ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

10 years, 6 months ago - Priscilla Gray

You could also try City Lit drama department and drama schools - might be happy to get the experience of working on a film set.

10 years, 6 months ago - Marlom Tander

Time to rope in Friends and Family. This is what Facebook is made for :-)

10 years, 6 months ago - Camelia Borg

You can put out a casting call on www.starnow.com for free and then can use this site to cast actors/extras/models/musicians etc whenever you need to, whether that's for paid work, unpaid or just covering expenses. I'd advise having a look at some of the casting calls other professionals have put out already, so that you can have a good idea of how to style your wording for maximum effect/applications and so on.

You can also advertise for crew positions, script writers, photographers, make up artists...the list goes on. I'm on there as an actress and have got quite a bit of work from there, paid and unpaid.

10 years, 6 months ago - Camelia Borg

No problem, happy to help :)

10 years, 6 months ago - Aly Ford

Thanks for your pearls

10 years, 6 months ago - Vanessa Bailey

Yes, I've used Star Now for my extras. You can also use Talent Circle free and post to their Facebook page, too. http://www.talentcircle.org/

We also got in touch with local amateur dramatics groups who came on board becuase they'd never filmed before.

It's very important to treat your extras with respect, I think. I would disagree slightly that pizza and beer is a fair exchange for their time and work. You should budget to provide something decent plus tea and coffee on tap. Designate a runner to look after background. They deserve it and you'll get a better work ethic from them. We had around 30 for a long night shoot on a low-budget indie and I made sure they had decent food (nice sandwiches, fruit selection, crisps, chocolate bars for energy, bottled water and hot drinks). You must have easy access to toilets, too!

You will have a few no-shows, but that's par for the course. If you are professional with your communications and organisation then they'll be more likely to show up and not walk off-set! :)

10 years, 6 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Provide free beer and ask for students? For no money, you can't expect people to be reliable, so you need an incentive of some sort, and beer and pizza is fairly cheap compared with paying extras :-$

But do consider the logistics and reality of inviting 40 unknown people into your/someone's home, queues for the loo, breakages, sitting space between takes, organising then, stuff getting broken or going missing etc. Even the meet and greets and handling of releases is a job in itself, you might want some extra AD's that day.