wasn't able to get any paid work with the photos she was currently using.

She didn't know what type of clothing to wear or how to prepare for a headshot session and was worried she'd hate the way she looked on-camera. The only thing she knew for sure when she came in was that she loved comedy and wanted to somehow capture that aspect of herself in the photo.

"I originally wanted to shoot indoors, but the photographer suggested that we do outdoor shots because of the nice weather and colorful background. the final photos popped more and helped get me more work - anyone who saw the headshots always told me how much they loved them."

​The Solution

In order to get the widest possible range, Stephanie decided to invest in the Three-Look Headshot package with makeup. During her pre-shoot consultation process, we made a few key recommendations to ensure she would get the best possible results:

1. She should focus on very friendly expressions - big smiles - and wear colorful clothing. More specifically, she should wear a solid, rich-colored shirt that would pop off a colorful background.
2. She should do outdoor headshots and we would shoot with a shallow depth of field to capture a colorful, creative backdrop - this would work perfectly for commercial headshots..
3. She should not worry about looking perfect in the final shot - casting directors hate seeing overly retouched photos shot from trick angles that make actors look perfect. They want something real.

With these tips, she began her shoot. We directed her and helped capture her amazing smile by cracking silly jokes and saying ridiculous things. For instance - What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh...

We captured a bunch of different images at different locations, and then we sent all the high-res photos to her. After she decided on her favorite shots, we did natural-retouching to fix some minor blemishes and distracting elements. Within two business days we sent the final, color-graded images back to her.

"I said I wanted to focus on comedy, and they were making me laugh a ton the whole time so I could get a great headshot."

​Results

The final photos helped Stephanie kickstart her acting career. Here are just a few of the results she had:

1. Booked her first paid acting job ever!
2. Began booking numerous paid featured background roles (she was unable to get any prior to having her headshots done).
   
3. Was called in to audition for a role in Wilson without any representation.
4. Was allowed to read for numerous SAG pilot roles without union membership - she was told it was because they "loved her headshots."
5. Was signed to Dream Maker Talent with Maryann Raposo.

The Final Verdict?

Headshots pay off, and we'd like to congratulate Stephanie on her success!

Before her headshots, 0% of her monthly income came from acting work. Shortly thereafter, over 30% was coming from acting work. She had never made a dollar acting and within the first few months of her shoot she'd booked thousands of dollars in paid acting work!

​A Quote from Stephanie:

"Working with City Headshots has been the best decision I’ve ever made! Not only was my shoot laid back and easy, But they helped capture the right expressions too. I got the exact commercial and legit shots I needed by discussing my career goals and going over what wardrobe would work best for each shot.

"I received amazing shots and used them to get signed by Dream Maker Talent within just a few months. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gotten my headshots done at City Headshots, so thank you guys!"

Stephanie has since shot with us multiple times, especially since she had lost a lot of weight (our congratulations to her)! Take a look at one of her more recent pictures below, where her goal was to focus on darker, more intense characters. Follow Stephanie at https://www.instagram.com/slickysteph/

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