Here’s a great project idea.  Use video to document an achievement that you or a loved one have earned.

There’s no limit to your mind reading ability.

• Your small children even think you can pull a rope through your body! (If you want to.)

There’s probably something you do that your kids think is amazing.  Record it in a home movie.

When they’re older, they’ll still think it’s awesome!

Nobody will ever want to see you posing next to the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.

Not ever… No.  Nobody.

That is– unless you watch this and  make your boring vacation clips into something wildly cool.

The Moral of the Story?

Don’t Spoil Harry Potter for anybody, or my knight will kill you.

Stupid Pet Tricks!

If you have a dog or a cat, then you may have the next YouTube sensation sitting at your feet right now.

• You may also have a fur ball there- maybe you should check.

In this case, our family pet, XenaBelle, has learned how to dance the Macarena with her ears…

Why not make a really great home movie (or several) , and send them to friends and family?

… No seriously.   Why not?

• You already have a video camera.  (Presumably)
• You have a computer. (And if you have a Mac, then you also have all the software that you’d need.)
• You have some great ideas.

What’s that, you say?

You’d like some ideas for what kind of home movies to make?

Grab your camcorder, and go make…

1. A How-To video that shows how to prepare your favorite holiday recipe.
2. A documentary about a family elder.
   1. Many of our parents and grandparents have amazing stories to tell.
3. 10 things your thankful for this year.
   1. Ask each member of your family to come up with their own top 10.
4. A music video.  Decide what your favorite songs mean to you, and act them out with your family.
5. A slide show of your vacation photos.
   1. Edit the pics to a catchy tune.
6. A stand-up comedy routine. (Do people say your funnier than you look.)
7. A video tour of your city.
8. A 3-act play.  (Maybe you’re a budding writer.)
9. A sports highlight reel of your children on the athletic field.
10. Show off some of the year’s biggest achievements.
    1. Your son got straight A’s.
    2. Your daughter made first chair in the school band
    3. Your spouse won an award in their field of expertise.
    4. You managed to maintain your sanity while working amongst a bunch of freaks and geeks at your work.

OK, class.  I’ve had enough for one session.  Go out there and make an awesome movie!

You can disregard that last achievement.  Daddy’s had a rough day.

-Cheers

It’s not what camcorder to use.  Or what computer you want to edit on.

The story is the most important thing.

You should think about what you want to do in your video before you start to shoot anything.

Movies are fast becoming the new family album.

Try to tell complete stories about the people you know.

Keep in mind that a good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

As you shoot, keep track of where things would fit- and if you’re missing any pieces to your story.

Some Story Ideas to Springboard From:

• Your father served in the army during WWII?
  • He has an incredible story to tell.
  • Interview him and have him tell his own story.
• Your daughter won an award for creative writing?
  • Have her describe the process she went through to write her winning entry
  • She can talk about the judging.  Was she nervous?
  • This story could end nicely with the winning poem being recited to camera.
• The family went on a vacation
  • Edit a highlight reel from each day of the trip.
  • Each family member can describe their favorite activity during their vacation.

One of the easiest Home Movie projects to do is the Music Video.

Here’s how to make your own:

1. Pick a fun song from your song library and import it into your editing software.  (I like iMovie ‘09 on Macs or Adobe Premiere Elements for PC)
2. Import footage into our editing software.  I like to use shots from many different events that span a long period of time.  Be sure to grab a variety of different kinds of shots. (Wide Shots, Close Ups, Interior and exterior, etc.)
3. Start putting the shots together to the music.  Play around with it, and try to match the different visual cues to the various audio phrases in the song.

When there’s a big musical “hit” you should show a big camera move, a fast move toward the camera, or any other visual that has high “energy.”

When your music slows down and takes a breath, then your movie’s pace should slow down too.

Try to edit to the beat of the music, but it often looks good to make an edit on the down-beat of the music as well.

Have fun making your own music video!

He was suspended 20 ft. above the ground, and he was scared stiff- he was frozen to the point that he would not be able to get himself to safety.

From Ryan’s perspective- he was a goner for sure.  For the 150 spectators, however, he was just the 12th little kid in a row to succumb to THE WALL of DEATH.

Of course, this whole mess was because his big sister had braces.

What the?  Scott, what does this have to do with making awesome home movies?

I’m glad you asked…

What I should have told you up front was that my daughter and her family were invited to a huge outdoor party.

In fact, every kid who had braces fitted by Dr. Kadar in South Jersey last year, were all invited.

They had some pretty fun activities for everyone- including a bouncy house and pedal cars.

Of course, the ONE thing that my son wanted to do was to conquer the rock wall.  I named it the WALL of DEATH, and I guess that got into his head.

Now for the Home Movie  How-To:

How did this home movie come together?

1. Once I arrived at the location, I made a point to get big wide shots of the different rec areas.
2. I handed the camera off to my father in-law when it was my turn to play.  (And I instructed him NOT to zoom in and out all the darn time.)
3. I got some shots as close to the action as I could.
4. I was careful to just let the kids play, and not try to DIRECT them.

The last tip here is important.  Don’t try to make your family “act” for the camera when they’re out trying to have fun.

Just let them play, capture some good footage, and enjoy yourself while you’re at it.

Everyone has fun! Especially when they come back and watch the video you put together.

Yes, I know.  This is not an easy-to-do home movie.

But you can achieve a really fun effect by doing something that is easy to do.

Draw pictures with one letter of the alphabet per drawing- or have your kids draw draw them.  Then using your camcorder on a tripod, shoot the pictures.  They are now “art cards” and this is how they used to actually put graphics on screen in the original days of broadcasting.

It’s cool, it’s retro.  Best of all, you could do it, too.

How I made Star Wars ABC’s:

I made separate graphic files for each letter of the alphabet in Adobe Photoshop.  then, I animated them inside Adobe After Effects.  This is expensive software, but as a professional, I am very accustomed to using them.

Then I edited the After Effects animation with the live footage of my son, Ryan.

This short movie illustrates how you can get creative with your own movies.

I took simple footage from my consumer camcorder and motion tracked my mouth onto it.

In your version it doesn’t have to be so elaborate.  You can just draw a mouth onto your finger and get a similar effect.