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How to Make a Low-Cost Family Video Purpose: Make a video to show at a wedding reception, anniversary, family reunion, funeral / wake, or to create a video archive for children and grandchildren. Equipment you need: any camcorder (with a
remote and a tripod is helpful), video tape recorder (VCR), TV, and stereo with CD
player (PC is optional). Basic Steps: 1. Collect family photos from family members. Organize the photos into groups. For example for 50th Wedding Anniversary you may organize into groups of: before they were married, the wedding photos, children, and grandchildren. 2. If you have a computer, you may want to scan small, older photos and fix the flaws with a program like Photoshop and print on white paper in a larger size format. The larger images are easier to record with the camcorder. But a good camcorder will be able to zoom into a standard size photo. 3. Now setup your camcorder on a tripod and video tape each photo in the order desired. Each photo should be taped for 5 to 10 seconds, with a typical time of 7 seconds. To create a more professional zoom in and zoom out effect, use the zoom option (using the remote, a manual zoom will not be smooth) of the camcorder to zoom into the photo during the 7 seconds. As you record each image, alternate between zooming in, out and not zooming. For example:
Photo 2: The entire photo is framed in the camcorder and you record as you zoom into the face of the image in the photo and you hold on the face for a few extra seconds, total length of this shot is 10 seconds (see sample video below). Photo 3: Before recording you zoom in to frame three key people in the photo, now you record 7 seconds of image without any zoom. Continue to alternate like this for each image. Vary recording times of between 5 and 10 seconds per photo. Practice the zoom before recording each step. Using the remote allows a steady zoom.
Click here or
image below to view 10 second MPEG video of zoom into photo effect. 4. A typical family video should be 12 to 15 minutes. Don't make it long and boring.
6. To record music and transfer the video from the camcorder to standard video tape, you need a CD player (from a typical stereo with audio output plugs) that you connect to the audio inputs of your video tape recorder. You are going to connect the video output of the camcorder to the video input of your video tape recorder (VCR) and the audio output (the headphone jack may work) of your stereo (with CD player) to the audio input of the video tape recorder. 7. Organize a CD or CDs with music to develop a song list for the video. For my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary video, I divided the video into four parts with the following song list:
I recommend you keep the music up-tempo and fun. You see a lot of family videos that use slow, emotional ballads and this may work, but I prefer to keep the audience in a positive mood. If you use a sad song, place it in the middle of your video. Use a strong, familiar and happy song at the end.
More Tips: I have my song list burned to a CDR in the order I want and loaded in the CD player. I have the stereo set to mono and I purchased a special plug from Radio Shack to connect the headphone jack of the stereo to the audio input of the VCR. At the music transition points, I turn down the volume on the stereo and then forward to the next track on the CD player and turn up the volume. If you make any mistakes in recording the music and the timing of the song changes, you need to start over. The VCR does not allow you to record video and audio separately. It is all recorded at the same time, so you can't go back and re-record the music over your video. You need to record the video and music at the same time. I had to practice about five times before I got a perfect master.
Final Steps. After I made one good recording on standard video tape, I used a second VCR to make copies of the final video. At the end of the event, I gave all my family members a copy of the video to take home. Feedback on this video was very positive. People said it was not too long, had a lot of photos nobody had seen before, and the music was fun and lively. The video had a professional look, but no expensive, PC- based video editing equipment was used to make it. Playing Video at Family Event. If the event is an anniversary or family reunion, it will probably take place in a large room and the key to a successful showing of your video is displaying a large image and a loud sound system. You may be able to rent a large screen TV and VCR player and this may work. But I borrowed a video projector (the type that displays a computer screen or TV image) from my office and purchased a speaker and amplifier from Best Buy. I plugged the video out of my VCR to the projector and the sound output to the sound input of the amplifier. In a large room with people talking, you really need a good speaker and amplifier to produce enough sound to fill the room with the music of your video. I projected the image on to a white wall on the side of the room. The speaker and amplifier I purchased was "The Singing Machine" from Best Buy. I think it cost me $100 and while setup as a karaoke machine, works well as a mono playing amplifier and speaker. This entire setup cost me less than renting a large screen TV for the day. Important Tip. Try to access the room the day before (or a few hours before) the big event, so you can test out your audio and video setup. Don't underestimate the noise of a room full of people. You need to get their attention (and quiet) during a quick intro of the video, and then play the video with the sound loud enough to hear in the back row. If people cannot hear the sound, they will begin talking and this make it more difficult to hear the music. Last updated: September, 2002 Mark Gallagher Send comments or questions about this site.
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Photo
1: Before you start recording you zoom in for close-up of the face in the photo
and record 7 seconds as you zoom back out using the remote.
8. Now as you hit record on the video tape
recorder, you hit play on the camcorder and hit play on your CD player.
At a good transition point (for example as the photos change from children to
grandchildren), you change tracks on your CD player to the next song in your
song list. You may need to practice this several times to get a smooth
final video.
To
make a smooth transition between each of the four parts of the video, I created
a simple transition line using words from the vows of a traditional
wedding. I just created these transitions pages in Word and printed them
on an off-white sheet of paper and recorded these for about 7 seconds between
each section of the video. When the transition lines displayed in the
video, I would forward to the next song in the song list, so the segments of the
video were clearly defined by the transition lines and the change in the
music.