It was a glorious game of tug-a-war involving for teams, plastic sheeting, and more baby shampoo than you could shake a tear free stick at. The energy was high, the campers were wet, and the mood was "out for blood". As I was "soaking" in the view and loving the job our Camp Team was doing, one of our Camp Directors, Kelly (great job, btw!), walked up to me and handed me a Flip video recorder and asked if I would shoot some video. For the next 10 minutes I was embedded in the action with my video recorder, getting great video coverage. I felt like Geraldo Rivera, minus the mustache. I even gave away troop location to another team. (yup, I went there.). After 10 minutes, I handed the recorder back and moments later I saw our Director handing it off to someone else.
What a brilliant idea! A Flip video recorder is a super easy-to-use video recorder (camcorder) that takes brilliant HD video, and has a built in USB connector so you never have to search for a cord! It's durable, so you can hand it off in rough environments and not worry about it. It's small, so you can keep it in your pocket. It's so simple that it only takes 30 seconds to show someone how to use, no matter who you are. It's a real camcorder: the only difference is that it doesn't have zoom or tons of on-board settings, but the resolution is just as good.
I know we would all love to have a professional videographer at our events to capture, edit, and produce Hollywood type videos, but a Flip may be your solution until George Lucas volunteers.
Another great option is using your phone. So many phones come with a decent video recorder built-in, and some even allow you to post to YouTube as soon as your done recording. You may not feel comfortable handing your phone around, or letting teens run through camp shooting video, but it's another easy choice for recording the memories your helping create in teens' lives.
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