The boys and I had a great time at Apple Camp, a three-day workshop where kids "bring their imaginations to life." Yesterday, we met Abby, Jack, and Marie, our camp counselors, who taught us how to create storyboards for our movies and how to create our own soundtracks using GarageBand. The kids went home with cool camp t-shirts, headphones, lanyards, and awesome flash drive bracelets to store all of their creations. Last night's homework was to shoot 4-5 minutes of footage to edit into a two-minute feature film. Alec directed his own episode of Harry Potter, Slytherin vs. Griffyndor which we shot "on location" at St. John's Military Academy and Cushing Park in Delafield. Chase directed and starred in Grand Slam, batting practice in the back yard with Uncle Eric and Great Uncle John. Today we edited our movies using iMovie for Mac, adding special effects, transitions, and the soundtracks that the boys created yesterday. Tomorrow at our final day of camp, all of the young movie makers will showcase their work at the Apple Camp Film Festival. The boys did an awesome job!
Apple Camp Feedback:
Chase: "My favorite part was watching my movie. I really like making the songs. The counselors were really nice, and my friend, Adam, was there too."
Alec: "I liked acting and filming the movie. Editing is hard, but fun. Jack was my favorite counselor because he was helpful and nice. I would tell my friends to go to Apple Camp. It was fun!"
Auntie: Camp was really well-organized, the counselors were great with the kids, and the boys took home some cool Apple swag. A few suggestions: The Apple Store is such busy place so it was really hard to hear and concentrate. It might be better to have a quieter space for the demonstrations. It would also be awesome if the kids' videos could be shown on the big screen at the cinema in the mall. The film festival starts at 9:00 am so it wouldn't interfere with regular box office movies. Tips for parents: It is hard to produce two movies at the same time. I would suggest either taking each child separately or having more than one adult to split the work.
