u/whycantwehaveboth

US. I work for a small family owned business in an in-home service/repair industry. (FL) My boss, the owner, is a huge MAGA Trump guy who thinks that the economy and most people’s financial situation is nothing but WINNING and as a result, he is raising the price of all of our services to the point he is pricing out our Customer base. He thinks anyone who can no longer afford Our services is a loser, and when an employee or a customer brings up inflation or gas prices, He simply shouts something about Biden. Or baby murderers. He went off on a tantrum today over Bill Gates and how we will always use Apple products because he won’t support pedophiles like Gates. 🤔 He constantly refers to things he doesn’t like as “gay”. The other day he was trying to compliment my work and told me that what I did was “mighty White of me”. I 100% try to keep politics out of my work life, this post isn’t even really a rant about politics, per se, and I like all of my coworkers and the work that I do. But I have absolutely zero respect for my boss, and it makes it difficult to listen to anything that comes out of his mouth. Every direction, every suggestion, every demand or request, and all I think is you are a fool and moron. What used to be a decent job is now nothing but stress and frustration. My once full-time job is also now part-time because we are losing so much of our customer base.

Honest question. Why are outrageously expensive professional headshots still a thing? Phone cameras take extremely nice pictures now. Why exactly must I pay a small fortune to have someone take a picture of me? Why is casting still interested in pictures that are, let’s be real, exaggerations of what we look like on a day-to-day basis? Why would casting not be more interested in an instantly up-to-date clear version of exactly what I look like in the moment? A well lit straight shot of my face against a clean and non-distracting background? (I’m actually starting to get more and more selfie requests with commercial audition tapings.) Need one smiling? Here you go. Need one looking serious or dangerous? Here you go. And what’s the true point of goofy ass character shots? Are casting directors so devoid of imagination and creativity that they must see a $400 picture of you in a cowboy hat to be considered for a western? A $400 picture of you in a lab coat to be considered for a pharmaceutical commercial? (I actually know the answer to this because I’ve had more than one casting director Tell me the character shots are kind of bullshit.) To be clear, I am not shitting on professional photographers. I currently have an amazing set of head shots that I paid almost 2 grand for three “looks”. But I could have delivered Those looks with a phone pic attached to a taping as well. This just seems like another archaic standard in our industry that hangs on to separate hopeful dreamers from their hard earned money. The biggest part of the acting business is the part that separates people from their cash. I also know a lot of actors Just love to look at expensive pictures of themselves, and blowing tons of money makes you more serious and deserving of a job than anyone else. 🙄