Once you've organized and digitized all your photos, old movies, VHS videotapes, and any new material you've shot, you're ready to edit your family memory movie. Even though you may have an overwhelming wealth of sources to edit, remember that as in editing other movies, you should create sequences. You'll find that once you structure your elements into sequences, you can get the editing process in gear. As you may have learned in other project chapters in this book, the easiest way to create a video is to edit visuals to music. You can also use audio alone or a combination of music sequences and audio sequences. Family memory movies may be more challenging to make than other videos in this book, due to the number of different sources you may need to use for them. In addition, it often takes more time to edit photos than video because photos don't last very long onscreen compared to the duration of most video shots. It's important to take your time. You should edit some chunks and take plenty of breaks. You want to make the process fun. On the other hand, you may also find yourself swept away in a deep state of concentration, spending long hours at the computer, if you get into the flow; feel free to go with that, too!
Tip Do you want to have a family memory movie made for you? A number of services will make them for you, including me (see www.strayer.com) and my Emmy Awardwinning friend Susan Davis (see www.paintboxfamily.com, which is shown in Figure 9.19). Figure 9.19. Many services on the Web, including www.paintboxfamily.com, can create family memory movies for you.
Basic Editing StepsWhen you've collected everything you need for your family memory movie, you should take time to look at your footage. You need to review your elements to see what you really want to import. It's important to select only the best material. As you work with your material, you should edit out anything doesn't workeither by trimming and tightening it up or by deleting it. Gradually, the strongest material will rise to the surface, and you can polish it to perfection. Here's a quick review of the editing steps outlined in Chapter 3:
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