Any parents of children who are in tv or film? Please come and chat with me.

[Thingsthatgo]

Ds and Dd were both asked to join an agency last month, and we have been very busy ever since, making self tapes and going for auditions. It’s all very new to me, and it would be great to have some other parents to chat to, because I have a lot of questions! Their agent is great, and happy to answer questions, but I don’t want to endlessly bother her.
Dd is on a pencil for an advert which will be filmed abroad, so I tomorrow I am going to be talking to her school.

Bump…

Well done to your DD on the pencil. Fingers crossed she gets a confirm but even if she doesn’t, you never know when you’ll be remembered for another job because you were close on something else. All good things to be celebrated.

What sort of questions do you have? There are a few of us around but you won’t find people chatting online about various jobs as everything the kids work on tends to be assorted levels of confidential. But happy to help with questions - just ask.

Thank you for replying. I understand the need for confidentiality- I have had to sign some NDAs.
my questions are more general. If DD starts earning, she will obviously have to pay tax. At the moment she only has a savings account that is in my name, through my bank account. Should I open her own current account, so that she can get paid, or will they be happy to put it in an account in my name? (Obviously it’s her money, and I won’t be spending any).

Your agent should have spoken to you about needing her own account. Earnings cannot legally be paid into your account. Most people use a savings account in the child's name.

With school, I would make sure that they are supportive and on board, but remember with any pencil there are 5 - 50 kids with that and they snap more often than not.

We've been in the industry over 12 years. It's incredibly over-saturated these days... seems to have gone mad for kids since Harry Potter was announced.

Prepare yourself for the roller coast ride it can be. The highs are great, the lows rather more common. The vast, VAST majority of children with an agent with never book a job, so even getting a tape request is a huge win.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow thank you - yes, they have savings accounts in their names, but it’s a weird set up because they are also under my name. I’ll look into it.
we have had to do quite a lot of tapes already, Dd has done 5 and DS 4, in just over a month. I don’t really want them any more frequently, because they are already quite busy. Luckily, they are very relaxed about it, and just enjoying the process at the moment. DS has a film that we are waiting to hear back from an audition with the director, which would be really cool to be in, but he just wants to know either way so he can get a haircut!

IIRC, the accounts will be in their name but your name attached. I definitely have access to DD's till she's 18.

Unfortunately you don't really get any say in how many tapes or auditions they get (still remember the week we had 9 auditions, most in person, with slight horror), but then they get to 13 and you're lucky to get any auditions/tapes at all so worth enjoying while it lasts!

If it gets too much or school are unhappy, you can always say no TVCs outside holidays (we have always done that).

I’ve looked into the kids accounts, and they are hsbc joint savings accounts, so I’m not sure they’ll work.
Lots of the younger children’s bank accounts won’t accept bank transfers for security reasons apparently. Any recommendations?

@OhCrumbsWhereNow sorry, I hadn’t seen that you’d posted - I’ll check that our accounts are ok. Thank you.
yes, I am not expecting this mad rush to last long - they are both very academically focused, so we are just enjoying it for maybe a year or so, until school gets a bit more serious.

Yes, mine has a children’s savings in their name but it’s somehow linked to my account so I can see it on my online banking app etc. At 11 they could also have a current account so now pay still goes to the savings but I move a little into the current account so they can learn about spending and saving with their own money while not having access to the full balance. Ours are with Barclays and I can transfer to and from all the accounts easily. The only thing that isn’t as easy is transferring out from the child savings to someone outside the linked accounts, which I assume is to protect against fraud and accidental payments anyway.

Tapes are a funny old thing… we had one point this year where we were shocked how quiet things were and decided maybe time for new photos and reels and so forth and between booking in for headshots and actually getting them done, a flurry of tapes with some confirms. Hadn’t had the new photos yet so it wasn’t that - it was just the timing for what was casting! If they are enjoying it and you can tape without stress or argument, you’re doing brilliantly and should hopefully have lots of fun. Stay positive and celebrate every little win - it all makes for good stories to tell later in life, even if it was just trying to get the jobs rather than actually getting them!

Mine does! She’s not got that far with it though, one short film only and then a few recalls but no other confirms. How old are your kids? Good luck on the pencil for your dd and the director audition for your DS- sounds like they’re doing amazingly so quickly

you will need them to have an account in their own names. My dd has an HSBC one in her own name

We use Natwest for the kids. In their names. Never had any problem agency paying in and connected to our app so easy to move into isa, spending account etc.

You're meant to declare from £1000, but no tax until annual limit (£12570), which we've not reached yet.

Had an odd year, all anticipation for big projects expected early summer, waiting, waiting and now all that stuff outside in thermals instead. Wish we had booked in summer holidays a bit earlier but we were convinced they'd be working.

Why are you making your kids do this?

How did you make this jump?

Yes OP, how dare you support your children’s dreams?! 😆

Hmmm, not really something you can 'make your kids do'. It's very obvious when it's the parental dream and those kids don't tend to get very far as Casting can spot them a mile off.

It certainly wasn't something I ever fancied doing (my worst nightmare), but my child was obviously keen from a very young age so we thought a weekend MT class would be a fun hobby...

Now DD is 16, at college studying full time for a career in what she told me she wanted to do when she was 3 years old, and enjoying herself. Industry support and interest has opened so many opportunities and experiences in terms of training.

She has made incredible friendships, learned not to define herself by failure, learned to work with adults and what professional attitudes and behaviour look like and has memories that money can't buy (and a very nice savings account).

I kind of think it's healthier spending your spare time in music/dance/drama classes, or in incredible locations on set rather than lying in bed watching TikTok but maybe that's just me?

Very well put by @OhCrumbsWhereNow. My working kid also started by accident with a class age three that frankly was childcare to give me an hour for errands. I knew they were a dramatic soul but I had no idea just what path would follow! We meet parents who are pushing their dreams onto a kid sometimes at the training level, but it’s almost unheard of now at the working level. All the child stars of decades before who spoke out as adults led to actual change and both casting directors and chaperones are actively in positions to protect children and not have anyone forced into something they don’t want to do.

Instead, the kids who are working are insanely focused, self-motivated, and driven toward their goals. They don’t have to be told to practise - they are using every minute they can running scenes or singing or dancing, hogging every mirror or spot with good acoustics in your house. Their Christmas lists are filled with scripts and they’ve rinsed the library for the biography of every actor on the shelf. As a parent, it’s constant astonishment as you just try to support whatever you can and bring them some balance to make sure they do some normal kid things too.

When they work, they often meet other kids who are exactly like them and they form amazing friendships that last far beyond that job. They support each other on new projects and when castings are announced, their reaction to each other’s success is so healthy and heartwarming. Many of these are kids are actually better students when they are working too, because they have such focus in their lives that their distraction level goes down to nearly nothing. They have so many skills when it comes to working with a variety of people in high pressure situations and are incredibly resilient and adaptable. But above all, they are so incredibly happy doing what they do. It’s so similar to kids who are epic at sport - focus, hard work, exciting result- but with a whole legal system of checks for safeguarding so children can’t be forced to do things they aren’t happy to do. I pick my kid up from a job and get home and they are back in front of the mirror going over whatever comes next. Please go to bed, you have done enough today! But it’s just what runs in their heads nonstop.

And in case anyone thinks it’s worth forcing a kid to work because they could pay the family bills, you’re probably more likely to get struck by lightning. It’s lovely that the kids build up a nice savings along the way but the parents are paying all the expenses of the training, headshots, etc and… it does not add up. Unless they land the child movie role of the decade, even steadily working kids barely break even from the investment. It’s done for love not money.

What do you do about castings during the school day? Does the school mark it unauthorised?

Primary marked it as educated off-site, not sure what secondary did, and DD's college decided a 2 hour WE workshop audition the other day definitely counted as a 'work placement' 😂

We had an agreement with Primary that we didn't do TVCs or modelling, and so they were very happy for her to have time out for film/tv and stage auditions.

I would have a discussion with the head or someone from senior leadership at the school and explain the situation and the goals. Be really open about how it can indeed lead to
more absence if successful and see what response you get.

We were lucky and our state primary was super supportive and never questioned it. Sometimes castings are last minute so we got to a point where they said it was fine to just report on the normal call in sick line that we were going to an audition and would’ve back if cut before the end of the school day, or see you tomorrow if DC makes it all day. Our school would mark auditions as authorised absence and then on a job, rehearsals and working days were marked as educated off site. Any job that comes with a tutor definitely counts as educated off site.

Also really worth it being the first question you ask if you need to look around at secondaries. I was shocked just how different the responses were between schools that on part were very similar. In person, their opinions on the subject were very different and I’m glad we could cross the negative ones off the list straight away and avoid that struggle in a new place. We have a secondary that is fab for working now so it’s a big thing to not have to worry about!

FWIW we also don’t do stills or TVCs. I do think some schools find it harder to agree to the benefit of child modelling, rightly or wrongly.

100% what @CatatonicLadybug says with secondaries.

Every school we visited I asked "how do you feel about children working professionally and can you tell me how you manage this."

I got a complete range of answers from 'we don't agree with this kind of thing', to 'perhaps for a couple of days for something very special as a one off', to 'fantastic, tell their agent to sub them for everything. We had a child on Game of Thrones and this is the system we use to provide the on-set tutors with work'.

We went with the last school and they were true to their word and there was never any issue with time off.

Does anyone have experience of registering their DCs as self employed? I will need to declare their income to HMRC.

I’d check in with your agent for the most current info since self assessment has been changing with the whole making tax digital thing. if it’s still vaguely the same, you’ll need to ring HMRC but I’m not sure if they do it all on the phone/online now or if you’ll need to fill in a paper form. They don’t start paying anything until they earn over £12500 in a year though so it’s very few child performers who will owe anything.