In honor of Mother’s Day, I made this video!  Here is a detailed explanation of precisely how I made it.

VIDEO TUTORIAL ON EDITING AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

From strictly a video production standpoint, this was a fairly easy one to make.  It’s made from still photos plus one royalty free video clip I got from Footage Firm. There is a continuous voice track I recorded myself at home with royalty free music under.  (Mozart for strings)  If I were talking strictly about “styles” of video this would mostly fall under the category of “slide show video.”

But IMHO, this is not just ANY ole slide show video! It has many attributes which make it enticing to watch.   Specifically that  would be fantastic visuals artfully put together with an emotionally laden voice track and powerful mood music.

Visual storytelling relies on each separate component of the video blending together into a cohesive whole.  Viewers should be enraptured by the blend, not even giving thought to the individual components or production methods.   As video producers on the other hand, it’s our job to create, gather and blend the individual elements so it takes much thought indeed.  As you go from being a viewer of video to a maker of video you will become more observant of the individual pieces and procedures it takes to obtain them.

AWWWWWW, THE UNIVERSAL REACTION TO A SWEET BABY FACE

Video  is a visual medium.  Stripped down to it’s core, a video story can relay on visuals only, no sound, no effects. That’s how movie production evolved, with silent film as the first tool.    So obviously visuals always play the prominent role, even when you add all the other elements.

There’s an old cliche in show biz that you never want to follow children or animals because babies and puppies pack a positive emotional automatically.  They do not have to do anything other than exist.  This video is packed with incredible baby pictures, up-close and personal sweet faces everyone will love.

Credit goes to Josh Bennett, a former high school video production student of mine.  We’ve kept in touch via Facebook so I’ve been able to see his growing professional portfolio.  Josh was always an amazing talent and if you doubt me, look at his work!  If you’re looking for a professional photographer in the Nashville, TN area, you can not do better than Josh Bennett.

Once I’d obtain permission from Josh to use his pictures, I imported the JPEGS into my video editing program, Final Cut Express, and manually cropped, matted and keyed them over a background of a rose close-up.  If you watch the screen capture video down at the bottom of this post, you can see me dissect the editing time line for this video to show exactly what and how I played with each shot to achieve the final effects.

 

Now perhaps if I’d been smart, I would have used the automated editing service Animoto to put my slide show video together.  Animoto is fast easy and incredibly affordable.  But I did it manually, which is slow and tedious!  The advantage to doing it this way is you have precise control over every tiny detail.  Since I look upon this sort of work as artistry, I enjoy it and am willing to spend the time.  Trust me, I was a real perfectionist on this one.  I fiddled and tweaked and altered until I had it as perfect as I could get it.  I do not always allow myself that much time, because it gets expensive but editing is a process and sometimes should not be rushed.   The final video is much better for my efforts.  It’s a bit like the difference between slow-cooked ribs and the plastic-tasting McRib you get cheap.

For more details on how I edited this video, watch this screen capture video where I analyze the time line within Final Cut.  I show how I matted and used keyframe animation on each shot.