A Motorcycle Christmas Story

This was one of the most fun I ever had working on a video. This was another assignment from my Field Production and Editing I class. The assignment was to make a music video. To be honest, I am not sure how I entirely came with the idea behind the video, but it started off with me wanting to do something with wanting a toy for Christmas. I thought about the toy idea behind the video, and knew it had to be a Lego of some sorts. For a short while, I had an idea to only have Legos in the video, but that proved to be too difficult because I didn't want to do stop motion animation for the video. So, only a part was going to be Lego, so that helped shape my idea. When I was in Indiana with my Mom's family, I borrowed a Lego Batman and motorcycle that was going to be the toy in the video.

When I got back home, I started shooting right away. When I think about my videos, I want to start off the video with a great opening shot. Something that really catches the eye. Because this video was Christmas-themed, I figured to start off with a Christmas shot. My Mom gave me a lighted church and it was a perfect fit for the opening shot. I started on the church with the camera, zoomed out slowly, did a rack focus on a glass, and with my free hand, I poured milk into the glass. It was great! I loved how it turned out.

Being that the assignment was a music video, I had to choose the best possible tracks to match the theme. I was able to get the two Christmas songs in the video no problem from a website called Incompetech. I did want to use lyric music as well, and I knew exactly whom to go to. A friend of mine, Ryan Brake, did some music over the years and I had his CD. I sent him a request on Facebook to use his music, and he agreed right away and couldn't wait to see the finished video.

WATCH "A MOTORCYCLE CHRISTMAS STORY" ON YOUTUBE

I enjoyed shooting the Lego Batman scenes. I used a Sony AX2000 which has an incredible zoom, and when I altered the scaling in Final Cut Pro 7 to avoid seeing my finger holding up the Lego Batman, the image was still great.

Without really thinking about it, the title comes from my favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story. The music used when I am dreaming about the motorcycle is the same as when Ralphie is dreaming about his Red Ryder BB gun. I loved how it turned out this way, and the title was born.