Special Occasion Photo Montage
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Working in graphics and animation, family and friends occasionally ask me for "small" favors like websites and photomontage videos for wedding receptions and anniversary. Even clients have asked me if I could do a video on the side for their son’s graduation party or their parents’ 50th anniversary party. A good friend even started a business doing tribute videos that kept her so busy that she had to end it after the birth of her son.
When my husband and I got married in Florida a few years ago, we hired two videographers to shoot our ceremony. While we waited in the lobby, they showed us this cheesy video with a kissing couple inside a heart and clinking wine glass wipes. I thought it was very funny, and at the same time, I was embarrassed for them. Yeah, I am a snob. Incidentally, I got the raw footage from them and had the aforementioned friend edit my wedding.That is not the type of video I am talking about. I am talking about a classy piece of video that showcases your subject’s life and story… a tasteful photomontage that has personality and nostalgia.
If you do this type of work often, it can be time consuming to scan in the photos, digitize the video (that is usually shot by someone who is a trigger finger zoomer), make attractive graphics and add your own special touches. I am going to show you how to streamline the process and at the same time, start to make your own custom graphics library and templates that will speed up your future projects.
This tutorial series will walk you through methods of organizing tons of media and photos, and then sequencing them so that you can quickly get your photomontage going. I’ll explain how you can create dynamic moving backgrounds that you can customize for the mood of the project and the color scheme (in this case, the colors that my sister has chosen for flowers and dresses at the ceremony). I’ll show you how to utilize the Text Animations Presets in After Effects 6.5 and create your own animation presets to speed up your work in later projects. I’ll also demonstrate how to create some special touches, like sparkles and faux rose petals blowing across the screen using Particle Playground. We’ll top it off with a great audio track.
Meet with your client
- This is the point where you get all of the assets together. It’s much easier to have all of your components up front before you start the project. From my experience, getting your client to give you everything up front is the hard part! If your client would like photos in a certain order, put sticky notes on the back of each photo.
You should know the audience. If your video is going to be shown at a wedding reception with grandparents and a minister, it might not be a good idea to show the bride and groom doing tequila shooters in Tijuana during Spring Break. - Find out how long of video your client would like. Shorter is usually better. Less work for you, of course, and less cost to them, but also, if the video will be shown on a screen in the corner of the reception hall, people will not want to stand for 20 minutes to watch a video. I would suggest keeping your video between 5-10 minutes because people will most likely see snippets here and there throughout the night.
If the video will be shown to a captive audience, say, before the food is served, the attention span of your audience may only be 5-10 minutes, depending on if there is an open bar and if the booze is flowing. - Have your clients choose quality photographs. You’ll be able to color correct and adjust the photos but sometimes photos can be beyond repair. Photos that are exceptionally blurry or have bad backlight will not look good and will cost you time, trying to correct them.
- Get a variety of photos. Your client may love all of the photos with him and his car, but he may bore the pants off his audience. Of course, you have to please the client. Leading him to choose good photos is not a crime.
- Because of the 4:3 (or 16:9) aspect ratio of video, landscape (horizontal) photos work better than portrait (vertical) photos.
- Find out the technical details, such as how the video will be shown. Will it be projected off of a laptop computer? Will it be shown on a big TV? This will be important to know if you’ll be able to use that extra bit of screen real estate known as “title safe” and “action safe”.
- Find out if audio can be used. If so, you and your client need to choose music that is meaningful and lawful for you to use. (That’s all I’m going to say about copyright laws.) Pick out your tracks.
- Don’t forget to ask how soon they need their video. Plan to have it to them early so it can be tested.
- If you are using a contract, which I highly recommend if you're doing a video for a paying client (and not your sister), now is the time to get all your I’s dotted and your T’s crossed.
The video that I’ll be going through in this tutorial series is for my sister, so I can make any suggestions without the worry of insulting her. I can tell her that her hair looks bad in a photo and suggest not using it. You may not have that luxury with a paying client. You’ll have to be nice.
Next in the series: Getting Organized & Getting your Elements Together