The Perks and Controversies Surrounding Child Acting Career

April 21st, 2009 by Bobbie McKee

Most kids are naturally adorable. But as parents, before you even think about how to start a child acting career, you have to think hard if you really want to subject your tots to the harsh realities that the showbiz industry may bring their way.

Why do you want your children to be stars? Some might say that it is because of the glitz and the glamour. But most people think that it is for the money. If fate would allow your child to be part of a good production, whether it is on film or TV, the financial aspect is going to be truly rewarding. But you must know the facts that surround a child’s career in acting.

The Regulations Child actors should abide the labor union codes. They should also be regulated both by the state as well as federal laws. Before a kid can get to work, their parents must first make sure that they have the proper work permit. This will also be vital for them to obtain their salaries. Different states impose different rules. So one’s guardian must understand what they will be faced with before committing into anything solid and final.

Undying Controversies Through the years, there have been many issues regarding such career that still resurface from time to time. Most of these revolve around money, the psychological effects of the work on children and how such career affects their childhood in general.

1. There have been many talks about the issues regarding money. Who will handle the child actor’s earnings? Their guardians are the rightful ones to keep and save them. But unfortunately, there have been many incidents wherein a child’s actor money had gone to waste because of mishandling. This may not be felt by the child on their younger years. But as they grow old and learn to reflect on everything, they will question what happened to the money that they have worked so hard for.

This was the inspiration for the original Coogan Law. Based on the facts that happened to a former child star who earned millions at a young age, Jackie Coogan, this law was enacted in California in 1939. It states that a portion of the child actor’s earnings must be preserved in a blocked trust or a savings account especially made for such purpose.

2. Child actors are believed to lose a very big part of their childhood by working and earning at such a young age. Although productions nowadays allow them time to study and play while on the set, this cannot alter the experiences that a kid will get from having a normal life, away from the light, the cameras and the directors yelling, action.

They experience the pressure to perform, to deliver according to what’s expected from them. And they are being asked to play characters that may be sometimes hard to be understood by young minds.

3. These actors should be guided accordingly as they grow older. In most cases, no matter how successful they are as a child actor, a transition period will come wherein they would not fit right into any roles. As a result, they may lack the jobs that they need to augment income or to sustain their popularity.

Their guardians must prepare them for such occurrence. They must prepare these kids that there are a lot of possibilities that they may not be as popular or may not have the kind of a child acting career that they used to enjoy as they age.

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Finding Public Domain Works

April 1st, 2009 by James T Maxwell

Can you imagine an endless supply of free content that you can use in whatever way you want? Well, it actually exists. It’s called Public Domain work and it’s a goldmine to marketers everywhere. Public Domain works include text, video, image or audio files that are free to use by anyone without worrying about copyright laws. So how do you tap into the smorgasbord of PLR available to you? Please review the following on how you can take advantage of this resource.

Public Domain Texts Online

There are literally hundreds of thousands of pages of content online that are freely available. Project Gutenberg publishes many public domain works and makes them available completely free of charge.

But this public domain is also available by doing a simple Google search online. In just a matter of minutes, you will be able to find tons of texts that you may find useful in your work.

Government Resources

What if you are looking for scientific or other de-classified information that only the government has? Well, you can relax as anything the government publishes is automatically copyright-free and you can use it for your own purposes. Some things that can be found include declassified transcripts, images taken by NASA and photographs taken by the military.

It’s no secret that there are many marketers who make their living by finding public domain materials this way, repackage them as their own and sell them for profit. It’s actually a very lucrative way to earn some extra money or build content for a project and then sell it. Information sells, as they say.

Find Public Domain Audio Books

Thanks to the Internet, there are hundreds of public domain audio books available online. You will find many audio books that have been narrated by someone who volunteered their time to read them aloud. Once you download them, you can enjoy them and then use them in whatever manner suits you.

For example, Napoleon Hill’s famous “Think and Grow Rich” has been public domain for some time now. There are multiple versions of this book in audio book format that are all public domain. You could easily find an audio version of this book and republish it for your purposes.

Think and Grow Rich is a rather well known example. However, there are many more obscure books in the public domain for which you can find audio books for and republish.

Find Expired Copyright Books

It’s a little known fact that any book written and published before 1923 is subject to public domain rights and therefore is fair game for anyone who would like to use that material for their own purposes. Have a favorite story from the Victorian age that you would like to re-create or draw inspiration from? Well, now thanks to public domain laws, you can do this. Be sure to check that the book copyrights have not been renewed before trying to republish anything, however, as some works fall under this category.

You can find many of these books online at old online bookstores. Simply find a book that’s still public domain and buy the book. You can have the book scanned and OCRed or transcribed by hand for a small price. This method is slightly more labor-intensive, but it has one big, big benefit over online public domain works: Nobody else is using it.

If you find an ancient book on Martial Arts, chances are nobody else in the world is using it. You can publish the book as your own and make a whole lot more money than a publicly available work.

Make Money Using Public Domain

It’s easy to see that making money with public domain works is a lucrative business to be in. Be sure to check out all the great public domain resources available both online and offline. There are a lot of opportunities to find a great deal of content and start making money for very little effort.

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