Birds: 
Part of a video about a bird
Video editor:  Pinnacle Studio 8
from a bad copy of a SVHS tape

Memorial Video: 
Example of a much more serious video project, a musical memorial video played at a funeral service.
Video editor:  Windows Media Player

Click picture to play in new window

Basketball

This is a sport's video.  The star of Watching Dakota (above) is here the focus of the basketball video. This was the county tourney and the Jr. High Eagles won it all, as the video will show.

Video editor:  Dazzle.  It was working on Dazzle on this video than convinced me to ditch it for Pinnacle Studio 8.  It kept locking up on me and if you listen, you'll hear the music go up and down in volume at certain intervals. Very annoying.  Part of the problem was not enough RAM memory in my computer.I had more than the minimum required, but it just wasn't enough.

This was the first family movie we ever did.  In the summer of 1985, when our five children were between 5 and 12, we built sets, made costumes, wrote scripts, did a lot of adlibbing. It's about three boys who are the "Galactic Tribunal" -- kind of big wigs in the universe who are challenged by the evil Boldan and his crew.  The "plot" got all tied up in a way too complicated time travel motif, but it was still a lot of fun.  Believe it or not (if I hadn't done this myself, I'd find this hard to believe!), the movie was made with our 7 year old VCR (in bad condition), a borrowed camera (which I only had for a week), and a rented VCR in worse shape than my own!  It was all shot in regular VHS -- not particularly good for editing and  making copies!  I spent three months part-time editing the movie, not having any idea what I was doing.  Well, you learn by doing!  The kids loved this movie and the whole experience, and from that point on, we were hooked!  From this we started Tribunal Films, our own small production company.

After several years of doing smaller videos (like skits and music videos), we decided to do a sequel to our first "major flick."  So . . . a new movie was born under the logo of Tribunal Films.  We developed a story-line that tied into the first movie, as did the costumes and numerous other things.  Only now, having learned from our many mistakes in the first movie, we did a better job on lighting, framing, scripting, etc., etc.  

Filmed "on location" in the mountains of Colorado, and in a brand new "film studio" (a church gymnasium), we spent a couple of thousand dollars on video-editing SVHS camcorder, VCR's, some digital mixing equipment, and reel to reel sound equipment.  This allowed us to produce a shorter movie with better graphics, better special effects, and a more coherent story line than our first movie.  

Of course, the kids were older, even though they played the same characters, but that meant the "flavor" of the movie changed in several ways. 

"Elmo and Louie"

This is a clip from Elmo and Louie.  You'll notice that there is no technical perfection to any of this (the sound and lighting are bad), but the point, again, is about having fun without spending much money.

This was a landmark movie for Tribunal Films because we made all of our own special effects (see all 4 pictures below for a brief glimpse). We'd always done special effects, but not to this extent!  But now we had a fairly inexpensive digital video mixer and the special effects fun began.  Elmo and Louie flew around the galaxy fighting demons and old enemies in an attempt (we find out only at the very end!) to "capture the flag."  Throughout their entire journey they kept hearing from their defeated foes, "The Daughter of Zog will avenge me."   Not till they found the flag did they learn who she was:  a 30 foot high kid with a bottle in her hand!  "NO, NO, MINE" were her exact words.  And Elmo and Louie ran for their lives!

"Watching Dakota"
This clip is a scene using hand-puppets in the girl's dream.  Little kids really like this scene.

This was the last of our movies made on VCR's (1999).  Another comedic space movie (kids especially like to be in these), with a bit of a serious point.   This movie is about a young girl who is having trouble at home and so runs away.   Captured by space aliens and put in a holding bin, she is "watched" by alien watchers who are controlled by "The Big Eye"!  She finally remembers a lesson from her church Bible class about "not judging other people," and confronts The Big Eye" with a story about Jesus.  This movie was a lot of fun to do and had a cast of over thirty children and a crew of three adults and other supporters.  It was a Back to Bible School project for a small church in rural Indiana (the whole church only had about 35 members!), and every child who acted in the movie received a complimentary copy of the 40 minute long movie at a public screening on a "big screen" (15 X 15 feet).  Eighty people in all came to the screening,   the kids, their parents, grandparents, and friends.  It was fun, not preachy, not expensive (!), and yet made a simple and touching point. 

Finally, this page obviously only touches the hem of the garment.  We have done many other types of projects as well as those just shown.  We have

• video montages set to music of my children growing up,

• of my children getting married,

• of my brother's life (which I played at his funeral),

• and much more. 

These are not just the pictures we all take -- you know, great pictures, but just footage.  I'm talking about taking the best of your birthday and Christmas videos (and even still-pictures) and turning them into something very special.  Furthermore, many more people were involved in all of these movies and projects than I have mentioned.   But that is just the point.  This kind of videography can help build relationships and memories that last a life-time!

HS kids having fun:  This clip is an example of how much fun these things are.  This is an out-take where laughing almost ran off with the cast. The boys both later served in Iraq, the girls all went to college.  The girl on the left became a state-class high jumper.

This clip shows a few special effects on a space ship involving the eating of "Space Slugs."  Here is a great villain.

A&W Mace
(one of the first video skits made by our boys on their own)

This is a funny little clip concocted by my two sons. They spent this particular summer planning, taping, and editing several short skits and music videos, and of their own.  This was edited on 2 VCR's and we had a bit of a problem with the sound and video synchronizing on this clip.