Getting Ready to Make a Family Memory Movie

Family history is preciousand photos and movies of it are fragileso making a family memory movie is a special gift to everyone in your family, possibly even for generations to come. You not only putting it all together for everyone to enjoy, but you also preserve it in a digital format that won't deteriorate over time. Whereas photos can fade and VHS video starts to decay within as little as 15 years, a digital version of your family's precious media will protect these important personal images.

You could just digitize your photos and VHS videos and archive them safely on a CD or DVD. But you will be doing yourself and your family a favor if you organize your material and edit it into a meaningful video or DVD.

Whereas many projects in this book rely solely on shooting new video, this project may require spending more time gathering existing materials because, in essence, those materials can become your "shoot." It's best to assemble as many of the materials as you canphotos, audios, VHS tapes, and digital videobefore you begin to edit. This often means making a trip to the basement, the attic, and the computer, and you may need to email other family members for their photos and/or videos, too.

A family memory movie can take many forms. You might want to use only scanned images to make a slideshow movie, using Movie Maker's quick and easy AutoMovie feature. Or you might want to tape interviews with family members, especially older ones. Family reunions also provide a great opportunity to shoot footage of family history, so you should consider whether this might be a part of your project. The following sections provide a few simple tips for getting your project on track.

Don't Put Yourself on a Tight Time Schedule

You don't want to stress yourself out over this project and make it not the fun process it can be. If you're using dozens or hundreds of photos in your family memory movie, you should expect that editing will take longer than if you were editing video alone.

On the other hand, it's good to have some sort of loose deadline for yourselfsuch as December 1 if you're going to give copies of your family memory movie to family members at Christmas, for instanceso you will actually finish your project.

Ask Others to Help

You can make your family memory movie into a family project. You can ask family members to send you photos and/or footage and get others to help with simple things like scanning photos.

Start Simple

You can start with no video at allmaking a photo slideshow with digitized pictures and music as your first projectand then get more elaborate with your family memory movies over time.

Grow Your Project Organically Over Time

While it's nice to think you can gather all your materials at once, it often takes time to get your hands on all the elements. New material is constantly being created, too, so you might want to plan to update your memory movies over time.

Think (and Act) Like an Archivist

It's important to archive and label all your files well so that if you ever need to reassemble them to make a new video or DVD, for instance, you can easily locate them in appropriate folders and Movie Maker collections.

It's a good idea to invest a little time in correctly labeling images and videos. If you share these elements with others, they will also appreciate the care you've taken to include accurate filenames. You might want to come up with a naming convention that includes information such as dates (at least by year) in filenames. It's easier to share editing tasks with a helper if your images, files, folders, and collections are well organized than if they're a jumbled mess.