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5 Reasons to Get Feedback Before Deciding Your Kid Can Act
Posted by: | CommentsTis the season to watch TV Reality Talent Shows. I admit to both loving and hating them.
The final ten are usually tremendously talented individuals and a real joy to watch. This is the part I love.
The first few episodes are pure torture. I watch, cringing, peaking through my fingers the same way I watch horror movies if I ever make the mistake of watching one.
Don’t ask me why I even watch except that prurient cringe factor.
Anyway, watching some of these people very seriously go up in front of millions of people to make complete fools of them selves begs the question “What were you thinking?”
I know some are in it for the thrill or the laugh or the 15 minutes of fame, but many appear to seriously believe they are good. Did they ever look at them selves on tape or take a class to get feedback or even ask a disinterested party before stepping on stage?
All too many people and parents of outgoing kids make the same mistake, although not so publicly. Your child is adorable, smart, a natural, a ham – let’s move to Hollywood!
Before you do – Get a Second Opinion – preferably not from someone related to you and doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. Here are some places to try first.
1. Professional Acting Classes
There are a lot of classes in most cities. Find one that has been attended by “real” actors and is kid friendly.
2. Enter Local Contests
My kids danced with a very competitive dance troupe. I always appreciated the competitions that gave written feedback along with a score. They have nothing to gain by telling you are great if you aren’t.
3. Make sure the contest is legitimate
Some groups run contests specifically to build their client list. Some of these are good with reputable companies with real worthwhile services to sell. Some are not. They will tell you what you need to hear to get you to put your kid in their class or buy their product. So buyer beware.
4. Audition for Community Theatre
Like contests, some community theatre is good and reputable and put on good, professional productions. Some are delusional people who want their own 15 minutes. Check them out, go see a production, read reviews, if they appear professional, then audition.
5. Open Mic, Karaoke or Talent Night
Attend an open forum with people who don’t know you and listen to the audience. If they are booing, it’s not because they are jealous of your kid’s talent. This could be a clue that your child needs to work on their act before going global.
10 Questions for Potential Child Actors’ Moms
Posted by: | CommentsBefore getting much further into the do’s and don’ts, necessities and how-to’s of being the parent of a child actor, here are some questions to ask yourself before committing to being and actors mom.
Madelyn on set of Baram & Hamza
As always, I say actors “moms”, but this goes for any adult who is part of the process – mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, older sibling, etc.
We’ll go into more depth with some of these later if you are still deciding weather or not to enter your budding child actor into the showbiz world. For now, here are some questions to ask your child and for you to ask yourself. You can save a lot of heartache, frustration, time and money if you and your child are at least in the same ballpark if not exactly seeing eye-to-eye on an acting career.
I was asked these questions by potential agents when my kids first said they wanted to get into acting and we ask these questions when interviewing potential child acting clients and their parents.
We look for a lot of different things, but mostly, are the parents and the children going to work together or is there some struggle. Does one want it more than the other? Is the difference significant enough to make it difficult for this family to succeed in this difficult industry?
For now, I’m just giving you the questions here – no right or wrong answers at this point. Your answers have to mean something to you personally, not to impress anyone else. You are the only one keeping score if you choose to.
1) Child: Do you want to be a professional actor?
Parent: Do you want your child to be a professional actor?
If either of you were in the “not-so-much to heck-no” area, read on, but I think you already have your answer.
Consider what you want to get out of the experience.
2) Child: Why do you want to be an actor?
Parent: Why do you want your child to be an actor?
3) Parent and Child:
What is the Best Outcome you could hope for? (What makes this outcome good?)\
4) What is the Worst Outcome that could come of this? (What makes this outcome bad?)
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 a little or nothing or no effort – 10 yes, Yes, YES I’ll do anything)
5) How much do you want to do this?
6) How much do you think the other party wants to do this?
7) How much time are you willing to commit to this?
8) Are you willing to take (pay for) classes?
If yes – How often?
9) Child: Are you ready for constructive criticism?
Parent: Are you ready for constructive (and sometimes not so constructive) criticism of your Little Angel?
10) Child: Are you ready for perceived rejection? (How thick is your skin?)
Parent: Are you ready for your child to receive perceived rejection?
Parents of Acting Kids – Do Your Actions Help or Hurt Your Child Actor’s Career?
Posted by: | CommentsA special hint to parents of aspiring child actors: more times than not, when we are trying to help our children perform, we get in the way more than we help.
Personally, I have watched my son stiffen and get emotional and my daughter basically get angry and belligerent when I insert my suggestions at a shoot.
Even if I say the same things in the same words as the director or photographer, my children will listen to the stranger sooner than they will listen to me.
I see hundreds of stage, sports and showbiz parents have the same effect on their children. Almost all of them have no idea that their efforts have the exact opposite effect than they want and are making their child’s performance suffer.
If you are thinking “that’s not me and my child,” test it. “Help” your child as you normally do and watch for signs of tension in your child’s smile, voice, body language.
Then, in another similar situation, advise your child that you will be close by if they need you, that they will be fine with the person in charge, but they won’t see or hear from you unless they specifically ask for you and need you.
Think of it like a school with a nanny cam where you can visit your child without interfering with the classroom. If the person working with your child is good with children and you are honest, you see a positive difference when you step away.
You will hear this same refrain from me over and over again whether it is about auditions, headshots, Feature films, student films, TV, stage, publicity or any other aspect of professional acting.
If you are seriously considering acting as a profession for your child, you will find that parents are little more than taxi drivers and baby-sitters when the child is not actively auditioning or on set.
You are expected to have the child at the location on time, well rested, prepared and ready willing and able to do the audition, the photo shoot or the acting job.
On an acting job, you are expected to be available if your little angel gets unruly, cranky, sugar-crazed, sulky or otherwise unable to perform as expected.
Other than that, you DON’T EXIST!!!
You have no opinions.
You have no creative input.
You don’t direct, advise or translate poor direction or fix hair, make-up or wardrobe. You have no say in lighting or camera angles or how to fix a take.
No matter how much you want to help 99.9% of the time, even if your “suggestion” is correct, it is unwelcome.
If this is too difficult for you to swallow, please consider another line of work for your child NOW.
Unless your child is making truckloads of money for the people involved, no one will put up with your interference for very long.
While there are hundreds of thousands of people working in the entertainment industry, it is really very small. Parents and children labeled as “difficult” are ousted very quickly.
Whew, Lecture over – for now.
On Set Behavior for Acting Kids
Posted by: | CommentsI am writing this earlier than I had planned to, because I spent all day on a shoot with a bunch of kids behaving very badly on set. In a bit of fairness, it was a student film and only one kid besides my own had ever worked on a professional set.
Student Film Set NOT the one described in this post.
Between the dog, who could barely move, no less take commands and the uncooperative kids, the poor director was so exhausted and frustrated and ready to quit film-making forever. And honestly so were my children and I.
Every time the director called “cut” more than half of the kids on set took off. The AD (Assistant Director) had to constantly chase them down for the next take. Even then, the kids never stood still long enough to listen to the corrections to make the next take work.
I have a lot of specific information and advice about working on set, both professional and student sets, film, TV, commercial, dramas, comedy – whatever. For now, I just want to make an analogy.
If the behavior your child displays would be inappropriate in a school classroom, it is totally inappropriate on set or in an audition.
Even if the character your child is portraying is supposed to be loud, obnoxious, a total nightmare, your child needs to be attentive and to follow directions when not in character and the camera isn’t rolling.
In school, and hopefully at home, children are taught to respect the adults, to listen to directions, and to follow them as best they can. They certainly aren’t allowed to talk while the teacher is talking or walk around while the teacher is talking or leave the area between instructions. Even in less restrictive teaching environments like Montessori, children are taught respect for others and good behavior is good behavior in almost any environment. The same rules apply on set.
OK, most of these kids are not professional actors, but the point still holds – nobody loves a DIVA. Bad behavior is bad behavior, end of story.
Your child may be adorable and talented, but if they have trouble with authority figures, like to test boundaries, are easily bored or distracted or generally don’t listen or behave well – STAY AWAY from acting as a career.
Film and TV shoots are boring with a lot of waiting. There are a lot of things going on around while your child is supposed to be concentrating on the directions they’ve been given. There are a lot of people telling you what to do. (As a side note –YOU should not be one of the people giving direction – but that is the theme of another post.)
In short, acting kids are expected to behave like mini adults and act like kids only when the camera is rolling. If this is too challenging, save your kid, the director, producer, AD, crew, other actors and yourself a lot of grief and find another outlet for your child’s creativity.
The Casting Process – Part 2 Your Child Actor Gets a Call for a Commercial Audition
Posted by: | CommentsWhen your child has been chosen for an audition, it is essential that you respond as soon as possible. The more efficient everyone is at responding, the more efficient the audition can go.
Even if you haven’t done this before, you’ve likely seen the long lines of contestants at Open Calls for reality show auditions like American or Australian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, America/ Britain / Australia’s Got Talent and more. Some auditions will be this big and chaotic, but many are tightly scheduled so you need to respond in a timely manner.
With your Audition Confirmation, you will get information on the shooting schedule. If you are not available on the shoot days, you are better off not confirming the audition than taking up the Casting Director and the Client’s time by taking the audition for a part you won’t be able to take.
The entertainment industry is a really small world. We all have scheduling conflicts, but you don’t want to gain the reputation of being unreliable. In one of those freaky laws of nature – as soon as you schedule something “hoping” it won’t conflict – it does. If you stick with acting for long enough, you will start seeing castings from the same Casting Directors over and over again. You’ll likely never know if your child is missing out on auditions because they aren’t right or because you are being avoided.
You Got the Audition!!! What now?
There is no typical casting, though theatrical and commercial castings generally have a different look and feel.
We’ll concentrate on Commercial Casting for this article. Like above, there is no “typical” commercial casting, though many may look and feel similar. Castings all have their own nuances of which we may not be aware.
The clients may be very specific about their needs and unforgiving of those who don’t give them exactly what they want.
Some clients may have only a vague notion of what they really want and depend on the casting director to magically understand what they need and provide it.
Some clients have a very specific vision, then decide on a totally different direction as the casting process is underway.
Others have a specific vision, but what they want doesn’t exist or isn’t available. Casting agents in this situation have to sell their vision to the client as if it was the clients’ idea. They need to know that the artists they are recommending can deliver the goods.
Your best bet is to prepare your child actor to look and feel like the character in the brief. For a “typical kid,” have them be bright, happy, and fun. Wear bright colors without busy patterns or logos. Learn the lines or actions specified in the brief.
For a specific type of character, sport player, emotional type, nerd, jock, emo, surfer, student, etc, do your best to “look” the type. A Casting Director can better see your child as a “little professor” if he’s wearing at least a collared shirt and long pants than if he’s wearing basketball clothes. You get the idea.
Do your best, but we advise against buying particular “costumes” to achieve certain looks just for an audition, unless of course, your child will wear those clothes again. If your little angel has to look like an equestrian, but doesn’t ride on a regular basis, don’t buy a whole outfit, dress her in light colored pants and boots and maybe carry a strap to look like a rider’s crop.
Remember, Casting Director’s are your friend in this process. The easier you make it for them to see your child as the character in the brief, the closer you are to booking an acting job.