Working in the Industry

Australia’s film industry is still young in comparison to that of the United States, United Kingdom and India. Our film industry was born in the late 1960s, with the first Aussie productions shown in the early 1970s. With this youth comes the ability to build and strengthen, especially in the face of times such as the coronavirus health crisis.

Popular Australian films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Mad Max (1979) were wildly popular upon release. There is no coincidence that the popularity of these aligns with the approximate closure of two worldwide events: the Cold War and the Vietnam War. So, we wonder what blockbuster could possibly come out of Australia, after the pandemic.

Whilst Aussie productions such as Neighbours and Home and Away were forced to pause during the pandemic, we are looking forward to having our talent jump back into filming as we ride out the coronavirus situation. Historical examples within the industry tell us that there is growth and prosperity waiting on the other side. That means even more jobs and opportunities for our talented kids!

The 1980s saw many talented Aussies poached by Hollywood. However, this opened doors for upend-coming names like Baz Luhrmann to step into the spotlight. Now, forty years later, Luhrmann is a household name and continues to support and strengthen Australia’s film industry. Luhrmann’s new film Elvis, a biopic about the rock and roll icon, was forced to pause production amidst the peak of Queensland’s coronavirus crisis.

The Warner Brothers production features Hollywood superstars Tom Hanks, Austin Butler and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and is currently resuming production on the Gold Coast. The film is set to reel in a whopping $105 million in profit to the state of Queensland.

This comes in the wake of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement on July 17 that the federal government will be injecting $400 million into Queensland’s television and film industry to encourage further growth and profit for the state, as well as the country as a whole. Mr Morrison says the money is estimated to attract around $3 billion in foreign spending over the next three years and will offer an additional 8,000 Australian jobs.

This announcement is extremely exciting for us at Bettina, as it provides us with the knowledge that a huge number of opportunities for our talent are going arise from this.

This Little Love of Mine, a new film directed by American-born Sydneysider Christine Luby, has resumed production in Cairns. The film stars Aussie actors Liam McIntyre and Saskia Hampele, who say that despite the virus, the crew are looking forward to the future of Australian productions.

“I’m very grateful to be back on set after a difficult few months for the film industry,” Hampele said.

 These government initiatives are profoundly valuable to us who rely on the entertainment industry being stronger than ever. The creation of more jobs and productions means an increase in demand for talent. That’s where our kids come in!

Over 200 Cairns-based adult extras were required when filming for This Little Love of Mine, which is incredibly encouraging. Just one movie has provided hundreds of Aussie entertainers a fantastic role and we can’t wait to see children’s roles appear within these films. Imagine what the next few years will bring for our local talent!

It’s not just Queensland that have the film industry fired up.

Stunning locations, a rich culture and world class film and production facilities, such as Docklands Studios, are among the reasons Victoria’s industry is expected to experience a boom in the next few years. The studios in Docklands are about to undergo an upgrade, which will see a 60 percent increase in the studios’ capacity, adding in its sixth super sound stage.

The Victorian Government recently announced a new initiative, providing near-instant funding to freelance producers, sole traders, creative practitioners and micro-organisations. This financial boost, known as the Sustaining Creative Workers initiative, is worth $2.2 million and is expected to reignite a spark in the industry when it begins reopening after the pandemic.

Film Victoria, the state government’s industry agency, also has numerous financial grant incentives for production companies, writers, content providers and other organisations. Incentives of up to $500,000 are expected to bring new and exciting film and television projects to Victoria, opening up even more opportunities for our Bettina babes to shine.

As we continue to draw production for worldwide blockbusters such as Thor and Pirates of the Caribbean to our shores, opportunities are hopefully going to open up for our talent to show off their skills and expertise.

It really shows that we will come out the other side of this slow down and we can see a bright future for our industry and for our talent. We can’t wait to see what the future of our industry holds, and we can only see positive prospects ahead.

Over the last year we have been delighted to have our talent star in a range of stage shows, feature films, short films and TV series. Some of these have included Home & Away, Neighbours, Wentworth, Sydney Theatre Company productions, Madam Butterfly Opera, Penguin Bloom, a multitude of short films and we currently have a child who filming for a large-scale feature film! There is excitement all around here at Bettina, and there will continue to be into the future.

We can’t believe that another decade at Bettina Management has almost come to an end! While this decade has been amazing, we want to celebrate the year just gone and look back on the greatest achievements of our wonderful talent in 2019.

All of our talent have done some incredible work this year and we are so proud of all of them! Our Instagram (@bettinamanagement) and Facebook page  will give you a nice wrap up of the year and show off most of the work our kids have done this year; full of heaps of adorable snaps of our little ones.

Our talent have done some fantastic campaigns this year with our most loyal clients including Cotton On Kids, Big W, Best & Less, Country Road, Bonds, Rock Your Baby, Target and Seed. And we worked with a large amount of  impressive clients for the first time including Sportscraft, Lorna Jane, H&M, Rusty and many more!

Here are some of our highlights from the year that was 2019!

Newborns Debut

We were extremely lucky and blessed to have a few of our little babies sharing the role of the newest baby on one of Australia’s longest running soaps. Home & Aways newest addition, Baby Grace, was played by our gorgeous babies and they made their debut in October this year. We are so proud of them all and love watching our little babes shine on screen! Keep an eye out in 2020 to see some more of our little newborns also make their debuts in several long running TV series’!

Bettina Families

2019 has been the biggest year yet for our Bettina Families division. With more families joining than ever, we are also saw more families booked for jobs than ever before. This year our families worked with brands such as Werribee Open Range Zoo, Beachwood Homebuilders, Cengage Learning, Telstra, Best and Less and many more. Keep your eye out for some more exciting news from the Bettina Families division in 2020!

Time for a Holiday

Two of our wonderful families headed to the Northern Territory on a free family holiday as part of a commercial for NT Tourism. The De Carlos family got to film fin the incredible Uluru National Park, while the Papallii family shot in Kakadu National Park. We were glad to hear that both families enjoyed this incredible opportunity and the free holiday!

New Ranges, New Faces.

This year we were fortunate enough to have our talent help to launch three wonderful new ranges with some incredible clients! William, Skyla and Lakoda all got to be the faces in the launch of Sportscraft’s new Kids range. Meredith and Holly joined forces and looked fierce as they became the faces of Lorna Jane’s new exclusive Tween range. And lastly Luca, Skyla and Ty all got to shoot for the launch of Australian Brand, Lily & Lord.

International Brands

Here at Bettina Management we work with many incredible Australian brands and clients, and this year some of our talent had the opportunity to work with some incredible international companies and brands including H&M, eBay, Aldi and Nicholas and Bears. Our little ones had a fabulous time on set for these brands producing some incredible images and videos.

Boy meets world!

In 2018 one of our Bettina Babes, John, was lucky enough to pick up a role on Neighbours as Toadie’s son, Hugo.

This year at the young age of 2, John was lucky enough to have scored himself a reoccurring role throughout the whole of 2019!  We still get so excited every week to see him on our screens.

What an incredible year it has been for John and we can’t wait to see what 2020 holds for John off-screen and little Hugo on-screen.

Part 2: Briefs, Clients & No Guarantees 

The opportunity to be a part of the entertainment industry can be a fun and rewarding experience for everyone involved. However, as any good and reputable child talent agency will tell you, we cannot guarantee work.

Yes, you read that correctly, we cannot promise anything. We will never know whether a child will get dozens of opportunities, or just one. In some cases, unfortunately we will have talent that will not come across any work during their representation.

This is because the role of a talent agency is to act as the middle man between the brand/client and the talent. We do not create the ‘work’, nor do we know which talent the client will prefer or select for their campaigns.

“We do not guarantee work simply because we are not the decision makers in this process.”

So here is how it works from our side. The client will let us know, through a brief, what kind of child they specifically need or want for their shoot. Which is why we can never predict when your child’s age, gender or ethnicity will come through in a brief from a client. Each brief will have a different requirement for the agency to meet, for example; ‘We are looking for a Size 2 girl with Brown Hair’ or ’10-12-year-old boys, who are strong swimmers’. Once we have these details, we scour through our talent and ensure we submit all children who are suitable. So if your child doesn’t meet the brief requirements, we cannot submit them for that particular role or campaign.

The client will make the final decision and we cannot predict nor change this eventual outcome, so remember to keep this in mind if your child is a part of the industry or you are considering entering the industry.

Our dedicated casting department undertake many tasks as the ‘middle man’ in this process. They build and maintain our impressive client base, established over the years to also include a regular client base; who consistently use our agency to search for talent for their upcoming projects. They also submit all of our wonderful talent to all briefs that come thorough.

Suitable briefs are always subject to the client’s needs and once again we aren’t able to foresee what work will come in over the 12 months of your child’s representation. The one thing we do guarantee is that your child will be submitted for all briefs the are suitable for throughout their time with us.

We are lastly the communication between yourself and the client to ensure everything runs smoothly and all legal guidelines are followed (Check out look at Part 1 of The Truth about the Child Talent Industry series to find out about the legal side of the Industry)

It is also important to remember that we will always provide you with as much information as possible, so if you are joining our agency, or any talent agency, be sure to thoroughly read all information provided to you. This can be an easy way to ensure that you understand everything and are prepared for anything the industry throws your way! Remember we are just as excited as you to watch your little star shine!