Are you a teacher or parent wanting to make a video with kids for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival? If you are looking for a fun and easy way to make a video with kids, consider trying Stop-Motion. Now what is Stop-Motion?
Stop motion (also known as stop frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object or persona appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Wikipedia
Here are a few steps your students or kids can follow when working on their stop-motion video:
- Take the time to brainstorm your ideas: It’s important to keep all of your ideas in one place and make sure everything is organized before beginning your project. Scribble in a sketchpad, jot down ideas in a notebook.
- Map out a storyboard for your video: Every videographer and filmmaker needs to plot out their shoot before they begin their work. Take your brainstormed ideas and put them in chronological order. You can make drawings or even write out a list when each action occurs. For more on storyboarding click HERE.
- Err on the side of shooting too many pictures: When you’re beginning your stop-motion project, keep in mind that you can shoot as many pictures as you’d like so you never miss a shot. It’ll be useful once you start the video-editing process.
- Find video editing software you’d like to use: If you aren’t tech savvy and don’t have experience with video-editing, don’t despair. You can create an awesome video. There are plenty of helpful video-editing resources out there for beginners, and most of them are budget-friendly.
- Begin your editing: Once you have your video-editing software, upload all of your pictures, music, footage and anything else you’ve organized on your computer. Editing is technical at times, but with the right assistance it can be fun and easy. Here are resources to help.
- Add music for an emotional effect: Your audio is a significant part of your video. Music captures emotions, so if you have a dramatic, romantic, or comical scene be sure to use music that complements the action in your video.
- Show your movie to an audience, whether it’s your classroom or facility: Critique is critical! You might think your video looks perfect, but the teacher down the hall might have some great feedback or notice something important (or confusing) that you missed. Don’t be shy to ask people to watch it. Taking advice from others will not only improve your skills as a videographer, but can also help you on your next project.
Here’s a great video to inspire kids to get their video editing projects started:
Top Ten Video Tips for Kids
Stop-Motion video is a fun way to do videos with kids. If you are looking for an awesome in-depth tutorial, check out MyKidsAdventures.com for their article covering the technical nuts and bolts of creating a stop-motion video.
Are you thinking of making your first stop-motion movie? Let us know if this was helpful. If you’ve made stop-motion videos in the past, please share your best tips (or warnings!) in the comments below.
Leave Your Comment