How to Make a Great Family Movie: From Planning to Editing

Photographs are imprints of events that take us back a long time, erased in our memory. When you flip through an album with photos, you remember past events, you experience bright, kind feelings and even nostalgia. However, videos better convey the emotions of the filmed moments. The family video shows something much more appealing than a photograph, it conveys the whole palette of experiences and impressions. It is impossible to remember and keep in mind many moments of life, but videography will easily help with this. Think about beginner videography equipment and proceed using our tips below!

For a Home Family Movie, You Can Come Up With a Lot of Scenarios

Family On a Walk

Videos with the family can be recorded on the street, and it is not necessary to just walk along the avenue, pushing a stroller in front of you with an empty smile. It is much easier than it seems to make the video more narrative and narrative. For example, you can organize a picnic in the park or the country, cycling or kite flying, or consider planning a road trip.

Do not be afraid to diversify the video by decorating it with additional effects: start with colored smoke, and light sparklers, you can add fireworks on holidays (just do not forget the safety rules and legislative norms for its launch). Do not strive for fake beauty that looks unnatural – let the video be natural.

Studio Recordings

Why many prefer the studio is obvious: good light, pleasant background, and the operators are used to their workplace. A good option if, for some reason, the shooting is not carried out in an apartment, but such a recording loses 99% of the heat that characterizes a real tube home video. But you get the opportunity to “professionally” tell your story, which is why you should justify your choice in favor of the studio.

Personal History

The operator alone will not make your video interesting – otherwise, actors in films would not have been needed for a long time. In the same way, you should try to make sure that after watching the video, it remains in your heart, and you would like to review it more than once.

To do this, you need to tell a personal story and show yourself as truthfully as you can. The video should be deep and touching. How did you meet? Where? When? What did you think about your future spouse and did you realize then that you were destined to be together? How were your children born, were you expecting a boy or a girl, and correctly guessed the sex of the child?

It will be great to take a video of the children as well. Let them also tell their stories and answer questions. Children can be asked what exactly they love, whether they believe in Santa Claus and a New Year’s miracle, whether they were waiting for a brother/sister, and whether they want to go to school.

How To Shoot Videos With Children Correctly?

So that the videography of children does not turn into unsuccessful attempts to film running backs, and the result of many hours of work does not go to the trash, remember several rules on how to take great children videos.

Involve children in the process. Videography should be interesting to them as well as to you. And, as we all know, children love to play more than anything else in the world. Why not let them play in front of your digital camera lens?
Like all people, children can be shy. In case children get lost in front of the camera and behave unnaturally, do not put pressure on them, but make sure that they are distracted from the lens pointed at them and simply forget about them for a while. An animator, conversations, funny jokes – and, of course, their peers can help with this.
Children are quite active creatures, and occasionally this interferes with obtaining high-quality personnel. To prevent the video from being one continuous blurry motion, when shooting at close distances, be sure to use autofocus.
Use the movement to your advantage: shoot from different angles, move and rotate the camera to the sides, creating spectacular shots.
Remember: children are quite unpredictable, so it is always important to be alert. They are unlikely to be able to repeat something interesting and original on video equipment – and it will not look as lively as the first time.

Video Editing

The main tool for video editing is a video editor. The concept of video editing includes technical processes for processing the whole video or individual fragments of video using video editing software. Do not think that computer programs are used only by professional video editors. There are options for free video editing software with no watermark for both beginners and amateurs.

Processing can involve many actions. Among them:

color correction;
pruning;
speeding up or slowing down playback;
overlay of visual and sound effects, inscriptions, and stickers;
improve quality, and detail, reduce visual noise;
changing the original sound and dubbing, adding music;
adding virtual or deleting real objects;
adding royalty-free music;
retouching.

Thanks to editing, you can make the video more informative, funny, and dramatic, in general, adapt the video content to your goals and style. Find creative approaches and creative solutions using video templates.

The creation of the video begins with the elaboration of the plot and script. It is more convenient to work with an action plan than to randomly make adjustments and changes. The next stage is the structuring of the source material. For example, it is better to move all the files needed in the work to a separate folder, numbering them. You can also use the names you like. Next, you need to prepare all the text material that you plan to use in the video. These can be titles, subtitles, captions, etc.

Recommendations

Here are some tips for those who are excited about the idea of their family video.

Dress as usual. Dressing up for a video is the last century. Or even the day before last. The film should look adequate, natural, and without pretentiousness.
Make videos at home if possible. Even if your home interior does not seem to deserve to be captured on video, you should not strive in the studio for a beautiful picture. Do not forget about nostalgia: it is unlikely that years later it will appear to you from the sight of other people’s walls of a commercial establishment.
Plan everything in advance and make a to-do list to be prepared for any situation.
You can shoot either short or long videos. And then create a YouTube channel to upload them and rewatch with great delight many times. Share with friends and enjoy it together!

Conclusion

The main thing is to decide exactly what you want. You can make a record in the spirit of TikTok, and cheer up your friends by posting it in your videos. However, it will not be as warm and native years later as those photos from childhood when you saddled your first bike. A family video is not a short video that was laughed at today and forgotten tomorrow. It is a valuable method of how to preserve memories that you want to leave for the future of yourself and your children, in the hope that they will keep them as carefully as you.