"Kids these days have the coolest toys to play with."

This is a fun little FX test I did using my kids and their neighborhood buddies. I wanted to test VisionLab's abilities and to see if I could put it to use for an indie feature I have coming up. I needed some background footage to play with -- any footage -- and thought why not shoot a mock laser battle in front of the house? So here it is.

I threw this together with literally no planning. I pulled out the jib-arm and some other gear from the garage and put the kids to work (the plus-side of having kids -- you have an instant cast and crew, or they get their X-Box 360 taken away... Just kidding! Actually, the LOVED doing this!)

This was literally spur-of-the-moment shooting. Plus, it was a little difficult to work with kids as they don't repeat the same moves over and over from take to take and makes editing difficult. They tend to do something entirely different every time (well, now that I think about it, so do most adult actors! Ha!)

I shot this on standard DV, using the Sony VX-2000. It was edited on Adobe Premiere CS3. Music was customized using SmartSound. Sound FX came from multiple sources, including FXHome, Video Co-Pilot Designer SoundFX, Sony Pictures Library and The General 6000 Series.

Let me know your thoughts. I'd appreciate it. Thanks! And thanks to FXHome! I think this software is incredible! Makes things VERY easy!!