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Mastering Family History Videos – Part Three
If you’ve taken the steps to convert your still photographs, 8mm film and vhs tapes to computer files, you’re heading into the world of video montage. Now you need to arrange these unrelated elements into compelling stories. This blog teaches editing guidelines for a Family History Video Library.
Good audio is at least half of a good video
What is the importance of audio in your film? Read more
Mastering Family History Videos, Part Two
Professional filmmakers would love to be in your position. Don’t climb the walls with confusion about too many photos, 8mm and vhs transfers, converted to DVD or computer files. Video montage is the art of turning seemingly unrelated elements into compelling stories which meet specific targets. This blog teaches editing guidelines for a Family History Video Library.
Review our editing guidelines for a Family History Video Library.
Principle #3 Pick A Story
You’ve considered your media (Principle #1) and know your audience (Principle #2). Now you’re narrowing down to one idea. Read more
Mastering Family History Videos, Part One
What do you do with your photo, 8mm and vhs transfers now that you’ve converted into .AVI and .MOV (and others)? If you’ve already chosen to convert to DVD, there are programs that rip them into the files your editing software recognizes. Video montage is the art of turning seemingly unrelated elements into compelling stories which meet specific targets. This blog teaches editing guidelines for a Family History Video Library.
Make a family history video!
Principle #1: Know Thy Media
Because movies are both picture and sound, “having access” means having the ability to tell a story through audio or image. You begin with sorting what you have in front of you. Arrange by subject, then chronologically, and finally by “one-of-a kind” – elements which don’t fit neatly into obvious “travel, celebrations, pets, or sports” categories. These may be further developed, depending on your audience (see Principle #2).
Sort it thoroughly and all at once. Spend time listening for good audio elements, such as conversations from otherwise “poor quality” old videos and songs or music by family members. Continue with the “access” work by deciding what additional media you think is a must for your family’s story. This may be a person who’s willing to explain their feelings about a subject in your sorted pile. Or it may mean your own personal hunt for new images – examples: a photo of the old house you used to live in or grandmother’s window-shelf bottle collection. Having access and following through for the sake of “telling the whole story before it’s gone” gives your work a wonderful treasure-hunt satisfaction. Read more
4 Easy Hints for Producing Great DVD Slideshows
Photo slideshows bring happy memories
Making a DVD slideshow isn’t as hard as you might have thought. Here are four basic hints or guidelines for producing great DVD slideshows:
- Decide the overall theme or purpose of your photo show. Think of your audience. For example, do you want to make a romantic presentation for newlyweds or a lively presentation for your son’s soccer team? Select both your photos and music to fit your theme or purpose.
- Because the human eye tires of looking at the same image for any more than a few seconds without changes or movement, you should be prepared to gather a fairly large number of images for even a short presentation.
- On average, plan to use from five to seven seconds’ screen time per image. Each minute of your DVD slideshow, therefore, will use approximately eight to twelve images. An energetic, faster-paced photo show might use many more.
- As a rough guide, at an average of ten images per minute, a twenty minute DVD slideshow will need about 200 images; a ten-minute video will use about 100 images.
As you follow these hints, whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it, you’ll find your audience begging for more rather than falling asleep!
15 Digital Slide Show Pros and Cons
After your photos are digitized, making a DVD or digital slide show video of these images is a wonderful way to prepare a heartwarming photo show of memories for yourself, family or friends. There is something undeniably moving about seeing personal photos that have been put to appropriate music smoothly float by. For example, my wife and I enjoy watching a custom-made slide show DVD with “traveling” music that we entitled, Oh the Places You’ll Go! It highlights many of our trips, both when we were single and after we married. This video brings back happy memories and allows to relive these trips all over again. We saw it again just last week.
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The Work That Plays Forever
Guest blog by Emmy Award-winning producer, Jeanne Rawlings, of Dustlight Productions.
Where to begin? That is the biggest concern I hear from folks who dip their toes in the water of a family history videos. Who has the time, between living life and acquiring the images themselves? Who can help grandmother weed through those boxes of pictures and memorabilia? The question often comes to me as a statement. We’ve already answered the bigger question: Why begin?
Why Begin?
We begin because we realize that life is moving faster than we thought it would. We start because we are attuned to our hearts. The feeling, when the holidays roll around, of a catch in our throats as we see eyes sparkle when a tradition is kept – whether it’s a special kind of cookie coming out of the oven, or the plate to serve them on. The emotion of realizing that someone is missing at the table this year. And the excitement that drives someone to say, right before the old kitchen gets renovated, “Get a picture of this!” Read more