Writing Prompt: Something that made you smile this week.
My seven year old son Zander is an active boy. He’s not active in the way many of his classmates are, playing hockey several times a week. He’s got an active imagination. And his imagination has been working overtime since he recently discovered a series of videos on YouTube that he now loves watching. They involve Luigi and Mario, the Mario Brothers, and they are created by some kids (or perhaps young”ish” teenagers). The kids use stuffed toys for the action, and there’s no fancy animation or high tech effects to them. However, they have millions of hits. And they entertain my son.
Several days ago Zander decided that he wanted to make a video like the ones he watches of the Mario Brothers. He asked me to be his cameraperson. Of course I obliged. I was actually thrilled that he wanted to make a video. Perhaps I should include, right now, that I went to school (university) for media studies – long ago – and as part of the program I made many videos. Of course I had professional cameras, editing suites, access to sound effects, video effects, music, and a team of peers to help out. Our little project at home was quite different. I “filmed” the scenes on my iPhone, and then “edited” the video together on Windows Movie Maker. Not quite high tech. But I have to say, the whole experience was a fun one. Zander was so excited to do it, and despite not having a script or storyboard (he is only 7 and doesn’t know about this stuff), he did have the shots organized in his head, complete with several different shots from different angles for each. I thought that was pretty darn advanced, given the fact that he’s never made a movie or talked to anyone about how to do it. I guess he learned that from watching all those other videos. And watching. And watching.
His hope was to get 100 views and some “likes”. And not wanting him to be disappointed, and being a mommy who would do anything for her kids, I took to my blog, my Facebook account, and my Twitter account, and asked – okay, I begged, to be honest – my followers and friends to please go to my YouTube channel and have a look. (ShanAdamsCKNX is my channel, in case you’d like to check it out. Wink!) Through the power of social media, and thanks to some really fantastic people, Zander got a wonderful surprise today, when he walked in the door from school.
“Hey, buddy! Take a look at this.” I showed him the views of his Luigi movie on my YouTube channel. There were 301, after less than 24 hours.
His reaction was, “Wha? Whoa! Yahoo!” He was absolutely ecstatic.
How could that not put a smile on a proud mommy’s face?
The video is included here…and it will only take you 42 seconds to watch…pretty please…It’s called “Luigi and the Strange Noise”. Thanks! 🙂
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