We’ve Got Talent – Recruitment Manager Interview 

When it comes to organising a crowd, our recruitment manager Rory McKenna manages the process throughout to ensure a crowd who are briefed, organised and of the correct demographic. We spoke to Rory recently to ask him about his role to get an insight into his working day!

What has been your favourite project to work on and why?
All the projects that I have been involved with are great so it is difficult to pick out just one. One that sticks out in particular is an advert for BooHoo.com, where we provided 125 extras to be in a night club scene. I think it’s because this was the first crowd that I was assigned to book staff on and because I also got the opportunity to attend the shoot to see how it all works on set.  We also provided featured artists and supporting artist for the movie Rush which was filmed at Blackbush Airport, Cadwell Park, Brands Hatch and other locations around the UK.

How do you ensure that the staff who work are passionate about extra work?
Not everyone is confident working in front of a camera so we only use staff that have experience on set. We do this by conducting interviews with the candidates before booking anyone to get a good idea of what they have been involved with and the kind of person they are.

What upcoming movie would you most like to be involved in?
I would love to be involved in the new Jumanji film that is due to come out December 2017, it was one of my favourite films when I was a child. Also, I think I could beat Dwayne Johnson in an arm wrestle so I would like to get that confirmed.

How did you get into the extra industry?
I was working for a promotional staffing agency on their recruitment team, so the line of work was very similar to recruitment in the film industry. We had a small extras assignment that I had to book staff for, ever since then it has been a huge interest of mine. I enjoy speaking with the extras, they have great stories about shoots that they have been on or been involved with. I also get great satisfaction from helping extras get booked on to assignments, our agency always look after the staff on our books as they are the reason your shoots achieve great success.

What television series are you hooked on right now?
At the moment, I am watching Peep Show for the 3rd time. It’s definitely one of the best comedy tv shows ever made. I recently finished Stranger Things, a Sci-Fi series on Netflix. I highly recommend watching this!