5 Memorial Video Hacks That Will Take Your Videos From Simple to STUNNING
October 19th, 2016Tribute videos are a HUGE trend in the funeral profession…
While these stunning life memorials used to be something that you would see once in a blue moon during a funeral service or life celebration, they are now becoming one of the most common requests from today’s families. And it makes sense why…
Photos have been proven time and time again to kick-start the healing process, bring powerful stories and memories to the surface, and even help family and friends come together around one simple act – reflection. In fact, there are so many reasons why funeral homes should be using photo and videos to help their families heal, that it would take an entire separate post just to list them all. (In fact, we’ve already created one!)
But because tribute videos are starting to become “the norm” when it comes to personalized funeral service, it’s no longer enough for funeral homes to simply offer these services. You need to know how to create videos that are more beautiful, stunning, cinematic videos than anyone else in your community, so that the videos that you create stand-out to the families that are viewing them.
To help you get a leg-up on the other funeral homes in town (and to transition you into the ultimate memorial video MASTER), here are five Life Tribute video hacks that will take your memorial videos from simple to stunning. Enjoy!
1. Add custom music to your memorial videos
Music is one of the most powerful tools in a funeral professional’s arsenal – not only does it evoke emotion, memories and celebration, but music also helps to express individuality. For instance, when you hear a particular song that means a lot to you, it can instantly transport you back to a specific moment in time, an important event, or make you think of someone special in your life. That’s why music is one of the most important aspects of a Life Tributes video.
Next time you sit down to create a video for your families, ask them about the songs that remind them most of their loved one. What was their favorite song from their youth? Do they have a special video clip of them singing in the church choir? Adding these custom songs to their loved one’s memorial video will help to add another layer of personalization and remembrance to the highlights of their life. (Just make sure you have the appropriate license for all custom music you want to include.)
How to do it: Select the ‘Background Music’ button on the Life Tributes ‘My Themes’ screen. From there, choose the third selection: “Use your own music.” Simply click the import button and upload the song you would like to use from your computer.
Want to help your families choose a song that best represents their loved one? Check out this infographic → What Song Should You Play At A Funeral?
2. Use blurred backgrounds to enhance your photos
When you are showcasing the biggest moments of someone’s life through something important like a Life Tribute video, the last thing you want your video to look like is like it was quickly whipped together in Powerpoint. After all, this is the story of someone’s life – it deserves to be magical, beautiful, stunning and professional.
One easy way that Life Tributes helps funeral professionals add more magic to the photos they are showcasing is by swapping out blank, boring space for personalized backgrounds. For example, if you use a photo in Life Tributes that doesn’t completely fill the screen, you don’t have to settle for a blank black background… you can select an advanced option to add a special blurred effect to the sides of the screen, which helps to add more depth and customization to the photos you are showing.
How to do it: Right click on the ‘DVD Video’ tab at the top of the Life Tributes window. From there, select ‘Advanced Options’ and make sure that the option to ‘Remove Blank Backgrounds’ is selected. Leaving this box unchecked will remove all blurred photo backgrounds from your Life Tribute videos.
3. Upload and share home movies… not just photos
If a photo is worth 1,000 words, just imagine how many stories and memories can come from watching a Life Tribute video filled with the most important photos and home movies that made up a loved one’s life. For instance, the video from their wedding day, walking across the stage at graduation, or teaching their son how to ride his first bicycle. These are all moments that tell a story when they are in video form… and can help to spark memory sharing when they are watched by friends and family members. So make sure you aren’t leaving these important moments out of your Life Tribute videos.
How to do it: Click on the ‘DVD Video’ tab at the top of the Life Tributes window. Next, click on the ‘Insert Video’ button and select the videos that you want to use from your computer.
3. Add motions to all of your photos at once
Another way to take a loved one’s memorial video from a boring slideshow to a cinematic tribute to their life is to add Hollywood-style motion graphics to each of your photos and videos. What do we mean by this? Most Tribute Video softwares allow you to add fancy transitions between your photos, but the photos themselves never move from the center of the screen… they just stay static in one spot. But with Life Tributes, you can use beautiful motion effects to have your families photos float magically across the screen, adding more life to your photos and enhancing the overall quality of your videos.
How to do it: When you are looking at your photos and videos inside of the ‘DVD Video’ tab, simply right click on any of the media icons. From there, select ‘Add smart motion to image’ to customize each photo’s motion individually, or click ‘Add smart motion to all images’ to add motion to all of your photos at once.
4. Completely customize your DVD Cases and Labels
Photos, videos and music are not the only things that you can customize with Life Tributes. You can also completely customize and personalize that packaging that you use to present these meaningful videos to the family that you are serving. For example, you can create an entire DVD package – from the label of the disc, to the DVD case, and even the Insert that goes inside the DVD case – all personalized to the person whose life you are celebrating. And we’re not just talking about adding a custom photo to the front of the DVD… you can even add your own custom text, change text styles, and add in important quotes or poems that were meaningful to the loved one.
How to do it: From the ‘My Themes’ tab, select the fourth button – ‘DVD Menu & Label.’ From this screen you can pick the theme that you would like to use for your DVD, and select ‘Labels Editor’ to add custom fonts, text and more. (Simply right click anywhere on the Labels Editor to insert new photos and text, or double click on existing text to change the font style.)
5. Share videos with family and friends (and make DVD copies available)
Life Tribute videos are so much more than something to play at a funeral visitation or service. These memorial videos are essentially the entire visual, emotional story of a person’s life – from their childhood to their passing – that people can rewatch time and time again when they want to feel close to their loved one. So make sure that you are making the beautiful Life Tribute videos you create available to the families that you serve, as well as to their friends and family members.
You can do this by taking copy requests from your families personally, or by adding the video to a loved one’s Social Memorial Page where people can watch the video and request their own copy from your website. By sharing the videos you create on your funeral home website, you are making it easier than ever for your families to purchase this beautiful memorial product right from their own home.
How to do it: When you are finished creating your Life Tribute video, simply select the option to publish the video to your website. This will automatically create a ‘Order Your Copy Now’ box that appears on your website (specially on the loved one’s Memorial Page) and all requested video orders will be sent directly to your funeral home.
If you would like to try out our Life Tributes software for free, click here to sign up for a free 30-day trial!
What are your favorite memorial video hacks that you have learned from your time in the funeral profession? Be sure to let us know in the comments below, and we may feature you in an upcoming post!
i was not aware of a music license that allowed copyrighted music to be burned to a dvd? can you enlighten me?
Hi Jon, we have found that many families enjoy uploading personal audio to their Life Tribute videos, such as audio from a home movie, a speech at graduation, or even their loved one (or a friend or family member) singing a cover of their favorite song. As long as they have the ownership rights and license to these pieces of audio, they are free to use them. These are just some examples of how our ‘Upload Audio’ feature might be used.
you talk about adding custom music. i am not aware of any license available to burn custom music to a DVD. can you enlighten me? Jon
Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thankyou .
Hi Jon, we’ve got tons of custom music on our Tribute Video Software, Life Tributes. Most tribute video software doesn’t make their own custom music. If you’re interested in giving it a try check it out: http://www.funeralone.com/life