Supporting Artists

We are frequently asked to provide babies, children and young adults for various productions filming locally to Cardiff and Bristol. These opportunities are open to agency and non-agency members to be supporting artists / background extras in television and film productions. Every child under the age of 16 needs to be licensed through their local authority.

If you would like to know more about licensing please click here

What is a Supporting Artist?

Supporting Artists provide background action for Television and Film Productions. You do not need to be a professional actor or actress to be a Supporting Artist. Anyone who is patient and can take direction can be a Supporting Artist. You may be asked to deliver some dialogue or provide a particular skill for a production but you do not need to be professionally trained or have any experience.

What is required to be a Supporting Artist?

• Being patient is vital! Be prepared to spend long hours waiting on set or on location until needed for shots.
• You must act professionally, you can’t go and ask the leading actors for autographs or selfies
• If you take photos of your costume or the set please do not share them with anyone or on social media until after the episode or production has aired! You are under a contract to not give any spoilers or plot lines away.
• Remember what it is you have been asked to do and make sure you do it exactly the same for each take. Scenes will be filmed multiple times from different angles and for continuity purposes it is really important that you do everything exactly the same. This includes remembering your starting and finishing positions and the exact movements each time the camera rolls. Make sure you do everything at the same time, if you have a certain line of dialogue or some action as a cue make sure you know where you are supposed to be and what you need to do during the sequence.
• Take direction from the Production team and respond to their requests quickly without a fuss.
• Being flexible and efficient. We will get roughly a week’s notice of the filming date and requirements and the call times will come to us the evening before. We will give you all the information for the shoot as soon as we receive it.

I’ve been booked as a Supporting Artist what do I need to take with me?

• Take plenty of food and drinks to keep you going through the day. Depending on the times and where the shoot is food may be provided but please do not rely on this. We also advise that you take some money with you, if you are filming at BBC Roath Lock Studios you will need to buy your food if you haven’t brought your own
• Take options of clothing. Costume requirements will be given out prior to filming but it’s a good idea to take a couple of options for the Costume Department to see. Avoid logos and the colour red!
• Take something to do. A book, iPad / tablet, a pack of cards. There will be a lot of waiting around before you will be needed on set so take something to keep you occupied