So you’re interested in acting in commercials in Vancouver, but not sure how to get started or how it all works? Let me give you some insight. When I started acting it took me years to figure out the industry and understand how casting operates. After much trial and error I managed to position myself in the market correctly, giving me the best chance of getting auditions, and ultimately booking roles regularly. (By the way, commercials were my gateway into Film and TV acting, as it is for the majority of actors.)

It’s a numbers game—the more auditions you do, the more you’ll book. A good actor can typically expect to book around 1 in every 10 to 30 auditions. This is the reality of an actor’s life. Do not obsess about booking every role. Rejection is not necessarily a reflection of your talent, it could be as trivial as you not having the right hair colour for the palette of the scene. Your goal as an actor is to persevere, present yourself well, become liked by casting directors, consistently deliver great auditions—then the roles will come.

But how do you start getting auditions in the first place? You need these things:

• The ability to take direction and engender emotional reactions in an audience (acting talent).

• Good commercial headshots.

• A reputable agent.

• The ability to self-tape auditions at home.

What makes a good headshot?

To best understand what producers look for when casting commercials you have to think like an advertiser. Their goal is to market and sell a product to a target demographic. Your job is to play a character that the target demographic will relate to, or emotionally engage with. In 99% of cases the target demographic are everyday people with purchasing power. This means that in most cases you’re called upon to portray ordinary, day to day human beings doing everyday things. Pay attention to commercials you see on TV or online. You’ll see relatable people, enjoying or selling a product. Your age and type will determine the more specific types that you could play. Myself, for example, I’m in the 25-35 age range, clean cut, athletic male. Some of the commercial roles I’ve booked are: guy at a house party (back in the day when we could), guy at the gym (once upon a time), guy cruising in a car with friends (2019, obviously), business man racing another business man downstairs in an office building (life was such fun), young couple eating a TV dinner, young professional couple buying their first home. I’ve noticed lately a lot of commercials are people doing stuff at home.

I can’t stress this enough—watch commercials, they change with the times. See what other actors your type are playing. Ask yourself why they cast that particular actor. Ask yourself if you could play that role. If the answer is yes, then get a headshot that looks like you could pay that role. You’ll notice that in commercials it’s not necessarily about having a unique look, but about being relatable to the target demographic.

The next thing to understand is the style of performance. Commercial actors are expressing emotion, usually a sense of joy, content, curiosity, comfort, excitement, frustration, relief, satisfaction, etc. Sometimes these emotions are subtle, sometimes they’re over the top. The more expressive you are, the better you will do. And when I say expressive, I mean you must have the ability to convincingly display a range of emotions, at varying degrees of intensity, on demand. There’s also often an element of comedy in commercials, so comedic timing, humour, and goofiness will super-boost your booking rate. 

When shooting headshots I have all this in mind, and you should too. For your commercial headshots you want to look like you’re enjoying life, and be able to brighten somebody else’s day. Why? Because if you don’t, then you won’t look like you can enjoy or sell a product, and you probably won’t get called for an audition. Your headshot should be joyful, joy should be on your face, the photography should be professional, and the wardrobe pleasant.

So without further ado, let’s look at some examples.

Young Autumn-Marie, pictured above here, came to me looking for headshots so that she can try to get an agent. So we shot a variety of commercial and dramatic headshots. She’s involved in a variety of performing arts so she took direction extremely well. Thus I was able to capture shots of her being expressive in the kind of way we need her to be on screen. You can easily picture her in an advert enjoying a family meal, a road trip, a soda pop, a vacation, board game, candy bar, barbie doll, you name it! No matter what the product might be, if the target demographic is tweens or families, then you can picture Autumn-Marie in that commercial. Autumn-Marie also has some special skills, for example, she’s a ballerina, so I also shot this:

Commercials sometimes require people with specific skills or specific looks. It could be anything. For example, they might be looking for truckers, band members, yogis, bikers, chefs, ballerinas, the list goes on. So on your casting profile, alongside your standard commercial headshot you can also include headshots that show an extra side to you. Although Autumn-Marie is not doing ballet in this photo, she certainly looks like she does ballet, which she does. Her resume will list the specific types of dance she can do. Her future agent will be able to use this shot if they see a breakdown for a commercial looking for dancers in her age range. It will certainly grab the casting director’s attention because she looks the part without any stretch of the imagination. And upon further examination of her resume, she will be getting that audition, guaranteed.

Hopefully you get the idea, but let’s look quickly at a few more examples:

Laura, pictured here is a working mom. We can easily picture her in a commercial in which she’s working from home, driving a nice car, eating at a nice restaurant, being a successful business person, etc.

Here we have Moises, doing what he does best—enjoying life! Can you picture him cooking at home, playing a game with his kids, drinking a beer at a barbecue, shopping at best buy, working in an office, driving a car, selling a car? Of course you can, because he’s got good commercial headshots!

I hope this brings some clarity. If you want more information about how to prepare for a headshot session, including advice on wardrobe, CLICK HERE

If you’re interested in working with me on your next headshots, you can find INFO ABOUT MY SESSIONS AND RATES here.

Contemplating the infinite and the infinitesimal—a side-effect of observing an epic view, for me—would overwhelm my mind with ideas and questions, unfathomable and unanswerable. The only resolution was to submit to a state of acceptance regarding my relative insignificance.

There in front of us, sprawled across the surface of the earth were mountainous islands—some ‘private’ sized; some as big as Maui—risen from the sea for us to admire. All backlit with sunlight: refracting across the water; shimmering in the Hemlock greenery of the islands’ forest carpet. It is there we stood, my daughter and I, perched above it all, on that rock. We’d hiked for hours, enduring burning legs and sweat-stung eyes—the memory of which was dispatched by the reveal of the pleasant vista. Even my increasingly common abdominal-cramps were temporarily forgotten.

When I marvelled over a thing of immense beauty I wondered about the unseeable intricacies in each detail—the ecosystem thriving under a stone; the microbiology on a bird’s feather—then I realized that everything within my field of vision could also, from a godly vantage, be considered minutiae. I wondered if I would ever wrap my mind around that concept. The wonder of everything, and the substance of an experience like this, together with any collateral emotion, in its entirety, I thought, was surely too much to quantify.

Click. Click. Click.

My daughter snapped photos wildly.

"Wow, it’s so nice,” she said.

“Did you at least take in the view for more than a second before you got your phone out?” I asked.

“This is a prime photo-op, Dad. How can you not take a photo?”

“By living in the present moment. I don't need photos when there’s a constant display of things to admire right in front of me.”

“Well, I like to keep memories.”

I wanted to educate her about the fact that she didn’t need a solid-state-flash-drive within a communication device in order to store memories in her brain, but I refrained. She then came up beside me, pressed against me, stuck the phone in front of our faces—and with a big, childish smile, she took a photo. No permission requested; just an obligatory selfie.

She tapped away at the device.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m posting the view.”

“Why?”

“So that my friends can see.”

“If they want to see they should go out and hike."

“Well, Dad, maybe this will inspire them to do that—chill out.”

Kids and their phones—they live half their lives on them I swear. Being her father, I could have enforceably ordered her to put it away, but she did so without being told, thankfully. I’d hoped for some quality time together, free from any incumbent domestic errands—so we could get away from the city for a moment, not bring it with us in her pocket. After all, it’s not often we got to do that sort of thing, and I’d taken a day off work just for it.

We put out a blanket to sit and enjoy some snacks of fruit and sandwiches, as we faced towards the expansive ocean scape. There was the sonic backdrop of the forest behind us: chattering birds; murmuring leaves. The tender warmth of the sunlight. The atmosphere; calm and unspoiled. Little birds—Chickadees—fed on seeds from our palms. I thought: how sacred it was to hold one of God’s creatures in my hand, and nourish it. For an instant, I thought I saw my daughter as a baby once more, as I observed her cheery expression.

“Do you like it up here?" I asked.

“Yes," she said with a smile, “It’s amazing. Can we come again sometime?”

“Of course.” I replied.

It was only one month later that a doctor informed me of my fate: of cancer. It was definite, and so I didn’t hike again; I couldn’t.

Over time, all strength disappeared from my body: it took another month until there was none, until my material form was gone.

Now.

My daughter stands solemn at my grave. Her face displays an age greater than it should. Her eyes bear a weight: perhaps the sinking realization of what it truly means to be fatherless evermore. Her flesh hangs on a posture unsure, precarious, and tender with the sentient of mourning. I want to tell her I am here, but she cannot see or hear me. She places flowers by my headstone—ocean-blue Forget-Me-Nots. She removes an item from her pocket, and fixes her gaze to it. A tear drips down her face, which she hurriedly wipes away before another forms to replace it.

What she holds in her hand is a photograph, and admiring it makes her smile, forming wet dimples on her cheeks. It’s the selfie of us on that rock, posed before the infinite sea; her arm wrapped around me; her youthful smile frozen, everlasting, and documented.

She bends to place the picture on my grave, and fixes pebbles around its edges to anchor it.

“This one’s for you, Dad, for when I’m not here. So you don’t forget me… Please don’t forget me.”

“You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.”

— James M. Barrie

It'll be exciting, to me at least, to see how the weather plays out for the rest of season since weather is the unsung character in my outdoor work. Here in Vancouver we managed quite fortunately to begin the month with crisp, clear skies and beautiful rays, allowing for a sublime golden hour. While a photographer's job is to make any situation look epic, we all do love a bit of evening sunshine no?

“A good idea will keep you awake during the morning, but a great idea will keep you awake during the night.”

— Marilyn vos Savant

Admittedly and unashamedly I avoid Granville street like it's some sort of diseased cesspool of filth...which it most certainly is, I've heard some say. But you know how it goes, you're around the corner in an underground bar talking with a couple of actor friends about debauchery and more debauchery and the plans to create your next collaborative masterpiece, when before you know it you've got a belly full of cider, a camera in your hand and you're being drawn to the Granville street lights. Here we go again. But luckily for me this time, the friend I'm with happens to be the legendary Tarun, aka Mr. Hollywood-Blockbuster (soon to be appearing on your cinema screens in 3D) and there's a sh*t ton of pretty lights on Granville. So I carefully light my fine subject using only the subtle glow eminating from the glorious shop windows and had him do what he does best, look good and act cool.

You know how it is, you're looking at somebody else's photograph and you're wondering how the hell they took it. Not that gear makes a shred of difference with regards to artistic talent, but, from a technical stand point, the depth of field is spot on and complementary, the creaminess of the bokeh is so nice. So what lens? What aperture? Doesn't take long before you conclude that it's a 1.4 prime of course, one that you don't have. Ok, now lets see how much I can get one for. Between one and two thousand dollars! Ok sure, why not...but wait. Maybe before I get this 35mm 1.4, I must ask myself is it really going to be worth the money. Of course it is, but still, I better not. Then I remember I have an old 50mm 1.4. Haven't used it in forever because I've been a fool. Lets give it a spin and see what happens. The conclusion....hell yeah, this is a mighty sweet piece of glass.

“A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly.”

— Kevin Bacon

We're racing around the edges of a roof top, inches from a plummet that would leave us badly hurt. Chad Mathew doesn't care, and neither do the rest of us (we do really, but it’s fun to pretend). We live for this. His approach to an acting career - it's all or nothing. We need to get these shots, pilot season is approaching, the flight to LA is booked and the Vancouver daylight is fading fast. I've got my eye through the viewfinder, ignoring the drop behind us while Derrick Daniels, our videographer swoops by with a glidecam as Chad gives us look after look in an effortless display of versatility.

Chad approached me at Rogues West Actors Studio in Vancouver (a great place to study and meet emerging talent) with the opportunity to help him produce photos for his press kit in preparation for LA. With the personas that he brought to my frames, I think we got some great shots.

-Mat Lo

“After every storm the sun will smile; for every problem there is a solution, and the soul’s indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer.”

— William R. Alger

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There's a little more direct sunlight coming over the west coast yet. Though it may be chilly, those skies have been exceptionally clear; the sun low in the sky, making good for prime outdoor shooting. I always had it in my head that you should snap with the sun behind you. It may have been some old-school photography rule they used to throw around when I was a kid, but it took me until my twenties to start breaking it. Of course with digital weapons you can actually check your exposure and adjust accordingly on the fly, without blowing a roll and ending up with a reel of silhouettes. Now I love getting the sun's rays in my photos. I like to aim so the sun is just out of frame, and even let the lens catch some glare. Either that or put the sun directly behind the subject—so that the subject becomes engulfed by a brilliant tenor of glorious light.

Here are some of the shots that I got this week whilst on a mother-daughter portrait session, all featuring our good friend, Mr. Sun, who happened to be hanging out just beyond the frame or hiding behind something.

Enjoy,

Mat Lo

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“Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It suddenly dawned on me—I hadn't really been trying. My mindset had a narrative along the lines of: it can wait, it's too hard, society requires me to pay bills so I can't do what I really want to do, and, I'm not really bothered if I get this gig or not.

When you find yourself without any other means of income, an audition suddenly becomes really important. That photo you take now has to be that much more desirable, and the music you write could be the reason you have food on the table in a few months.

And so for the first time ever, I gave it my everything in that audition room today. I left the old me behind, the kid that was too shy to cheer at a football game, and I said hello to the new, all singing, all dancing, give it everything you've got guy that I'd never before needed to be.

Making my way home and considering that time is now a precious commodity, every moment an opportunity to improve, I couldn't waste it. If there's a bus to be waited for, there's a moment to be seized.

Here's what I captured:

Enjoy.

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