Introduction

Software

2D Stop Motion Animation
Shadow Films

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FILM MAKING FOR KIDS

Whether it is a 30 second clip of pulling silly faces or a carefully planned out stop frame animation, children love to make films. Not that long ago, this was an expensive hobby far beyond the reach of most people and children rarely got a look in. How things have changed. Cameras have become so cheap that companies now give them away as promotions. And even the cheapest of webcams is capable of producing a decent film so there really is no excuse if your child wants to get into film making.

But where to start?

Very young kids are happy to wave a camera around and record some video. Try them with your phone, digital camera or video camera. There will probably be a fair amount of silly faces, floors and ceilings but they will enjoy seeing their efforts and will become very familiar with the technology. And you can edit their efforts yourself if you wish.

By the age of about 8 my children were comfortable editing video in Windows Movie Maker and could add titles and a music track. My daughter particularly liked putting together short videos of days out. Here's one of her first efforts. The video was recorded by my husband but the editing was all her own work.

I've worked with children as young as 7 on Stop motion animation (think Wallace and Grommit) with mixed results. In my experience, although young children get the idea, they lack the patience that it requires to produce anything substantial. But with help it is possible and if you are working with a group of children you can get them to do a scene each to make something substantial. I have put together a few project ideas which are listed in my Stop Motion Animation section. The children I worked with much preferred adding sounds and special effects to actually doing the animation - all good fun nevertheless. My own son was like this, but now, aged 10, he has started planning out lego animations including close-ups, scene changes and a story line. He has been using ZU3D and a webcam to do this.

My advice would be to get familiar with any camera and software that you already have, read through the various techniques and ideas on my website, and then try out some of the projects with your children. Most of my projects suggest free or trial software that you can use.