Crowd 2nd Assistant Director: How to (not) stand out in a crowd
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, I'm Yinka Bikini and this is Out of Frame. We all love a good film or TV series and nothing beats settling into a cinema seat or a comfy spot on the sofa to watch your favourite actors do what they do best. But that is only half the story. It can take a mammoth-sized crew to bring a movie or TV show to life and this is the place to find out exactly who those crew members are. Each week I'll be shining a light on the below the line roles. These are the people who bring a creative vision to life from the set department to prop makers, makeup artists, sound mixers and everything in between. This is Out of Frame.
The cast of a film or TV series become familiar characters to us. It's the loyal gang of high school friends or the lovable group of coworkers, or it's a team of superheroes. But these aren't the only actors on set. There's also the extras. You may know them as background actors or crowd actors. They're essentially for making a scene feel authentic. Someone who is responsible for keeping these extras in order is Demetra Coulson. Demi is a crowd second assistant director, and she's worked with the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Channel 4, and of course, Warner Bros. Demi, welcome to Out of Frame.
Hello.
How are you? Good, thank you. Good, good, good, good, good. Before we get started, I thought that I could ask you a couple of questions to give our audience a little glimpse into knowing who you are better beyond the job title. Because the rest of the interview is definitely about your job. What was the last film that you watched that really inspired you?
I think I would say recently I watched I Swear, which... If you haven't seen it, it's obviously about Tourette syndrome. And I think it's really raw, inspiring and actually brings the real world to parent, to the audience and to everyday people. And I think it's really important that we are showcasing them things.
It was definitely a brand new, in my experience, way of storytelling that punched me in the face and I liked it.
Yeah.
I mean, because you're uncomfortable, but you have to be to understand.
Yeah. And I think it's really nice that they've done it as a film instead of a TV series where it's quite hard to get everything together within the space of 90 minutes, two hours. But yeah, it really does do that and showcases that. But I only watched it like three weeks ago.
Oh, I'm really late to the party. No, no, no, no, no, no. I think I think it was maybe September. Yeah. Last year that I watched it. Demi, I try to give our audience, those listening, a good introduction into what it is that you do. But how would you best describe the work of a crowd second assistant director?
A crowd second AD is essentially the person that manages and shapes the background of the film or the show that you're watching. So it's everything behind the main actors and all the main action that is happening. My job is mainly in prep and that's where it starts, where you're breaking down all of the characters in the script, talking to the directors, the costume and hair and makeup on the type of person that you need in the scene, the look of them. And then once you move over to set, you really hand it over to the crowd third or your floor second who are the ones responsible of the movement of people, positioning them and seeing where they go within the scene to fit within it.
So how did you sort of get into it? What was your first role in the extras department?
I actually was an extra when I was about 12 years old. No way, what were you in? Waterloo Road. Come on. You can definitely find it, BBC.
You know what, I watch EastEnders religiously and every single time I finish EastEnders, Waterloo Road, it just starts.
Oh yeah.
So I've probably seen you 18 times. Probably.
Which is why you seem so familiar.
It was like 2007.
You'll see me. So I was an extra when I was about 12 years old, which I guess you don't really understand the ins and outs of everything. But it was really fascinating to see that this was a thing. When I was younger, my parents used to take me to Disney.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:36
2
Who is a crowd 2nd assistant director and what does their role involve?
4:36–14:37
3
How did Demi Coulson get started as an extra and progress into crowd 2nd AD?
14:37–23:04
4
How do you break down a script to plan and cast background characters?
23:04–25:46
5
What logistics determine how specific extras’ looks (hair, costume) need to be?
25:46–25:54
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Out of Frame
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