# Calling a function in a clips timeline

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/calling-a-function-in-a-clips-timeline/172149>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [December 11, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/calling-a-function-in-a-clips-timeline/172149 "2005-12-11T23:39:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MFrederickson50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@MFrederickson50](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/MFrederickson50)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/calling-a-function-in-a-clips-timeline/172149/1 "2005-12-11T23:39:47Z")

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This seems like it should be the simplest thing in the world, but it’s not working: I have a more complex example but I set up a simple one to test and it fails as well.

I made a circle on the main stage, made it a movie clip and made it’s instance name “circle”. I went to it’s timeline and typed on the first frame:

function hello(){  
trace(“hello”);  
}

I went to the root and put on the first frame \_root.circle.hello();, and I don’t get any “hello” output.

What am I doing wrong? This should be so simple! Why can’t I call a function in another MovieClip’s timeline?