Babies Crying on TV

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I'm finally watching the final season of Breaking Bad, there's a scene in there with a baby screaming and crying. I always wondered, how do they get babies to do that? It's not like an older kid you could teach to fake cry, if a baby is crying, it's REALLY crying.

that is a good question but with unpleasant answers.

As a mom, I have wondered about that myself. Maybe they shoot the scene when the baby is likely to be crying anyway and try to get it done quickly so the poor thing can be taken care of.

I can't stand those fake sound effect cat meows.

I've wondered too. You are probably right that they take advantage of naturally occuring crying. Skillfull editing could make it seem like it happened on cue.

Wasn't there something about a needle?

I've heard they give them toys and then yank it away from them until the sight of the person makes the baby cry.

Oh and older children don't always act. According to Jackie Cooper, he was made to cry by being told they would kill his dog.

Oh yeah, I heard Margaret O'Hara tell the story about how they made her cry in that famous scene with Judy Garland (Meet Me in St. Louis) - they actually told her her dog was dead. that's where Judy is singing Have Yourself a Merry Little CHristmas. every time I hear that song during the holidays I shudder. If you ever watch the scene and realize that poor Margaret is really torn to shreds it's awful. she was a tiny little girl.

adults can be such beasts.

I haven’t seen the movie but I read through the plot on Wikipedia and I just watched the scene on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yudgy30Dd68
In the movie context I wouldn’t have felt anything watching that scene, just a child not wanting to move, no big deal. But seeing it as a little girl crushed and really crying over the assumed loss of her dog changed everything.

I just watched it again, it was as horrible as I remembered. But then I thought I'd look the quote to see if I remembered it right - turns out it Vincent Minnelli (the director who said it not Margaret, and Margaret said it wasn't true at all - could she be covering for him? Why woudl he make up a lie like that? Anyway, I'm going with her story, it makes for a kinder world. Plus they play that song every five minutes during the holidays, now I can stop cringing).


AE: In interviews and in his autobiography, Vincente Minnelli claims that in order to get you to cry during the snowman scene, he had to tell you that your dog was going to be killed. Is that true?

Margaret O’Brien: A lot of people have asked how they got me to cry, and it wasn’t because my dog died. Vincente Minnelli told that story, but it’s not true—my mother would never have allowed that. June Allyson and I were known as the “Town Criers” at MGM, so we had a little competition going on. So, if I had a hard time crying, all my mother had to do was say that she was sure June could do it and maybe she would have the makeup man come over and spray on the “false tears,” Well, that upset me, and then I would cry.

http://allanellenberger.com/category/margaret-obrien/