How and when did The Kids Team arise?

It was created in January 2024, being the first Child Wranglers company in Spain. This project is the result of our passion for the audiovisual world and for working with children. I’ve always worked in the audiovisual world. Many years ago, when there were boys and girls in the shoot, I always did that production, and if it wasn’t mine, they made me go on the day of the shoot, because I’ve always had a lot of empathy with children, and I’ve always thought and defended the idea that, despite the fact that they’re working, for them it must be like a game.

What does the work of a Child Wrangler involve in audiovisual?

Helping, guiding and caring for children during the productions. Through games, we create an atmosphere of comfort and security with the minors to ensure that the shooting of the project on which we’re working is carried out in the most fun way possible for the kids. This will make the work of the rest of the professionals easier and less of a burden. 

We make sure that the minors have a safe place in which to be and look after their supervision, supporting them emotionally during the shoot. It’s also very important to be coordinated with the team and to know what’s expected and what the objectives of that day are in order to be able to measure every how often it will be good for them to rest and get their strength back or how to motivate them. 

To summarize, a Child Wrangler/Coach acts as an intermediary between the children, their parents and the team (whether it’s the photographer, filmmaker, stylists, production, etc.), working to ensure that the experience is positive and safe for the minors and that they enjoy it.

How did you discover your passion for this work? What made you decide to devote yourself to this?

The truth is that I found this work without looking for it. Before, there weren’t as many shoots or as many children taking part in audiovisual projects; they were normally always the same ones. When I worked in Arruga, as a producer, and there were children on the shoot, the rest of the team saw them as a nuisance; it annoyed them that they moved around and didn’t behave like adults. And I just thought that someone had to take care of them. And as it didn’t happen, I began to look after them on the set. 

But, one day, on a production of which I was part, but for which I didn’t have to go to the shoot, a child arrived and asked where I was, and when they told him that I wouldn’t be on the set that day, he replied that he wouldn’t shoot if I wasn’t there. So they called me and made me go to the shoot. And, since then, I’m always present on the sets during the shoots. 

Are there lots of differences in your work depending on the medium: whether it’s television, film or advertising, for example?

Our job is the same with all media: ensuring the well-being of the minor and helping them to do their job as well as possible with our support. But there’s a difference between having photographs taken and having to do a recorded scene. When we go to photo sessions we have to know what “acting” they need just like when they record them, but with a photo it’s a question of capturing an instant and we can play with them or distract them while the photographer takes the photos. But when they have to record a scene there has to be more preparation behind the camera and when they shoot we can’t intervene. 

But when we talk about short or feature length films, the process is longer and can last weeks or months. This allows us to work with the children from a deeper exploration of the characters, the emotions, and how they evolve over the story that’s being narrated. It’s a progressive construction of the character, helping them to understand and recall their emotional journey through several rehearsals, always with the help of the director. It’s always important for the children to bear in mind that everything they work on is happening to their character and not to them. In general, we work a lot with theatrical techniques and tools which allow the actors to quickly get into character and leave it afterwards.

How is a Child Wrangler trained? 

A key element to become a Child Wrangler, obviously apart from liking to work with children, is empathy. That’s a crucial aspect, which can be worked on and is gradually developed as you gain experience. It’s also important to be creative as regards ideas so that the minors manage to do what’s expected of them. 

If they want to catch them distracted, we have to have different ways in mind of distracting them behind the cameras and, sometimes, it’s difficult for them to focus for a long time. It’s therefore very important to pay attention so that you know what attracts their attention the most. The waiting time is as important as the acting time.

What profiles work in your company? 

Our team consists of me (Anna Frago), Laia Caminal, Paula Velasco and Paula Ferrer and then we work with other external profiles, all with experience with children, although the most important aspect and what we all share is our passion for working with children. Then we have various profiles trained in psychology, film and photography who have previously worked with children. And who have a lot of empathy with them. 

You offer services like Child Wrangler and Baby Wrangler. How do you focus your work with babies and older children? What differences do you encounter? 

Older children already know what they’re doing and why they’ve come; sometimes it can be a bit confusing for babies because they don’t really understand what they’re doing. Obviously, with older children we can engage in dialogue and communicate more easily in order to understand what they need at each moment. So when we’re with babies it’s very important to create a link with them and to ensure that they have a good time and that they feel at ease when it’s time to work. 

It’s also true that we bring different games depending on their age; we focus on the needs of each age because a three-year-old child will never respond the same as one who’s 12. 

The most difficult age for us would be from one to three years old, because they’re really not yet aware of where they are or what they’re doing, or what it means to be there. So what we do is to create a link with the minor, to play with them, and for them always to have their guardians in their field of vision. If a child can see their father or mother, and they see that they are calm, they know that they’re in a safe place. When they are babies, basically we need the support of the parents, because that’s who they recognise and they know how to make them smile or what music they like... and then we help the parents, and explain how it all works.

I suppose that there are moments of fear that the children don’t want to cooperate. What are the main difficulties that you encounter?

They’re often foreign children with whom, if on top of that they are babies, it can be difficult to communicate. As already mentioned, we use creativity, even if we don’t speak the same language, to try to transmit and provide them with the security they need. 

After all, children are children and one day they might be very eager and the next time we meet it’s possible that they won’t be for whatever reason. We can’t control that. What we can do is to take care of the experience for them so that at the end of the day they go home happy.

We’ve come across thousands of different cases but, with patience and a lot of affection, we gradually get them to do what’s needed at each moment. Sometimes you need a little patience and to be very calm. I can give you a few examples.

We were doing a project for a fashion brand with a photographer who didn’t have any empathy with the children. We had an 18-month-old boy on the set and I asked the photographer: “what do you want Miquel to do?” And the photographer replied: “tell him to do things!!!!” I looked at him and said: “Miquel doesn’t do anything; he doesn’t even know what he’s doing here...” Miquel was thrilled to bits, the poor little thing. I said to the photographer: “what do you want him to do? To laugh, to jump, to walk, to put up his arms...”, and then he told me what he wanted him to do. And by playing Miquel, we got him to do what we needed!!! 

In another fashion shoot, the children had to use their imagination and point upward as if they had a speech bubble above them. One of the girls had Down’s syndrome, and didn’t understand what she had to do, until finally, I took the “magic nose” (a clown’s red nose), I stuck it to a wall and said to her:

“Maria, where is the magic nose?” and she pointed at the wall, which is what we wanted.

In a project for Tous, we needed a 12-month-old baby to touch a necklace that had been placed on them. Marco had a ball in his hand, and wouldn’t let go of it, so he touched the necklace with the ball and that wasn’t any good for us. What I did is to offer him two balls more colourful than the one he had; he looked at his hands, let go of the one that he had, and then I put the balls above the necklace, and when he went to get them, he touched the necklace without balls in his hands. And I’ve got thousands and thousands of anecdotes like that!!!!
 

What are the most encouraging projects for you?

We’ve done projects which were great fun, with many boys and girls. It’s wonderful to see how they grow, and grow up... children with whom we’ve worked since they were 2-3 years old and now they’re already 10-12. We create a magical link with them and their families!!!

It’s always great fun to meet children that we already know, because they’re always happy to see us. Rather than projects, they are moments, which we create between the minors and us on the days of the shoot, when we see that they’re enjoying it and having fun. 

Although it’s true that it’s normally more fun when there’s more than one child on the production than when there’s only one, both for them and for us. Because they have someone nearby who’s more or less their age and this makes them feel more at ease. 

Are there differences between working with a child who is just beginning and it’s their first job and one with more experience?

It can be very distressing for a child who’s never worked to be placed in front of a camera with a team of adults that they don’t know. That’s why the link that we were talking about is so important. A little while before beginning, when they meet us, we have to transmit to them that we’ll do everything possible for the experience to be fun and light-hearted. In these cases they normally require more help both on and off the set, because shoots are a world to themselves and involve a lot of stimuli for children, especially if they’ve never experienced them before. In any case, when we meet children who already have experience, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to show them as much attention; far from it. 

Although it’s true that sometimes they surprise you and a child who’s never done anything is put in front of the camera and it looks like they’ve done it all their life. And, on other occasions, a child with whom you’ve worked several times and they’ve always done it well might not be in the mood one day when they arrive on set and not want to do anything.

There are children who’ve known us for years and when they see us their face lights up because they know that they’ll be taken care of, that they’ll have fun and enjoy the day. 

You also offer off-set activities. Why and what do they consist of?

We normally do handicrafts and board games, activities which don’t overwhelm them too much, but which they enjoy. It’s very important to create a link with them and for them to feel safe with us so that they can be relaxed and feel that they’re in a safe environment when it comes to filming. 

What other services do you offer?

Apart from Chid Wrangler with The Kids Team, we also have OKnens where we process the permits for minors with more than eight years of experience and where we’ve processed almost 1,500 dossiers, for many production companies, brands, photographers, television series, short films, feature length films, etc... And Good Monday, where we carry out productions and coproductions in the audiovisual world, the majority with minors. Paula Ferrer, who’s a photographer, holds photo sessions for books for agencies. 

Are there any projects with boys or girls on which you’ve worked in Barcelona that you can tell us about?

Some of the projects that we’ve done this year include brands such as Zara, Lefties, JD Sports, Nissan, Mango, Arket, Petit Bateau, Victoria, Hugo Boss, Vilibrequin, Bonmot, Puma, Hawkers, Tommy Hilfiger, Molo, Monzo, Eat My Socks, Sofitel, Gioseppo, Mytheresa, Letter to the World, Katia Fabrics, Losan, Calliope, My little Cozmo, ... and many more! 

What we can say is that each production we go to is a different experience to the previous one. There are brands with which we work very often, such as Lefties and Mango, but the experience changes each time and that’s what makes it so special. The team may be the same, but the magic of working with children is that they always surprise you and it’s a very rewarding job. 

I wanted to end explaining that every child, when they finish, always goes home with something really magical!!! When they finish we tell them that we’ll give them something really magical, that when they’re sad if they put it on their sorrow will end, that if they’re cross and they put it on their anger will go and that if their guardians or siblings are cross or sad their anger or sorrow will end. We make them close their eyes and we put a clown’s nose, the magic nose, on them!!! And when they open their eyes, the first thing you see... is a smile!!! And it’s true that it’s become a symbol of ours and of the children with which we work!!! So much so that a boy came from Amsterdam to work in Barcelona with us, and his mother told us that his sister was very cross, because she wasn’t coming and she wouldn’t meet Anna of the magic nose!!