Creating fun, sentimental video is a tradition that goes well beyond TikTok trends and social media. In the 1960s, the Super 8 made it possible to capture memories with friends and family. The introduction of the camcorder made home videos more accessible and commonplace in households across America.
Assembling a video montage is a fantastic way to share memories and create meaningful gifts. Here are some practical tips to help guide the process.
Determine Your Goal and Audience
First, clarify why you’re making this montage and who you’re making it for. These key elements will act as the direction of your video, what content you’ll include, and the mood you intend to convey. If you’re making a video for your grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary, it will likely have a different feel than a video for your best friend’s birthday gift.
Review Footage and Note Clips
Once you’ve clarified your intentions for the video montage, start reviewing your footage. If you’ve taken the time to digitize your old home movies, you’re set. Otherwise, you’ll need to complete this task first. During this stage, you can also reach out to family members and friends to access additional photos and videos that would work well in your project. These will also need to be digitized.
Sort through your footage and digital photos to determine which ones you’d like to include in the montage. Consider copying these clips to a separate file for your project. Avoid moving the original digital file to prevent disorganization or file loss.
Choose an App or Service
You’ll also need to select an app or service to transform your videos and photos into a montage. There are several video editing apps with this capability, including iMovie, Movie Maker, In Video, and Vimeo. Choosing the right program for your needs depends on whether you’ll be creating the video from your phone or a computer.
You can also outsource this project to a professional service or freelancer, but putting the video together is half the fun! This option is ideal if you are not tech-savvy or feel like you lack the creative vision to put everything together in a meaningful way.
Add and Edit Clips
If you’re taking a DIY approach, the next step is to add and edit your clips. Upload your videos and images into the software you’ve chosen, then organize them in the order you want. Take some time to trim video footage for time and impact.
If you’re working with home videos, there’s likely a lot of walking around, shaky camera work, and lead-up for a few minutes of meaningful footage. For example, you might want to include a clip from your father’s prom. In this case, you’d trim the lead-up and choose a few seconds of your Dad showing off his tux.
This part of the process will likely take the most time and effort. You may determine that you have too much footage and need to make some cuts, so you don’t produce a feature-length film. Choosing what to cut can be a challenge; put on your Director’s cap and do your best.
Choose Music
Selecting music for your video montage is a lot of fun. Consider your audience and the mood you want to convey when choosing music. Again, selecting music for your Grandparents’ anniversary video should take a different path than choosing music for your best friend’s big birthday bash. If you have talking points throughout your video, you’ll need to adjust the music volume during those clips.
In a world where music is so easy to access, downloading songs for movie projects is surprisingly difficult. There are several options for downloading instrumental music to play in the background of your video. However, if you want to include popular songs from your favorite artists, things can get tricky.
Amazon Music and iTunes are the best options for purchasing song files. However, these files may not work with the app, software, or operating system you’re using. You can typically use a file converter to change an MP3 file to a WMA file to get past this issue. The easiest approach is to use royalty-free music downloads or rely on iTunes and iMovie.
It’s also important to be mindful of copyright rules when using music for your content. When you download a song from your favorite artist, the licensing agreement is for personal use only. Sharing this video with friends or family is fine, but posting it on YouTube or other monetized sites will likely be blocked.
Share and Present Your Gift
Once you’ve put everything together, it’s time to present your video. You can share your video by storing it on the cloud and sharing a link or uploading it to a private YouTube channel with a password. Conversely, you can download the video to a USB or a WiFi photo frame to add a physical component to your creation.
Putting together a video montage is a fun, creative experience. Whether you’re doing this for yourself or others, the result is well worth the effort.
