Protecting the identity of kids or obscuring their faces can be easily done in your editing software: you just place a huge black or blurry dot over their faces. This is hardly an artistic approach, and it can get downright boring. So here are a few tips for shooting general scenes of children on playgrounds or in classrooms, while disguising their identities and adding a little more artistic edge to your video. These tips work for any producer who wants to disguise a person's identity, and you don't have to cut off someone's head to do it. Just think outside the little black dot, and use your creative imagination.

First, let's separate this lesson into two concerns: between the ethics of this kind of shoot and the aesthetics of making it interesting.

Ethics: Don't be a Creep

First off, and we cannot stress this enough: always protect yourself first, when shooting in this kind of an environment. In some foreign countries, you might not have an issue with showing children's faces or even approaching them on the street. In the USA, however, we have been bombarded with enough fear-factor information about stalkers and video creeps to justify your concerns. We've heard many horror stories about creeps using tiny cell phones to videotape unsuspecting people in bathrooms and other public places, and, sometimes, it's not even illegal. To read more on this subject, see our story, Shooting in Public in our What's Legal column at www.videomaker.com/article/13774

School Rules

There are several ways to protect yourself and the children you are videotaping. Find a contact within the school who knows you and your reputation as a video producer. Ask for a personal introduction to the school principal, to inform him or her of your intentions. You may then have to approach the school district's department heads, depending on your school system's rules, and go from there. Sometimes, individual private schools might be easier to approach than the public district due to bureaucratic red-tape.

Don't just go to the school on the day you expect to shoot. Not only do you have to give plenty of time to advise the school administrators of your intentions, but also the teachers and parents. You want to assure them that you are not going to show faces and that you are a legitimate filmmaker. Bring proof that you are indeed working on a valid project. On the preliminary meet-n-greet day, you should come equipped with a well-prepared treatment of must-haves to prove your legitimacy and explain your needs.

• Formal request
• Statement proving your need
• Intended audience
• What the story is about
• Production plans
• Crew, if any

You might suggest that a school employee can be with you at all times, and maybe even interview the principal to bolster the official's ego.

Parental Anxiety

Now that you have made your intentions known to the school officials, you'll need to work with the parents. Make informational flyers to send home with the kids that sound enthusiastic and include a message from the principal, explaining your project. Plan to have an evening meeting date at the school when the parents can talk with you face-to-face about your movie. Find out who's in charge of the school's PTA and request to attend the next meeting. Make yourself known.

Finally, once you've been given access, make a point of never being alone with a child at any time - not even if you are with your associate. Always have a school administrator or teacher with you. If you need to interview a child, make sure you have permission covered all the way around, even requesting that the child's parent be present, along with the school official. Remember: the goal is to protect that child, and yourself.