Students Of Success

Kid Birthday Party - Birthday Video

Most people shoot some random video of their child’s birthday
party, then toss the video in a drawer and forget about it.

Hey, we’re talking about some precious video of an important
event in your child’s life.

So if you’re going to shoot some video of your child’s birthday
party, why not make it into a video everyone will want to see?

With just a little planning you can turn your child’s birthday
party video footage into a fun music video that’s sure to become
a treasured family keepsake and heirloom.

Choose A Favorite Song

Before you shoot your video, choose the song you want to use for
your completed music video. It can be one of your child’s
favorites, or one that fits your party theme. Now you can shoot
your video to go along with the music. Most songs are about 2
and a half minutes long which tells you how long your completed
music video will be.

10 Things You Need To Shoot

Putting up the decorations

Party guests arriving

Activities and crafts

Party Games

Bringing out the birthday cake

Opening cards and gifts

Finished decorations and balloons

Parents, brothers, sisters, family members and pets

Staged shots of your birthday child and guests being silly

Guests saying good-by and leaving

The birthday child’s parents collapsing on a chair after the
party.

You may find other shots you want to include as well.

Fun Camera Angles

Make your shots at least 5 to 10 seconds in length. A series of
short but fun shots will help make your music video more fun to
watch.

Stay away from using the zoom lens. Unless a zoom is done very
well it tends to look amateurish.

Get lots of candid wide shots of your group.

Then move in and shoot medium shots of 2 or 3 people together.

Shoot close-ups of individual faces

Have fun by shooting some shots that are tilted to one side or
you can stand on a chair and shoot down on the party. Put the
camera on the floor and shoot up.

Editing Your Birthday Video - Music Video

If you have video editing software in your computer, you first
need to digitize (load) the footage you’ve shot into your
editing program. Then lay down your music track (the song you’ve
selected).

Now start your music video with a simple but creative title like
“Mary’s 6th Birthday Party” with a sub title related to your
birthday theme like “A Royal Celebration.”

>From the title you can use a fun wipe to your first shot. Try to
keep your shots about 5 seconds long. That will keep the music
video moving nicely without being too fast and visually
annoying. Also try to edit your footage together to tell the
story of your party rather than just randomly mixing everything
together.

Titles within your music video can also be fun. A title leading
into some party game footage might read “Extreme Musical Chairs”
or “Time To Pop The Balloons.”

As you edit your footage together, take a minute and preview the
entire video from the beginning. This will help you to get a
better feel for the overall pace. You might need to slow things
down or speed then up. Check your video from the beginning when
you have 30 seconds, then 60 seconds then 90 seconds of edited
video just to make sure the video is coming together the way you
want it to.

Save a little song time at the end to add your closing titles.
Give yourself a screen credit, your party producer, and of
course this video stars your birthday child.

Then at the very end of your credits you can have a little fun
by cutting to one last silly shot.

If you don’t have access to a video editor, take a quick look at

Fun-Kid-Birthday-Parties.com

Your Birthday Video - Music Video “World Premiere”

After you’ve edited your music video together it’s time for your
world premiere. Why not invite all your party guests and parents
over for a private screening? Make some popcorn and have some
fun.

Years From Now

Imagine some years from now when you and your child sit down to
watch their birthday video together. You’ll both be very happy
you made this fun video out of all that precious footage.

And as even more years pass, you might just get to watch your
treasured family keepsake DVD with your grandchildren… I
wonder if they’ll still call them “Music Videos?”