Using your video camera at Disneyland

[kristie73]

So how do you handle your video camera and record your memories while at Disneyland? The reason I ask, is because our last trip was 3 years ago. I rewatched our video last night. It wasn't very good. We recorded a few minutes here and there while on some rides, but it was a little dark and shakey. Almost too shakey that it wasn't easy to watch. There also wasn't very much of us in the videos. We did do well in recording my son's 4th birthday celebration at Goofy's Kitchen. We carried it around in a fanny pack along with extra batteries, so it was always with us, but without a plan it was kind of pain to pull it out spontaneously. I'm just hoping for tips and ideas from you all on how you capture some memories on video. We also bring a small camera for pictures so it is two items we use for memory capturing, but it seems easier to spontaneously pull out the digital camera rather than the video. I'm sure other people have the same thing, but how well are your videos. Maybe I'm just still a newbie at using our video camera. What do you think we should just plan to record?

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My husband like to tape a few things during our trips but he limits it to one day or just part of a day. He might bring it on the first day and get the kids walking down Main Street and meeting characters. He never tapes on rides because they don't come out very well. He took the camera to Goofy's Kitchen once when we ate there. He likes to tape fireworks so usually after a few hours of taping he'll put the camera in a locker and bring it back out in the evening. Other than that, he leaves the camera at the hotel. It's too cumbersome to carry it around all the time and the boys get annoyed when Dad pulls out the video camera. I always have the digital camera with me so I can catch any other fun moments with that.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Another Diser ont he WDW boards made this a while ago with his family while on their trip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLOJ9HMkgAE


If I have kids someday I hope to do something cute like this

 

[StEpHandMiKe<3Disney]

I also made a video of my DH and I's recent WDW trip in Feb. It was the first time we video taped our trip. We actually used the video option on our point and shoot camera so this helped with switching between stills and video during character interactions. You'll sees sometimes in the video my DH just standing there bc he didn't know I was taking video and not taking a still. It was very easy to carry the camera on the rides and take the footage. Even though we don't have kids, we both still love everything about Disney! Thanks so much to BRUTEWOLF for the idea for this video. The music is perfect! I also took a lot of video of us on rides... EE, space mountain, TOT and so on. Hope this helps! The camera I used in Canon PowerShot SX200 IS. It actually takes HD video and it's amazing on an HD tv. When I made the youtube video, I really scaled the quality down so it would load quicker. TFL!

 

[mvf-m11c]

I like to video record all the time when I go to the parks on my camcorder. I use a Sony HDR-XR520V HD camcorder with a built in hard drive. I carry an wrist band bag with my video camcorder so it is easy to get out and record the different activities around the parks. I mostly have it in my hands when my family and I are on rides or getting ready for a show. I also use a DSLR camera and I like to take a lot of pictures, so it is difficult to carry the camcorder and the camera all at once. But if you are carrying a big backpack to store all the equipment it is easy to take it with me around the parks.

I mostly video tape the rides, the parades, F!, and the fireworks at night. Sometimes we like to video tape the characters when we eat at any character restaurants. The videos on my HD camcorder are really good and it evens does well at night when I video tape F! and the fireworks by SB castle. In my opinion is that you should video tape the parades, daytime shows (Disney Princess Fantasy Fair, Pixie Hollow, etc.) and activities when your kids are going on daytime rides that have enough light like Dumbo, or meeting characters.

 

[mystic_path]

These girls did a funky video similar of their day at Disneyland. This movie really amused me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2owtQWsoFIo

 

[kristie73]

Another Diser ont he WDW boards made this a while ago with his family while on their trip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLOJ9HMkgAE


If I have kids someday I hope to do something cute like this

What a cute idea!

 

[StEpHandMiKe<3Disney]

And I forgot to post the link.....sorry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2tGAJ_g8fY&feature=email

 

[kailuagirl]

wow!!! love them!!! I really really want to learn how to do something like that. What program did you guys use? So cute!! I'm amazed, what a great memory keepsake idea!

 

[StEpHandMiKe<3Disney]

wow!!! love them!!! I really really want to learn how to do something like that. What program did you guys use? So cute!! I'm amazed, what a great memory keepsake idea!

I used iMovie on the Mac. Thanks! It's actually very user friendly.

 

[AmericanItGirl]

Have one person in charge of the regular camera, and have another person handle the regular camera. That's what I did last year with passing my regular camera around to different family members. I used my video camera only outside during the daytime, to capture "Kodak moments" (like my uncle dancing with Cruella DeVille).

 

[wannagoback]

I bought a Kodak zi8 and we took it on our trip. It's so easy to carry around and use, and takes great quality videos. I try to keep the clips short (less than 30 seconds) so I can easily work with them later.

I agree that the best thing to go is to come home and do some editing, because the videos themselves aren't necessarily that interesting to watch. I had to do some maneuvering to get the files to work with Windows Live Movie Maker, but once i got the files to work, the program is super easy to use. I am going to make "theme" movies, so my first one was about my DDs and I called it "Sisters and Best Friends at Disneyland" So, I found all the video clips of them interacting, holding hands, and pictures of them and put them in order in Movie Maker, selected my song (You've Got a Friend) and basically pressed "go" and it made the movie. I'll probably do one about the hotel (we stayed at DLH) and I am still thinking of more ideas.

Or I could do songs by days - I don't know but it was too overwhelming to look at the 2 hours of video and hundreds of pictures and try to work with all of them.

here is our video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ConmddpTiv4

 

[PinkBudgie]

We have a Cannon also. It goes between still and video very easily, so just one small camera to carry around. We didn't do video alot last year and I hope to do more this year. But last year on DH's birthday, we stopped at various times through out the day and I interviewed him on how many people we guessed would say Happy Birthday to him. We kept track during the day and at the end videoed the total number.

I suppose you could use the "quick interview" method for a lot of different situations. Like on the kids before a ride for the first time on what they expect, and then after to see what they thought. I hope to do more of that this summer but I have a feeling my teen boys probably won't want to do that. Oh well, DH and I can.

I don't have any editing software though. If someone knows of a good beginner's program for the PC I'd be interested.

 

[specialks]

You could use Windows Movie Maker which is a free program probably already on your PC. It allows a timeline and you can add titles and transitions. We like to go up one step and use Pinnacle Studio.