This question was asked by someone else previously but never answered.
I'm asking again because I'm also very curious to know the answer.

In certain films that involve children, there are scenes where the
babies/children in question are throwing fits - crying and screaming
and such - and it is hard to imagine how a director gets a young child
to do this without using what we would think of as "inhumane"
techniques.

The original asker couldn't think of an example - I can. There is a
scene in the film "Losing Isaiah" where the young actor who plays
Isaiah literally cries himself to sleep. The look on his face appears
to show that this was a real tantrum, and how could such a young kid
"act" this way?

I'm interested in different directorial techniques that involve crying
and screaming kids. Any opinions/hard facts would be appreciated. The
price is low because I'm just looking for ideas. Thanks in advance!

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Request for Question Clarification by hagan-ga on 27 May 2005 07:27 PDT

Does this suit?
from http://www.imdb.com/Indie/Ask/20011116.html
"When a crying baby is needed in a film, how is this accomplished? To
make a baby cry would be to put it under some stress, certainly not
acceptable. Waiting around for a baby to cry would be equally
distasteful. To allow a baby to be stressed out to cry seems
unconscionable. Are they good enough actors that they can fake it?
--Dennis
"Good for you, Dennis -- a sensitive man behind the camera is hard to find.
It depends on how much you need to see the baby cry ON SCREEN. I
imagine a few seconds would serve most needs. I would wait till the
baby actually cried for its own reasons, then shoot only a few moments
of the baby crying and make sure she or he is wrapped in a blanket
that could conceal. Then I would use a doll for the rest of the
coverage and add the majority of the crying in the mix room."

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Clarification of Question by leighannp-ga on 27 May 2005 13:16 PDT

Well, that helps a little. But his/her answer doesn't work for all
scenarios. There are plenty of films with more than "a few seconds" of
a child crying. If that's all that can be found in response to the
question, go ahead and post as an answer.

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Request for Question Clarification by hagan-ga on 27 May 2005 14:01 PDT

It's all that *I* could find, but I'm only one researcher.  :-)  And I
tend to agree that it isn't a complete answer to your question, so
I'll let somebody else try to fill in the blanks.
Best of luck finding this out.

This is just speculation: young children who have separation anxiety
will often burst into tears as soon as Mommy is out of sight. It would
not be difficult for a filmmaker to take advantage of this without
being cruel to the child. After all, the child must learn to endure
mother's absence sooner or later.

I hadn't thought of that, Pink. Although I don't know if any mother
could stand to put her kid through that, all for the sake of a film.
But what do I know? I read once that a director for an independent
film had to make a young child cry, and so, he decided that it would
be best to yell at the kid, who burst into tears as expected. It
didn't take long for the mother of the child to step in, and the
director's conscience also caught up to him. He said he couldn't stand
the thought of that child being scarred for life just because he
wanted to make a movie. We may never have the complete answer to this
question, except that the camera is always rolling.

There's an old Hollywood story about the child actress Margaret
O'Brien, who was supposedly brought to tears in "Meet Me In St. Louis"
by an assistant director who whispered to her that her pony was dead
(which was not true). In later years, Margaret O'Brien denied that
this ever happened, but the tale still crops up from time to time.

Oops. I goofed. The story was that Margaret O'Brien was told that her
PUPPY had died, not her pony. A cocker spaniel, I believe.

Hey guys, I would like to add something. I do beleive that some cruel
techniques are used to make a child cry in a film. Maybe not a child
over the age of 5. But what about toddlers? You can't explain to a
toddler that they have to cry for a movie. I just watched Diane
Keaton's 1987 comedy, "Baby Boom". The adorable little toddler,
Elizabeth, is constantly crying. If you watch closely in the scene
where Diane Keaton is changing her diaper for the first time you can
actually see and hear her smack the child on the butt. Watch very
closely when the baby is standing up on the bed blubbering baby talk
and Diane Keaton is putting black masking tape around the diaper to
secure it. She reaches around the back of the baby and smacks her. The
baby then starts to cry a little. I've seen this movie 500 times and I
never realized this until now. Rent it and see what I mean. It's
horrible.

In a recent A&E special called "Child Stars: Their Story" former child
actor Lucas Haas said the director tried to make him cry by telling
him his mother had died and by ripping up a photo of her in his
trailer. Jackie Cooper said he had trouble crying on demand so his
uncle was summoned to the set with Jackie's dog. The uncle took the
dog beside a building out of sight and had a prop man fired a blank
pistol. The director then told Jackie that they'd killed his dog.
Melissa Gilbert said that Michael Landon got her to cry simply by
crying himself.

tutuzdad-ga