Making your own Mini Movies with ‘small cast and crew’!

The most amazing thing about having a creative mind and creative friends (see Supporting Cast) is the opportunity to try to make and do. When you marry this with trying to inspire and encourage others to do the same, the results often exceed your expectations.

In this particular case, being both an a uncle and a father, during the summer holidays allowed for the perfect incubator for teaching the kids new skills.

They had very different subjects based on some very famous commercial tie-ins to their favourite toy at the time Lego. It allowed them to use their imagination and YouTube and cartoon/film influences to create little magical time capsules.

My nephew had been doing Karate for a few years at this point and loved anything from the Ninja Turtles to Ninjago. This plus the influence of YouTube content creators on what could be made in there eyes lead to some experimentation. He was keen to do some stop motion to make a character disappear. He had a good eye for animation. And the result is quite impressive from the film signature to the showstopping scene.

My son’s films are influence by a love of the Star Wars animations especially Clone Wars. Sets, scenes and moods are the characteristics of his films. Getting the best out of the pre-built lego sets and leads to an interesting interplay of scale and character viewpoint.

As we wanted to upload to social media it made sense to soundtrack with two of my tunes from my Soundcloud Album. In Clone and Dr01ds Chapter 2 Cheer Duppy creates a dramatic and driving soundtrack which helps push the action. Capture of Lloyd features CrossrailTraffic(Level crossing) slightly darker brooding electro to match the battle scene about to ensue.

These movies are essentially like trailers or expressions of the potential for these little guys moving forward.

I had to edit on Windows moviemaker originally but since then the boys have loaded up animation apps on their phones and tablets and have started to make mini movies for fun.

J.J Abrams had tiggered a seed in me when he had said that everyone could make films with the devices in their pockets. I have seen the results 1st hand with this new crop and watching the seed grow is pretty special.

I used to be a bystander to the content on the googlebox in the corner of the room. The next generation are far from bystanders.

Reach into your pocket and bags and make the most of the you the technology. Wonderful times.