Movies By Kids

We paid $ 200 for the Irvine summer camp week. This was an absolute waste of money and disappointing on every level. The two instructors made it very clear they didn’t want to be there and were extremely rude to the kids and parents. They interacted with the kids as little as possible and just threw a bunch of Legos down on a table and had the kids build. I asked at the end of the week if the parents could see the movie the kids made and the instructor said she had no idea. Seriously? I found my son outside in front of the building waiting for me to pick him up one day because class ended early. No supervision or concern for the kids.

Advertised as a camp for kids to make an «action movie» and work with a stuntman in the process. Dropped off our niece on day one to find a very not-​in-​the-​know instructor waiting on one of the owners to show up to tell him what to do. He had no idea what to do and had indicated that he was trained to work some other session offered by Movie By Kids. He stretched out the time by telling the kids that his experience in Hollywood was a short film. Yep, that was their expert. Plus, they get slick in the fees by charging an additional $ 25 fee for «material». Kids never received anything. Later the young instructor said it was for editing. Of course, the course description included editing in the initial price.
The «stuntmen» showed up on Thursday and looked like a high school kid.
They advertised that the film would be edited and ready on Friday. Nope. They got a piece of paper with instructions on how to upload the film when it would be ready in 4 – 6 weeks. Well, that time came and went. Finally, got a link a few weeks later.
Feels like they’re way too stretched at too many camps and as a result, send out poorly trained personal and fall behind on post-​production schedules. Using the world famous line «problems with the editing bay» get old.
I would have given them zero stars but my niece had fun, so I bumped it to one.

The concept «sounded» great!!!
«A week long Lego Claymation movie making summer day camp at our kid’s school!»
Unfortunately, each day when I picked my child up, the young instructor told me how overwhelmed she was; how energetic and wild the kids all were, etc. (The camp wasn’t cheap so I expected that the assigned instructor from Movies By Kids would be well trained for this age group of primarily boys. However, I felt the contrary, that she was out of her league of comfort.) This was a camp for elem school children so I’m not sure what she was expecting in terms of attention span. I didn’t say anything to anyone because I didn’t want to be «that mom.»
At the end of the week, the kids were given just a 5“x7″ yellow flyer with instructions on how to sign up on the MOVIESBYKIDS website in order to ‘VIEW AND DOWNLOAD YOUR MOVIES…“
What??? That’s a first.
After several attempts over the course of 9 weeks (flyer also said to wait two weeks before viewing your movies) of our kid wanting to view the movie, it continues to say how no movie is available yet.
With today’s day and age of burning cd’s, I have no idea why this team was not able to get it together enough to have given the kids (there were only about 8 – 10 total kids, mind you, not 30 – 40) upon finishing the week long day camp, their own copies!!! And instead they get a flyer that doesn’t even tell them the truth!
I would NOT recommend this camp to anyone. Sorry to say.

My son LOVED LOVED LOVED his time with this program. Summer camp last year was a treat for all of us! He took away so much more than I was fumbling to teach him and is actually inspiring my own film making. On top of that his first «film» has been made with care and we have a keepsake to share and to treasure. Can’t say enough about this place and the incredible instructors.!!

We found them through the LA Times article. This is a great experience for kids, and they also do Lego and clay animation, which I prefer over strictly computer-​animated things. It’s total fun and they are always wanting do more. An easy way to keep them occupied, I think they would have stayed forever!