You Can Be a Movie Extra E-Book

Rob Martin

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 293

Beschreibung

Have you ever fancied being in the movies, or on TV? Let's face it, who hasn't! But how do you actually go about becoming an Extra, one of those lucky people who get to mix with the stars, and appear onscreen — whether it be in a battle scene in a blockbuster movie, or walking around Albert Square — and what's more, get paid for the privilege! Unbelievably, there has never been a book which tells you exactly how to get work as a Supporting Artiste — until now. You Can Be a Movie Extra is the ultimate insider's guide (author Rob Martin is a leading casting agent, who's supplied Extras for films such as Gladiator and Harry Potter). It tells you everything you need to know, from getting on an agent's books to what to do on your first day on set, and how to make sure you keep getting regular work, whether it be in films, on TV, or in commercials and music videos! Revised and fully updated to 2011/12.

Leseprobe

You Can Be a Movie Extra

The Complete Guide to Working as a Supporting Artiste in Film and TV

Rob Martin

TITAN BOOKS

YOU CAN BE A MOVIE EXTRA

Ebook edition

9781848569447

Published by

Titan Books

A division of

Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark St

London

SE1 0UP

Updated edition, November 2011

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

You Can Be a Movie Extra copyright © 2002, 2011 Rob Martin; except contributors’ pieces which are © copyright 2002, 2011 their respective authors. All rights reserved.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Adam Newell at Titan Books. Thanks also to all the production crews who have shown their support for what we do, all the SAs who generously took the time to contribute (sorry there wasn’t room to fit you all in) and to those who understand how difficult the casting agent’s job can be. Finally, thanks to the best casting team in the world: The Casting Collective. – Rob Martin

The publishers would also like to thank Josef Accerelli, Daniel Baggs, Stephanie Barrows, Jos Dewing, Ray Donn, Lindsay Elliott, Lorna Farmer, Nick Field, Graham Frosdick, Colin Giffin, Jeremy C. A. Goad, Sue Hallet, Ron Harrison, Philip Harvey, Mike Jones, Malcolm Lauder, James Lowe, Richard Manlove, Ambrose Pigott, John Random, Albert Ratcliffe, Bella Sabbagh, Nobuko Slater, Laura Tilly, Lucy Wallis and Kerry-ann Willing for their contributions to this book.

Publisher’s Note

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information given in this book was correct at the time of going to press, and the advice included herein is given in good faith. However, details and circumstances change. This book is intended as a guide only: the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this book.

Did you enjoy this book? We love to hear from our readers. Please e-mail us at: [email protected] or write to Reader Feedback at the above address.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Contents

Introduction

1: Getting Started

2: Finding an Agent

3: Casting

4: The Filming Day

5: Different Types of Work

6: Getting Paid

7: Taking it Further

8: Regional and International Variations

9: That’s a Wrap!

Appendices:

Sample Salary Voucher

Sample Agency Contract

Agencies, Studios and Other Useful Addresses

A-Z of Terminology

Introduction

First Things First — Why an Extra Isn’t Really an Extra

Background Artiste. Walk-on. Non-speaking or simply Crowd — there are many different terms to describe Extras, and they’re all commonly heard on set. For the purposes of this book though, the term Supporting Artiste, or SA, will cover all of these.

Those already working in the industry frown on the term ‘Extra’, as it has connotations of being ‘extra to requirements’. This certainly isn’t the case. Just imagine the Gladiator arena without the roar of the spectators, or the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan without the soldiers. Or how about the theatre in Shakespeare in Love with no audience? Supporting Artistes are a very important element of the film-making process. And it’s not just in the movies that SAs have a part to play. While this book focuses on what most people will be interested in — feature films and television — as a successful SA you are also likely to work on commercials, pop videos, photographic stills, corporate training videos and the Internet, so this book will cover those kinds of jobs too.

The Three Main Aims of This Book

Firstly, this book will help newcomers to the business assess how suitable they are for work as a Supporting Artiste, breaking down the many myths that surround the job. For example, it seems that everyone knows someone, who knows someone, who worked on a film or a TV soap and earned a lot of money for ‘standing around all day not doing anything’. The job of an SA is not as simple as that, of course. An Assistant Director recently told me that when she first started her job and found out how much SAs were paid, she thought it was way too much. But she went on to say that three or four years down the line, she now thinks that they actually deserve every penny they get.

Secondly, this book will adopt a step-by-step approach for those who think they are suitable and want to go beyond the stage of just talking about being an SA, giving you the inside knowledge to enable you to actually have a go. Whilst it has been known for some lucky people who look right for a particular role to be plucked off the street, this is not the norm. This book goes beyond luck. It will arm you with the knowledge you need to make yourself more appealing to the agencies that cast SAs (and I should know, as I’m an SA agent myself). How do you get your first job? How do you find a good agent? How do agents work? Do you need to join a union? What should you expect to find in a contract? What happens on the filming day? How do you get paid? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered.

The final aim is to help those already working as SAs to fulfil their potential, and get the maximum amount of work possible. Whilst researching this book, I’ve come across a lot of advice suggesting that ‘anyone can be an Extra’, or that you ‘do not need any special skills to be an Extra’. As will become clear, neither of those statements is necessarily true. To be successful, by which I mean to regularly be offered work, is not so easy. This book is an essential guide to help you achieve just that. It will also discuss what you can aim for beyond being a face in the crowd. How can you progress from being in the background to being a featured Walk-on, and ultimately an actor?

‘Hollywood’ in Britain

The British film industry conforms to many British stereotypes. It is fairly unassuming and modest, yet incredibly good at what it does. The industry goes way beyond typically ‘British’ films like Bridget Jones, The King’s Speech or Nanny McPhee. I have been involved in casting SAs for a lot of big-budget ‘Hollywood’ films that were actually made in the UK — Gladiator, The Bourne Ultimatum, Tomb Raider, Inception and Eyes Wide Shut, to give you a few examples. There are plenty more: England has always been the home of the James Bond series, the first four Star Wars films were made here and more recently all the Harry Potter and the last three Batman movies have all filmed in the UK. In the last year Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt have all starred in films shot in the UK.

It is often said that the UK has the finest film technicians in the world. Supporting Artistes in the UK have an equally fine reputation, and if you are going to be successful as one, you really need to know what you are doing. It is a very competitive world out there. Although this book’s primary aim is to explore working as an SA in the UK, both in and around London and the various regional centres, we will also look briefly at how the industry operates globally — how things differ in the USA, and around the world.

And you don’t just have to take my word for all this. Throughout the book, you’ll find helpful inside advice and some entertaining stories, kindly supplied by people currently working in the business as Supporting Artistes.

This book won’t make you rich. It won’t make you into an actor (if you don’t have an ounce of talent), and it won’t guarantee you invitations to any premières. But I hope that You Can Be a Movie Extra succeeds in its aim to be, in essence, the Bible for both the new and the experienced Supporting Artiste.

Chapter 1

Getting Started

In relation to the stars, the Director, or the Producer, Supporting Artistes are usually seen as being pretty low down in the pecking order of a production. After all, there is no Oscar for Best Film Extra (not yet, anyway). However, SAs can often be essential to a production’s success. When you watch a film or TV drama you naturally follow the action between the central characters. But to create atmosphere on screen, there are always lots of other things going on in the background that make you believe in what you are looking at. Just as important as the costumes, the special effects, the location or the props are the Supporting Artistes. But as we will discover, there can be a lot more to working as an SA than just being moving scenery.

It’s intriguing to see how fascinating most people find the idea of being a Supporting Artiste. Anyone could be one, it seems. They offer the audience a sense of realism. Take the Queen Vic pub in EastEnders: equally as important as the pub set itself is the people in it — one wouldn’t work without the other. There are all kinds of dramas, involving every walk of life. In appearance at least, being an SA is truly an equal opportunities profession.

Definitions

So what exactly is a Supporting Artiste? Moreover, how do you know the difference between an SA, a Walk-on and an actor? Just to be clear, here are some definitions provided by Equity, the actors’ union. A Supporting Artiste is someone “who appears in vision (other than members of the public in actuality scenes) who shall not be required to give individual characterisation or speak any dialogue”. In less confusing words, someone in a crowd of people, or someone in the background of the scene.

The middle ground between an SA and an actor is called a Walk-on. A Walk-on is someone “who is required to exercise their professional skills in relation to a cast actor and/or in close up to camera and be required to impersonate an identifiable individual and/or speak a few unimportant words which shall not have an effect on the overall script or outcome of the story”. In other words, someone the viewer is more likely to identify as an individual.

At the top of the tree, above SAs and Walk-ons, are the featured actors. ‘Actor’ covers everything from the principal characters down to small roles. The distinction between a Walk-on and an actor in a very small part is sometimes fairly murky, but as a general rule an actor is more likely to deliver dialogue. This doesn’t mean that if you are not a trained actor you will never be asked to do any dialogue. It’s just that, as we will go on to explore, any production casts its actors and its Supporting Artistes completely separately right from the beginning.

So How Does It Work?

On any production, the person ultimately responsible for the SAs is the Producer. Whilst you are actually on set, you become the responsibility of the Assistant Director (1st AD). They usually delegate responsibility to the Second Assistant Director (2nd AD). On bigger productions a Crowd Assistant Director will be appointed to deal solely with organising the SAs and perhaps some of the smaller parts. But where have these SAs come from? That’s where an Extras casting agency comes in. Usually the Assistant Director will appoint an agency to actually cast and supply all of the Supporting Artistes. The exception to this may be if a production is filming in an area where there are no agencies. The Crowd AD’s job will then be to cast the SAs himself from local people, or organise SAs to be brought in from another area. However in recent years the tendency is for the agency to go wherever the production intends to shoot and find local people on behalf of the production.

The Divide Between Actors and SAs

The production normally hands responsibility for finding the actors to a Casting Director. It’s rare for the paths of the Casting Director casting the actors, and the Extras agency casting the SAs, to actually cross. The two normally have separate budgets and, let’s face it, separate skills and agendas. (The exception to this may be the Walk-on parts, which may be cast by either, or both.)

A Casting Director’s main aim is to work with the Director to get the best possible performer to fit the role in question. They will spend a long time organising script readings with dozens of different actors to find the right performer. The Casting Director may also work on behalf of the Producer in negotiating a principal actor’s fee with his or her agent.

I should point out that actors’ agents and Supporting Artistes’ agents are very different. An actors’ agent will have a much smaller number of people on their books, and their role is to put those clients up for the right parts. Supporting Artistes’ agents range from a few hundred to thousands of people on their books. Although performance skills can be important for Supporting Artistes, the agency casting the background is much more concerned with the overall look of the crowd. The SA agent’s role is also more logistical in terms of organising and supplying sometimes hundreds of people for a production on any given day, as opposed to a few cast parts.

As a general rule, actors’ agents do not like their artistes to do background work; they think it will undermine the status of an actor. For this reason Casting Directors tend to look down a bit on Supporting Artistes, and it is extremely unlikely that a Casting Director will consider you for a role in a production unless you have an acting agent. You are more likely to get your ‘big break’ beyond background work in spontaneous moments on set, when a Director will pull someone forward from the crowd to do a line of dialogue or act out a reaction to camera. (Believe me, this can and does happen, as a few of the stories from SAs in Chapter 7 show.)

While it is possible to be a Supporting Artiste just by being in the right place at the right time (sometimes productions use ‘street castings’ literally pulling people in off the street for a job), the majority of work is given to SAs registered with agencies. The next chapter explains how to get an agent, but at this stage it would be useful to dispel the myth that anyone can work on a regular basis. There are a number of factors that restrict your suitability for background work. Before you take the plunge, read the following to assess your likelihood of making it onto the screen.

Factors You Can’t Influence — ‘Ordinary’ or ‘Extraordinary’?

The secret to regular work is not so much skill, but versatility. Unfortunately, the major part of this has already been decided for you — because your versatility is mainly dependent on what you look like. Those who work as Supporting Artistes fall into two types of physical appearance. These two types can be defined by two words: ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’.

The ‘Ordinary’ Type

The ‘ordinary’ type is someone of average height. For men that means 5 feet 7 inches to 6 feet 2 inches, and for women 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 10 inches. Their facial features are non-specific; they do not have sticking-out ears for example, or a big nose. Their body type is average; not particularly over, or under weight. They are not covered in piercings or tattoos. In essence they are people who do not stand out from the crowd. Their age, sex and skin type are not as important, because all types are used.

However, it should be noted that individuals do need to fit the time period and location in which the production is set. For example, most of the exterior filming for The Mummy and The Mummy Returns was shot in Morocco (and set in Egypt), so when the productions came to the UK for studio work, I had the job of matching those types of people for the interior shots. The SAs we cast were therefore mainly of Middle Eastern or North African appearance. On the Robert Redford/Brad Pitt thriller Spy Game the stakes were raised even higher — we needed to find 200 Chinese people for a scene set in a Chinese prison that was actually shot in Oxford. Similarly, for the Arctic sequences in Tomb Raider we had to find Inuits for the interior studio work.

Casting for Spielberg’s War Horse our team had a greater demand for men, most of whom were white, since the majority were playing First World War soldiers. As well as your sex, age can also be restrictive; obviously no pensioners were cast as the young soldiers in War Horse. However, there is no upper age limit to working as a Supporting Artiste. There are some in their eighties who still work regularly; the oldest person on our books is eighty-seven. So long as you have your health, retirement as a Supporting Artiste is not an issue.

The ‘Extraordinary’ Type

The ‘extraordinary’ type is someone who is picked because they have a certain look — they do stand out from the crowd. These SAs could be picked out individually to appear in what’s known as a ‘feature’ (ie they will be specifically featured onscreen during a scene), or they may be selected to give a realistic representation of a group. For example, any present-day big city street scene will need to reflect an accurate slice of society. This may include, in a crowd of 100, two or three very tall people, some overweight people, some men with long hair and perhaps someone in a wheelchair.

In a smaller crowd, the distribution of representative types may be different. Imagine a scene set in a small town in Cornwall, with the camera close up on two principal actors. In the background are two passers-by. A punky-looking woman with a shaved head walks past with her boyfriend, who has a big Afro haircut. Unless this couple is important to the development of the story they would probably stand out too much in this scene, distracting from the main action. On the other hand, when a production actually needs a woman with a shaved head and a man with an Afro, only these types will do. Occasionally the casting agency may receive a brief that calls for interesting, or ‘character-full’ faces. Some Directors, especially on films like Harry Potter or Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, may be looking to set a tone or feeling with the types of people in the background.

There is an interesting paradox between the two groups. The ‘ordinary’ people will tend to get more work offered to them simply because they fit into more scenes, and they can therefore earn more money. However, while the ‘extraordinary’ type may be offered less work, the work they do get may be considerably better paid.

As you consider becoming a Supporting Artiste, ask yourself which type you are: ‘ordinary’ or ‘extraordinary’. This will be your first guide to your suitability and, ultimately, how often you will be used as an SA.

Being Under Sixteen

As I’ve pointed out, there’s no upper age limit to getting work as an SA. But there are quite a few factors to take into account regarding children, and it’s worth going into a bit of detail about them here.

In 1998 the law in the UK became considerably stricter about being under sixteen and working on any set. It is possible, but requires a licence from the local authority (LEA) where the child lives. This may take up to twenty-one days to organise. The application must be accompanied by the child’s birth certificate and two identical photographs (one of which is retained by the LEA), taken no more than six months before the application. The LEA may make any enquiries necessary to satisfy itself that it should grant a licence. For example: it may request a report from the child’s head teacher in respect of the child. It may request that the child be medically examined in order to establish the child’s fitness, and that the child’s health will not suffer by taking part in the performances. It can even interview the applicant, the child’s parents and the proposed chaperone and private/on set teacher (the child’s education must continue if filming takes place during term time).

Under-sixteens need to have a registered chaperone to look after them on set (which is another cost to the production). Children also have restrictions on the number of hours they are allowed to work during any one day. These are broken down into three age ranges — nine to fifteen years, five to eight years and under five years — with the youngest having the most restrictive hours. The nature of film work is such that schedules change; it is quite normal for a filming day to be rescheduled two or three times before it happens, and this can cause further paperwork. Because of these restrictions a production may use young adults if it can get away with it; it is quite normal for a production looking for people to play thirteen to fifteen year-old characters to use young-looking sixteen and seventeen year-olds.

The licence also prevents children working for more than a set number of days in any year, in order to stop children missing too much school. The Harry Potter films tended to cast child actors and SAs from stage schools that have the paperwork ready to licence each child as and when they are needed. The difference between a stage school and a child agent is, stage schools will provide specialist training in acting, singing or dancing. The child agent will just try to find children work. However some stage schools also act as agents.

There is nothing to prevent a production getting a licence for child SAs itself, and occasionally it does happen. For example, a production may need to film at a school, and will get permission from the LEA to use everyone in the school it selects as a location. Nevertheless, on the whole it is pretty difficult to work regularly as a Supporting Artiste if you’re under the age of sixteen.

The pay for background children is also fairly poor, as they normally only receive half the adult rate. The exception to this may be children who do featured work, and for that you would need to join a specialist child agency. These agencies look for children who have the commitment and talent to do featured acting work as well as background work. A list of these child agencies can be found at the end of this book.

Factors You Can Influence

Don’t despair: there are factors you can influence when it comes to getting work as a Supporting Artiste, though be aware that they do tend to require quite a bit of commitment.

Your Ability to Perform

All Directors would agree that at least a degree of natural talent is vital when it comes to performing in front of the camera. In terms of working as an SA however, your acting ability is not necessarily as important as your appearance. Nevertheless, even in the background there are some general rules to follow. The most important thing is not to overact. It’s worth remembering that when you are on screen, the slightest action can appear exaggerated. If you are required to take any direction, remember that the camera comes to you, rather than you trying to grab the camera’s attention. Unlike the theatre where all actions need to be overstated to reach the audience, the camera is much more subtle. This is why working in local theatre may not necessarily give you the best start in terms of how to behave in front of camera. There is nothing worse for a Director than to ask someone to do a simple action and for that person to exaggerate the performance so much that it becomes unnatural and, at best, fairly comical. As long as you are confident, acting experience is not essential to start out as an SA. It may help you in terms of basic confidence if you have successfully worked in local theatre or amateur productions, but the two styles are very different.

Hair Length

Getting hair length right is always a struggle for Supporting Artistes. It is completely dependent on what is currently in production. Robin Hood set in medieval England required men to grow their hair longer over the collar. Yet on another production set in Edwardian England, they may be required to have long hair on top, but very short back and sides. Both could be filming at the same time. It can sometimes be difficult to judge which way to go!

This problem is not exclusive to men. Women with modern haircuts ruin their chances of working on a period drama. SAs often question why they cannot be wigged for a production. Years ago productions may have considered wigging Supporting Artistes. Today however, budget restrictions dictate that if you look right but have the wrong hair, the agent will be asked to find someone who looks right and has the right hair. Period drama will not allow for men or women with highlights or dyed hair, or any style that looks too modern.

Quite often, SAs get a long run on a production because of their hair. The production then finishes and the work seems to stop. They then wonder about getting their hair cut or growing it long. This is a personal decision, of course, but one thing I would say is this: if you’re a man who normally has long hair, or a woman with very short hair, it may be worth leaving it that way. There are, after all, a lot fewer men with long hair and women with short hair than the other way around these days, so your chances of being used as an ‘extraordinary’ type are greater. But flexibility is the key. Do what the production demands to increase your chances.

Where You Live

Another important factor is your location in relation to the production’s location. All productions have a very tight budget. In ninety-nine per cent of cases there is little or no budget for travel or accommodation for Supporting Artistes. Sometimes those SAs that do well may happen to live near a studio, but this is not essential. You can live anywhere if you have the commitment to travel. Some SAs regularly travel to London from the Midlands or live in London and will travel to Bristol for work. In recent years more and more productions are shooting outside the South East. Wales and Scotland have been particularly busy, as well as English cities like Manchester and Liverpool.

I have to stress that if you don’t have a car, you are heavily restricting yourself. Often locations will be away from main forms of public transport. Some SAs do perfectly well without driving, but they tend to be based in major filming cities such as London or Manchester where public transport is good. Because filming hours are particularly long and often involve very early starts, if you need to travel for more than an hour and a half to get to filming locations you may think twice about committing to working as an SA. If you don’t drive it’s not the end of the world, it just means you need to be a lot more organised — get all available bus and train timetables, taxi numbers and a mobile phone. The latter is something every SA needs. Trying to do this job without a mobile is impossible!

It’s worth noting that if you are from outside the EU you will normally require a work permit to work in the UK. Most productions receive tax incentives to employ people that are part of the EU.

Availability

To the agent, this is the single most important aspect of any Supporting Artiste. You can be an incredibly versatile-looking person who seems to fit every casting brief and is always in demand, but if you’re not available you’re as good as useless. A small number of people work as Supporting Artistes as their only source of income. Known in the industry as the ‘professionals’ they have no problem with availability. These people — perhaps numbering less than 1,000 in the UK — have usually spent a long time working before they were comfortable enough to rely solely on their SA income. If you are just starting out, stick to the old cliché: ‘Don’t give up the day job!’

If you have a full-time job and you are not the boss, or cannot take multiple days off at very short notice, you will not be suitable for work as a Supporting Artiste. An exception to this may be if a big production happens to be filming close by to you. Often that production will be keen to use some local people and you may decide to take some of your holiday to work on it.

When we cast the opening battle scene in Gladiator, this was filmed at Bourne Wood just outside Farnham in Surrey. Being fifty miles from London, and with very early starts to the filming, the production wanted to use local people, avoiding the hassle of bringing in crowds of up to 800 people a day from outside the area. We organised a casting at the local arts centre and soon had a pool of 2,000 local people all keen to go into battle, with only the front line being experienced SAs that were brought in from London. However, the nature of filming is such that schedules change, and often dates that individuals had been given as their filming days moved, sometimes at short notice. Some local people were caught out, taking a week off and then finding that the days they had been pencilled in for had changed to the following week. During the filming of this sequence in Farnham, the people who did well were those who were self-employed and therefore flexible with their work schedule, and those with part-time jobs, who simply had more time to spare. (Plus there were the retired, some students and a few rich eccentrics!)

The amount of notice you will be given for potential work is typically a few days if you’re lucky. Often you will be called at very short notice, perhaps the afternoon before a shoot. Occasionally, if someone has dropped out, you may be asked if you can work today! Therefore if you are flexible enough to drop everything, you are likely to be used more often. If you do have a part-time job, be aware that you will need to be available for whole days. Being available Tuesday and Wednesdays after 2pm is not helpful. A filming day will nearly always mean the whole day. You will not be looked upon favourably if you suddenly announce to the set that you have to leave at 5pm to go to your other job.

If you are only available evenings and weekends, it’s not really worth planning a new secondary income. Filming is a seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year process, and while it is true that filming does take place at weekends and at night, continuity dictates that you will be needed throughout the week as well. It is therefore unlikely that any agent will take people on who are only available weekends and evenings. However, an exception can be made if you have an in-demand special skill, or belong to an ethnic group that’s in short supply when it comes to SAs. Here’s a story from an SA who fell into the latter category:

*****

I have a full-time job in finance in London. In the space of a year, though, I saw myself in the films Tomb Raider, Spy Game and Legally Blonde. It all began when I fancied doing something completely different from my day job, just for fun. I fancied becoming a Supporting Artiste… meeting the movie stars…

So one day during my lunch hour at work, I started searching the Internet for casting agencies. I stumbled on one that advertised for immediate castings on its website. It was looking for ‘businessmen wearing smart clothes’, for Tomb Raider. Being immersed in a business environment practically all year round, I thought I might have a chance. I quickly fired off an email, giving a brief description of myself. I went back to doing my day job when, that very afternoon, I had a reply from the agency. It was completely unexpected — after all, I had thought it was very difficult to get work in this line of business. They wanted some photographs, so I sent them a close-up portrait shot and another one of me standing wearing a business suit.

They must have liked the photos, because a month later, I was on location filming a scene for Tomb Raider. The agency invited me to register on their casting book later that year, even though I could only do it at weekends. I only work about ten days a year as a Supporting Artiste, and that suits me fine. I can only say that I was at the right website at the right time!

— Nobuko Slater

*****

Do You Have the Right Type of Personality?

Ask yourself these questions: Can you get up at 4am, after only managing to get to bed at midnight the night before? Can you stand in line, waiting to be able to go home, without getting grumpy? Can you keep your spirits up when it’s wet and cold? If these questions don’t make you break out in a sweat, you may be the right kind of person to do background work.

Working as an SA you could experience some of the most memorable moments of your life. But if your personality is not suited, you could experience some of the most miserable. I’ve known people beg to leave a set because it hasn’t lived up to what they’ve expected. On any set you are going to meet some really interesting people, and some that are maybe, well, not so interesting. If you’re the sort of person who needs their own private space, or you don’t enjoy being stuck with the same group of people for long periods of time, this job is not for you.

The greatest attribute, the greatest ‘skill’ you can have as a Supporting Artiste is patience. Sometimes hours can pass with nothing happening. It may be cold, it may be too hot. Your Elizabethan costume may look great on, but itches like hell. The SAs who are appreciated the most by the crew are the ones that don’t complain unnecessarily. Sometimes you may be completely within your rights to complain, but there is a right way and a wrong way of doing this. It is always important to remember that you may be on the set for one or two days, while crew members can be there every day, six or seven days a week for months with little time to rest. For this reason, fuses can sometimes be a little shorter than is normal in daily life, and the SAs that rub people up the wrong way are the ones that won’t be asked to come back. If you do have a complaint, talk to your agent first — that’s what they are there for. It is also equally important to be nice to your agent! Also bear in mind that it’s worth being polite to your fellow artistes. After all you may get stuck, and need a lift home…