A special family asked me to help them with a very heartfelt wedding gift for their niece. Her wedding was out of the country and they weren’t able to attend. So, they decided to give a gift to celebrate their niece’s wedding and also to represent the whole family in a loving way. They wrote and audio recorded their family’s life story! And, we added their photos, music and captions to create a beautiful mini documentary video for her and the entire family.

This was truly a wonderful collaboration. My client and I reviewed the script, the photos to be used, and created a list of photo requests to other family members. We spent as much time on the music as the timing of all the photos throughout the story. Sometimes, as with this project, I work side by side, minute by minute with my clients to incorporate their real time input into their finished video. There is nothing more important in creating life stories than a video that touches their lives.  My client has sent me such wonderful emails along this projects journey. Here are a few of her thoughts:

“All I can say is WOW!  I’m really impressed!  You’re really doing an outstanding job on this project. I want you to know how wonderful I think this piece of work is and how much I appreciate your skills in producing it. I also appreciate your openness to work with me on this in terms of the feelings, emotions and memories it will evoke particularly the mood the music sets…

Can’t thank you enough.  I would love to stay in touch – I’m a little sad that we’ve finished because I’ve really enjoyed working with you.  I’m going to talk about this experience with friends and family.  Maybe I can encourage others to produce a family story like this.”

It’s so very gratifying to create heirloom life story videos, and even more so because I get to know the most wonderful families.

P.S. Click here to read additional reflections on creating this most precious wedding gift.

Arline Melzer is a film producer with a passion to help generations preserve and celebrate the times of their lives.

Located at 1515 Hope Street in Stamford, CT, we specialize in creating customized video life stories and slideshow tributes throughout Fairfield County, CT and the US.