With a professional or prosumer HD camera or a digital SLR camera with movie-recording function, you can use different types of lenses (more specifically called "prime lenses") to conduct an experiment on how changing the lens varies how a particular shot looks. You may also use a video or a more accessible still camera with a body that can accommodate lens changes. Shoot the same subject with a variety of lenses including standard size, telephoto and wide-angle. This project requires comparing and describing the change in subject size, depth of field, angle of view and overall shot composition of the same subject for every lens change.
Movies typically create specific emotional responses in viewers. Measure the impact of different movie genres by monitoring changes in viewers' heart rates. Show excerpts of various drama, horror, comedy and action movies to your subjects. Ideally, select scenes with similar plots, characters and stories. Before and after each excerpt, measure and record subjects' heart rates. Note the recovery time for each viewer to get back to his regular heart rate after watching the clips. After the experiment, determine what kind of scenes had more impact on your viewing subjects.
In addition to allowing you to see how each phase varies, a science project involving the moon phases enables you to determine the best time for star gazing. Make a video documentation of the actual moon phases at specific times of the night for the entire lunar cycle, from the new moon to the full moon. This will give you a better perspective for each phase change. Record data both in video and document formats and analyze the differences of each moon cycle and the night-to-night changes that occur in the moon and stars. After approximately one month of documentation, create a short documentary movie about the moon phases.
Building a robo-camera and recording the night sky with it is a more complicated science project for advanced students. For a specific time frame of between a few hours and a whole day, set up a star-tracking mount for a telescope, which will allow your digital SLR camera to pan and tilt with the stars. This requires a motorized rail to create a zooming effect, a computer controller to move the star-tracking mount and automated pressing of the camera's shutter release at specific time intervals. For a period of several hours each night, you can produce about 300 still photos. Play these photos sequentially to create a movie showing a time lapse of the night sky and how the moon and stars move within a particular time frame.