Council starts charging for child performance licences

[Nicola]

Wissymo - a word of advice to heed from now on it from someone who's been doing it a few years - Never EVER count up how much this is costing!!!!! Just guesstimate it with a very thick pair of rose-tinted lenses!!!

The very occasional rays of success DO make it all worthwhile, although somehow when it comes to money IN, that all seems to go in DD's account, yet the money OUT always comes from mine?!

[nextinline]

I agree with Nicola that counting the cost is sort of futile. However, my dd's and ds's agents only ever send them to auditions where they have a reasonable chance. This cuts down the cost. There is nothing worse than spending lots of money and rushing about, giving up other things and then getting to a casting to find out that your dd or ds doesn't even fit the brief. Also it depends on what you think your dd or ds is getting out of it. Workshops can be interesting, you meet great people and have a day out. All makes for nice memories. We try and get as much as a work life balance as we can but usually 3 or 4 auditions come along at once and it is hard to differentiate between those to bother with or not. My ds and dd have both had some of their biggest successes from what looked like origially as the smallest of opportunities. Getting back to licensing though I do think wherever you live the licensing should be the same. I agree that most jobs are London orientated. However, for those of you who live a long way away it is often not that different to those of us who are nearer but outside of London. The M25 cut-off is just the same for us both. Also my ds in particular has lost out a couple of times because he is not Bristol based or Birmingham based as well.

[mathsmum]

12 month licence ??
is that for modelling or acting?

if you are given a 12 month licence, then your local authority is not checking on individual jobs to make sure chaperone etc arrangements are in place - thoough i see if this is a licence with oi]ne dance school, say, that makes sense - otherwise, it is a dereliction of the ewo's duty

and if it's for modelling - it won't take much googling to find that there is a horrific amount of abuse of under-age models out there which i have never understood in that, if the acting chaperone rules were applied (line of sight in particular), it would be impossible for the abuse to take place

[Nicola]

wissymo wrote:
12 month licence ??
is that for modelling or acting?


if you are given a 12 month licence, then your local authority is not checking on individual jobs to make sure chaperone etc arrangements are in place - thoough i see if this is a licence with oi]ne dance school, say, that makes sense - otherwise, it is a dereliction of the ewo's duty

It's for acting - and to be honest, I don't see the licensing authority as the people who should primarily be watching out for my DD's welfare anyway, even if that is their legal requirement. I see that as MY job, and I would only ever allow her to work in an atmosphere that I felt was appropriate, and I would always chaperone her myself.

That said, the council have all the details before she goes - I have to give details (albeit only by e-mail to my licensing lady) of location, production company, payment, arrangements etc, so they have ample opportunity to follow any of this up should they so wish.

I'm perfectly happy with the set-up - don't think it leaves DD open to being abused by anyone?!!

[mathsmum]

wissymo wrote:
12 month licence ??
is that for modelling or acting?


if you are given a 12 month licence, then your local authority is not checking on individual jobs to make sure chaperone etc arrangements are in place - thoough i see if this is a licence with oi]ne dance school, say, that makes sense - otherwise, it is a dereliction of the ewo's duty

It's for acting - and to be honest, I don't see the licensing authority as the people who should primarily be watching out for my DD's welfare anyway, even if that is their legal requirement. I see that as MY job, and I would only ever allow her to work in an atmosphere that I felt was appropriate, and I would always chaperone her myself.

if that has been your exprience - great - but:

1. not all mums think like you and the ewo has to look out for everyone

2. not all productions will go with that - if they are low-budget, they will want a professional chaperone who will look after 8 kids for one fee - not one ti one - maybe yuo'll chaperone free of charge - how many mums do you think can afford that?

so - i go back to - open licences are not in the best interests of many performing kids

[Nicola]

Nicola wrote:
wissymo wrote:
12 month licence ??
is that for modelling or acting?


if you are given a 12 month licence, then your local authority is not checking on individual jobs to make sure chaperone etc arrangements are in place - thoough i see if this is a licence with oi]ne dance school, say, that makes sense - otherwise, it is a dereliction of the ewo's duty


It's for acting - and to be honest, I don't see the licensing authority as the people who should primarily be watching out for my DD's welfare anyway, even if that is their legal requirement. I see that as MY job, and I would only ever allow her to work in an atmosphere that I felt was appropriate, and I would always chaperone her myself.


if that has been your exprience - great - but:

1. not all mums think like you and the ewo has to look out for everyone

2. not all productions will go with that - if they are low-budget, they will want a professional chaperone who will look after 8 kids for one fee - not one ti one - maybe yuo'll chaperone free of charge - how many mums do you think can afford that?

so - i go back to - open licences are not in the best interests of many performing kids

Well, I suppose it's horses for courses - it certainly works for us, but as you say, not all parents are perhaps as lucky as me that they would always be on set (although I would think that apart from professional shows and high budget TV productions, this would generally be the case anyway.) Personally, I wouldn't want my DD to be involved in a production where I wasn't on set, even though she's now 13, because her well-being is my primary concern.

My licensing authority has all the details of where we're going to be and when, and what provisions have been made for all the basic requirements - in fact all of the information off the part 1 license form, so I don't really see how this is different from the normal scenario?