|
|
Posted by nobody special on 08/28/07 20:32
The kids will need some basic guidance about things like shot
composition, how to tell a story in pictures, and how to shoot to
edit. Any camcorder with a firewire output will be good for starters,
DV camcorders with firewire can be found used in the $150 range and
new for $300 or so for an adequate one. Be sure it has firewire
output. a REAL BONUS is if the camcorder has a jack to accept an
external microphone input. Get a cheap lavalier tie-clip mic from
Radio Shack and use this to get way better sound than the built-in
mic, as well as to record off-camera narrations for later editing use.
Built-in mics only record well at up to maybe six feet from the lens,
which is very limiting.
You can use one of the free editing applications bundled with your
computer, like imovie for the mac or windows moviemaker for the PC.
Or search download.com or versiontracker for free applications.
Buy them a tripod, even just a cheap $40 Velbon or Slik one, and make
them use it. Have them compose a frame and do their acting *inside
that frame*, with NO panning or zooming. Teach them to look at the
frame and see what else in it may be distracting or out of place, and
find a shot that looks clean and uncluttered, with no sunlight or
other lights shining back towards the lens. All light should be behind
the camera operator.
Teach them to shoot the same bit several times, changing the size of
the frame for each time between close-ups and wide shots, but
otherwise leaving the camera alone. Tell them not to zoom or pan while
shooting. If you do just this much, their product will already look
better than 80 percent of what is on YouTube:-)
As to telling the story, teach them that the story needs a beginning,
a middle and an ending. You set up the situation in the beginning,
you then deal with the situation in the middle, and you solve the
situation (or don't) in the end.
The first few times they try to shoot a story, have them pick
something they know really well, like the Three Bears, so they have a
firm grasp of the plot and needs of the story, and have them stop and
start the camera to shoot all the parts of the story in story/
chronological order, at least the first few times. This makes the
editing the first few times really simpl, just cutting off the extra
bits before and after each scene, a good way to warm up. As they get
more sophisticated, show how you can shoot all the scenes for one spot
at one time, then re-order the pieces in the editing program to out
the pieces where they belong. Telling old well-known stories witha
new twist will be fin for them. Have them do several versions of The
three Bears, with some changes in each, like, substitute toys for the
characters, puppeteered by hands not in view of the camera. Change up
the plot, add new scenes to tell what the REAL story was.
The kids can enjoy editing-in graphics they can make in Windows Paint,
Powerpoint, or any similar program.
If the kids don't have a lot of resources and people to act in their
home movies, you can shoot stop-action using clay, legos, and toys or
drawings and cutouts and any digital camera on a tripod with a USB
cable hooked to a laptop or tower computer. Free software for time-
lapse or stop-motion is available thru a google search or
download.com. Picture quality from even a cheap 3-megapixel still
camera will often be superior than a regular video camera!
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|