Adding Extras to the Background – Rent a Crowd for Commercials!

Clients rent a crowd for all kinds of reasons. It could be to add people to an event to make it look full or, as in this case, it could be hiring a crowd as extras for a commercial.

An amazing duo

At the start of 2019, Green King, a leader in the pub, hotel and restaurant industry, announced an exciting partnership with Chris Kamara and TalkSPORT.

As you can imagine, to publicise both the new partnership and their own business, there was plenty of media attention courted. From press statements to photoshoots, there was a lot of interest generated in this fantastic pairing. With the forthcoming football season promising yet more thrills and spills, it made sense.

As part of the partnership deal, Chris Kamara was to be the football pundit star who would draw the attention of football and to do so, there were to be a series of public appearances including a promotional video filmed at a Greene King pub.

So how were we involved?

The project: the filming of a promotional video at a Greene King pub. The client had yet to decide on the exact venue at the time of booking but it would either Leeds or Sheffield. Timings were to be confirmed too.

The people: the client wanted to rent a crowd of 10 people, a mix of male and female extras.

Their role: they were to act as excited football fans enjoying the camaraderie of the pre-match build-up. They were also to pretend to watch an England football match and all the emotions that go with following a national team.

A great day

It was a great day’s filming with our handpicked hire crowd of 10 actors providing exactly what the client wanted.

• Flexible – like many clients in the process of planning promotional events and filming sequences, there needs to be a degree of flexibility. This means we know how to flex to fit with the changing plans of clients.
• Well-briefed – we receive a lot of information including a provisional storyboard of the filming session from the client as to what they wanted their hired crowd of extras to do on the day. With all this information relayed to your team, they were able to provide exactly what was needed on the day.
• Reliable – we know that plans change but that isn’t an excuse for being unreliable. We make sure that our actors are on-site and ready for action. We always have a plan B which makes us not only a reliable agency but a responsive one too.

Hire a crowd as extras

Renting a crowd of extras and actors is part and parcel of what we do. As you can see, there is very little in the way of drama when it comes to hiring the right people but they certainly deliver the drama on the day and where you need it!