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kids Archives - Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman
In Tips and Tricks, If you’re new to video, Better Home Video

5 Killer Halloween Video Tips

Halloween Princess

Halloween PrincessGoing out to shoot memorable video of your kids?  Here are five Halloween Video tips that will help:

1) It’s dark out at night.  I know you knew that, so let me be more specific:  outside at night away from any light, it will be too dark to see your kids.  The obvious solutions: use your phone’s built-in light, position the kids under streetlights, or shoot at the pre-show party indoors.

Less obviously- have another parent light the kids with their cellphones from off to the side. You’ll get much prettier looking footage. Above all, remember– if you can’t … Read the rest

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Steve Stockman
In Tips and Tricks, Video Marketing, Teaching and Training, Press

Teaching Video: Summer Stars Foundation

Summer Stars campers perform live August 2019

I do a lot of speaking and consulting on video, but by far the most rewarding is teaching I’ve done almost every year since 2000 at Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts. This is the camp’s 20th Anniversary and I’ve managed to attend 17 sessions, teaching music video classes to 12-17 year-old disadvantaged kids from New York and Boston who pay nothing to attend. Much of my book comes out of my work teaching those kids.

(I’m also on the camp board, so now must suggest that you donate at www.summerstars.org)

The first step in creating a … Read the rest

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Steve Stockman
In Featured, Tips and Tricks, If you’re new to video, Better Home Video

How to Shoot Vacation Video that Won’t Bore People to Death

Vacation videos suck, unless you follow these tips.

How to shoot vacation video

When I was a kid, the Armbrusters had a slide projector.  Which meant that after every vacation they took, we’d troop dutifully to their house for endless carousels of badly-shot Kodachrome slides, narrated  live.  The slide show always seemed longer than the vacation itself.  Washed-out, badly composed views of Disneyland or Paris—dotted here and there with the back of the head of someone we knew.

Today technology has changed everything.  People can record hours of vacation video on a single chip. But they don’t trap you in their living rooms anymore. Instead they find you at work, at parties, on … Read the rest

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Steve Stockman
In Tips and Tricks, If you’re new to video, Better Home Video, Your Questions Answered

5 Tips for Father’s Day Video that Doesn’t Suck

Father’s Day Video.  Memorable–or as undercooked as the runny eggs and cold toast the kids bring Dad in bed?  Here are a five tips to improve the video you shoot this Father’s Day.

1. Find the Hero: Focus your attention on someone– anyone!  Having a hero invites us to think about our videos as stories about someone, which makes them more intriguing.

Choosing a hero changes the video.  For example, if Dad is the hero, your story might be “Dad gets woken up for breakfast in bed– at 4:30am.”  Told from Dad’s point of view, the story might alternate … Read the rest

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Steve Stockman
In Tips and Tricks, If you’re new to video, Better Home Video, Your Questions Answered

Story as a Magical Organizing Force

I have a brain that likes things logical, nicely ordered and in line. You follow the rules, you get the result. I can’t get my head around the order of shots, stories and putting it all together.

Once a week we go to the grandparents house for dinner. We have a niece and nephew, 4 and 1 respectively, who come over as well. It is a good time had by all and I want to capture the moments as they learn and grow. I just can’t figure out what the story is. I get that I should take short shots

… Read the rest
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Steve Stockman
In Tips and Tricks, For Pros

How to Shoot Kids and Animals

“Never work with kids or animals” goes the old showbiz saying.  And it makes sense.  It’s nearly impossible to get exactly what you want—and when you do, the cute kid or animal will get all the credit for being adorable.  You’ll get none for capturing it.

Yet we do it, because people love watching them. Keyboard cats and babies singing Beyonce kill on video.

The question is, how do you get video of them that isn’t awful?

Follow these tips and you’ve just increased the odds (All these rules work for both kids AND animals, btw.)

Here’s how to shoot … Read the rest

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Steve Stockman
In Tips and Tricks, Your Questions Answered

The Recital: Short Shots vs. Parental Love

Recently I was asked to shoot the piano recital of my friend’s seven-year-old. Her total performance time (including walking on stage, playing, and bowing and exiting) was just about 2 minutes.

I get your advice about short shots, but how can you tell parents that you’re only going to give them 10-second clips of their daughter’s performance? Is this a case where you have to bend the rules … what good is capturing a musical performance if you don’t get the entire song? Unfortunately I only had one camera (and one me) so I couldn’t get multiple shots from different

… Read the rest
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Steve Stockman
In Examples from the Book

What’s Your Intent? (p. 25)

From How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck, Page 25:

Before you shoot your next video, brainstorm a long list of why you’re doing it and how you want to treat the audience. Select the most useful thoughts from your list and keep that in mind as your intent, or purpose. Let your intent live in your mind, and your video will instantly take on a life it may not have had before.

Here’s a video I co-directed for Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts. Summer Stars teaches disadvantaged kids ages 11 to 14 how to … Read the rest

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