Making a Video Christmas Card People will Remember

Why spend time this Holiday Season signing, addressing and mailing Christmas cards. Last year we decided to make a "Video Christmas Card." We took 25 photos at during different seasons on the year, pick a fun song, did some digital magic in our video editing software, and voila! We mailed DVD's to select family and friends, then posted the video to youTube and sent the links to everyone else. The response we so great that we are doing it again for this year! Check ours out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KFSH3ysRZY.

First you need to select around 25 photos that best represent your family's year in review. We live in the Lake Tahoe, Reno Nevada climate, so we get all four seasons to choose photos from. We also have four kids, so everyone gets equal time.

Next pick one fun song that best represents your family. I say choose one song because it will keep your presentation short and sweet. I know we all love to swoon over our kids, but most people have limited tolerance and attention span, so if you want your video watched and enjoyed, keep it short.

Now that you have everything ready to go, scan your photos at home (if you are so equipped) or go to your local megastore and have them scan them for you. Keep the image scale the same and use at least 72dpi (we use 300dpi since we do a lot of zooming and panning on our presentations)

Now take your photo files and place them into your software of choice. We use Final Cut Pro which also serves us for video editing, but I'vce seen decent presentations done in PowerPoint. Add you titles (again, we use LiveType, but to each his own).

Now you can produce your DVD for hard copies, or the most economical way is to post the video to YouTube.

Again, the response was surprising and we're really excited about doing one again this year. Feel free to contact me if you want tips or have questions. craigmusni@yahoo.com