by Gregory Schmidt
Now, that most of our children have access to broadcast quality visual technology, we can actually encourage them to "go into the movies" without even leaving home.
Having just concluded the annual film festival that I help run, I'm still in amazement over what I saw at our special children's movie fest. We had a nine year-old local girl who had a fun short subject production entered into the screenings that morning. It took her all of about 15 minutes to produce it on I-Movie, several weeks before the film fest. It was creative, enjoyable to watch and it encouraged other children in the room to give movie-making a try.
So, this month let's look into the possibility of taking your child's imagination and creativity from script to screen. First, there's something in between that process called story-boarding. To get started you'll need a blank page notebook or binder of unlined paper.
My shortcut to making a fun short movie around the house is to have youngsters go straight to the visual telling of their movie without having to face the intimidating task of writing a script. So, with a felt tip pen in hand they are now going to become something of a cartoonist and a visual planner.
Suggest to them that they incorporate into their story or short "art" movie some settings that already exist around the house, garage or yard. Their assignment is to create drawings inside movie screen frames that are simply 2-dimensional still images of the scenes in their production, laid out in chronological sequence.
The first frame should be the very first camera "set-up" that is wanted in the telling of their short story. Let's say this first movie is about finding the family pet and feeding it for the day. The first frame of the production can be simply a basic stick drawing of the lead character jumping up out of bed in the morning; the next frame could show them at the breakfast table; the next frame could be a close up of "the mom" asking the lead character (the movie-maker's sibling or friend) to find the house pet (cat or dog). This can be done with a full frame drawing of the parent's face, showing them talking and pointing.
Then you could suggest they next frame an image of the pet hiding behind a bush out in the back yard. As these framed images move through the telling of how your child is going to get the pet fed (or complete the task set in their own story), you'll see them spending several hours or more composing about 20 or more rough pictures.
Once done you now have the visual outline to making your first movie, together. Then you can suggest they either write lines of dialogue for each framed scene or let the "actors" make up their dialogue on the spot - which might come off more natural sounding for younger students.
Now, you need a way to record these scenes (which don't necessarily need to be shot in order). If you don't have a video camera or I-phone at home, you might try the local arts center, the nearest public school or even your church's youth director to see if you could borrow a camera for a day.
Once the scenes are all recorded (shot on camera), you'll want to assemble them in an editing session. This can be done by originally shooting on digital equipment and doing the editing right on your home computer. You might need to involve the helpful skills of your church youth director or a talented high school student, who could have access to their school's video editing hardware.
Voila' or should I say "cut, that's a wrap" because you and your students can actually create a permanent "movie" production by starting with the essential concept of what will each scene look like.
Just remember to tackle each step of the project with much patience, and maybe even shooting each scene several times to ensure one of the "takes" is good.
Lesson: letting your child design and plan these images in advance will give them the motivation to create much more in their lives ahead.
Gregory Schmidt worked with the child actors in his Bueno Gang Kids movie series for 18 months before putting them into their original production on camera. The first two movies in the series have earned the Dove Foundation stamp of approval. They can be purchased by contacting greg@festint.com. The two Bueno Gang movies are also available at ChristianCinema.com.
Now, that most of our children have access to broadcast quality visual technology, we can actually encourage them to "go into the movies" without even leaving home.
Having just concluded the annual film festival that I help run, I'm still in amazement over what I saw at our special children's movie fest. We had a nine year-old local girl who had a fun short subject production entered into the screenings that morning. It took her all of about 15 minutes to produce it on I-Movie, several weeks before the film fest. It was creative, enjoyable to watch and it encouraged other children in the room to give movie-making a try.
So, this month let's look into the possibility of taking your child's imagination and creativity from script to screen. First, there's something in between that process called story-boarding. To get started you'll need a blank page notebook or binder of unlined paper.
My shortcut to making a fun short movie around the house is to have youngsters go straight to the visual telling of their movie without having to face the intimidating task of writing a script. So, with a felt tip pen in hand they are now going to become something of a cartoonist and a visual planner.
Suggest to them that they incorporate into their story or short "art" movie some settings that already exist around the house, garage or yard. Their assignment is to create drawings inside movie screen frames that are simply 2-dimensional still images of the scenes in their production, laid out in chronological sequence.
The first frame should be the very first camera "set-up" that is wanted in the telling of their short story. Let's say this first movie is about finding the family pet and feeding it for the day. The first frame of the production can be simply a basic stick drawing of the lead character jumping up out of bed in the morning; the next frame could show them at the breakfast table; the next frame could be a close up of "the mom" asking the lead character (the movie-maker's sibling or friend) to find the house pet (cat or dog). This can be done with a full frame drawing of the parent's face, showing them talking and pointing.
Then you could suggest they next frame an image of the pet hiding behind a bush out in the back yard. As these framed images move through the telling of how your child is going to get the pet fed (or complete the task set in their own story), you'll see them spending several hours or more composing about 20 or more rough pictures.
Once done you now have the visual outline to making your first movie, together. Then you can suggest they either write lines of dialogue for each framed scene or let the "actors" make up their dialogue on the spot - which might come off more natural sounding for younger students.
Now, you need a way to record these scenes (which don't necessarily need to be shot in order). If you don't have a video camera or I-phone at home, you might try the local arts center, the nearest public school or even your church's youth director to see if you could borrow a camera for a day.
Once the scenes are all recorded (shot on camera), you'll want to assemble them in an editing session. This can be done by originally shooting on digital equipment and doing the editing right on your home computer. You might need to involve the helpful skills of your church youth director or a talented high school student, who could have access to their school's video editing hardware.
Voila' or should I say "cut, that's a wrap" because you and your students can actually create a permanent "movie" production by starting with the essential concept of what will each scene look like.
Just remember to tackle each step of the project with much patience, and maybe even shooting each scene several times to ensure one of the "takes" is good.
Lesson: letting your child design and plan these images in advance will give them the motivation to create much more in their lives ahead.
Gregory Schmidt worked with the child actors in his Bueno Gang Kids movie series for 18 months before putting them into their original production on camera. The first two movies in the series have earned the Dove Foundation stamp of approval. They can be purchased by contacting greg@festint.com. The two Bueno Gang movies are also available at ChristianCinema.com.
