[Behind the Story] How to make first episode in Kim Lego Story

1. What made you start to open this channel (MyLK TV: Kim Lego Story)? 

I was inspired to open this channel on YouTube by my family and friends this year. Since I was 3 years old, my grandparents, friends, and other family members got me various Lego sets as birthday gifts or X-mas gifts. I have spent tons of my free time playing with my Lego sets by creating diverse characters in her Lego World. I'd like to share her imaginative stories with many friends in the world.

2. How did you work for making the first episode (New Family Member)? 

2.1. Making the first episode

It was not that long to shoot the first episode. Without any scripts or practices, I played all parts of the characters (Kim's family, Michelle's friends, a nurse, and a clerk) spontaneously. My mom just shot the pictures as I lead the story. My mom was quite surprised to realize that there were four strollers in her Lego sets. (I made them by myself from my previous plays.) It took about 50 minutes to shoot and prepare the scenes. Without the professional lighting systems, three desk lamps were used as you see the picture. I was wearing green suits for the use of the chromakey technique, even though it was not employed for the first episode. However, it took many hours to edit the movie files. First, my mom tried to use free trial version of editing tools. However, it didn't work at all because there were 24 movie files to be edited. The free versions provide very limited functions to edit the files. So, to edit the first episode, the movie studio platinum 16 was employed. Since the program was used in a very limited way, it is too early to evaluate the program yet. 

2.2. How much did you pay for the programs and others that were used the first episode ?

My mom tried to use what we have instead of buying a new one to make the episode. 

These are all lists that we have got before shooting the episode.

Lego sets: Stephanie's house, the beach house, and Livi's house were used to rebuild Kim's big house where 6 family members can live together. Pizzaria, city cafe, and supermarket were used to make a new grocery market with a cafe in a suburban area. And we used a hospital set and a car too. 

Studio One 4: To make the intro and the ending song, the Studio One 4 free trial was used. This program is very worthy making a simple song without any previous knowledge. It is a very intuitive-layout program. 

Photoshop: To make the banner and the corn in the channel, the photoshop program was employed.

Camcorder for HD (canon), tripod, and three stand lamps

A white table and a green chair from IKEA

We bought green Chromakey background and suits ($65) from Amazon.com and the movie studio platinum 16 ($80.00). But you can buy the movie studio platinum 15 ($65.00) at Amazon.com. If I had known that, I should definitely have used the previous and cheaper version. 

2.3. Timetable

1) Jan, 2019: Planning for the channel and creating a channel on Youtube.
2) Feb, 2019
 - Making the names and personality of the characters

 - Making the site for the channel

 - In Kim's family, the first names of all girls start with "C"
3) Feb, 23, 2019 

 - Setting the "studio" room, and reorganizing the Lego sets

 - Putting the green chromakey background in the window
4) Feb, 26, 2019
- Making the intro song and the ending song via the studio one
5) Feb, 27, 2019
- Making the banner and the corn for the channel site with photoshop
6) Feb, 28, 2019 

 - Editing the movie file with the movie studio platinum

 - Uploading the edited file with the watermark in the lower right side

 - Writing the first English script
7) Mar, 1, 2019 

 - Writing the process for the first episode

 - Telling to family about the channel 

However, I did not include my previous time to think of creating the first story. That means it's not easy to make even one (clumsy, I mean, not fancy) episode. It is a very time consuming job, and it can be very pricey if you are thinking to use the toys for the movie. 

2.4. How could you make the name of the channel [MyLK TV: Kim Lego Story], and the banner? 

Trial and error helps us to make them. 

For example, the name of the channel was changed several times as you can see the previous one. 

(Angel Kiki's world=>MyLK TV: Kiki's World=> MyLK TV: Kim Lego World => MyLK TV: Kim Lego Story)

3. What was the most impressive one,  when you did this job? 

I was very wondering if I could upload the file, when I shot the scenes. I thought that high-definition movies were not allowed to be uploaded, because of the huge file sizes. But, it was exactly opposite. These days, youtubers are expecting to produce high-definition movies. In the end, I ordered a new light for next episode.