Did anyone's child audition for LR? We were there the other day. Curious as to when callbacks are.

The auditions have been going on for several weeks.

They are still auditioning for some roles.

We just got a call to audition for LR on Monday.

My DS had an audition for Porky tomorrow night.

We are in New Orleans and several children in my daughters acting class have auditioned this past week.

My DD went out for the Darla role 2 weeks ago and today read for Mary Ann. It's crazy on how many kids auditioned for this movie. I heard they had to have their kids picked by the end of the month. How do they even begin to decide over thousands of talented kids? I would not want to be the decision maker that's for sure.

I'm shocked at the number of kids they are seeing for a direct to DVD movie.

Wow, I am really glad you posted that...we have gone in twice for two different roles and had no idea it was direct to DVD.

I went back and looked at the BD they sent and it didn't even say that...but I googled the production company. It threw me because it was Universal but it also says 1440 productions and that is Universal's "home entertainment" branch!

Good catch! Were you told up front it was direct to DVD? We were not and I am glad to have that info in case we need to make a decision!

I found out after the auditions began but it seems like they are not being very upfront about it. They are asking a lot of the kids, as they want to use most of September to school the kids and bank hours. That's why they want everything cast by the end of this month. Shooting doesn't start until October. A lot of disruption to my child's school year for a direct to DVD. Not impressed.

Wow! Thanks for the info.

Right! The banking hours for the whole month of September before filming starts in October already had me thinking twice...missing other opportunities and real life. This may seal the deal for me.

Like you say...they don't seem to be being very up front. Though that doesn't surprise me.

I am not familiar with how they can "bank hours.". Could you explain how that works? Thanks!

This is taken from Bizparents (bizparents.org)...

Q: What is Banking?

A: “Banking” is a handy little thing on multiple day shoots. It allows a child, with the permission of the studio teacher, to do an extra hour of school a day, and put it in the “bank” for later. This system is used often on weekly sitcom sets where kids can bank hours on Mon/Tues in order to only have one hour of school on Friday (audience taping day). Maximum hours banked on a regular school day is 1, max on holidays is 4. This is codified, not by law, but by interpretation in Labor Department management memos...so you have no “right” to it. You must work with the teacher to get permission.

Exactly. So in this case, they would hire the kids and school them for the normal 6 hours a day M-F while not filming. That puts 3 hours of school into the "bank" 5 days a week. So by the time they start filming they will have a "bank" of about 60 hours. That would allow them to school only one hour a day for 30 days of filming.

Often when they do this for big kid features, they will also have an acting coach work with them daily and do wardrobe fittings and all the pre-production work during this time too. So the kids work their full 8.5-9.5 hours (depending on age) but don't film...they school for 6 hours, work for an hour or so with the coach, etc.

It is not an ideal situation academically.