Lights, Camera ...

One rainy summer day, my mother used up the film left in her movie camera by making a short film with me, my brothers, and our cousins that we called "Batman".  No sound, but if you remember the "Batman" series, we made little signs, "POW"  "WAM", etc.  It was all of 5 minutes, but the kids (the actors) loved to play that movie in the projector over and over.  We had always wanted to make another ...but then, we grew up.

I continued the tradition started by my mom with my girls.  We've made many home movies and put them to music. Usually,  I would pick an upbeat song and start envisioning an idea.  Even when I started, it was a difficult process. I did everything manually and put it on a VCR tape.   Now, we have a program "Pinnacle Studio"on our computer for making movies.  Since "the girls" could hold a camera, they've contributed and made their own.  They've complied many a school group project and we've had many friends come to our house to finish their video projects over the years.
 

I would advise any new moms to film a lot of videos as well as take pictures and get them uploaded to your computer.  My husband did our videos all at once a couple of years ago, and now we have a permanent file for our kids.  Although Dana probably spent many hours looking at videos to make the short movie for Kristen's graduation,  the videos and the music were all there in the computer ready to grab and use.  

 This movie is an example of one of the movies created by my daughter with her friend.  It's one of my favorites.