I've always been a documenter...from scrapbooking in my free time as a child to taking a million pictures of my kids and journaling them on our private family blog and printing blog books. But in the last few years, my favorite way of documenting life is by making family videos!
Making home movies for holidays, family trips, seasons, and even when I'm in the hospital with a brand new baby is easy to do. It truly is one of my favorite hobbies.
Family videos capture memories that photos never will be able to. I love being able to remember the laughs, the way the cute hands and feet toddle around, and capturing moments with movement.
My children absolutely love watching family videos on Sundays and beg me to make more, so I'm more than happy to invest the time to making these priceless treasures.
I've been asked over and over how to make family videos, so I'm going to break it down so you can make great home videos, too!
But first, here's a family video from a girls trip I took my daughter on to the Tulip Festival outside of Seattle!
What You Need To Make Family Videos
You are probably wondering what you need to make an awesome video. The good news is you probably have what you need. You won't need any fancy equipment or paid apps or subscriptions.
- Smartphone - (Apple or Android). I love taking photos with my DSLR, but for family videos, I always use my iPhone. I think getting clips is so much easier with a smart phone since it's always with me. Plus, I do all the editing right on my phone, so it saves me from transferring the clips to my computer
- Few hours- I usually spend 1-2 hours making a family video. When we're on a trip, I have more down time, so after the kids are in bed, I'll add the clips from the day, go through them and edit it. Usually by the end of the trip I have our video made! (I know once I get home I won't have as much time to dedicate to movie making, so I really try to keep up on it so it's not a big task later. Plus, it's really fun to relive the memories of the day.)
- Free editing app - I have an app right on my phone that I make all the movies with. It's so easy to use and I'm so glad I learned about this app from DIY Family Films course.
Family Video Tips
- My first tip: done is better than perfect. Let go of perfection and just do it. The more videos you make, the better you'll get.
- Always take your videos in landscape mode. You may be used to taking videos in portrait mode for Instagram stories, but trust me, your family videos will look so much better if you always take landscape videos that will fit the entire screen.
- Choose a holiday, vacation, or occasion to make video out of. Try to keep the video to 2-5 minutes long so it's not boring to watch.
- For holiday or vacation family videos, I usually mute the voices and let the music be the background noise.
- For day-to-day memories (that aren't holiday or trip related like a piano recital, class program, or moments at home that we want voices), my husband compiles them into a yearly video. (This is one of his Christmas gifts to us each year and it's my favorite.) We dump all of our iPhone videos into a shared folder labeled for that year and then he compiles them in chronological order. Using iMovie, he'll add a simple description and date of the clip. These movies turn out much longer-about 1-2 hours long. Even though they aren't as artistic and don't have music to them, our kids still really like watching them.
- Once your movie is finished, upload it to Youtube so you'll always have access to watch it. Don't worry- you can make the video "unlisted" so that only family and friends who you share the link with will have access to it.
- Get in the video! Moms are usually behind the scenes, but it's important to be in the video, too. For me, that means I have to give my phone to my husband or someone else and ask them to take a video. It can feel a little silly in the moment or not as candid to say, "Hey, take a video of me doing this." But it's always worth being in it.
- If you're wondering how to make a family video with music, the basic gist is this: take video clips, use a video editing app and add music.
- If you've never made a video montage before, I highly recommend taking this course. In one short hour, you'll learn start to finish everything you need to create a magical family video to tell your family's story.
DIY Family Films Course
Up until our trip to the Oregon Coast, I was figuring out how to make family videos on my own. I used my phone and iMovie and it worked fine. (Anything is better than nothing.)
But one night after the kids were in bed on our vacation, I came across this 1-hour family video course. I was really intrigued and had some downtime, so I decided on a whim to buy it with my own money and oh my goodness! It was the best money I spent!
I went through the entire course that night and feel like our family videos went from good to great!
I put all the tips from that course to good use and made this fun video from our Oregon trip:
The family video course taught me so many simple tricks to make family videos look professional and actually really fun to watch.
If you want to learn how to make amazing family videos, I can't recommend this family video course enough.
You can save 15% on the course using the link below. However, even if you don't want to invest in the course, you can still use the tips I've mentioned above.
Why You'll Love This Course
As a busy mom of 5, this is why I loved the course and think you will, too!
- Super affordable and worth the price- I was hesitant at first to spend the money, but then I realized that I have no problem spending money on airline tickets (after all, travel is always worth the money in my opinion), so the cost didn't really seem like that big of deal compared the thousands of dollars we spend on travel each year.
- Only 1 hour long - In 1 hour, you're going to learn all the amazing tricks to make family videos the easy way. I went through the entire course one night on vacation. Each lesson is only a few minutes long so you don't get overwhelmed.
- Good for all skill levels- If you have never made a family video, this course will walk you through the process from start to finish. If you have basic skills down already, you can focus on the more advanced phone camera skills or editing skills they teach you.
- Lifetime access - You can go back and watch lessons as often as you want.
- Learn awesome camera tricks - you're going to learn tons of simple camera tricks to get really professional and cool clips.
- Editing how-to - you'll become a pro at editing. The free app they teach you to use is simple and very intuitive.
- The course teaches you how to make a video montage using only your phone and 1 free app.
Questions?
If you have any questions about how to make a home movie, leave a comment. I'm happy to help you turn your memories into an amazing treasure for your family!
(*Disclosure...This post contains affiliate links, but I am only recommending the course after I purchased the course with my own money and think it's well worth every penny.)
Let us know what you think!