Any one with contacts in an acting/extra agency?

marvin

AgentReporter wrote: »

I have been doing this work for 8 years. Its not worth it anymore. Apart from the Production companies ripping you off on fees, and the Agents taking up to 2 months to pay you, you will end up in debt!

Another thing you should know is that the Bookers in the Agents that give the work out, they give priority to their friends, partners & their favourites, the latter being the !!!!-lickers & 'Lovey' types! Believe me, this all goes on, if you are a groveller you will go far, but if your are strong minded & like to speak your mind you will get no where! Especially with Ray Knight Casting & Twenty-20, they both have their A List Extras. Certain Bookers are also up their own !!!!!!, they think they are Gods because the huge majority of people dare not say Boo to them, for fear of not getting any work for 8 weeks! Its all very childish, but then so are most of the people in this business, especially those that pretend they are or have been something that they are not, its very clicky-clicky & back stabbing.

So get a real job, dont bother with Extra work, after all the deductions, travel, long hours, early starts, tons of boredom, then you have to pay your own tax, ask yourself, am I happy with £30.00 at the end of the day?

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

As I said in the original thread I am only really after the experience not as a job (got one of those already) and most of what you describe really goes on in most work places this seems not that out of the ordinary.

having said that got nowhere yet myself not been confident enough to follow up any of the leads due to the other things going on in life, have signed up to be on screen twice via different cashback sites but that is as far as I have got!

perfumelady

agent reporter has made some very harse but real truths in his/her comments. and i understand exactly why it was put across in this way and if your thinking of trying this out you should take into account everything that was said because it is the reality of this industry.

my two daughters have been doing acting for the last three years they have done all area's including extra. the pay is poor, the hours are long and boring and in some productions you don't get treated as you should. but over all my girls love every minute of it and would actually do it for free!! i have met many people over the years and there is quite a lot that do it for a living and why, because they love the buzz of being on set, they get to travel and they meet lots of famous people(not that many ever speak to the extras!!) but they still get to be around them and for some people this is an exciting career but for some it would just pose to be to difficult to handle. the calls for work are last minute the call times are early for example we had to be at pinewood studios last week for 3 days in a row for 7.20am now the problem being where we live(which is important if you are considering this) we had to get up a 4.15am in order to get there for 7.20am each day luckily she was finished by 5pm which beleive it or not was an early day!!! when my eldest daughter did the golden compass she had to be on set for 7.00am(for drive to oxford) and didn't return till 7.30pm every night. you have to be really sure that this is what you want to do and you must be able to get your self to the location with no problems ie would be impossible if you relied on the trains getting you to a location. thankfully who my girls are with have a main meeting point(pinewood) and they are driven by mini bus to location.

if after reading both mine and agentrepoters posts you are still interested then please send me a private message and i will pass on all the agents i know that are good and repertible plus some links to good sites i know. i have gained lots of knowledge on this subject mainly through people i have met and research i've done so would be more that happy to help out. i could put some links on here but wasn't sure if i was allowed and didn't want to get in trouble as i'm still a newbie on here.

Anglea

I know that acting and extras can seem exciting but from the other posts you will know that there's also another side.

I wouldn't recommend it unless you are an extremely patient person. I wasn't :mad: One scene comes to mind, a large coach, all passengers having to line up, get up the stairs, sit down in their seats, then off again lost count but it was over 30 times - and the scene was cut!!!

Was acting in another film, speaking part, done differently with only 1 take, improvised and that was very relaxing. But I wouldn't fancy doing that again. Confidence gone.

Good luck to everyone that pursues this career. You'll need it. :T

perfumelady

sounds like a nightmare angela

thjf

Hi here's the gist of my experience with Universal Extras:

- long hours. Early starts and late finishes.

- being an extra, I felt a little bit like a second class human/herded animal

- Universal Extras have cancelled jobs the evening before by text message

- they will quote you gross pay over the phone and then take fees from your pay. Not a problem in itself but they aren't up front about this.

- the money is good (but not THAT good)

General feel:

with a bit of >:(

maybe even some (0_o) too

XxXfashionqueenXxX

Check websites that list the jobs. If you check the actual '50 ways to up your income' it lists some valid websites.