February 2020 I had a goal to focus on films. While life happened and I did not get to do as much as I had planned, I did do a few films in addition to my normal photo jobs. I got to work on a baby announcement, a birth announcement and a “we moved” announcement.
I have done a lot more with personal film (iphone video) since my kids were born. I do an annual 2-3min video of all the clips we have collected. It is a lot of work, but I love looking back at all the little moments.
When I was in high school one of my friends was very big into film. Well she took lots of film, I don’t think we ever got to see the videos. My father in law also recently converted his films he took as a younger man into DVDs. It is so fun seeing all of those memories in motion.
Outside of me doing video during my sessions, I wanted to test out offering video editing services of the first year with your new baby. Stop and think about – what have you done with any of that video that you took during the first year?
A few things I learned in the process:
- Mom’s you need to get in videos more. I know we already struggle with getting in the photos, but get a tripod or even one of those popsockets and set up the phone and just hit record when you are doing ANYTHING. Cuddling in bed, playing peek a boo, eating.
- Editing someone else’s video of their child’s first year is nerve wrecking. What if I cut a clip and miss something that meant something to them?
- People take too much vertical video. In order to do these properly, the video clips really should be all horizontal. This is the struggle with frequently videoing for instagram or snapchat or tic tok. We have become conditioned to vertical video. BUT, I am working on a way around that with my new editing program.
Without further explanation here are the two family films I worked on with only client video:
and
So get the videos out there (off your phone) – do something with your video clips. I have known too many people that have lost precious memories because their phone died or was erased. Even I had a hard drive crash with all my oldest kid’s first year video and my wedding video, but luckily I had the highlight video saved on Vimeo and facebook. I may not have the full clips anymore, but I do have the best of the best.
