How to Make a Music Video for Kids

Thanks to the amazing technology that is standard on most PCs, almost anyone can make a music video on their home computer. Even the most basic video editing software programs have the tools for editing music and video. The process is so intuitive that teenagers are customarily posting their own music videos to YouTube, and you can do the same by creating a music video for your kids.

Establish a song to be used in your music video. This can be as simple as using your computer to record your voice over an instrumental, or maybe you already have a song that you composed. Once you have the song, transfer it to your computer as an audio file.

Write the script for your music video. The script is basically the storyline or list of scenes and shots you want in your video. This is where you can best format the music video for kids, choosing child-oriented themes and actions for your scenes. Include a description of what parts of the song will be sung during each scene so you can plan ahead for the recording process.

Shoot and record your music video with a digital video camera. You do not need to worry about sound quality, or sound in general, during the recording because you will add sound to your music video during the editing process. You can lip-sync your song while recording the video. However, keep in mind that syncing your mouth movement with your video during the editing process will be a tedious task. Thus, you may want to avoid any actual singing as often as possible, opting for acting and miming for most of the video.

Import your video onto your computer using a USB cord. PC users can capture the video using Movie Maker by selecting "Import Video" on the home screen of the program. Mac users can open iMovie and import video by clicking on the “Video Import” button. Each program will load your video in "clips" so that your scenes are effortlessly divided for easier editing.

Import your audio music. In Movie Maker, click “Import Audio or Music” on the home screen. In iMovie, go to the “Window” menu and select “Music and Sound Effects” to import audio.

Begin editing -- using either program -- by dragging and dropping your audio and video clips to the project area. If you did not lip-sync in your video, simply match particular scenes with certain parts of the song by dragging your video clips to specific points along the audio bar. If you have lip-syncing throughout the video, carefully drag the video so that it matches the exact point in the song being lip-synced in the scene.

Use the menus available in each program to add special effects, transitions and titles between clips and to the ends of the music video.

Save your work and export it to a file, the Internet or device of your choice by using the options available in the menus of each program. Follow the exporting wizards in both iMovie and Movie Maker. When done with the wizard, your music video is complete.