Making a school video with my son

My son and I worked last night to make a video report on the Dust Bowl. We figured out where to sit and when to zoom in and out, when to cut away to a different place, and when to try again when we really messed up a scene.

The best part though, was the commercial. He needed 4 to 5 minutes for his report, but he could include a commercial in it somewhere. So he put on my old Indiana Jones hat and my Charlie Chaplin mustache (I was CC for Halloween a long time ago), and he, very animatedly, like a car salesman really, read the following:

“Do you have too much money? Have you been looking for something useless to spend your vast wealth on? Are you wanting to impress your friends? Well, we have a bridge we’d like to sell you.

“Ring’s Pre-Owned Bridges specializes in catering to the tastes of the rich who don’t mind becoming a little less rich by buying a really huge bridge so that we can become a little more rich.

“If you’re looking for a bridge that goes across a river, we’ve got them. If you’re looking for a fancy old English bridge, we’ve got them. If you’re looking for a bridge that hasn’t been built yet, we’ve got them. Or we will. Really!

“Right now, we’ve got this fantastic little number (show picture of Golden Gate bridge), hardly ever been used, sitting out in a quiet little bay in California. The locals call it the Golden Gate bridge. New, this baby went for 75 million dollars, but here at Ring’s Pre-Owned Bridges, we’re gonna sell it to you for less than 40 million. That’s almost half off, folks! We must be crazy!

“Want a bridge you can charge an outrageous toll to cross? Buy our famous Brooklyn bridge in New York, where for a quick eighty million dollars, you can make a whole bunch of New Yorkers miserable.

“So come on out to Ring’s Pre-Owned Bridges, bring a truckload of money, and we’ll fix you up with your very own, multi-million dollar bridge. Really! We’re not lying! Not at all!”


He was absolutely hilarious doing it. We then went back to the Dust Bowl reporting and finished with four and a half minutes. I spent the next three hours trying to get it from the camcorder onto a DVD, and an easy thing that wasn't!

I was the writer, co-director, cinematographer, and DVD engineer.

But he was the star.