How To Make Better Home Movies By Snowing Indoors

Today I am so happy that one of my best friends Em from Snowing Indoors has written a post for us.  I admire Em’s huge photography talent and her family movies have the same touch of magic.  So I was thrilled when she offered to share some tips on how to create your own family movies.  Take it away Em!

I love making home movies, I make at least one a month, so have learnt some tips and tricks over time.

Today I want to share my top ten movie tips for making better home movies, hope you find them helpful.

1. Keep the clips short, between 3-5 seconds.

By all means film long sequences, but be ruthless in the edit, cut anything extraneous from the final edit.

2. Shoot lots, use little.

I film multiple clips of the same event, from different angles, etc, but normally choose my favourite 1 (or 2) when editing.

3. Try and keep the camera still, too much motion may leave you feeling sea sick. If you have to pan, do it slowly and as smoothly as possible.

4. Shoot from all angles, get on your feet and move around your subject

5. Keep an eye on the light in your frame.

Make sure faces aren’t in shadow or, flooded in light that leaves the footage burned and overexposed.

6. Check out the background.

Look for aerials or trees ‘growing out of someone’s head’. Try moving distracting objects out of the frame if you can.

7. Don’t worry about buying a fancy camera. Smart phones often capture HD video and the added benefit of using your phone is that it’s always to hand.

8. Your clips don’t have to be used in chronological order. try mixing them up to see if things flow better.

9. Don’t forget to credit the artist when using music on your movies.

Choose songs that fit with the tempo of your film.

10. Practice, practice, practice and have fun with it.

Have you got any tips to add?

If you have any questions feel free to get in contact with @snowingindoors on Twitter and I’ll do my best to help.

Written by Em from snowingindoors, a family photoblog, sharing practical advice to help you take better photos and video, as well as tiny adventures and her parenting advice (and fails) along the way!