Home Video Tips for First Time Do-It-Yourselfers

Realistically speaking, no one person has all the background knowledge required to make a high quality home video. Nonetheless, there are a few enterprising visionaries who take it upon themselves to try and create a home video from scratch and do ALL the background work themselves. For these brave souls, here are a few tips to keep you sane while working on your project. Or to make you think twice about doing it all yourself, and maybe asking a few friends for help...

The Basic Necessities

A home movie is much more than taking a theme and story, then zipping right into filming. Normally, a good movie requires one person to come up with a plot and theme, another to flesh out the overall story line and the flow of the story into the movie, another to design the layout of each scene and take camera angles into consideration, a concept sketch designer, a writer for the dialogue, another person to procure and arrange the props, and another to actually do the directing of each scene. if you think you can handle all of the above by yourself, by all means go for it!

Proper Equipment

Thankfully, the simplest thing about a home movie is that you just need a good camcorder to get started, right? Wrong! Depending on how you want the movie to turn out, you also need to consider props and costumes, stage background equipment, and maybe even CG animation gear. Then of course you'll need video editing and sound splicing equipment too if you want to do a really clean job.

Choose your Cast wisely!

If you limit your choice of cast members to your closest friends, you may wind up getting hosed if they possess the acting ability of a rock. Try branching out among your other acquaintances as well as checking out local acting guilds and home movie maker clubs for candidates.

Keep it Simple and Know your Limits!

With the above three considerations in mind, the fourth and final tip comes naturally. Keep it simple! The above tips were actually meant for full movie productions, and there ARE home video makers who take advantage of them all. However, MOST home video makers work within their means and choose to utilize only a few of the options for equipment, production, and casting given above. Pick and choose wisely, and know which one you can actually pull off and which ones you'll either have to scrap or call in the cavalry for.

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