How to Create a Personal Legacy Video

As you get older and reach the retirement age you might begin seriously thinking back on your younger years and all the memories you have.

You might have a million stories you’ve told your kids and million you never even began to get into to.

This is your personal legacy and it’s something that is very sacred. It’s what you’re all about. It’s where you can from. It’s you. And, we must all face reality and realize that at some point we will pass on.

But when that time comes you might be a bit more peace if you have one of these, a personal history video.

What is a personal history video, you might ask? It’s a video all about you.

About your life, what’s important to you and what you want to pass on to your future generations.

These videos can be as simple as merely a collection of photographs of you and those close to you through out the years. It might have narration.

You might talk about growing up and make reference of people in the photographs so that your grandchildren some day will know their relatives. Some incorporate home videos.

Some have full interviews with the person it’s about. Some include interviews of other people who know you. Heck, some look like full feature documentaries. It’s all up to you.

So how would you go about putting one of these together?

Well, there are numerous ways I’m sure but I’m going to break it down the simplest way I know.

First you’ll need to think about why you’re doing this video in the first place. Is it for your children? Grandchildren? An organization?

Then you’ll need to decide what it is you want to convey with the video. Do you want to simply show your life? Create an elaborate family tree?

Send a message to other generations? Make a statement on the affairs of the world? Once you have a clear picture of these two items in your mind you’re off to a good start. Now the grunt work.

You’ll need to gather all the materials you want in the video. This includes photographs, home videos, professional videos featuring you or your family, awards, newspaper clippings, and any other items you might find.

Next if you want to do an interview of yourself (or just you talking straight to a camera) you’ll need to arrange for that.

You can do it yourself, set up a tripod and video camera and speak directly to the camera or you can have someone assist you and prompt you with questions.

If you want to take it one step further you can so as well and hire someone to do all the filming and/or interviewing.

You can also at this point have the videographer shoot other footage of you should you choose.

This might include simple shots of you in your favorite places; at the park, beach, woods, etc. just walking around or doing your favorite things so that you can use this footage in between sections if you are going to use a voice-over and/or music to make the presentation more professional.

Once you’ve obtained all your materials you need to organize them. You may be telling a complete story of your life and need to write a script of sorts.

You might be creating a photo montage and just need to group the pictures or place them in chronological order.

Whatever it is you’ve decided on you need to make sure it makes sense and will serve your ultimate purpose for making the video in the first place.

Now you might need to hire someone or enlist someone to help you. You’re going to need a computer, scanner and an editing program. If you have old video footage you’ll need to get that transferred as well.

Photos – scan these on a scanner to digitize them and then save them on your computer hard drive or a CD.

Interview Footage – you’ll need to import this onto your computer.

If you have lot of footage (over 30 minutes) you might want to purchase an external hard drive because video takes up a lot of storage space on a hard drive.

Old Home Video Footage – you may need to get this transferred. You can look up places that transfer footage on the internet or email me and I can help you or at least point you in the right direction. This you’ll want to also store on your hard drive or an external hard drive.

Now that all your pieces are in the same place it’s time to start editing. Many computers come with basic editing software on them. You can learn to use these with the tutorials within the software.

If not you can purchase a relatively inexpensive piece of editing software that will work just fine. If you want a professional looking video without doing the editing yourself you can always hire someone to do that for you.

There are tons of places you can contact or places you can put posting up at looking for an editor to help you make your perfect video.

That’s it. This is your film. You have control. It is your life after all.

If you have any questions or would like assistance in creating one of these video, advice or work help please feel free to contact us.

Image from Pexels.com

 
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