Chad's Graduation
Chad's wife was planning an elaborate graduation party for her husband on the day of his graduation. She wanted to show a video to commemorate the years he spent in medical school.
Objective
The objective of the project was to create a digital photo album for Chad to serve as a reminder of all his hard work and achievements.
Challenges
The challenge for this project was two fold: the number of photos and the deadline. Chad's family had 600 photos where most photo albums are about 200 photos. Six hundred photos would make this movie run about 20 minutes. The challenge was to keep those 20 minutes interesting. Viewers would quickly get bored with twenty minutes of photos if it wasn't edited in a dynamic and unique way.
The second challenge was the deadline. Though the project was given to me months ahead of time, Chad's wife wanted to include photos that were taken on the day of the graduation to be included in this video which was going to be shown later that night. Scheduling had to be just right to get done and delivered on time.
Solution
I knew this had to be more than photos cycling through endlessly on the screen. I decided to use the concept of the collage. By grouping the photos together and allowing the viewer to "fly" around the photos, the photos could come alive. In this way, the viewer feels like they are floating through the pictures. These techniques used with other simple editing mixed in would allow Chad and his family a fun way to relive the last four years of his medical school experience.
Getting the project completed by deadline was a challenge since photos from the graduation ceremony still had to be added. Though adding a few photos to a project takes little time, a completed movie can take up to 10 hours to convert to DVD format. I only had 6 hours or so from the time I got the photos to the time the graduation party would take place.
I had been working on the project for weeks and by the day of graduation the project was completed except for the placeholders for the graduation photos. I did a test-run ahead of time to see how long the render would take. I scheduled the time and delivery of the photos in order to have enough time to add the photos, render the movie and transfer it to DVD.
The client lived in town and I was able to hand deliver the project just before the graduation party.
