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How to Make Home Movies Your Friends Will Want to See Twice

Educational Super 8 film covering film making techniques that will improve your super 8 home movies. The first part focuses on shooting a birthday party indoors and the second part covers shooting a family camping trip. From LostinLight.org


This movie is part of the collection: Home Movies

Production Company: Lost in Light
Audio/Visual: silent (subtitled), color (red)
Keywords: Super 8; home movie; film; educational; how to; ephemeral; lost in light; moviemaking; filmmaking; birthday; camping

Creative Commons license: NonCommercial Sampling Plus

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Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - - August 25, 2007
Subject: Crash course in film
An odd little gem of a film that must have been thrown in as an extra with camera or projector sometime in the early 1970s; the essence of ephemeral. The Super 8 stock does suffer from a bit of red shift (especially noticeable at the beginning) and the contrast is washed out, this is still an excellent primer for any budding filmmaker.

The film consists of two short films, one of a birthday party and one of a camping trip. These are used to illustrate some ideas to make your films more visually interesting; cut between action, allow people to coming into the frame, being aware of lighting and angles. Most of these tips would still apply to video cameras, with the exception of using time lapse or slow motion, which is a bit harder with video tape. My difference would be their advice that there can't be too many close-ups. I would prefer a mixture of shot ranges, but otherwise all sound advice.

Credits

Produced by Roberta and Murray Suid. Made by Alan Oddie.

Segments

Two parts: Part 1. How to Shoot an Indoor Movie. Part 2. How to Shoot an Outdoor Movie.

Shotlist

Part 1. How to Shoot an Indoor Movie using a young girl's birthday party as an example. Kids playing birthday party games. Pin the tail on the donkey. Drinking punch. Blowing out candles. Balloons. Eating cake and ice cream. Opening a present.

Part 2. How to Shoot an Outdoor Movie. Time-lapse of family loading VW van up. Driving out in the hills. Setting up a tent. Dad prepping the campfire. Kids playing guns, including a girl pretending to be shot (in slow motion). Feeding ducks. Preparing lunch. Mom and dad having a moment. Starting the campfire. Kids filling water bucket. Campfire at night. Girl wakes up family in morning by banging on a pan with a hatchet.