Develop a theme and concept involving interesting characters such as animals, heroes, family members, students, friends, fairies and magical creatures. Make the plot simple and easy to understand for kids. Choose a movie genre appealing to them like fantasy, comedy, adventure and comedy. Incorporate a lot of children-friendly lines, actions and characterizations so that the kid filmmakers keep themselves interested when telling their story in audiovisual form.
Instead of carefully following the script format of professional filmmaking , make the script easy for children to understand. Put simple drawings of the shots beside the script or combine the script and storyboard in a single document with words and descriptions that are easy to read and understand.
Make a story that generally stars kids as well. This avoids having the filmmaking process become a daunting or intimidating experience for kids as they can treat it as a different kind of playtime experience with other children. Although it's good to have their actual playmates involved as actors and actresses in the movie, meeting new friends on the set can also engage them more in their moviemaking activity.
Children may feel more comfortable working with mostly children on the set. At the same time, adult supervision is also essential, especially when managing equipment to use, coordinating people before and during the shoot, and preparing food and other needs on the set. Choosing people the kids already know to assist them during production is ideal.
If there are those who are new to them, choose teens and adults who generally have charm for children, those with appealing personalities, those who are experienced in dealing with children and those who have patience for children's varying inclinations, tempers and orientations.
Avoid having too many movie locations for the shoot so that the kids don't get too tired with the travel.
Apart from selecting the best location that suits the intended look for the movie, make sure the location is also conducive to children. It should ideally be in a controlled space such as a room or house so that there are fewer risks of rain, extreme temperature and other uncontrollable factors that may happen during the shoot. However, since many exterior locations such as a parks and gardens also interest kids, make sure that you have back-up interior locations in case of rain or other unforeseen situations that happen on the set.