Movie Making For Kids

“What do I do to become a movie maker?” this is one question kids who love to be filmmakers ask. The kids long to see their ideas play out on the screen and often tell their parents.

Film making is a great skill any child can acquire. The child begins by unraveling the stories in his/her head, which may be fictional, comedic, or non-fictional revealing their creative skills even when young. The child can start by learning stop motion animation.

Becoming a movie maker is a great way for young kids to harness their storytelling talents and skills. In making movies, there are many things kids learn including storytelling, idea mapping, and scripting. The kids also get to make movies while learning shooting, video editing, and other effects.

For one to become a moviemaker and create movies worth watching at any time, he/she must learn the basics of moviemaking.

The Young Film Academy is one good place for kids to kickstart their movie making journey. It is a home for kids who want to start and develop an active movie making career. The academy is fun and offers a wide range of courses, workshops, and events for kids that like filmmaking.

These courses equips kids with all the tools needed to excel in the movie making industry. They are also taught how to write a good story, choose the right music to add and some effects. As a parent, you can decide on what works best for your kids. Kids between the ages of 8-19 are eligible to enroll in the YFA any time as they run a school-friendly curriculum.

At the academy, young children learn creative ways to make movies following their guide. It is beautiful and interesting watching these young children as they work together on projects, communicating and collaborating to solve problems, doing what they like in a fun, free environment.

The YFA as a film school has a bunch of free information to enable you learn more about filmmaking for kids.

Can Kids Make A Movie

Wondering if kids can make a movie? Why not? Anybody can make a movie, be it kids or adults with the right guide. All kids require, is the right guidance and enough family support to become successful filmmakers. Parents must be able to support and encourage them when they tell stories. If a child has storytelling abilities, a movie can be made easily from such abilities.

Tools Kids Can Use To Make Movies

If you wish to make a movie as a kid, you don’t need so many tools to start. Becoming a moviemaker has nothing to do with age. Sometimes all you need is a smartphone or an ipad and a few apps, either free or paid, as a process of learning and getting better skills. You can use video apps on your smart devices for recording films at the initial stage. You can also use a digital camera to record video projects.

Steps Involved In Making Movies

There are 4 steps to making a movie for anyone who wants to start movie making. These steps include the idea, scripting, shooting, and editing.

Idea

Making a movie begins with an idea and asking lots of questions to kick start. Have you asked yourself what your movie is all about? Is it a real story or just fictional? Is it a comedy or drama? Will you be needing actors? What kind of film will it be? A stop motion animation or a motion picture? These questions will guide you every step of the way.

Scripting

Once you have the idea, the next step is to script it. Put it in writing so that your friends and characters can work with it. Scripting helps increase your creative prowess, making your video project well detailed. The purpose and process of your movie are well established when written. Share amongst many friends, family, and tutors so they can help edit and suggest improvements. A good script makes easy work for your characters. Ensure the script is rights reserved before sharing.

Shooting

The shooting phase can take place once the idea and scripting have been completed and approved. It’s the moment when the kids’ script comes to life in video form. As a kid, you can use your smartphone to do this. When a smartphone is used, some factors must be considered. They are listed below.

Don’t shoot vertically, shoot horizontally. This is easy to do— your smartphone should be on its side.

Use a tripod. To avoid disruption at the slightest, ensure you have a tripod. Because smartphones are small and any unnecessary activity may add poor visuals.

Do not use the digital zoom feature else you get pixelated images. The zoom lenses on video cameras that zoom optically are different from the features in the smartphone. If viewed on a bigger screen, they may look like crap. If you need a closeup, get closer.

Use an external light source. Usually, you will want to use the light source in the smartphone but its outcome is not always great. The need to add an external light source is solely for the daylight. To avoid a harsh, spotlight look, apply an external light source.

Also, avoid bad sound. Sound quality plays a crucial role in your movie making. Sometimes it’s problematic getting good sound with a smartphone but there is a simple way to do this. During the shoot, ensure each actor has their smartphone hidden somewhere and record their speaking role for you to sync up with your visual shots in post.

Editing

Great! You are close to finishing. Editing your movie comes in the next and the last. It is often regarded as the ‘invisible art’ because most viewers get too engrossed in the movie that they are barely aware of the editor’s work.

It is both a creative and technical part of the posts production process of movie making. Editing your movie can be accomplished with any of the editing tools you like. These tools are free or paid apps that provide you with filters that can give effects like black and white, vivid color, sepia, etc.

Music tracks and animated text overlays are produced via these editing apps. Some of these apps are free while some are premium and all depend on what you can afford.

A good edit has perfect sync for all media including music, voice, and motion. Music and voice together must be properly synched for quality movies.

5 Best video editing apps for kids

Animoto video maker

While waiting for your camera, you can achieve a lot of stuff with your smartphone using Animoto app. It allows you to create amazing videos. This app offers you powerful features that make video creation easy. In just a few easy steps, you can add videos. It’s easy to use. Free to use and ideal for all smartphones.

Movavi video editor

Movavi is a great app for kids to use when not conversant with other apps. It’s user-friendly and easy to learn. With movavi, kids can create their video projects and most of all, professional videos for any type of use. It comprises outstanding features such as speech bubbles, humorous stickers, and built-in content. It can be downloaded onto a computer.

Animotica- video editing and movie maker

This is a simple, easy-to-use, and easy-to-learn video editing software for casual users including children who want to create quick videos. It includes all the common video editing tools you would expect from a high-quality piece of video editing software such as split, video trim, and combine videos.

It’s easy to use and allows children to create marvelous moments. Young children can share personal moments and explore the video world using this app. This movie maker app helps young children display their idea, making them stand out in the social world whenever they export a film to social media.

Magisto- Magical Video editor

This app allows you to share beautiful videos any time anywhere. You can easily create and edit your video with this app. It is free and consists of unique features that help take your videos from poor to best quality videos.

iMovie

Kids on iPhone, iPad, and Mac can make beautiful HD movies with this free video editor app. It’s a fast and fun-making movie app where you can create your video from scratch to finish. In a few minutes, you can export these videos and share them for fun on social media platforms.

Tips For Kids Who Want To Be Moviemakers

Don’t rush things. Most kids want to make videos with a big hit, and sometimes fail to learn the basics.

Figure out where your strength lies. Kids should be allowed to do almost everything they love as they explore. This enables them discover where their strength lies whether as editors, actors, scriptwriters, or directors.

Accept constructive criticism. If they must be better filmmakers, they must learn to accept reviews. This helps them produce better movies.