the report of the pilot project - International Labour Organization

Report of the Pilot Research Project on Children Working in Cultural and Artistic Activities
Some child actors adopt acting as a profession and continue their training in conservatories after
fi nishing secondary education. They attend drama and acting courses in arts centres and workshops.
Trade union ties of child actors are almost non-existent. But it is observed that they have some
information about unions.
There are few child actors covered by any social security scheme. There are producers insuring their
child actors for accidents and health problems.
Set 1
4.1.2. Findings from Visits to Film Sets
In order to observe the working conditions of children right at the site and to conduct some of the
planned interviews (with a child actor, a mother and a mother and an adult player and assistant
director) a visit was made to the locating of fi lming also considering that the TV series concerned was
on the screen for 5 years and thus there were child actors starting as child and reaching adolescence
now. Shootings were also observed while conducting interviews with the assistant director, adult
player, child actors (3) and the mother of a child actor.
The set was the headquarters of the producing company since it was an indoor shooting. In indoor
shootings there may be some special spaces while spaces like cafeteria, canteen, basement etc may also
be used for this purpose. There are no special spaces allocated to children while they wait shooting to
start. Children pass time by chatting in the waiting room at the entrance of the building or with adult
players and crew in a space used as dining room. They use the same restrooms within the building
with adults. The shooting we observed took place in a room at the basement fl oor. Editing, dubbing,
dressing and make-up rooms are all at the same fl oor.
While giving information about working conditions, the assistant director said that child players
worked 2 days in total in a week distributed to after-school hours. He said, “Child players come here
when there is shooting with their part. If there is no any specifi c problem, we complete shootings with
children in 2 days after school hours. When they come here they make their timing and also take part
in dubbing.” As the player expected did not appear, the planned outdoor shooting could not be made
and fi gurants were waited for indoor shooting. The mother of the child actor said “they went in for
dubbing not to lose any more time while waiting.” It has also been stated that children wait in vehicles
when shooting is outdoors.
It was observed that some child actors waited for their turn from 14:00 to 19:00. While such a long
delay was regarded as “normal”, children and adolescent discussed among how this delay could be
remedied. It was observed that three child actors in the set were quite bored while waiting; there were
no facilities for them to pass time nor there is any person specially taking care of them. The mother
of the girl, an actress, just was beside her daughter during these long waiting hours and then during
shooting.
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