A couple of weeks ago the boy got plucked off the playground for a "casting call" at the local playground. He went in with a bunch of other kids and read a commercial line. With his usual wacky personality. Didn't think much of it and neither did he. Well, phone rings a few days ago and they want him to come down for a one-on-one "callback." Hmm, ok. She sounds nice enough. She does aske me what I meant when I put "director" down as my occupation. I explained that I'm a project director, but I know some of the industry and work on the edges of it.
So anywho we go down today and the boy really doesn't want to get in front of the camera, or at least take it very seriously (which is fine). He does his line a few times, then we go have a chat. She wants to make sure that he's interested in doing this. Likely he would do non-speaking roles, and this place isn't an agency, but rather makes it so the kids can work. Hmm, what's involved with that?
Well, there is the work permit, Coogan account, photos, etc. And what't their angle? No, wait. He'll make $126/day for non-speaking roles on tv shows, $245/day for commercials. And if he gets a line, it jumps to $800 or something, although then he's under Taft-Hartley and will have to join SAG if he gets more. Great, but what's your angle?
Well, turns out they have a turnkey setup to take care of all the details, then you get a text message for the jobs. Most of her kids work about 5-10 days every month or two, with 9-15 year olds being the hottest commodity. And we can get him all set up with some acting classes to boot for $1350.
Ahh, ok. So that's your angle. You get the work permit (probably costs $20), set up a Coogan account (like photocopy costs), do photos (umm, I can do that myself), workshops to learn the terminology (I can probably get him on set with friends to learn that), acting classes (ok, that might me useful). Amazing the cottage industries that grow up to support "the industry" in this city...
