Working with children & animals
I have always found working with children great fun, animals can be a bit randam!! Most children I work with are by nature well behaved as performers tend to be. I tend to work with children from ages of about 8 up. They can be quite refreshing in attitude and tend to be receptive to ideas. Children usually have a parent with them, and I find that helps.
This is I guess one of the big changes - years ago when working with children we were always told - keep the parents away - now it's bring the parents in. It suits me and the way I work.
I find involving the parent makes the whole process more fun for all concerned - make a shoot fun, but set boundries. Remember also the guidelines for hours of working before breaks etc.
I actually did not shoot children for sometime - the previous Government were making it near impossible to do so without swimming in red tape and suspicion!
Thankfully the Cameron Government brought out within weeks of Government the "Commonsense" child protection guidelines - thus saving the Country from some of the siliest all be it well intentioned legislation in years.
When working with young performers all my contact is with the parents or their representative until the shoot itself. But once the shoot starts the parent blends into the background unless involved in the shoot.
The "right kind of parents" are essensial to a young performer - to encourage, to discipline, and frankly to ferry about their offspring to castings and filming, productions etc.
They tend to be very special people with a great abilty to organise between like minded parents.