Sanjay was in the kitchen when his sister, Priya, ran by.
She had a bundle of markers and several pieces of cardboard.
The next time she went by, she had a Betsy doll and a Space Man figure.
"That's my Space Man!" Sanjay said.
"What are you doing, Priya?" He followed her into the family room.
"I was watching videos on the Internet," Priya said.
"I saw a film that a kid made and decided to make one myself."
Sanjay's eyes lit up. "You'll need actors! Can I be in your movie?"
Priya shook her head. "I don't need actors.
This is going to be a stop-motion animation."
"Animation?" Sanjay asked.
"I'm going to take lots of pictures of Betsy and Space Man.
I'll move them a little between each picture," Priya explained.
"When I put all the pictures together, it will look like they're moving! Want to help?"
"Sure."
Sanjay helped Priya color buildings on a piece of cardboard.
"This will be the background," Priya said.
"Betsy is going to chase Space Man."
"Why is she going to chase him?" Sanjay asked.
Priya shrugged.
Sanjay laughed. "Priya, she needs to have a reason for chasing him.
If she doesn't, the film won't be interesting.
Let's come up with a story with a beginning, middle, and end."
Priya and Sanjay thought.
"Okay," Priya said.
"Betsy puts down her favorite marker.
When she isn't looking, it rolls away and Space Man finds it.
He picks it up and—"
"Betsy thinks he stole the marker," Sanjay added, "so she chases him!"
Priya smiled. "Perfect!
Then he falls down and she takes back the marker. The end!"
Sanjay set up the cardboard background.
He placed paper and a marker in front of Betsy.
Priya got the camera ready.
Priya took a picture of Betsy with the marker.
Then Sanjay moved Betsy's hand, just a tiny bit.
Priya took another picture.
After a long time, they had a bunch of pictures.
They uploaded the pictures to a filmmaking program on Priya's laptop.
The program quickly showed all the pictures, one at a time.
"Cool!" Sanjay said. "It looks like Betsy is drawing with the marker!"
Next they filmed the marker rolling away from Betsy.
Then they took pictures of Space Man picking up the marker.
"Now we film the big chase scene," Priya said.
They spent all afternoon moving Betsy and Space Man tiny little bits at a time.
They uploaded the rest of the pictures to the laptop.
Sanjay and Priya recorded voices for Space Man and Betsy.
Then they added some music.
When they were finished, they showed the movie to their parents.
"Let's upload this to the Internet," Priya said after the movie.
Sanjay grinned. "Maybe it will inspire other kids to make movies too!"
