Hi 4th graders!


Hi, my name is Sarah and I'm Lucas's mom. This is my friend Jamie, my friend and business partner on the right. I'm a storyteller, family historian, memory catcher and light seeker.


My approach to filming life is documentary. What does that mean? I'm not always asking you to smile for the camera or pose. I'm there hanging out with families quietly in the background. I love when families have fun doing what they love to do. I film (document) whatever is happening in the moment!


Every day life is beautiful, perfect as it is right now. My films reflect the beauty of families or individuals as they are in the moment. Real life. Letting go of perfection. Get dirty and muddy playing in the backyard! Make a mess baking in the kitchen. It doesn't matter what you do, it's all about the connection and having fun!


I also love to film artists at work and events!

Every artist has a story to tell. Why do they do what they do? What inspires them? Voiceovers layered over the artist working are so important to include for telling their story.


What inspires me? Light, movement, audio, music and visuals. This is my friend Jamie's beautiful animal rescue farm, Blue Iris Farm in Lebanon, CT.

Mixing in slow motion along with sound helps to tell the story in an interesting way. I love capturing what people love to do and letting their personality shine through.


Just like with photography, when you take video, you are thinking about shutter speed, aperture and ISO. In photography, if you taking a picture of sports, you want a very high shutter speed to freeze the action. In video, you don't need as high of a shutter speed because you want your footage to be smooth with motion blur. Aperture is the amount of light that comes through the lens. The lower the f-stop number, the more open the aperture is (opening in your camera's lens) and more light enters your camera. The higher the f-stop number, the smaller the aperture is (opening in your camera's lens) and less light enters your camera. I use a low aperture such as 1.8 to focus on my subject and blur the background. A higher f-stop would be good to keep focus across the whole image, such as a beautiful landscape photo. ISO is your camera's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the less light you need to take a photo. ISO will brighten or darken your photo. Too high of an ISO number can create grain in photos. There's always a balance between shutter speed, aperture and ISO!


With video, you are adding in frame rates. Video is a series of frames (or pictures). I film at either 24 frames per second or 60 frames per second. If I know I would like to film in slow motion, I choose 60 frames per second. Think about a slinky. If you take a slinky that has 24 rings on it, and you take a slinky with 60 rings on it and spread them out to the same distance, which slinky will have more gaps? The 24 ring slinky. Gaps could create a choppy look to your video. That's why if you would like to film for slow motion, you choose a higher frame rate such as 60 frames per second. That way you fill in the gaps with more picture frames.


Films help you to relive your favorite moments over and over!

Audio is so important to include in films. Imagine what these girls will feel when they see this film when they are all grown up?

A Family Film should feel like a memory.