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Save the Big Bucks & Trim Your Footage! 

"That little effort on my part...saved me over $1200!"

"...That little effort on my part (logging the footage so you only had to view the parts that were of significance to Alex's first year) saved me over $1200!!   And all it took was for me to preview my video tapes, log the specific minutes that were relevant, and provide that log to you with my videos.  That way you were able to focus on only what was important to me.  Thanks again for such a fabulous memento of our little guys first year!..."
-Pamela Chicago, IL

Click here to download the Video Clip Log, the form to use as you go through your footage and log your favorite scenes. Click here to see a sample of a Video Clip Log a previous client filled out.

When you’re going through your footage,
try to get it down to 30 minutes - 1 hour. It will be easier to do
this if you keep the following in mind:

• Remember, you will still have ALL your original footage preserved on DVD with chapter marks and you can pop that in your player anytime and see everything you want. We want your movie to be focused on the highlights! So if you have 45 minutes of footage on Christmas morning, only keep a few clips: your daughter’s face when she sees all the presents, her saying “Merry Christmas!”, a few seconds of her opening a special present from daddy, then a few seconds of her kissing daddy’s cheek. Then, maybe you set your camera up on a tripod and filmed the family eating Christmas dinner (you only need a few seconds of that, like maybe the toast).
• Each scene should be less than 30 seconds unless the entire scene is essential.
• Look for the clips that show emotion between people. You may not like most of a whole scene, but if there are just a few seconds where mom is kissing baby, keep that scene in! >
• Look for the clips that are close-ups of faces, especially if the subject is smiling or laughing.
• Look for the clips that have important family members included: grandma, cousins, parents, friends, and other relatives and friends.
• Include some clips of scenery that will set the scene for where this time in your life took place.
• It’s easiest to find the important parts if you first watch the entire scene, then watch it a second time and record the parts you want included. For example, you may have filmed your child dancing around in your family room for a total of 12 minutes. You can watch the entire 12 minutes and notice the following elements: your child falls down and laughs (6 seconds), your dog comes and licks his face (4 seconds), your child dances with his favorite teddy bear (5 seconds), and his dad walks in from work and his face lights up (10 seconds). If you recorded only these important events, it would only be a total of 25 seconds.
• When your son was learning to talk, you have a lot of footage of mom and dad saying, “say doggie!”, “say ball!”. Then we usually have to wait a short while before he actually says the word. You can leave in the prompt by the parent (4 seconds), then cut everything else out until he says “doggie!”
• You may dislike a scene because the vocals are too loud, distracting, or something you don’t like. The scene may still be great if the video is good. You may be at a baseball game filming your daughter in her cute baseball cap and she’s clapping her hands. Then, the guy next to her screams at the umpire. Don’t worry! We can mute the audio and capture that cute moment. Just put a note on your form to mute the vocals.

If you have more ideas, contact us!