Working With Children While Filming Sensitive Material

Recently on TV we have saw more programmes that discuss or tackle sensitive topics/ materials involving young cast.

I have been involved in a few over the years and it can be very different to filming younger content with children.

When this happens we plan differently more people with specialist skills and experience are involved and way you work can be different but it’s very much a team effort to safeguard the young cast.

There is a duty of care towards the children involved and you may have child psychologists, welfare producers, children’s adviser, parents, safeguarding advisers, intimacy coordinators, chaperones and more working together to meet the individual needs of the child.

It can also be very different depending on ages of cast,what you are filming, how you are filming it and what the young cast are aware of.

I don’t want to get into that but more how the actual day goes when we film this content and my role as chaperone on the day.

Let’s talk about my aims for these days.

1)I want the young cast to have a good experience just like any other day enjoy themselves and give the best performance they can.

2) Make sure they are safe and secure throughout the day. Good communication with them and crew is vital.

These are aims you should always have no matter what you are filming.

-At the beginning of the day I will check in with the 1st Ad to run through the day and how they expect the day to run and how we will communicate through the day on busy days with young cast this even more important than normal

-Check in with young cast and care givers when the hand over. How are they feeling?, do they have any questions run through the call sheet with them and walk through the day.

- For days like this extra supplies and activities are good filming more young cast can get hungry and it’s good to have different activities or games to meet their individual needs so they can relax after filming.

- Regular check ins talk about what they are doing, any concerns, are they feeling fatigued. Filming more intense scenes is energetic zapping.

I try to communicate this to the 1st and Director and try to recommend not to keep filming over and over again, young cast often they say it’s fine but you have to use your knowledge of them and experience to step in and say that they need a break.

-Creating a fun atmosphere with crew on the day. It’s a team effort no matter what you are filming you can have fun during the day either in make up walking to set or in green room keep the energy high.

-Making sure the child is at the centre of what we are doing that day working as team to keep the child safe and secure throughout again this is teamwork everyone communicating everyone doing their jobs.

- Time to relax at the end of the day be available to discuss the day if require with young cast hand over to care givers and give them an update on the day. Young actors always amaze me and what they can do already, it’s important they hear this and it’s one of the last things I tell them at the end of the day.

- Check in with 1st AD about the day and how it went and check in with the production team with the same details. I recommend someone checks in with the caregivers of the young cast the next day if they are not on set.

- There is a lot more to it than what have mentioned but when I chaperone this is some of what I’m trying to do and just about everything I have mentioned is what I work towards everyday I am working with cast children.

To get to this stage so much work has to be done prior to getting to set, so many people have to be involved and plan how to keep young cast safe but also how do we film sensitive material correctly and for it to believable.

But that’s just a quick insight of my day.