One of my big regrets is that I did not videotape my daughter reciting the Shabbat Prayer in perfect Hebrew pronunciation when she was 4 years old. Since she left the Jewish Community Center pre-school, I have never heard her say it again (we are Chinese). So I cannot boast about it now. No proof.

We tend to associate action with videos. After all, if you didn't want to record moving people, you would just have taken a still snapshot, right? Don't forget the talking scenes, though. It could be a child explaining how he caught the toad, or a teenager explaining what trends are hot, or my grandmother retelling how her grandfather escaped with his art collection from Communist China.

But how to make them talk in front of a live camera?

Here are some tips:

Tip #1. Strike while the iron is hot. Don't pause to fix his hair, or to look for your lavalier microphone, or to straighten the furniture. If necessary, Read more

If I can only give you one advice for making home videos, it's this: Don't just record events, make a story. Many components make up a good story. One of them is: an unexpected twist. Make that a humorous, unexpected twist - a winning combination.

Watch this video below and you'll agree, it's not turning out the way you assumed it would …

I keep my finished movies short, under 3 minutes and very rarely over 5 minutes. Yes, even for 2 week Florida 8-Theme Park vacations. Why am I so hung up with that 3-minute goal? Here are the reasons:

1. Reason #1. 3-minute movies are much faster to edit, to save, to render, to upload, to watch. I am a busy, time-pressed mother, wife, employee, entrepreneur, sister, friend, teacher, etc. I am too busy engaging in the moment to be spending all my time capturing the moment. If making movies is not fast, it's not sustainable. I'll end up with one Indie movie and be so burnt out by the experience I won't do another one the rest of the year.
2. Reason #2. Your audience has a short attention span. Yes, even loving, doting grandparents and aunts/uncles may not sit through long drawn out movies. It’s going to break your heart when they reach for that Fast Forward button. I can't overemphasize: Keep your movies short and sweet. When your movie is over, you want them begging for more, not sigh a huge Read more

Every birthday, recital and special event, I end up with miles of footage but no video." ~ Esther Waworuntu, Parent (Framingham,MA)

The problem with videotaping is that there are just so many memories to capture : birthdays, graduations, recitals, sports event, holidays. By the time you try to video tape every highlight from the first day of Kindergarten to the Little League baseball game, you've got too much raw video footage and too little time to do anything with it.

To maintain a sustainable effort building your family video collection, try following the 1-2-3-Showcase! Plan.

What is the 1-2-3-Showcase! plan?

It's about planning with the end result in mind. Since you can't shoot everything, let alone edit everything you shoot, decide what you want to end up with at the end of the year. The 1-2-3-Showcase! Plan suggests that in one year , you will have created:

• 1 video story (3 minutes, 5 max)
• 2 video vignettes (1 to 2 minutes)
• 3 photoshows (set to music)

What’s in a Video Story?

A video story is a 3-minute video that covers a significant event in your Read more