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Q. What does "source" refer to?
A."Source" is what you're creating your Photo Montage from: your photographs, the VHS tape you made of your daughter's birthday party; the the old 8mm tape of your invention; the Mini DV tape of the soccer team, your camera's hard drive or memory card, the DVD a friend sent you.
Cuts, Dissolves and Transitions
Q.What's a "cut"?
A.One picture is replaced instantly by the next. Watch television and you'll see lots of "cuts;" e.g., as the camera first shows us Oprah, then her guest, then back to Oprah.
Q. What's a "dissolve"? A. One picture fades out as the next picture fades in: pictures actually overlap each other.
Q. What's a "transition." A. Transitions are like dissolves, only with a fancy graphic element added: an effect that looks like a page being turned, for example, or a picture that seems to be fragmented into little squares as it is replaced by the next picture. Used carefully, transitions can add "zing" to your project. Over-use adds little, merely calling attention to the transitions themselves.
Q.What's the difference between a title and a caption?
A. A title is the name of your project, a caption is the name of a single photo.
Q. Can I choose different styles of type for my titles and captions?
A. Yes, and different colors and sizes, too.
Q.What if my picture isn't the same shape as the video screen?
A. Easy. Use an electronic border, or mask.
The video screen has a ratio of 3:4 -- it's three units tall, four units wide -- wider than tall or of 16:9. People, unfortunately as far as video is concerned, have a ratio of about 6:2 -- six units tall, two units wide -- taller than wide.
So, if I want to show a picture of Uncle Mort standing in a field, I'm going to have comparatively little Uncle Mort (tall) and lots of field (wide). If you planned on enlarging your photo and framing it, you'd do what's called "cropping" -- that is, you would trim away lots of the field and wind up with a tall skinny picture of Mort, minus the field -- either by cutting away the field on either side of Mort, or by placing a cardboard mask around him.
With video, the mask is electronic. You actually put an electronic border, or mask, around the portions of the picture you don't want to show. You have a great many choices of color for the mask, and a wide range of shapes, from square to oval.
An even more subtle treatment of Uncle Mort would be to have us zoom in on him until his picture completely fills the video screen. We probably wouldn't see his lower half at all, but we'd have a lovely head-and-shoulder shot of him, which is what folks want to see.
Q. Will the image quality of my pictures be effected if I make changes to my photo montage?
A. No.
In computer editing your photos are captured digitally -- that is, scanned into the computer as a series of "1's" and "0s." There is no loss of image quality, no matter how many times changes are made, and both pictures and music can be manipulated readily.
Q. Can I be at VideOccasions while my editor works on my photo montage?
A. Absolutely! Working along with the editor provides the advantage of having an experienced editor running the equipment while allowing you complete artistic control over how each photo is to be framed, how the titles are to look and how long each picture will remain on the screen.
Q. Can I just leave my photos at VideOccasions and have you do the photo montage without me?
A. Yes. We'll be happy to do it alone (although we'll miss you). If this is what you want, we'll go over all the variables with you -- colors, fonts, duration of picture on the screen, types of transitions, framing, etc., -- all the choices that will make your photo montage memorable! Then we'll have you come to review the work before we put it onto DVD.
Q. How much does editing cost? And how much will by project cost?
A.Editing is billed at $75 per hour.
Remember: These are only estimates! Many projects cost less; some cost more.