Brainstorms for Baby Cinematography

Nikhil crawls at 7 months

If the above video doesn't work for you on mobile, please see it here.

Being a new mom, I clearly succumb to the "everything my baby does is photogenic" mindset. Well, everything babies do is photogenic - everyone knows babies grow like weeds and their milestones are short lived, fast upcoming, and quickly passing. Plus, they're just so dang CUTE, how can you bypass such eye candy? As a capturer of moments, I greatly value the joy of making these moments special with multimedia keepsakes. Cinematography adds so much dynamism to photography. Space. Music. Movement. So special. PS - I term my style "cinematography" versus "videography" because anyone can make a video, but it takes artistry to make a storytelling cinematic motion picture.

As mentioned in recent newsletters, I've lately revisited my roots in cinematography and have been dabbling in hobbyist cinematography a little more now that I've got a little one (a crawler!). I haven't the space in my schedule to consider wedding cinematography, but I am certainly considering it for baby moments.

I'd like some feedback! Many previous clients are now having babies, and I'm curious on input regarding keepsake cinematography. I haven't yet considered how I'd package such a service, but I'd like to know what clients think of having these moving moments captured creatively. I'd also involve some still portraits as well (to be used in the movie or otherwise). Some angles to consider:

• Would you purchase a baby milestone cinematography service?
• How much would you invest in capturing those moments?
• What milestones would you definitely want covered? Birth? Crawling? Walking? First birthday?
• How would you like such media stored for keepsake purposes? Weblinks? Digital only? DVD in keepsake packaging?

Other things to consider: 

Obviously you can't plan a shoot around baby's actual first steps because you never know when they may occur. The design of the video would lead into the appearance that the milestone is first taking place that very moment. In the above video of my son, he was on his hands and knees with some movement a couple days before this was shot. In two days' time, he was crawling in the real sense of the term, but I highlighted some of his slow-to-start moments (hand and feet closeups) to show his journey from trial to execution.

Music. For me it's a huge sentimentality factor, and it can really make or break a motion picture. Creating videos has long since given slideshow-creating photographers headaches because the cool music (anything popular and created in the past 90 years) is all copyrighted and simply cannot [lawfully] be used for commercial purposes. I'd have to explore some royalty free options and collect some cool ones for clients to choose from. It's not the same as that really special-to-you piece you have in mind, I know. I'd have to research what's doable here. I'm clearly not selling the video I posted here, but I've used a piece from the Amelie soundtrack which just jolts me with childhood nostalgia every time I hear it, so I had to use it.. but I wouldn't be able to if this was something I'm selling to a client. Mainly Facebook and YouTube (and probably other sites - but not Blogger!) won't allow copyrighted music to be posted, so you wouldn't be able to share your video there if you didn't use the not-as-cool royalty free music.

Anyway, some thoughts! I'd love your feedback on this brainstorm. Please comment!