Overwhelmed with pictures? Learn how this client is being proactive!

Last weekend a couple/client took us out for dinner to thank us for the movie I made for their 25th Wedding Anniversary celebration. It was a great excuse to get together and spend time catching up. The Father knew his daughter was pulling pictures together for the movie but the Mother did not know. It was interesting to hear what was going on in their world, as their daughter was secretly trying to pull this off while on vacation – with her parents AND a slow internet line. When I would send a draft of the movie online, the daughter struggled with it starting and stopping due to the slow internet speed, which in turn caused her to be anxious, which in turn made Mom wonder what is going on??! It wasn’t funny at the time but it was funny at dinner to hear the story retold and how frustrated they were with each other. Thankfully, at the end of the day, it was worth every anxious nerve.

This family had already experienced a MovieMe product with their son’s graduation last year. In that movie, I snuck in some surprise interviews of her parents and parents-in-laws. After their daughter surprised everyone at the 25th Wedding Anniversary celebration with the ‘movie,’ the Mom told me she would never trust me at another family event! hahaha

The Mom shared how much she loves having the memories in this compiled format of a movie. So much so, she is proactively planning at storing all her photos, newspaper clippings, and video clips in one place for her next child graduating. We’ve talked about in previous blogs how difficult it is to start a project like this knowing the pictures are scattered around the house, in different boxes, in different rooms, still on the camera, etc…so it was interesting to hear a former client, who is now familiar with the process, to be proactive in keeping all raw footage, pictures and data in one place.

So you may not have the desire to dig and organize pictures/video clips from the past but keep a draw, envelope open for events moving forward. Start small and put together a short trailer that only requires 15-20 pictures. It still sends a message of love and who doesn’t like to receive a ‘movie’ made about them?!

Not Enough Photos?

Do you want to put a movie together but you don’t have enough pictures, can’t find them or the pictures were lost during a move…well, we have an alternative ‘movie’ offering for you!

A couple of months ago we shared with you that we were working on a ‘movie’ of triplets graduating high school. In a couple other projects, we had videotaped family members making a surprise cameo and suggested to do the same for this ‘movie.’

The parents of these triplets agreed and we set a time and date to video their stories walking down memory lane. A friend joined me to help by videotaping the parents at the same time but at a different angle. I love including non-posed shots to make the taping look more natural. These parents were prepared! They had a script so they wouldn’t forget any of their highlights. Instead of just providing a 30 second story, they walked through the triplets’ birth – graduation. As they walked through each scenario, I recalled pictures from their original ‘movie’ we had already completed that I could blend into their story. iMovie was the perfect user-friendly software to use. During each of their stories, I would cutaway with a picture or insert picture in picture and for one particular story, I inserted video of a funny story inside the parent’s memory video. Instead of trying to tell a story with over 300 photos, we used approximately 30 photos. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for a short commercial showcasing this ‘movie’ offering. http://www.fb.com/MovieMe

Consider this alternative if you want to make a ‘movie’ to preserve your memories but don’t have enough pictures. Tell us what you think about this idea? Is this something you would do?

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The Most Difficult Step ~ Getting Started

We are onto our next project…triplets graduating high school! This one has 21 short video clips to be included. This mother did a lot of pre work!

Speaking of pre work, we just received another request from California of a client wanting an individual movie done of each of her three children. I thought I would share what a first conversation looks like with MovieMe. Of course, your particular story may not be exactly the same, this will give you the framework of how to get your ‘movie’ playing at your next party!

How do I get started?

1. First, decide what you want your storyline to be. Most folks do a birth to current age or you can highlight a particular birthday, vacation. This particular storyline is about her children. I make suggestions, such as, add some pre-children photos about how and when Mommy and Daddy got together on the first-born child’s ‘movie.’
2. Second, once you pull all your photos and video clips together, make sure they are in chronological order. They don’t have to be perfect but you don’t want your child looking older one picture and then a baby the next, or Christmas pictures before Halloween. Your ‘movie’ is telling a story…give your ‘movie’ a beginning, middle and an end. Also, don’t stress about the order of pictures within an event. If you have several vacation pictures of the same trip, order is not as important within those pictures.
3. Third, now that you have your pictures in order, have them scanned in that same order. Be careful where you take them! I’ve had clients who spent hours putting them together only to get them back out-of-order. Also, ask the media conversion place if they do all their work on site or if they ship them off. Our last California client, sent all his original photos to us and we had them scanned and put on DVDs.
4. If you have the pictures on DVD, you can use Dropbox to exchange them with us. If you have no desire to bother with having them scanned or sharing via Dropbox, we can take care of them for you!
5. As for video clips, I strongly urge finding at least one clip. It adds another element to your ‘movie.’ Again, we can have your VCR tapes/slides/videotapes/film converted for you. To save money when it comes to adding video clips, my recommendation is to find on the newly converted DVD of your media, the timed section(s) you want pulled.
6. And finally, provide a list of songs you would like to add. Try to find songs with the time era of your photos. If your child was born in the early 90s, pick a top ten song from that timeframe. Not sure what songs you would pick, we can also help you with suggestions.
7. Our last project included narration. You can include narration by sharing some cute stories about your child growing up.  We can do male or female voice overs in third person to give another dimension to your ‘movie.’

The hardest part is really getting started. Most photo projects seem quite intimidating and are put off for a rainy day. One tip I give to my clients, who are not sure where to get started with their pictures, is throw them into a box, have them scanned out-of-order and then order them once you review them on your computer. Sometimes that helps and lessens down on all the clutter.

Does this generate any other questions or do you have other suggestions you’d like to share with us? Thank you so much for following our blog and we look forward to hearing from you!

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Priceless!

Last week we shared how to overcome that pile of photos staring back at you: http://wp.me/p1lhCI-bu

Usually, the next question is how does MovieMe pricing work? Because there are so different facets to the pricing let me break it down in 3 sections:

• How many photos do you want to share? Who is your audience? From there I guide folks with a baseline example of 100 pictures will produce a 7 minute movie. The picture pricing is divided as follows:

25 or fewer is $75
26-50 is $125
51-100 is $175, etc…

• Second, I ask if there are any video clips available. Adding video clips really adds another dimension to the ‘movie.’

Both converting the media into a downloadable file and editing are $10 each. For example, if you have two video clips on 1 DVD. It would be $10 to download the one DVD into the movie software and $20 to edit the two video clips.

• Third, I ask for favorite songs that follow the timing of the pictures. Doing a growing up ‘movie’ for your husband, choose music from his high school times, college, etc… Music is bought on iTunes with no markup to you. All music is laid on the movie and burned on the DVD. You also receive a CD copy of all the music used in the movie and I delete it off my database to stay within legal limits.

So what do we have?

100 Photos = $175

2 Video Clips on 1 DVD = $30

iTunes (3 songs) = $1.29 x 3 = $3.87

Movie of your family and friends to share forever = Priceless!

How Do I Put Pictures Together for a Video?

Last week we talked about the different type of ‘movie’ requests we receive, like Rehearsal Dinner movies, Celebration of a Life movie, Graduation movies, etc… This week we want to share what happens once the project is in our court.

The first review takes place with the pictures. Are they in order, do they need retouching, rotate into proper position? Once each individual picture is cleaned up, I drag them into a specific file that allows me to pull those pictures up without going through my entire library of 20,000 photos. Once I’ve loaded them into the movie software, I decide how much movement I want on each picture and who I want to stand out. There is a lot of love and attention taken in this step.

After the pictures have been finalized, I add in the video clips according to the timeline. Adding video clips, brings another dimension to the movie. I make sure the clip is trimmed down to the right scene.

Then the music, chosen by the client, is laid out on top of the pictures and video. Does the music flow? Does it tell the story? Does it need to be shorter? or does the picture need to hang for just a few more seconds. As you can see, the creative art in making a movie happens during the project, not before. I can never promise a client what the end result will look like but I can promise they will be happy with the final product.

Before I burn the final product onto DVDs, I send a link to the client for final review. This allows for any minor adjustments. Once I receive the ‘thumbs up,’ the movie is burned! Being able to share a link is ideal because it allows both local and remote clients to use our services.

Making a movie takes patience, passion and love for the story being told. Do you have a story you’d like to make into a movie?

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Let’s – Get – a Little Bit Rowdy!

I’ll jump on the thankful bandwagon of what I was thankful for this past Thanksgiving. I’ve been really blessed. Over two years ago, I was fortunate enough to resign from my 20 year corporate sales position. Because of our shift in how we managed money, over 5 years ago, we have increased our quality of life. This quality of life is not seen in material possessions but in our time together. Our sacrifices have allowed me to continue staying at home and investing my time, that would have been spent at work, with our family. It has also allowed me to build a small business that not only provides income but is incredibly fun to do.

Just recently, I was asked to put a Cheer Video together for an end of the year banquet. It was quite a challenge to put it together in one week but nothing like working under pressure, right?!  Initially, it was only the JV, which my stepdaughter is a part of, and then it very quickly became the whole high school squad, Freshmen up through Varsity. What an incredible opportunity to build a movie for so many families and be a part of my stepdaughter’s banquet in a special way. Obviously, my hope is she will be proud of the final product. I received almost 800 pictures from various sources and thankfully I had taken several video clips throughout the year. Blending both still photos and video clips makes this more than just a slideshow, to me it makes it more movie-like. There’s a fun clip in the movie where my husband stands up when the JV team is doing “Let’s – Get – a Little Bit Rowdy,” by himself and waves his arm up in the air. I videotaped this both from behind Dad and in front of Dad, giving the audience both views. The best part is when Dad thinks the cheer is over and starts clapping and watching his daughter laugh from embarrassment. Did he really just do that?! haha

To date, I haven’t put a movie together for such a large audience. Saturday afternoon I finalized the packaging of the DVDs into clear plastic bags with red and white ribbons along with a postcard about MovieMe. Ironically, my husband and I will be out of town and cannot attend the banquet. I can’t believe I will miss a showing of my own movie! If there is a chance to catch an earlier flight, my plan will be to make the banquet. It would be fun to watch the audience’s reaction!

I am grateful for my family, I am grateful to stay home (thank you husband!), I am grateful to have a small business and with this recent project, I am grateful to contribute towards my stepdaughter’s cheerleading banquet event! Go Eagles!!

Your MovieMe for Brides and Brides-to-be!

Last week we talked about some memorable unique ways to show your newly engaged partner how much you love them or tag your guests at a reception or even catch different points of view through the eyes of your guests. This week we will share ‘movie’ ideas that have been used by other brides.

Lately there has been an increase in couples sharing videos to ‘Save the Date.’ One couple we worked with chose to make a Valentine’s Day movie since they weren’t engaged yet. You can see it on this blog – it’s the first video. http://tommartinatl.com/friday-favorite-movieme-company/ Or you can ‘like’ a page that showcases ‘Save the Date’ videos from time to time for ideas. It’s called https://www.facebook.com/stylemepretty We are different from the video companies, in that we take existing photos or video you already have and blend it together for a unique look.

It’s the day after your wedding and even though you are on your honeymoon, wouldn’t you love to see some photos from the wedding?! That is our speciality and why we’ve partnered up with Randall Granier Photography. An example of our work is https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1746457901909 These trailers are less than two minutes but are powerful. Randall’s team not only takes incredible pictures but also captures video of your special moments. We blend these together into a short trailer to share with family and friends shortly after your ceremony.

A different approach to having your wedding photos/video showcased is to blend both of them. Typically brides have to hire both a photographer and a videographer. A dear friend hired us to take her photos and set it to her favorite music. We did just that…here is her review:

” I am MovieMe.Co biggest fan! Danielle has taken pictures from my wedding day and placed these beautiful moments into a timeless video. I tear up every time I watch it. She was able to intuitively piece together my wedding and enhance the most important moments. She was very detailed and extremely open and responsive to any changes or add ons. My husband and I are kicking ourselves for even hiring a videographer because we enjoy watching Danielle’s video more than their actual footage of the wedding. Danielle, we can never thank you enough for such a priceless keepsake!” Akiliah Evans

And for all those brides whose wedding was years ago, consider pulling out your photos and any video you have, chose your favorite love songs and make a ‘movie’ for your next anniversary. You will cherish it in a special different way.

We would love to help you make these ideas come true. Leave us a comment on our facebook wall http://www.fb.com/MovieMe or if you’d rather email us at movieme@movieme.co We now have a $100 credit giveaway on our facebook page http://www.fb.com/MovieMe. Enter to win by ‘sharing’ our giveaway post. Many thanks for your interest in our blog!

4 steps on creating your highlight reel

Tom Martin – Devoted Husband and Stepfather to teenage sons, cancer fighter battling and trusting God period on the outcome, manager of a Subaru dealership, writer of a blog called Leveraging Life where life’s lessons are viewed through the lens of faith with the hope those lessons can be share and leveraged for the benefit of others.

If your life ended today, what do you think you would be remembered for?

• What just came to mind?
• What collection of thoughts?
• What images?
• How do you think your highlights would view to those who only casually knew you?

I think for most of us, if we knew our highlight reel was about to be shown, we would desperately want to control how and what made it to the big screen. Pause, slow motion, and rewind would be popular buttons when our personal and professional accomplishments and success stories were on display.  Simultaneously, highlights of painful moments and poor decisions would put fast forward, skip, and delete in high demand.

Unfortunately, none of us have the luxury to edit the way our lives have already played out, but the good news is we all have the opportunity to create a better highlight reel moving forward. If your reel needs improvement, my suggestion is that you take these four steps.

Create your vision 

To create highlights, you have to look to the end of the movie and work backwards.  By that I mean, you have to decide today what you want to be known for tomorrow. This step is the most difficult one and requires the most time, because how we want to be viewed can be so broad and encompass so many things.

The best starting point I’ve found is what I call my 4F’s, and all can center around one simple question, “What legacy do I want to leave?”

• Faith  — Will my actions compliment or contradict what I profess to believe?
• Family – Will my spouse, children, siblings, and parents be prominently featured in my highlight reel, or will they be seen as extras or parts of the scenery?
• Friends – Will the role they play in the story have more to do what they did for me or what I did for them?
• Finances – Will they show entitlement or stewardship?

Bring it into focus 

Just making the decision to create a better highlight reel doesn’t lead to a life of better highlights.

• What people, places, things and actions are needed for your vision to become your reality?
• Are there people, places, things and actions that are part of your reality now that blur that vision?

Be sure you use a wide-angle lens when you contemplate this.

• Are your surroundings consistent with your vision or is there a tension between the two?

Pay attention to that tension so you create an environment where good highlights become the norm and bad highlights stop before they start.

Commit to it

Having vision and being focused are important steps when it comes to setting goals and changing behaviors to create different outcomes, but vision and focus without commitment usually leads to disappointment and failure. For most of us, when it comes to goal setting or creating a great highlight, we sometimes forget to ask ourselves if we are truly ready to commit to the effort it will require. Motivation creates motion toward a desired result, but commitment produces the outcome we desire.

Be accountable to making it happen

For most people, being accountable to someone is an uncomfortable position, because suddenly the choices we make are now on display and up for review. But when you find yourself accountable to someone who cares more about ‘who you become’ rather than ‘who you are at a given moment,’ you have created an environment for growth beyond what you can achieve on your own. The other benefit of being accountable, one that never gets enough credit, is the fact you now have someone to celebrate your success with, someone to remind you how far you’ve come, and someone to say…”oh, how beautiful this will play out on your highlight reel!”

Start making a better highlight reel today!

How to ‘clip’ out shaky video

For those of you who have asked for more of the technical background on putting a movie together…here it is!

This weekend we had a dear friend get baptized. I noticed her family and friends were not taking pictures/video so I recruited my husband to take pictures with my camera, while I videotaped. Yes, I keep my equipment with me at all times! I was a little shaky with some of the video so I had to be creative when I put the movie together. Initially, I wasn’t sure how to drop the shaky part without losing the audio from the ceremony. Let me share what I learned…here are a few fun tricks in blending your movie with pictures and video.

The movie software I use is iMovie’11.  The single video clip contained some shaky parts so I ‘split’ the clip and added a ‘transition adjustment’ to avoid a quick jump between the clips. On the video clip that was shaky, I ‘detached’ the audio and erased the video clip. I laid the ‘detached audio’ on a couple pictures my husband had taken within the same timeframe. Then for some dramatic effect, I laid the music down but adjusted it lower on the frames where the gentleman is talking. I love the score from Transformers by Steve Jablonsky. Great build up to the immersion of the baptism and plays well through the last pictures. Unfortunately, I cannot post copyright music so I’ve applied a royalty free song and posted it on MovieMe! Check it out… http://www.fb.com/MovieMe

What fun effects do you use when putting a movie together? We’d love to learn from you!