It is VERY time-consuming to match photos, videos and music well. It is also lovely! My brother does it for all my folks special occasions but it takes a lot out of him. When you divide the number of hours you put in by your charge, your hourly rate will likely be well below minimum wage, but your product will be cherished.
I have a relative who has made phenomenal photo/music DVDs of graduations, weddings, and my father’s life. That one begins with childhood photos set to Neil Diamond’s The Story of My Life. Just thinking of it makes me cry. I have to say, those DVDs would be the first things I’d grab if I had to suddenly evacuate for a fire or flood.
If you are good at putting the perfect music to the photos, I hope you find a way to share your talent. I was thinking of making one for my 30th anniversary that is coming up next year. I figure I’m uniquely suited to choosing the photos and songs for that one. What software did you choose?
You certainly could do them as gifts for people without running into problems.
@psychmomma …I use Proshop Gold, purchased it online. I read many reviews it and others, but what stood out was the great customer service that I kept seeing, plus the multitude of slide style selections and transitions. They do have great customer service! That first DVD i made, I was calling them constantly and they were patient and helpful. I was almost embarrassed. Sure, there is a user’s manual, and I did use it when I could. I ended up writing my own notes to many questions I have, so I refer to those a lot now.
That first DVD took me almost 40 hours to do…I had about 375 pictures and maybe 13 songs. I also did a 135 picture one recently, and still took about 20 hours…I’m a perfectionist…it could have been less. I also can Insert video. I gave a copy as a gift to our friends who went on the trip.
I did the math, too…as I was worried about the minimum wage thing. That’s why I thought $100 base fee and a $1 per picture. That 135 slide DVD that lasts almost 15 minutes would be $235. So, around $10 an hour. I think it should be more…but just didn’t know what people woukd pay fir an amateur. My sister and I paid $350 15 years ago for one, that’s not even as good.
I start the clock at organizing photos into categories and editing…cropping, lightening, shadows…a whole different software program. This takes several hours before I even begin downloading them to the DVD software. After that I take each slide at a time and manipulate it until I get the perfect slide.
I guess I figured people would pay to have this done. The software alone costs $70. That damn copyright.
I would definitely be. Customer.
I knew people who did scrapbooks for a business, so I tend to think someone would pay for your service. The end product is something people want, and the time and expertise to do it is missing.
To keep it above board, they’d have to pay for anything that requires a license and essentially pay you for your "compilation and editing "services.
My son’s BS sells one for the senior class of commencement week activities for $50. Slightly larger audience, slightly less personal, but that price point seems to work.
Yes, if you could sell it to groups–like alumni for reunion trips, or a travel agency that takes folks on tours and has it as a momento of the trip, you could make more money than just customizing for one person because you can just duplicate for several in the same group.
Again, you couldn’t legally do this without a synch license. The fact that someone hands you a CD they own doesn’t solve this problem.
If you search the web, you’ll see there are lots of companies that offer this service but they don’t use popular well-known music (the music that adds the emotional resonance), but instead they use “stock” unknown music for which synch licenses are cheaply and readily available.
Agree with nottelling. I’ve been doing this a long time without charging, so essentially they are gifts although sometimes I get treated for lunch or I’m given gift cards. I looked into licensing at one time and it was thousands of dollars for a popular (think top 100) song. Yes google it and you’ll see what the legal ramifications are. I did purchase a multi-DVD burner for this hobby of mine!