Are you planning gifts for the new year? What about the video gifts for the coming new year. With the help of video, you can transmit information and sell; you can communicate, make discoveries and share emotions; you can travel and empathize with what is happening on the screen because the forms of video messages are very diverse.
These are video letters, reports, videos, interviews, video blogs, presentations, educational films, video catalogs and reality shows, TV bridges and video books, and, finally, video gifts about the creation of which I want to talk in more detail.
I want to share with you the ideas that came to me one of these days at four o’clock in the morning when I was thinking that the New Year is coming soon, gifts are needed, a lot has already been done, something new needs to be invented, and so on.
In addition, I have many friends who live in other countries, that is, not every gift can be forwarded, and even more so on time. And then suddenly, a saving thought flashed – to make video gifts.
From my own experience, I know that even a simple slideshow created for a person’s birthday from photographs is always perceived joyfully and touchingly. Everyone now has video cameras, computers, and pictures, so it remains to understand what and how. So what are these ideas? I decided to focus on three options for possible video gifts:
- Video Postcard
- Video Clip
- Video Film
How to Make Exclusive Video Gifts for the New Year?
1. How to Make A Video Postcard?
Before going to make a video postcard as a video gift, let’s discuss what is a video postcard? It is your congratulatory monologue filmed under certain conditions. If you have a video camera, this is the most affordable video gift, the creation of which will not take long. Plus, it can’t be compared to a paper postcard. After all, the addressee will see your eyes and hear your voice. And if you add to this a New Year’s frame or vignette and the corresponding background music, then a festive mood is guaranteed.
A music video is also easy to make, and you can even do without a camera and filming, although with them, the option can turn out, as they say, more fantastic.
A clip is a short screen work in which the role of the offscreen music is the presenter; that is, all frames or photographs should be edited to the music, reflecting its rhythm and be appropriate in meaning if a song with words is used. Additional expressive means in a clip can be titles and special effects, but they must be relevant.
If you already have a lot of footage from travel or family holidays, children’s matinees, and other celebrations, you may well make a film. Or if you have a camera and the idea to create a unique movie for the New Year. I’ll tell you how to come up with ideas a little later.
But whichever of these options you choose, the technology for their creation will be similar. It can be divided into three stages: preparatory scenario, shooting (or selecting a photo and video material), and editing.
Where Should You Start?
It all starts with a thought; you need to think and formulate the main idea you want to convey to the addressee and the emotions you want to evoke. Since we are talking about New Year’s Video Gifts, it is clear that you will say that you want to congratulate and cause joy. It is true, but to come up with an idea, you need to concretize because you can compliment in different ways and emotionally.
You can also laugh, add lyrics, or even eroticism, depending on who you will make happy with our outstanding video gift. We got to where we need to start; namely, we need to determine who will be our addressee.
Creating A Video Postcard in 6 Easy Steps:
- Determine the specific addressee and the emotions that you want to achieve from him.
- Write a scenario plan for congratulations (possibly the entire text of the congratulation, if necessary). Based on the text, think over a suitable interior for filming and image.
- Find a suitable location for filming in reality, remove unnecessary things or add something for the atmosphere. Prepare filming technician and operator (or yourself as operator).
- Build the correct composition and shoot.
- Edit: you can use minimal or multi-layer.
- Upload on video hosting and send the link to the addressee in time.
Hear the sea of delight and rightfully be proud of yourself all new year. The algorithm of actions for creating a video postcard can differ on some points according to your need.
Creating A Video Postcard from Photos:
- Determine the specific addressee and the emotions that you want to achieve from him. And find a song that fits the idea, that is, the first point. Or several songs, if you build a script basis from separate verses. It is a more dynamic option that allows you to play with both rhythms and emotions.
- Select the required number of photos; the more diverse they are in terms of angles and sizes, the better. On a musical basis, say, in three minutes, about 30-40 photos will be required, but this, of course, depends on the tempo of the music; plans should be more extended for slow melodies and fast melodies, respectively, shorter.
- Carry out the editing. This version will require much more time, although, of course, there are savings in the absence of the shooting process.
- Upload on video hosting and send the link to the addressee in time.
Creating A Video Postcard from Video Archive:
- Determine the specific addressee and the emotions that we want to achieve from him. Find a song that fits the idea, that is, the first point.
- Based on the selected audio track, choose suitable video frames and load them into the editing program. Carry out editing, cutting the video frames to the music, correlating them with the rhythm and text of the song.
- Upload on video hosting and send the link to the addressee in time.
That’s all. This option may turn out to be a little more challenging to edit because dynamic plans, unlike static photos, are more laborious to adjust to music, but live video is always more advantageous. But you can even combine both options and use both images and live video, don’t mix it up so as not to create a video mess in the head of the person to whom it is addressed. It is better to build episodes from visual material and alternate them.
If for some reason, you do not want or cannot record your congratulations in the frame, you can make a video postcard of a different plan. Record your congratulatory speech only in the audio version, add the appropriate music, and add a video to this audio track by making a clip from photos or “live” video, that is, essentially combining the two options into one – a video postcard and a clip. The addressee will be happy with this option no less – guaranteed.
2. Making Video Clip as A Video Gift?
If you add several specially filmed interviews and voice-overs in your voice to photographs, archival footage, you can make and present an actual film.
In creating a movie, it is essential to formulate the idea, the theme of the film, what it will talk about, but it will also be necessary to work on the script. That is, the algorithm of actions for creating a movie will be as follows.
Steps for Creating A Video Clip (Message):
- Determine who this film is intended for and formulate the main idea that should be understood by the one who will watch it. And analyze what material you already have at your disposal, what you can shoot for your idea.
- Write a script plan, that is, build the entire composition according to thought. Determine where it is more advantageous to start, how to develop the story, and end it and create a drama.
- Based on the script plan, write a director’s script; that is, decide how to show your story with the help you will. What can, say, tell in a voice-over, who can speak to some part, that is, you can shoot an interview and insert it into a film as a fragment, etc.
- Carry out the necessary shooting. Review the material, select the appropriate fragments.
- Based on all available material, write the final script with a verbatim voice-over.
- Carry out editing: from assembly to voice over.
- Burn the resulting film to disk or upload it to a file hosting service.
Where to get ideas, and what can become the basis of a video gift?
Anything, now you will see it. The success of any video gift primarily lies in its exclusivity. It was created specifically for a specific person, which means that you need to look for ideas in the specifics of your relationship with this person. Without reason, it is not that all algorithms for creating a particular product start with the same thing – determining who will watch it.
Well, for example, you decided to make video gifts for your parents, girlfriend, and husband. Well, and for one crucial business partner.
Parents live in another city, they have not seen you and your grandchildren for a long time, which means they will be delighted to see and hear you all in the film that you will make as a gift.
If you precisely remove how you prepare a dish for a holiday according to mom’s recipe, the eldest son will show his room and tell what he learned at school. The sweetheart daughter will say to a rhyme – despite these seeming banalities, pride, and tears of joy in his eyes. Parents are provided for you because they will see that you are doing well and remember them.
If they do not see you every day in reality, then make the film “One Day in the Life of Your Family” and give them, give them one day that will be with them all year, and maybe in the future, you will give them such days regularly and as a result, accumulate a whole family video archive. Parents can not only see you themselves whenever they want but show you to their friends.
For example, you and your friend went on vacation to Greece this year, and you have a lot of photos that are still in your computer folders. So it’s time to make a video gift for her in the form of a clip. Find a Greek melody, but at least sirtaki, and edit an animated clip, connecting photos, for example, in a reportage style, that is, sequentially, as it was on your trip, some additional information can be added with captions. You can put any other thought in; the main thing is that it should be because otherwise, it will just be a set of photos.
And your husband can be completely smitten with your video gifts if you make an erotic video postcard or even arrange a striptease in front of the camera. Without a doubt, he will be pleased with such a gift.
Well, for an important business partner, you can also make an original video gift, even if you do not have a video with his participation, and there is not a single photograph of him. But you know that he dreams of buying a house by the warm sea. Make and present a video visualization of his dream, let it motivate him to realize it as soon as possible. To do this, find beautiful marine photos or views of the country where he dreams of buying a house, assemble them to music, and prepare personal relaxation.
As you can see, ideas can be very different. To generate them, I will now share with you one creative technique. It is called the “Method of focal objects.”
The idea behind this technique is to combine the features of different objects in one piece. For example, we took an ordinary candle and the concept of “New Year.” The New Year is associated with a sparkling sparkler; this sign can be transferred to a candle. If you grind a Bengal candle into powder and add wax, you get a “Christmas” candle with sparkling crumbs inside.
That’s how I took the five most common gifts; here they are a bouquet, sweets, a book, dishes, fun. And added the word “video” to them. And we got the following options: video bouquets, video sweets, video books, video dishes, and video hints.
Three of them – a video bouquet, a video book, and a video hitch – are exactly realizable; moreover, short congratulations of different people combined into one bouquet can become a video bouquet. Video sweets and video dishes can also be embodied if desired.
The theme in them is gastronomic, which means we are creative in this direction. For example, a person who loves to cook or collects recipes can make a video tutorial on cooking a dish or selecting recipes for their favorite dishes. It is directing – the ability to invent and implement something in your interpretation.
You may also like to read: Gift for Photographer: What to Give A Photographer?
Once upon a time, while still studying at the Theater and Cinema Institute, I repeatedly heard the phrase that “a good director will also put on a telephone directory,” because if you get down to business creatively, you can breathe life into practically anything. So create for the joy of yourself and your loved ones.
