Once my child is registered with the agency, are they guaranteed work?
Unfortunately not! No agency could possibly guarantee work, as they have no idea what work will come into their offices from one day to the next, so will never know in advance who a client may select for their assignment. If an agency tells you they can guarantee your child work, then avoid them!
How does It work?
We are extremely selective with the children we take onto our books. We will only take on those we feel have a good chance of getting work, whether this be for modelling, acting or indeed both. Child modelling can be extremely rewarding for both child and the parent. The earning potential is extremely favourable as a baby or child can be paid anything from £50 per hour, right up to several hundred pounds for just a day’s work. There is also great satisfaction in seeing your child on TV, in a magazine, in a catalogue or on a new pack of Pampers, the joy of which can often outweigh any amount of money earned.
Clients approach Little London Kids every day with different requests for a varied range of personalities and appearances. However babies and children do need to be able to enjoy what they are doing and get on with other children, adults and strangers.
If you think your baby or child has what it takes to become a model then complete our online application and upload a few photographs.
If successful you will be able to proceed with an online portfolio and who knows, you could see your baby appearing anywhere from a national TV ad, packaging campaign or maybe even a front cover magazine.
Do Little London Kids charge any fees and how does this work?
Should your child be accepted to join the agency, although we do not charge ‘registration fees’, you will be asked to cover the cost of an individual, fully searchable web page for your child, which is currently £40 including VAT for one year for the casting division, which covers commercials, TV, film, stage and any other. If you would prefer your child to just be submitted for photographic modelling, this fee will be taken from your child’s first earnings. This is in compliance with the BIS, as the current legislation states that an upfront work finding service fee cannot be charged to those working as a photographic model only. The website fee also includes any updates to your child’s details throughout the year. Children must have head shots taken either with one of our agency photographers or an alternative suitable high quality photographer at least once a year.
How does the agency earn?
The agency earns from commission. We take the standard 30% commission on all fees (excluding travel expenses). Fittings/Theatre/Stage and invoices totalling £100 or less – 20% As we do not charge high registration fees, it is therefore clearly in the agency’s best interest to secure your child work.
What happens once my child is registered with the agency?
We will put your child forward for all assignments your child meets the criteria for. As and when a client contacts us to ask to meet your child for a casting or book them for a shoot, we will contact you immediately. Sometimes we might contact you beforehand if the client requests us to do so to confirm availability on a number of shortlisted models or maybe to confirm a specific detail. We will not contact you each and every time your child is submitted for work as we simply do not have the time. It is obviously crucial that parents continuously keep the agency informed of any changes including holiday dates.
How do I update my child’s profile page once accepted?
How to update your child’s profile page
0-3mths – Monthly
3-18mths – 3-monthly
18mths-3yrs – 6 monthly
Over 3’s – Yearly images, but more frequently if they change!
Height & Clothing Size – check monthly to be fully up to date.
The agency does not insist on professional photographs on their website. Snapshots are fine, but must look professional. They MUST be of an adequate standard to be viewed by our clients, or cannot be used.
It is the parents responsibility to ensure the images are of a high enough standard to send to our clients and to ensure the profile is kept up to date. The agency has a duty of care to the company and will only submit those to a client that they feel are suitable for their needs and to represent us as an agency.
Please ensure images are taken on a clear background, no hats, dummies, dirty faces, other people in shot. We are unable to submit to clients images of children strapped into car seats, high chairs, with food around their mouths or with dummies and cannot display images showing other people not registered with the agency. Most importantly, make sure you have ample lighting, daylight is always best. Please use a nice plain wall, clear of other objects and people. Hair should be worn down to show colour, length and texture. Please don’t use images of your child with wet hair.
BABIES
Ideally you need a minimum of 2 x smiley head shots (slots 1 and 2) and 2 x full length (slots 3 and 4) showing body frame & size
1) Place a chair infront of a plain white, or light coloured/blank wall.
2) Turn it sideways facing to the left or right
3) Sit holding baby sideways on to the camera and pop baby on your lap
4) Turn baby to face the camera, using your hand to support baby’s neck and back from behind. Lean back, thus keeping yourself and your hands out of sight of the camera, creating an effect that baby is sitting up on their own.
5) Now have your ‘photographer’ snap away! Babies will not generally smile on demand so you may have to encourage smiling and take plenty of shots to catch that perfect smile.
6) The agency will check your images after upload and help choose the best to use for promoting your baby.
7) Full length – At this age they are best photographed on a blanket, on the floor and on their side, or tummy. Get down to their level and make it fun time to get lots of smiles.
TODDLERS & OLDER
Shot 1 & 2
Headshot, looking at camera, standing against a plain, light coloured background (wall, blanket). Have them tilt their head just slightly on an angle, smiling and eyes bright and wide.
Avoid the folding of arms as that encourages shoulders to hunch up and can look uncomfortable. Hair and head should be clear (no hats!), hair natural so show colour, length and style.
Shot 3 & 4
Full length, sitting or standing
These can prove more difficult to take with toddlers. The best suggestions for this is to first stand them in-front of a plain background area and then pose yourself to get them to copy you as a game while someone else snaps away.
If you find this difficult put some music on and encourage them to dance. These shots always look rather cute and more natural.
For a perfect and natural sitting shot sit them on a blanket and photograph them while they are playing. Ensure to use images where they are looking up or at the camera.
REMINDERS
Here are a few reminders to help your profiles look their best for clients.
1) If you have professional images on your profile try to not deface the quality by adding poor quality snapshots into the other slots. It is better to have nothing in the last slots than poor shots. Clients do like to see a mixture of snaps and pro images but try to keep them to a standard.
2) Please read your experience & hobbies field. Ensure you don’t have ’no experience’, or similar, written within those fields – if so remove it to help with promotion. Do not write anything negative. For babies/toddler please include whether they are rolling, sitting, standing etc.
3) It is vitally important that you do not have a website address written in your experience or hobbies field. We cannot be held responsible for a child not being submitted to a client if the parent does not remove these.
4) As and when your child loses teeth and they grow back, please put this info on your profile. Likewise, the same applies to braces.
5) Make the agency aware of dates you cannot make a casting, or shoot please. There is nothing worse than a client wishing to see/book a model only for us to then be told by the parent that they are away on holiday!
7) Check and update your sizes monthly and always enter in centimetres not inches.
Little London Kids Privacy Policy Statement
Little London Kids is committed to safeguarding your privacy online.
Please read the following policy to understand how your personal information will be treated as you make full use of the agency.
This policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically.
This policy will let you know:
What personal information is collected from you
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The kind of security precautions that are in place to protect the loss or misuse of your information
- What else you should know about your online privacy
What personally identifiable information is collected from you.
Little London Kids collects information in one way only from our web site.
We ask you for some personal information on our enquiry form, which once completed by us is deleted from our records.
What cookies are and how they are used.
We do NOT use cookies on our web site.
The primary goal of the Little London Kids enquiry form is to collect enough information from you to assist us in replying in a professional manner. These details are not stored and are deleted once responded to. Registered artist information provided on an application, or profile is for us to collect enough information for you to assist us in securing employment in line with the details and terms of our services and pricing policy.
Who is collecting your information.
When you are asked for personal information on the Little London Kids enquiry form, you are sharing that information with the Little London Kids admin staff. This is only for the purpose of supplying the correct information regarding your enquiry.
With whom your information may be shared.
Your information will not be shared with any third party without your written consent, unless it is in relation to your representation as an artist and for the purpose of us, as your agent, securing you work, or replying in a professional manner. We will only discuss a child’s details with the legal guardian of that child and if by email we can only respond via the email address listed on the child’s profile.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, Little London Kids cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our online services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Our password protected area is a separate secure area encrypted.
What else you should know about your online privacy.
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online – for example in ads that you post or through email – that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.
Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you’re online.
Never disclose your Usernames and Passwords to anyone and keep your records in a safe place away from your computer.
We are a GDPR compliant Company and therefore set out to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. Little London Kids Ltd are the data controller and hold all personal details of the model/artiste (as well as personal and contact details of the parent/guardian for under 16’s) as outlined on our registration form you complete upon acceptance, in order to provide our clients with the necessary information they require when selecting a model/artiste for their assignment. We will share these details where appropriate with our clients, where deemed applicable for the assignment. All model/artiste’s personal and sometimes sensitive information such as appearance details, date of birth, allergies, dietary requirements, skills, talents and more will be shared with clients making bookings in order to ensure bookings are made properly and correctly. Our clients include production companies, freelance production workers, photographers, film/TV/theatre companies and advertising agencies. We must hold personal data on file for a period of 6 years from time of removal, after which time it is deleted permanently. By joining Little London Kids, you are also signing up to our mailing and text service, which we use to send agency information out relevant to you. We do not share your information with third parties. If you do NOT wish to be registered to this mailing and text service and cease receiving job notifications, please email admin@littlelondonkids.co.uk to OPT OUT.
If you have any questions regarding this privacy notice, please request to contact our Data Protection Officer.