Dear Artists,
As we approach the close of another remarkable year, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what has been an incredible journey we have undertaken together.
Discussions with our partners and market analysis indicate that Extra People has been the largest supplier of background artists in the UK in 2022 and 2023. We could not have done this without yourselves.
Over the past year, we have continued to add to our booking team, as well as the hiring of our community manager. I hope you would all agree that the Advice Centre, which we launched in January 23, has been a resounding success as both an educational tool and a news bulletin. We will continue to find ways of growing the Advice Centre in 2024. We have also integrated a new cutting edge system for handling artist communications which has revolutionised the way we connect and collaborate and has increased the efficiency of our service internally and to yourselves.
The job is not always easy. If anything, it’s often done in the face of adversity, with little to no time to keep up with constantly moving schedules. But thanks to the perseverance of our team and yourselves, we have together demonstrated a great working relationship - even through the existential difficulties of industrial action.
SAG Strike
When I think back to this time last year, the number of productions filming in the UK felt unstoppable and insatiable; all the studios were busy, the majority of crew in work and new booking staff were being recruited to meet the demand from productions… it seemed incomprehensible that only a few months later, that would all be decimated.
I first began hearing rumours of a strike back in February 23. Both sides seemed worryingly far from one another at the table. We planned for it as best as we could, and we were thankful to have many productions that did not stop filming, including a very large production like House of Dragon. I do not think anyone quite envisaged the ferocity of impact and sheer duration of the strike though. At its worst, reports were that 75% of the UK Crew were out of work. For transparency, it appears our revenues dropped by 40% for the 4 months the strike occurred. I am proud to say however we made no redundancies, no-one was asked to take a pay cut and all artists were paid.
We proactively recruited two additional team members in anticipation of increased workload when it returned. I have confidence in our industry and believe it is crucial for us to stay aligned with our objective of becoming the largest background agency in Europe. Collaborating closely with our sister agency, Take 3, reinforces my belief that we are making significant strides toward achieving this goal.
SAG proved to us how strong unions can be for its members. Whilst unions are never perfect, they are at their most powerful when they have depth in membership and support from within. Unions do not always move as fast as we would like, but do not mistake that for ineffectiveness. We continue to advocate our artists to be union members (Bectu and Equity). In 2024, we see a second pay increase in two consecutive years (with another coming in 2025) which is thanks to Bectu’s careful negotiations and advocacy for fair wages. The impact might not always be visible but overtime it can lead to positive changes and improvements for everyone.
The strike reminded us how much we as an industry have come to rely on the inward investment from America. The UK government knows this and will hopefully continue to protect the reasons why productions choose Britain. But the strike also showed how brilliant and valuable our domestic studios are. When all the big streamer stuff paused, it was to the BBC, ITV and C4 that everyone turned to. How apt that despite everything, they remain at the core of our industry. They should never be forgotten.
Thank you to all of the great shows we worked with in 2023, domestic and foreign. They come together to enhance and stabilise our industry and provide a wide range of work to our artists.
The Crown
I want to pay tribute to the incredible The Crown (Netflix) that finished its 6th season this year to deserved acclaim. Along with millions of others, I enjoyed spending the Christmas holidays watching all of our artists with pride and a sense of achievement. A special mention to Christie, our incredible project manager, and her assistants who managed the last two seasons.
It has been an honour and a privilege to have been the main agency for every season of the show. It was an industry-defining series that became the first £5m per episode UK High End TV (HETV) production. It spearheaded a huge demand for content. It brought global recognition to the caliber of British actors and crew members, was a huge boost for local vendors and encouraged increased investment. It also disrupted our entire national television model providing new opportunities and creating hundreds more jobs. As an example, in series 6 alone, we booked over 5,000 individuals onto 13,000 bookings. There’s a phrase, “Put the money on the screen”, and The Crown certainly did that.
To the thousands of artists all over the UK that we have placed on The Crown, thank you for your work and dedication.
No other UK-made HETV show of this size has reached 6 seasons yet; we look forward to what shows will follow in its footsteps.
2024
A question that I have been asking recently in our office is, "What is normal?”
Since 2019, we’ve had a combination of intense market growth, Covid-19, streamer wars, economic headwinds & now two long strikes. I am optimistic that 2024 will usher in a period of stability, marking the commencement of a fresh and ‘normal’ flow of work that will shape the landscape for the next 5 to 10 years.
With that in mind, it seems appropriate to touch on what the responsibilities our agency and others should be doing for its artists. We have the obvious roles, such as casting extras, maintaining a database, co-ordinating with productions, scheduling and communication and facilitating SAs on set. But fundamentally, getting you paid is also core to that. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our fantastic back office team, Freddie and Kelly, who work not only to create the invoices for you and get them paid, but also to get you paid as soon as we have received funds. They processed over 90 payroll runs this year, which is just shy of 2 a week. It’s your money and should be used for nothing else.
So with that, I want to thank you once again and we look forward to working together in 2024.
We as an agency will continue to make these promises to you: to source as much work as we can handle and pass those opportunities onto yourselves; to continue to grow the Advice Centre; to constantly provide strong, streamlined communication to you as well as innovate the way we work and the technology we use. It is my hope that we will begin more artiste-feedback sessions as well as a Summer get-together in 2024.
Best,
Tom Walker
Managing Director
Our Office will reopen Tuesday 2nd January.
SUPPORT CONTACTS
The email address to use for any profile-related issue is epcommunity@extra-people.com
To chase outstanding payments for work from over 8 weeks ago, please contact ukartistsupport@ep.com
If you have any booking enquiries please reply to the last email concerning that project. Your email will go to a dedicated email for that production.
If you have general enquiries that are not pay or booking related, please contact team@extra-people.com