Two Cousins Unboxed, Episode One

Summer movie premiere!

(from left to right) Avery, Mia, Alice, Eliav, Owen, Henry, Elliot, and Emory

I got to craft up my front door and knit a zombie and bake!
Here are a couple interesting tidbits about this summer's movie:

-All of Hen's Oregon cousins have roles in the movie.

-The movie has two of Hen's good buds from preschool.

-Avery is Hen's oldest non-related friend on set.

-20% of the fifth grade class at Hen's school participated in the movie.

-The movie is a whopping 18 minutes 34 seconds long, including the trailer.

Roll out red carpet & decorate theatre entrance ✓

Create movie poster with help from the kid ✓

Use scrapbook paper and the kid's bubble letters for sign ✓

Attempt to nab shot of cast ✓

Display handmade craft services sign with handmade knit zombie ✓

Use zombie sign from thoughtful sister-in-law for ambience ✓

Sleepover 2016, Elliot edition

This is a copy of the email I sent to Elliot's parents, Amy and Christian, when he spent the night last Saturday.

Good evening. 

Here's what the two yutes have done so far…

1. played two-touch ball in the hallway

2. made ice cream

3. made props for movie trailer

4. fake woke up with raptor claws 

5. discovered there was a bomb threatening the city*

6. used their enhanced raptor powers to track down bomb and save city

7. returned home (we were fortunate to catch most of that on film, thank goodness)

8. changed into warm, dry clothes

7. started watching Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

For dinner the boys are having oven roasted salmon with fried potatoes and corn.

So far, so good. :)

Elliot is a great kid. Thanks for trusting us with him. 

take care-christie & darren

*For any government surveillance alarms that may have been kicked off by the use of the word "bomb", don't worry. No real bombs are or were threatening the city. Two eight-year olds wanted to make a movie trailer where they save the city with their raptor powers. 

The boys went to bed around 10pm, woke up around 5am, and spent their morning together playing Minecraft and eating pancakes. Plus, we were able to view the new trailer for yet one more movie Hen hopes to make someday with his friends. Of course, I've got that right here for posterity's sake...

Raptor Boys movie trailer from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Methinks fun was had by all.

Damn, that girl can sing

Buckets of tears, people.

Always for the kids

Stop Motion Animation project 2 underway

This one involves a cool toy Hen's papa let him buy that screams out the word, "NO!" And has a gathering of star power not seen since Band Aid got together to record "Do They Know It's Christmas" in 1984. It's gonna be big, people. Huge.

Plants vs. Zombies

And what a long slow process it is...

Ah, the ignorant me of three weeks ago, claiming we'd be up and running with our stop motion project that weekend. How crazy was that prediction? (Answer: Very, extremely, a lot.)

Alas, we persevered and today began filming. The Boinx iStopMotion software is super user-friendly. In a perfect world I'd have more control over lighting but, as Hen occasionally says, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

Shooting went well, I think. Open the app, point the camera, and click many, many times. A box at the bottom right of the screen reminds you that 12 frames per second is what you should aim for. Every shot is tagged. You can edit out the frames you don't like. Today, we took 296 frames creating 24.08 seconds of awesome movie footage. I am hopeful our second day of shooting will be more successful now that we have a better understanding of how the process works.

You can add music and/or sound to the video. We plan on adding the Plants vs Zombies theme music to the video once we're done. I should probably note that per Hen's request we listened to that three-minute piece while we worked today. On repeat. Over and over and over again. The entire time.

We have to make a few more Shrinky Dink pieces so we can show the explosion when the zombie steps on the Potato Mine and for when we roll the credits.

For future reference, I originally tried to shoot against the north-facing wall but the light coming from the west created shadows that were way too dark so I had to shift our working area to the east. Also, we built a little stand out of LEGOs to hold the iPad Mini in place. Of course there were pictures...

at the beginning

our zombies

action shot of director hen

a preview

zombie heads

jalapeño and its row of fire

our studio is where the magic happens

Super Cats: Attack of the Monster Grocery Bag

Super Cats - the one and only episode from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Money is speech

PJA Pride

Hen's in the PJA promo! I am so very pleased with our school choice. Hen is doing really well there, the people are great, and it's just such an encouraging and creative environment. We are very lucky to be able to send Hen there. You can see him here or, if you're interested in what his school is all about, watch the whole video below. (His three second appearance starts at 4:36.)




In other school news, the teachers working in Portland's public schools have voted to strike if a deal can't be reached on their contract negotiations. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this'll be resolved to their satisfaction.

Our year in pictures

Year-End Slideshow from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Music: Boop by Podington Bear

Climbing skill progression

topbunk from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Peeps

It was pretty insane.

Rise of the Ninja

Ninjago from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Summer Project #1: Ninja Movie

1 script written and distributed

6 former classmates

3 siblings

4 ninja

1 princess

1 ninja-in-training

2 dogs

3 Skulkins

1 rented camera

1 rented lens

4 hours of shooting (approximately)

1 lunch break

4 parents on hand to help

8 costume changes

9 scenes

8 locales

1 epic battle

4 downloaded songs

6 hours post-editing

1 great memory with friends

Tomorrow is the premiere. I cannot wait.

Cola and Mentos

A couple weeks ago we did a science experiment with cola and Mentos. Of course there was video...

Science Cola from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

A singing Church and State

Summer movie plans

The plans are to make a short film using Hen and his friends. Methinks I need a GoPro for filming since the quality of the old iPod Nano I shot it on is less than spectacular. But here's the trailer we put together yesterday. The boys were most helpful, performing ninja stunts on command.

Ninjago Trailer from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

First attempt at a time-lapse(ish) video

Hen's preschool class has these very light building blocks that the kids have taken to stacking, with Teacher Amy's help, until they exhaust the supply of blocks. The resulting structure is so high that Amy has to stand on a step-ladder to complete it. A few weeks ago when I was parent-helping I managed to capture the building of said structure right until the near moment of collapse. I got distracted by Miss Ruby, who was making the most fantastic faces (exhibit A), and missed it when they came tumbling down.

exhibit A

Fast forward to yesterday, the kids began building again and this time I kept my focus (à la Master Frenel). I put the camera on continuous and kept my finger on the trigger*. Once I got home and downloaded the files I had more than enough shots to make my first very own time-lapse(ish) video. I might have found a new hobby. Note, Teacher Amy had the kids try to bring it down by creating an earthquake, their tiny bodies couldn't create enough ground vibrations, by blowing on it (think Three Little Pigs), their tiny mouths didn't have enough huff and puff to 'em, and by doing jumping jacks nearby, which had a few kids nearly collide with the structure but their bodies and arms flapping didn't shake the ground or produce enough wind to cause it to fall. What did work? Check it out. Teacher Amy's a genius and had the attention of the whole class for a fair chunk of time.

One most awesome preschool moment from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.


*I don't know if my camera can be set up to do time lapse photography or how to set it up if that is a feature so I had to keep pressing.