Creative Works member Carla Bartley is the Founder and Managing Director of Slick Casting, a casting company and agency specialising in sourcing, booking and coordinating extras, walk-ons and featured artists for film, TV and commercials.
“We have a database with over 10,000 supporting artists from around the UK, one of the largest databases of BAME artists and a diverse range of spotlight approved actors and performers,” explains Carla.
Slick Casting began as a one-person operation, and is now a team of six. Coincidentally, the company also happens to be celebrating its sixth anniversary later this year.
The power of apprenticeships
Prior to starting Slick Casting, Carla was a producer for ITV and an assistant director.
But her “foot in” to the film and TV industry happened when she was a teenager.
“After college, I was on a gap year before I started university and got a placement on a film and TV paid apprenticeship called FT2 – FILM and Television Freelance Training.
“It offers paid training opportunities for talented young people who aim to begin careers in junior technical, craft and production positions in the film and television industry.
“They received 2,000 applications and only six candidates were selected for a year-long placement on the scheme. I was one of the lucky six!
“To get onto the scheme I had to make a short film, which the panel loved, and it also won a young people’s creative talent media award.”
Carla’s first placement was on a feature film called Sunshine by Danny Boyle.
Then, in the mid-noughties, Carla landed a job on Harry Potter – thanks to the power of good old fashioned paper and ink.
“I literally wrote a letter to Warner Studios one day, and posted my CV along with it. I had an interview and the AD decided to offer me an opportunity because I seemed really enthusiastic and eager to learn how the industry worked. I was really taken aback!”
Carla quickly learned the ins and outs of the film industry, which she describes as “incredibly fast paced”. She progressed from the role of production assistant to AD and worked on numerous film sets – including subsequent Harry Potter films.
Carla transitioned into TV when she took on the role as producer for ITV.
She felt inspired to start Slick Casting after experiencing, as part of the production team, large workloads-– particularly when it came to casting and crowd management.
Since 2016, Carla and her team have been “easing production’s pressures and budgets” by enabling them to “focus on being on the set while we take the scripts and schedules and focus on getting the crowd”, which sometimes comprises 100 people a day.
In 2018 Slick Casting received a recognition award for best casting, bespoke services and supplying of supporting artists and talent to TV and film professionals.
As well as leveraging its huge supporting artist database, Slick Casting also scouts for new candidates that fit specific briefs. This practice is called “street casting”, although very little of it takes place in the physical world nowadays.
“We have a massive social presence that helps with casting calls, and an audition process for featured roles too.”
“In terms of this year, we’ve got some really exciting projects with Netflix, Amazon and a few of the major studios.” Check out Slick Casting’s IMDB profile for a list of the productions it’s been working on over the past few years.
View this post on Instagram
Carla is also expanding the talent side of her business in 2022, which involves casting professional actors for featured roles in film and TV and launching Slick Talent!
Why Creative Works?
Creative Works opened its doors to local freelancers and businesses in 2018, but its roots go back much further. In 1999, our MD, Alexis Michaelides, founded Big Creative Education.
BCE is the largest creative college in London and provides training and apprenticeship opportunities for over 1,000 students every year.
All Creative Works members have the opportunity to work with ambitious young people from the local area through BCE’s Apprenticeship Training Scheme.
“There’s lots of opportunities with BCE as they have a massive performing arts school and they’re in the process of building a studio. I’ve sent briefs to BCE before and some of the college students have applied for roles.”
This year, Carla is also considering hiring a BCE apprentice, giving a younger learner the chance to gain some hands-on experience in the film and TV industry.
“It’s so nice to work with new talent and learn, and if I’m able to give back I definitely will. I know it’s a tough industry to get into.”
Carla signed up for a Creative Works office shortly before the first lockdown in March 2020. Despite not being able to go to the office and production grinding to a halt, she decided to keep her contract and wait it out.
In summer 2020, things picked up. Then they started to snowball…
“2020 and 2021 were the busiest two years that I could have imagined, and I thought it would have been the complete opposite! Once the insurance policies went through for all the big studios the industry began to crack on.
On top of casting, Carla and her team now have to facilitate Covid tests.
“I hired an intern [to help with the extra workload] and she did so amazingly, I’ve given her a job. It’s one of those industries that’s fast paced and you have to be very thick skinned, but she worked so well under pressure.”
A desire to work closer to her home is what inspired Carla to look for an office in Walthamstow. Since Covid and the rise of remote working, she thinks she won’t have to open another office in the West End, which was her initial plan.
“You can get the same service closer to home at Creative Works. They’ve got amazing facilities for us to hold auditions and registrations. We have the meeting rooms for 1:1 chats and casting calls. And it’s right on the Victoria Line, just 10 minutes from King’s Cross.
“It’s a very creative space: the lighting and the whole look and feel makes you feel like you’re part of a creative environment.”
When Carla’s not busy running a business she enjoys socialising, travel, culture, food and music, as well as spending time with her two beautiful boys.
For more information, visit slickcasting.com.
