I do many many things poorly, but one of the things I’m most proud of is how consistent I’ve been about making family videos over the past several years.
I’ve made one for most of our major trips, plus ones for Christmas and summer, and they are so beloved in our family.
Here’s the one I made of our Hawaii trip last spring:
My girls watch them ALL the time and I love seeing my little girls captured in movement, their little voices, and our interactions.
I mean, I love a good photo, but a video? There is just no comparison.
The good news is that making your own family videos is just NOT that hard and if you’re stuck at home right now, it’s the perfect time to try your hand at it.
Three quick things about making family videos:
I take all my videos with my iPhone. I can get better quality videos with my dSLR but the hassle is so much higher that I would just never do it. And phone cameras are 1) so good now and 2) always in your pocket or purse that I’d rather have a video that’s not QUITE as crisp but actually gets taken.
I always use iMovie on my laptop to make them. You can use the iMovie app on your phone, but it feels clunky to me since I’m used to the desktop version. It’s free and comes on every Apple computer. You can use Movie Maker if you have a PC.
I get all my music from SoundStripe. I buy an annual subscription each year and then I can download as many songs from their (MASSIVE) library as I want. I especially love that I can filter by length, vocals or no vocals, the mood of the song, or even holidays.
I’ve been fooling around with making videos for six or seven years, thanks to sponsored video requirements here and there, so I knew some of the basics, but I felt like my videos REALLY took a big step up when I took Sam Kelly’s Family Films with Sam course.
Whether you’ve never made a video in your life or if you’re already comfortable with the basics but want to take more interesting videos or step up your techniques, I can’t recommend her course highly enough. Use the code JANSSEN for $5 off.
My process for making family videos looks like this:
- Airdrop all the video clips from my phone to my computer. I put them in a special folder for that trip or season so they’re all in one place.
- Open up iMovie, start a new project and import all those video clips in to that project.
- I put the video clips in the general order that I want them.
- I go through each clip and trim out excess footage that’s making it super long, plus delete duplicate or blurry videos. I’m usually aiming to have my video between 3-5 minutes long.
- I add an opening title slide that has the location and date.
- I open Soundstripe and filter for songs that will work and then listen to clips until I find one I like. I download it, add it to my movie and then adjust my movie to fit the music length.
- I download my movie and upload a copy to my YouTube channel (I usually set my family movies as unlisted so I can share the link with grandparents or friends but they don’t come up in search or appear on my profile).
It takes me about 1.5 – 2 hours generally to make a movie and lots of it I can do while watching a show or listening to an audiobook.
Any other questions about making family videos? I’m happy to try to help!
Hi! Thanks for sharing this! Do you record all your videos horizontally? How do you manage that with the vertical filming that is better for IG if you want to post some of these videos on social media?
I record them all horizontally. I’m not making them for IG, so I don’t care about making them best for that.
This couldn’t be more timely. I had it on my list to research today. Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh, I’m so glad to hear it!
So interesting that the song comes late in your process! I make family movies a few times a year, and I won’t even start editing until I’ve chosen the song 🙂
Taking her course is on my list, based on your previous recommendations! I love your sweet videos you have shared before.
Question:
– how do you get the video back to your phone? (If you do that)
– do you delete the individual clips then, once your compilation is done?
Just trying to think through storage space…
(i would love to hear in general how you manage photo/video storage, especially as a blogger).
I airdrop the video back to my phone when I’m done if I need to, but mostly we just watch them through YouTube because then I can access them from any device.
And yes, I generally delete all the individual clips once my video is complete.
And I have no good storage system!
Thank you sharing your process – I’ve been wanting to start making videos of our family events, but wasn’t sure where to start. This was very helpful!
I’m so glad to hear it!
Any suggestions on what to use to create videos if you don’t have a Mac?
Windows Movie Maker!
I love this idea, but I’m wondering if you also include photos and not just videos? I think it would also work with iMovie? As my kids get older I tend to take less movies and more photos.
Yep! You can absolutely do photos – it works exactly the same.
Do you have a favorite video making course on skill share? I started one and it’s… how do I say this nicely? Boring! lol
Thank you!
I am curious what you put the sound level at to hear your voices from the video through the music! Making my first one and just need to figure out music and sound!
I usually move the music down to 30-40% and the sound up to 200-300%
Did you say you had a list of songs that are good for videos? I’m having a hard time picking a good one.
I don’t have a good list, but FAMILY FILMS WITH SAM includes a list of good songs!
Thank you!!
Just coming back to this post to say that I just made my first video from a family reunion and I LOVE IT! I think I was just intimidated by the process, but between your post and buying Sam’s course, I built up the courage. I still don’t think I take great videos, but almost every one has a 2 or 3 second clip that is special enough to make it into a family video. Thank you for the recommendation!! Can’t wait to make another one of our summer adventures
Yay!!!
Hi Janssen!
Thank you so much for this wonderfully informative and encouraging post. One of my 2022 resolutions is to get a grip on family videos, and you (and your recommendation for Sam’s video course) are a great help.
One question: do you ever run into blocking/copyright issues when posting your videos to your Youtube channel due to the music? I’m trying to figure out how much of a problem this will be. I plan to post privately, but I have discovered that music can still be blocked.
Thanks for any input!
No – I use music from SoundStripe which means I have the legal right to use it.
Thank you so much for your reply and for answering my question! That makes sense…I was wondering what the perk of subscribing to something something like SoundStripe is…there you have it! 🙂
Took Sam’s course based on your recommendation and loved it. Music question- if I only plan on making 1-2 videos a year and don’t want to pay $150/yr for the Soundstripe subscription, do you know of other music downloads where you can pay per song to have the rights?
oops, never mind- just went back to Sam’s pdf and found another option for per song licensing!