lanne: Pre Prep to Post Production...

We had a busy busy day today.

As I was making the bed this morning - Lochie came in and said Look Mummy Look at the light.. we have to take photos... So we did. He was super cute and adorable and funny (oh yes I am his Mummy but he IS).. and so I said click and he did a different funny face... 60 clicks later I had 56 images I will always treasure.

He is SO clever.. what a great idea that was!

I edited one image and then edited a second one the same (but recorded the steps as an action).. not ideal but it did mean I now had an action which suited (same location/light etc taken only seconds apart) and then batch edited them ... 60 photos about 2 mins TOTAL I made them all black and white so it wasn't a drama and they aren't great black and whites but they are fine!

Then I threw them all in iPhoto... exported a slideshow as a quicktime and I now have a funny lil boy changing his funny faces every second .. hehe. I captured his new skill (winking) the muscles, and.. my personal fav... when he puts his fingers up near his head.. it just ISNT a funny face..but he THINKS it is and does it .. holds it.. and then rolls about laughing.

I am not going to post it here... but if you really do want to see it... email me :) If i decide your not from some odd porn ring for funny faces.. i will send you a link ;)

After that we went shopping and bought Lochie fluffy sheets... and some fruit and vege.. and home again.

In the car on the way to the shops.. Lochie asked who drew the pictures in this book? I was driving and couldn't see the illustrator's name and so I explained about illustrators and authors. We got discussing about publishing and how books are made.

Long time blog readers will be familiar with my belief in answering questions and using them to learn about things. I am also ALL about learning from real world things... if there is a chance to learn through play in an authentic way.. I am allll over that.

Lochie was super excited about the idea of being an author and I could be an illustrator. We could also be the publishers. So we decided to make his own book and we could publish it. I thought it would be a great way for him to gain a whole pile of skills and learn the value of books. Lochie was so excited.. MUM... I could be a author. I could have a real job all of my own!! (beyond joyous about this concept).

After his rest, we opened a Flyer template in Pages.. I deleted the headline, and made the text box bigger.. we kept the big pink flamingo.. it meant transferring the images easier later. I made 10 pages, and moved the text to the top on a few of them.. just to mix it up a lil.

After his nap.. we wrote our own story. We got out Lochie's puppets.. and he made up a story. I typed out the story exactly as he told it..we talked about the words and how everyone could read his story etc... just like his books.

Then we took the puppets down to our room, and sat them on the white bedlinen... Lochie took a couple of images (super easy.. on auto and he learned about focus and the red dots on the object etc)..

Then we talked about how the images were on the card.. and we put it in the card reader together. We opened them in Bridge and choose our favorite ones. He checked we covered all the characters and then we edited them. I explained that this is what Mummy does for clients..

We opened the files in photoshop and edited them. He used the mouse and ran the actions (under direction) and we learned about the eraser tool. (I made a layer underneath that was white, and we erased the edges so it looked a little better). Then we saved the files and compared the edited and SOOC versions. (I also let Lochie play with the Totally RAD actions and he was enthralled with the effects.

Then we had afternoon tea.. production is hard work!

Then I cleared the screen.. except for a Finder window with the images, and Pages with the various story pages. I showed him how to drag and drop and then undid it so he could do it. I read the page and then lochie inserted the character that was being mentioned. We talked about which character to use and why we wouldn't use some. He got it easily enough I just thought it was worth discussing.

I LOVE that you can drag the images straight from finder to the page.. AWESOME. Then we did a tiny bit of resizing them.. he loved that (he thought they were growing HAHA)..

then we bought the printer out from my office and printed the pages. He was so thrilled watching them come out of the printer.. shouting each time a new page finished. We made a cover page together and he choose a business name for our publishing company (lots of love book productions!) LOL

and then .. we phoned Daddy and he bought home a stapler (I only have a funky stapless one from Kikki K LOL) and we bound our book and shared it with Daddy.

Daddy's special job was being the storyteller... SO FUN to watch lochie hear his OWN story read back to him.

He learned HEAPS about books, publishing, writing, editing, graphic art, computers, mouse skills, photography, photo editing and manipulation.. and had HEAPS of fun! Will he remember it all ? NO.. he is four.. but.. it was important for him to do it and experience something real and to do something with reason.

I can see me going through a lot of ink in the future!

He phoned Grandma and told her all about his story and his process and then told her he was going to work in his own library.. hehe.

For those of you who aren't going to be able to see our beautiful book... we made it into a .pdf! We can now publish to the world.

For some reason (and Jude if your reading this.. feel VERY privileged).. he desperately wanted Aunty Jude to have a copy of his book to read with Uncle Noel.. He hasn't seem either for (umm 12 months or more?) but was adamant. So.... we emailed one.. He even dictated his own email message..and flounced off saying.. OH BOY I am a movie, I made a book and now.. I can do email.

It was a big day at our house!

You can download his book Download lochies_first_book.pdf

Please note: I have had a couple of people email to suggest I edit the book again (it doesn't make sense and that the photos are not very well edited etc). This is lochie's book. He made the book. I feel pretty strongly about parents MAKING an item (being a bit rough with it) and calling it the child's work... oh yeah well they did it ALL.... This is Lochie's book which HE made.. YES.. the editing is a lil rough (both text and pictures). He is four and learning to use a mouse. I typed HIS story not my own. LOL I think he did great (again biased mum in overdrive).. but really.. it is his work.

ENJOY!

Ps.I have blogged these puppets before .. they were from etsy!