Movie Making For Kids

While uploading videos to YouTube is the natural way to show off your kids' movies, it is also fun to create a DVD of the movies made by everyone in the class, or a DVD to showcase one child's work over the course of a year.

Or introduce your children to the concept of a "show reel" -- a short sequence showing their best work to be used as a portfolio.

Either way, you're going to want a way to burn the movie files, whether they are in AVI or MOV format, onto a DVD that can be played on a standard player.

There are two free, Open Source and very good applications I recommend for this.

1) DVD Flick
DVD Flick is notable for the large variety of file formats and codecs it is able to cope with, so no matter what output you've got from your various video-making programs, they can all be bundled together onto a DVD without hassle.
Burning with DVD Flick is easy, but it is not fast. Be prepared to spend some time waiting while your files are encoded and burned.

2) InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder is a very popular Open Source licensed program that not only can burn DVDs from digital file, but can create disk copies, rip DVDs, and save audio and data tracks to files.  The only reason I have DVD Flick as my number one choice on this site is that version .50 of InfraRecorder doesn't burn DVDs for many people.

Clay animation, or claymation, is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable" — made of clay or similar medium.

As in other forms of stop-motion animation, the object is arranged on the set (background), a photo or frame is taken, and the character is then moved slightly by hand. Another picture is taken, and the object is moved slightly again. This goes on until the action is done.


Making Clay Animals With Children: Video Series
In this series of free arts & crafts videos you'll see a demonstration of how to make several types of animals from soft colored clay. Expert Rachel Dayan shows you step by step instructions for making a cow, a bear, an elephant and a lady bug, as well as a fruit tree and basket from clay. Great ideas for claymation videos and props.


Tips for Using Clay With Kids -- powered by eHow.com

Claymation Lesson Plan
From Anne Pfeiffer - Cave Spring High School

Clay Animation
Another lesson plan, this one from Incredible @rt

Will Vinton
Some clay animation history from the creator of the California Raisins.

What is Claymation?
A tutorial on claymation, what it does, and how it works.

Animation 101
A project from ThinkQuest

AnimateClay
An entire website dedicated to claymation. The forum is a particularly useful source of unusual information, tips and tricks for animating clay.

Math teachers are important, knowledgeable people. But in most middle schools, math classes along with science, english and history, are not always the most popular among students. Imagine being the teacher for a class titled "Movie Making 101." Your movie making class would most likely have a waiting list of kids wanting to sign up!

Today's kids are well schooled in high tech toys and gadgets, especially computers, cell phones and video games. As a 'movie making for kids' teacher, you can provide them with the perfect platform where their technical skills can shine. And since movie making builds self esteem, is team oriented and highly creative, even the most technically immersed students will be able to express themselves with a movie script kids can make.

If you would like to teach movie making for kids through a class you hold through your recreation department, after school program, girl scout troop, or in your own elementary school classroom, here are several tips to help you become a Movie Director.

1. Class One: Get to know your "cast" - what their skills and talents are. Find out who is familiar with video cameras, video editing, acting, make-up, costumes. If anyone has special talents such as singing, playing an instrument, note that these can be incorporated into your movie. By observing and learning about your students, you can cast your movie more successfully.

Teach them movie making basics such as the importance of being quiet on the set (so no background noise is heard while filming). When acting in a scene, don't look at the camera - look at the person to whom you are speaking. Don't worry if you goof up a line - that's why we have "bloopers" at the end of our movie!

2. Class Two: Announce the movie script that you will produce. Tell them the story of the movie as if you are a storyteller. Be animated by acting out the movie as you describe it. Announce who is playing which role. Pass out the scripts and do a "read-through" where the cast reads the entire script out loud. Do some rehearsals of complicated scenes. Assign students which props and costumes they will need to bring to the movie set. Lastly, scout your movie locations - where each scene will be shot.

3. Class Three: Shooting Day! Inventory all the props and costumes making sure you have everything you need. Assign one student to be the Script Supervisor. This person must glue them self next to you, so you can feed each line to each actor. If you are not the camera operator, make sure this person is well versed in camera operation. You want to make sure they know where the REC button is located!

Apply make-up, decorate the sets, put on costumes, open the script, turn on the camera, and you are ready to shoot your first scene.

4. The next two to three classes will all be shooting days similar to Class Three.

5. Movie Premier: Once the movie is edited with all the special effects, credits, and music, you are ready to roll the red carpet for the big premier event. Hold the premier at your local library, the school auditorium or even one of the cast members home. Make sure that wherever the premier takes place, that the audio system is acceptable. Once the audience is assembled with their popcorn and drinks, give a short speech introducing your cast and giving a short overview of the movie. After the premier, let the cast take questions from the audience.

Kids may remember their math and science teachers, but having the DVD's of their very own movie they will be sure to never forget their experience with you as their Movie Director.

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If you would like more tips and resources for kids on how to make movies, visit http://www.makeamoviestudios.com for free downloads, plus movie scripts for kids and training materials such as workbooks and DVD's.

Shelley Frost is a movie director for kids, author, drama teacher and videographer. Her company, Make-A-Movie Studios has had more than 1000 children star in her movies. Shelley has written dozens of movie scripts kids can produce, all of which have been produced into movies. Her movie scripts and resources for new movie directors can be found at http://www.makeamoviestudios.com

Get Animated! is a Canada-wide series of free screenings, master classes and activities marking International Animation Day.

The National Film Board of Canada now hosts the video of a master class on animation taught by Genie award-winning animator Cordell Barker.

Part 1 - Barker about the making of The Cat Came Back. (See The Cat Came Back here)



Part 2 - Barker talks about the making of Runaway.