Get to the Point

My daughter Lainey, age 6, is not new to home movies. She films herself on the laptop and rambles on and on and on. The movies are fun to create but even she gets bored watching the whole thing back.

But I recently discovered an app called Vine (purchased by Twitter last fall). If you haven’t heard, Vine creates super-short videos, each 6 seconds in length. You point your mobile device at your subject, touch the screen and you’re recording.

Many users create stop-motion videos with a magic trick effect. Some posts in the Editor’s Picks category are amazing to watch. In one video, by YellDesign, 2 slices of bread disappear into a table and instantly pop back out as toast. My daughter saw that clip and was blown away! (Not all content is innocent of course, so parental supervision is recommended.)

What’s even cooler about Vine—you don’t actually have to post anything on their site if you so choose. The editing software is free. Just film your cool little project, hit the next icon, then hit the back arrow and delete. Your video will be saved in your own camera roll. So you can make all the embarrassing, goofy stuff you want.

When I was a kid I spent hours making a stop-motion cartoon with my Michael Jordan Starting Line Up figure. For hours I hit record, hit stop, hit record, hit stop. Jordan flew across the counter and dunked his ball into my homemade hoop. I felt like the next Tim Burton.

Lainey dove into Vine with similar enthusiasm. “I’m going to move all around real fast, Dad, and you film me,” she grinned. But her goofy dance wasn’t as cool as the magic toast. So then Barbie starred in a couple movies, then the drawings came out, then Joey starred, and then more props. The 6 seconds were painless to review and soon her ideas became clearer. Lainey had to think fast and plan before she hit record. It was an exciting new medium, and the brainstorming had just begun.

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