As a Supporting Artiste, you often surrender all control of your day once you arrive at location and sign in.

You are immediately placed on a conveyor belt of Covid Test > Costume > Hair > Make-Up > Breakfast > Transport to Set > Holding > Set.

You have little say over this process or the movements of the day.

You don’t know if you’re needed for 4 hours or 14 hours.

You don’t know what lunch is. You don’t know when lunch is.

There is a lot of downtime before and during filming.

Perhaps your phone is locked away with security, removing all distractions or communication with the outside world.

With no control, direction or obvious responsibility, it’s very easy to switch off and even fall back to sleep (careful with this one).

This is a people’s industry.

If the crew takes a liking to you, they’re more likely to put you forward for featured roles, place you next to the main cast, prioritise you for food and breaks, but most importantly, they’ll invite you back for more work.

The easiest way to make the best impression with the crowd team is to demonstrate readiness, professionalism and an enthusiasm for the work.

This enthusiasm for the work can take many forms.

Arrive 10-15 minutes ahead of your call-time.
Be the first to go through the works in the morning.
Arrive with plenty of options when Costume ask you to provide outfits.
Help Hair & Make-Up artists by suggesting products that work well on you.
Be the first to arrive on set in the morning and back after lunch.
Help Crowd PAs when they’re struggling to carry and disseminate umbrellas/sandwiches/aprons etc.
Don’t sneak off or take naps.
Don’t natter when crew are trying to communicate.
Quickly step aside when the crew need to move equipment or props.
Quickly reset between takes without being asked to.
Maintain an awareness throughout the day of the demands and constraints of the crew.

That last one is perhaps best summed up by an anecdote from one of our full-time SAs:

“I was on a nightshoot with hundreds of SAs on the backlot of Shepperton Studios. It was chaotic. SAs were spread across the set, many hadn’t been placed and plenty more were in holding. The floor team were having a tough time.
I wasn’t placed and felt like a spare part. Instead of returning to holding or grabbing a coffee, I kept close to one of the ADs in case he suddenly needed more numbers.
Soon enough his next instruction come through over his radio, “We need 10 SAs that have great availability at the end of next month.”
I darted to the AD. “I have great availability next month”. He laughed, “Well listened, you’re booked”. A single nightshoot became a full week. Out of 250 SAs, I ensured I was one of 10 picked for more dates.
The truth is that I’ve had dozens of these moments. Most of the time when crew need an SA to perform in a featured capacity, they quickly choose from their immediate vicinity.
They just want SAs that are reliable and easy to work with. It’s that simple.”.

A lot of this advice boils down to ‘use your initiative’, which may seem obvious until you witness just how many SAs switch off the moment they arrive on location. It is striking to see SAs do so much work to get bookings and yet under-deliver on the day itself.

On the long days with early starts and late finishes, Supporting Artiste work often pays in the region of £250 per day.

It may surprise many of you to find out that through the PACT/FAA rate, SAs often earn significantly more than many crew members for the same day’s work, despite having a fraction of the stress and responsibility demanded of them.

Now we at Extra People are definitely not against SAs bringing creature comforts to entertain themselves during the downtime. Sometimes the best place for you to be is in holding, especially when the crowd team need to know exactly who is where. By all means, bring a book, crossword puzzles, a pack of cards. But the moment the crew calls upon you to jump to attention and perform, make sure you do so with the utmost professionalism.

When we receive complaints from productions about an SA sleeping on set, ignoring direction or sneaking off when they should be easy to find, they’re often accompanied with an instruction to release and replace that SA for further filming dates.

These complaints also make us nervous to put these SAs forward to other productions.

Likewise, when we hear good things about SAs, we quickly see their calendars become full with bookings.

So why not seize the day? Milk each filming day for all it is worth. Invest yourself into the goals of the crew. Be an active, reliable face that reduces obstacles. In short, earn your money.

Many thanks,
The Extra People Team.