Exciting new updates on the Casting Portal platform for Supporting Artists

We know that as a Supporting Artist, managing your diary can be one of the most challenging parts of the job especially when things move so quickly and change at the last minute. To make it as easy as possible to manage your bookings we’re trialling and releasing some tech updates over the coming weeks.

Read on to find out more…

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to build a better solution and we’re excited to announce our latest updates on availability enquiries and your POP calendar.

As with all tech updates, we want to make sure we’ve fully tested the updates before we roll out for everyone to enjoy so you may see these now or in a few weeks - we hope you give them a 👍 but if it’s more 👎 please let us know on ukartistsupport@ep.com.

Until then - some jobs may use the new format, and others the old. So you may be seeing a bit of both for the time being

So, if you’re a Supporting Artist with POP, here’s a quick overview on the latest changes you may be seeing soon

Availability enquiries 📆

This update is to help improve communication between you and the POP agents.

A few agents are helping us to trial this new format on some of their projects over the coming weeks, so you may receive some availability enquiries that look a little different to what you’re used to. We’ll be trialling the new view alongside the current, so no need to panic if you see both!

How will it work?

Multiple dates

  • How it has been: you could only respond to multiple dates in a block as either available or unavailable, unless specified in additional questions.
  • What are we looking to change? If agents request availability for multiple dates, you can now respond as available or unavailable to individual dates by selecting the option next to each date. 🙌
  • Why it’s better: you’ll get a clearer, more accurate view on the individual dates related to each job.

Mandatory vs optional dates ✅

  • How it has been: dates linked to your diary weren’t specified as mandatory or optional.
  • What are we looking to change? If the agent has specified that certain dates are mandatory, these will be grouped together, with optional dates separate so you can respond appropriately.
  • Why it’s better: you can be involved in a project even if you’re not available on all days and choose optional dates (fittings, rehearsals etc) that better suit you and your diary.

Mandatory vs Optional Dates

Booking updates 🔔

  • How it has been: any bookings, date changes and releases may have been communicated in individual messages, which could be a lot, and you had to keep track of them all.
  • What are we looking to change? The agents can now inform you of all recent booking updates (per project) in a single message e.g you may receive a pencil or booking confirmation alongside new availability enquiries. If the message does contain more than one update, they’ll be grouped by booking state (Booked / Pencilled / Availability / Released) and colour coded for easy identification. 💯 You’ll just need to click submit on each message to register your responses (see image below).
  • Why it’s better: You’ll have a clearer single overview of all bookings / date changes / releases - and these will be reflected in your online POP calendar.

pop-new-calendar

POP calendar

Here’s a quick & easy guide to the new colour coding that you’ll see on your calendar:

Better Booking Colour Coding

Emails

Your new emails should look something like this:

Better Booking Email Layout

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