I see child actors.

September 21, 2011 1:54 PM

Teaching an on-camera acting class to kids age 8-12. Looking for interesting TV and film scenes featuring kids. Can you suggest scenes, ideally as YouTube links or online scripts?

I'm helping a friend teach a class in on-camera acting to experienced child actors who have other classes and professional work under their belts. They're great with memorization, focus, and scene analysis. They've also done pretty much every scene we can think of, so we need new material!

Scenes should be:
2-4 pages/minutes long, with interesting, challenging content.
Ideally two characters in the scene, although more is OK too.
Nnot all characters in the scene need to be kids.
Drama and comedy are both fine.
No sexual content.
Intense emotional content is totally fine; they can handle it. Also, the kids won't read the whole script, so it's OK if some content in the script is inappropriate. We can edit the scenes as needed to change genders, ages, remove very harsh language or questionable sections, etc.

Examples of material that has worked well in the past:
My Girl, Stand By Me, Man on Fire, Sixth Sense, everything Dakota Fanning has ever done.

I don't have much time, so I would really appreciate YouTube links of scenes that I can transcribe, or online scripts I can skim & pull from.
Thanks!

posted by pseudostrabismus to media & arts (6 answers total)

Best scene with a kid ever. The really good stuff starts at the 1:34 mark.
posted by TooFewShoes at 2:02 PM on September 21, 2011

Intense emotional content, you say?
posted by jbickers at 2:08 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

- Millions had great scenes with kids, especially emotional ones.
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/millions-script-transcript-danny-boyle.html

- Curly Sue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR-863GOQIw&feature=related

- Now and Then http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD40naVSGg8&feature=related
http://www.frontiernet.net/~rcowart/nowthen_script.html

- The Secret Garden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia0gTtKo0S0&feature=related
http://www.tyascripts.com/Secret%20Garden%20Excerpts.pdf

- Casper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3pZotIizxg&feature=related
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/c/casper-script-transcript-christina-ricci.html

- James and the Giant Peach
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/j/james-and-the-giant-peach-script.html

- The Neverending Story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M-ofFtw8Q0
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Neverending-Story,-The.html

- Flight of the Navigator http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtWeQ2StUsI
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/flight-of-the-navigator-script.html

- Firestarter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1OJTo7BFNM
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/firestarter-script-transcript-stephen-king.html

- Bedknobs and Broomsticks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM5kqyXW2mE

- Mary Poppins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ojtDoZMa1Q&feature=related
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Mary-Poppins.html
posted by SassHat at 2:46 PM on September 21, 2011

Scenes from the kids' show Even Stevens may provide some unexpectedly witty comedic options.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:52 PM on September 21, 2011

Game of Thrones has Arya: this scene may need some context (spoiler) but this one has sword fighting!
posted by pishposh at 3:14 PM on September 21, 2011

Terms of Endearment.

( I know I'm late to answer, but this scene makes me cry every time!)
posted by sweetkid at 9:27 PM on December 19, 2011 [1 favorite]