I recently wrapped a food and lifestyle series for the CBBC, a children's network in the UK, similar to our Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. It was a first for me both working on a children's show as well as for a UK production. The team was pretty split with production department, audio, and two producers, and culinary being from the US and camera department and two producers from the UK.
We shot one episode per day and one thing about working with minors is the hours on set were limited. Generally crews work 10-12 hours but set days on this show were usually between 6-8 hours. After cameras wrapped for the day producers would discuss plans for the next day. From there at least one person took on a few hours of prop shopping.
Working with minors also requires things like studio teachers and work permits. The main cast had their permits in order but I was casting a handful of teen extras for segments - which required a couple trips to the entertainment work permit office to drop off permit applications for approval.
This series was also had a little more structure than I'm used to in the docu-follow world, which allowed me to work more with putting together segments. Each episode was one part cooking segment (of which I had no involvement), and one part daily excursion. Daily excursions ranged from water activities to land activities and usually included competitive games such as sports or racing. I was pretty much working as a segment producer in the office - casting talented extras, sourced locations and obtaining props.
If I could change anything about the set I'd add walkie talkies. The crew was small but it was difficult to follow what was going on and move as efficiently-as-possible with no walkies or IFBs. An on-set joke included the need to literally "walkie to talkie", and my coordinator made us all hilarious memes after we wrapped... Below is a photo of me sitting on the beach doing research on my phone while waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive at location. I had just kayaked across Marina Del Rey so our camera operator could grab shots on the water.
We shot one episode per day and one thing about working with minors is the hours on set were limited. Generally crews work 10-12 hours but set days on this show were usually between 6-8 hours. After cameras wrapped for the day producers would discuss plans for the next day. From there at least one person took on a few hours of prop shopping.
Working with minors also requires things like studio teachers and work permits. The main cast had their permits in order but I was casting a handful of teen extras for segments - which required a couple trips to the entertainment work permit office to drop off permit applications for approval.
This series was also had a little more structure than I'm used to in the docu-follow world, which allowed me to work more with putting together segments. Each episode was one part cooking segment (of which I had no involvement), and one part daily excursion. Daily excursions ranged from water activities to land activities and usually included competitive games such as sports or racing. I was pretty much working as a segment producer in the office - casting talented extras, sourced locations and obtaining props.
If I could change anything about the set I'd add walkie talkies. The crew was small but it was difficult to follow what was going on and move as efficiently-as-possible with no walkies or IFBs. An on-set joke included the need to literally "walkie to talkie", and my coordinator made us all hilarious memes after we wrapped... Below is a photo of me sitting on the beach doing research on my phone while waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive at location. I had just kayaked across Marina Del Rey so our camera operator could grab shots on the water.