AJ stands for Andrew Jackson, our 7th president. His reputation for toughness earned him the nickname "Old Hickory." A hero of the War of 1812, Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928.

 

If you want to film a night scene, "Put on night vision."
—Justin

Night Vision

Night vision is when the camera puts out a green light. You can see the actor, but in the video it looks like it's dark.

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Ready, set, shoot!

To keep it simple, just film it doing do what you did in rehearsals (but try to make fewer mistakes.)

If an actor messes up a line or an action, fix it. Simply rewind, get the actors in the same positions, and film over the mistake.

If you're outside, put the camera in a setting where the sun doesn’t make a glare. Or try to find a way to block the sun from hitting the lens directly.

When you're finished, watch what you've filmed and decide if the video is good enough to keep. Then edit it.

Ready to edit

Show me the money.Show me the money

I like to make money, so first I sell it to my family and see how they like it. I sell my movies for $5 to $7, usually to my parents and sister.

Then I sell it to our neighbors. I also have movie nights. On movie nights, all of our friends get together and watch a movie. I usually don't charge for that.

If the movie is really good we make advertisements and enter contests.

I've entered family contests with my cousins who also have started making movies. We had my grandpa be the judge.

And now, with this story in AJ's, I'm getting more publicity!

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Plug your USB cord from your camera to the computer so you can capture the video. Now it's time to put all the scenes in order.

Take out some scenes that you don’t like. Add sound—like drums for funny scenes and music for dramatic scenes. Be careful to pick music that's not restricted.Add Music

When I import music off the Web, I use a site that only lets me import music that the artists openly distribute without costs.

I can't sell the music by itself. But I can sell copies of my movie with the music in it. Close

You can add special effects to any scene you want. For example, slow motion and fast motion are motion effects.

Special Effects

If you've already decided ahead of time what scenes you'll want in slow and fast motion, you're ready to use those effects on a couple of scenes.

Also, there are many background color effects. For example, one time we wanted to make it look like the actor was underwater so we put a wavy blue color background in.

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My DVD cases all have a unique cover picture.

You're finished

When you're finished adding special effects and music, it's time to put your movie on a DVD.

First save the file and then copy the file to a blank DVD. When it's all done, write the title on it and make a design for the case.

Cover Picture

My DVD cases all have a cover picture.

Each one displays the title of the movie, and the name of my company (I made this up):
Funny Scenes Productions.

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Make extra copies if you want to copyright it and sell it to more people. I don't copyright my movies, but you could.

Enjoy!

See how I put a movie together.

The amount I pay the actors depends on how much I make, and what they did.Payday

Say we make $20 on a movie. I give:

• 30% ($6) to the main character;
• 25% ($5) to the main bad guy;
• 15% ($3) to split among the guards and extra characters.

But it all depends on how good they do.

I keep 30% ($6) for myself.

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When I'm finished selling the first movie, I start on the sequel.

Right now I'm making one where a genius brings back his recent enemies with robotic arts. The main character needs to take them all down once and for all.

I think making movies is very fun and interesting and I think you should try it too.

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