On set chaperoning reality

[afrikat]

My daughter has just been accepted by a talent agency, she is interested in film/tv/commercial acting. I'm assuming for longer roles there would be on set chaperoning but for the odd day it would be down to me or my husband. For those with experience doing this is there any possibility of doing remote work on a laptop during filming? Or is this unrealistic?

i have experience in this sort of thing and on any set there is a lot of waiting around. You will be able to send emails or similar but not work consistently for periods, it can be very bitty especially with children who have very limited hours and can be on and off set like yo-yos.

The role of a chaperone is to be looking out for the child at all times. You may be able to do odd little bits if the child is waiting and perhaps occupied with a book or ipad etc but when they are on set/filming you must be there, focusing on them.

IME you always either think that they are about to come and get you, or then they DO suddenly come and get you and you have to go to make-up or hair or something. The wi-fi may be sketchy also. I definitely wouldn't plan on fitting a whole days' work in...

Thank you, really helpful. Very new to this and no idea what to expect. That's if she ever gets a job!

Quite often on films/TV you are also the chaperone - the only time we've had a chaperone provided was for theatre (parent does drop-off/pick up).

You definitely need a very, very flexible job.

In terms of on-set, DD's last film we were in the middle of nowhere on a river bank for half of it (no wifi, no signal, no power sockets), in an old stately home (no wifi, almost no signal, very dubious powersockets) and a children's playground in the pouring rain... no anything. So I've never aimed to work and chaperone at the same time.

You can quite often get work done in a corner at auditions as long as you don't need to make phone calls and can drop everything the second you're needed.

My daughter has been a double on a movie and also main cast. Both times she has had a chaperone and a trailer, so I've stayed in the trailer and worked while she's on set. I believe each one works differently. On the one she was doubling on the main leads had their parents chaperoning but assuming that was choice.

When she was on location I was paid chaperone fee for the travel days - filming days she was taken off from the hotel via minibus with a couple of other kids and chaperone- I was welcome to go to the base unit but I only went one day as wasn't that interesting!

This your role is to observe the child and ensure their welfare is protected at all times.
Even for my own child I held a chaperones licence and my local authority were very clear about my role.

Also agree that often a film set is literally a field somewhere so access to power or WiFi is not a given.

If a big budget commercial in a studio then you'll probably be able to combine the two; a low budget feature in a field then probably not. But if you ask for a chaperone, they'll almost certainly provide one. A lot of parents prefer to chaperone their own children, but a lot of productions prefer to use professional ones, so it's unlikely to be a problem if you can't be with your child on set.