It's always good to have fun with the video camera with the family. After you've bought a new digital camcorder, you'd be great to start on some family video projects just to test out your shooting skills and the camcorder's capabilities. If you need help on the basics of camcorders and video editing, do visit this page.

Doing a video project as a family is great fun

The first fun family video project I can think of is to capture digital video for events and celebrations. Anything from birthdays to anniversaries, to your kid's prom, graduation or first day of school - any of these events are worth taking out that digital camcorder and recording some clips.

One fun family video project you can try is to record interviews with your family members. For example, if your son just graduated from university, you can interview him with a short lists of questions like 'So how do you feel?' or 'How ready are you to take on the world?' - stuff like that. Try to take the interviewee's responses impromptu - don't let them see the questions. It'll certainly make for some fun and memorable clips.

If you have a lot of old family videos, you might want to make it a family video project to convert them to DVD format. I'm sure you have a lot of video tapes in analog format which need conversion. Read this article to find out more about how to do this.
 

You should definitely archive your old home movies into DVD

Another idea for a fun family video project is to capture your family recipes on video. Remember, Grandma might have a lot of nice recipes to pass to you guys, but it's all in her head. So if you can film her cooking those dishes, then you've got all her techniques recorded.

Creating a photo montage of the family is also a great family video project you can try. Just collect a lot of digital photos of family members, then mix and match them together into a digital scrapbook. There's some good software out there to do this, which you should check out here.

Here's a good idea. You can try giving the digital camcorder to your kids to see what they film. You'd be surprised at some of the interesting shots they can take.
 

Let your children take lots of interesting videos!

Another great family video project to do is a 'Yearbook Video'. Waht you do is to think of a yearly theme to the family, e.g. '10 Things We Accomplished As A Family in 2008' or 'Top 10 Funniest Moments In The Smith Family 2008' - these make for very interesting perspectives into family life.

Making a movie together with your family is also a good idea. Try to set up everything - from a script, to the plot and special effects - to make it seem like a real movie. Put in rolling credits and all - trust me, videos like these will be a keeper!

You'll know that places like YouTube have taken the world by storm. These days, digital videos, much like digital photos, are no longer restricted to your home PC. You have the option of uploading them to YouTube and other places to share your video moments with others. Try starting a video blog for the family and allow all family members to upload videos as and when they like. For more information on sharing videos via the web, do check out this page .

One of the best family video projects is to do a 'Home Tour'. Just walk around the house, video camera in hand, and start describing the rooms and furniture, etc. Go like 'This is the living room, where we spend countless hours watching old re-runs', or 'This is my son's room - as you can see he didn't make his bed today (again)'. Stuff like these are great fun.