Where can I find volunteer aspiring actors in London (UK)?

March 31, 2011 1:57 AM

Where can I find volunteer aspiring actors in London (UK)?

Hello lovely metafilter people!

Here is the situation: I need to make a viral video to promote a product that I've developed. Since I am not an established company with a lot of money I need to find some actors that would spare an afternoon to act in my short concept piece for free.

Am I asking for too much here?

posted by EricBrotto to media & arts (7 answers total)

Apologies. I forgot to specify that I need elderly actors (55/60 and over), so no students!
posted by EricBrotto at 2:01 AM on March 31, 2011

Shooting People. I'm not a member, but I'm pretty sure it's good for actors as well as crew. There are a lot of actors who are not fully-employed and many will give you a little time if they like your project, and if you pay their expenses/feed them/treat them well on set. There's a whole other debate about whether expecting them to work for nothing undermines the profession, but that's for your (and their) conscience, I guess. You certainly wouldn't be the first.
posted by penguin pie at 2:48 AM on March 31, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yep. Shooting People. In film school we used it for practically all of our projects. We usually compensated actors through travel costs or at the very least, free food.

If the project is good/interesting enough and/or you are person people want to work with, it is not rare for actors to work for free. Just be respectful of their time and effort in helping you out.
posted by slimepuppy at 5:48 AM on March 31, 2011

You could try some amateur dramatic groups. I'm a member of one and we get requests like this through quite often.

A lot of people will do it for fun. If you can cover expenses, that's even better. Often people will be doing their regular jobs during the day, but there's a reasonable chance that people in the age group you're looking for will be available. If you're able to be flexible and do an evening/weekends, you might have more luck.

Both http://amdram.co.uk and http://www.noda.org.uk/ have lists of groups.
posted by matsho at 6:01 AM on March 31, 2011

You could also try Arts Jobs, the Arts Council mailing list.
posted by him at 6:32 AM on March 31, 2011

Sorry – borked link. That should be http://www.artsjobs.org.uk.
posted by him at 6:33 AM on March 31, 2011

I'll also point out that if it really goes viral and it makes you a lot of money, you should have that as part of their "free" contract: Payment later if it makes it big.
posted by CathyG at 11:19 AM on March 31, 2011