After a couple of days of packing (with some help from the movers who packed up our breakables), we're done! The kids were curious about the FLIP camera - and thought it would be fun for them to make movies of the house to say good bye and perhaps a little theraputic. (And give me a chance to focus on the packing!) So, I got Harry and Sara one of the smaller FLIP cameras.
I shared with them how I plan out my "scenes" and had them watch me shoot and make the movie - answering their questions. I thought it was pretty funny that Harry turned around and interviewed his sister.
Then, I told them to go make a movie. They decided to make one called "Remembering the House" - they made it all by themselves - without any help from me. Then, Harry showed me how to use some of the features in the editing software that I hadn't figured out!
We watched together and i asked them to reflect on how they could improve their video. Harry pointed out the camera shake issue.
On the previous video I created about our car leaving for California, I asked for some tips about how to avoid camera shake.
Steve Garfield suggested a monopod - it's on my list!
Nick Booth offered some great shooting tips:
To steady your hand you can put one hand under the elbow of the arm with the camera. I think a bit of wobble is fine if you're walking - this is rough 'n ready stuff - and flip's don't really have enough heft to them to be wobble free. However there's a couple of things you can do.
1 Don't walk, swivel your body to pan.
2 Dont pan at all. If you're going to edit it is really good to let things leave the frame, because hat give you a natural edit point. To do that you sometimes need to get closer.On the subject of closer, do you remember the interview tips, shoot wide and then shoot the same thing close, that way you can easily shorten by cutting from the wide to the close and back again.
Close would also be good here - it makes things a bit more interesting. When the car is being driven onto the trailer you might want a wide and then step in quickly and get a really close shot of the car as it moves across frame. If you make those moves quickly and with confidence then you might not even need to edit.
I think it's best not to use the zoom. I would generally recommend just get in closer!
One last thing. I have been using the HD flips for social reporting, now I'm gonna use a standard defintion flip. The files are smaller so uploading is faster and once it's seen on a typical youtube embed there's little difference in quality.
Well, back to cleaning up and making sure the boxes are labels. The movers come in the morning and then we're off for an adventure - Virgin America to SFO - one husband, two kids, and a cello - and 5 suitcases!
Great movie! Harry is so articulate about what he'll miss. I like that the bathtub size is an issue to him. We do have to travel to get snow, but it's good snow- I swear.
Hoping that you, your family, Cello Kanter, your five suitcases and you !amazing! jadite collection all make it here safe and happy.
Posted by: Rachel Weidinger | June 28, 2009 at 11:44 PM
The kid is a natural ;-)
The monopod might be handy for the street scene you did earlier; almost equally handy is the flexible Gorilla Pod for sitting/attaching your flip on any surface http://joby.com/products/gorillapod/
Its easy enough to start and stop on the Flip, so you might be better off doing a lot of short clips (rather than jerky moving the camera) you can piece together with simple jump cuts for editing. With some practice you ought to be able to get to a point that you can have clips you can patch together.
Happy travels! Wave if you fly over northern Arizona.
Posted by: CogDog | June 29, 2009 at 01:58 AM
Harry sounds like a filmmaker in the making!
Posted by: JD Lasica | June 29, 2009 at 05:48 AM
sweet Beth! Safe travels. MA will miss you!
Posted by: Rebecca Krause-Hardie | June 29, 2009 at 09:18 AM
Hope you have a safe trip across the country! Your kids are pros!
Posted by: Jamie Favreau | June 30, 2009 at 02:41 AM
Wow. Kudos to you for filming their words and feelings about the move...something they'll really look back on.Harry may even adore one day that his fave color was yellow. Adored seeing him interviewing Sarah...both seem so natural too on film. (note to self: when using flip video just exude childlikeness and it will be a cinch!) Thanks for this :)
Posted by: Tresha Thorsen | July 17, 2009 at 12:26 AM