Thinking about doing video scrapbooking as a hobby/side business.

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here and I'm hoping to get some useful feedback from some of you on an idea I have.
I've been doing video editing and creating my own sort of video scrapbook of my own vacations etc for a while now and had a thought the other day of maybe doing it as a side business/hobby. I don't think I'll get rich off of it, but I enjoy it and thought it may be something I could do when I retire from UPS in 6 years.
So here's my question and why I'm here invading your forum. I figured that people who are into scrapbooking may or may not like the idea of video scrapbooking and I want to get some feedback on if you think it's a good idea and if you think there would be a market for it. We all take pictures on vacations, at weddings, at kid's sporting events etc., and some people take the time to scrapbook, but most people don't have the time or the software and/or know how to put together a nicely organized, fun video collection of the event. It could be just photos or a combination of videos and photos etc.
Below is a link to one I did recently of a vacation we took so if you have the time, please check it out and let me know if you think people would be willing to pay for stuff like that and roughly how much you think something like that would be worth. I'm completely oblivious as to it's "value".
Vacation Video Link

Please don't take this as soliciting as I am simply trying to bounce an idea of you to see if this is even anything people might be interested in. Just like going back through an old scrapbook once in a while, I find it fun to watch an old video of one of our vacations etc.

Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance for any feedback you can give me.

cheers,
Steve

It looks like a great way to reminisce about your vacation, but there would have to be some narration, or at least sub-titles, to make sense to someone who wasn't there.
I can see, if you can market to the proper customer base, you could do pretty good at it.

Several years I had an hour-long video made for my mother for Mother's Day with our family when we were growing up and then each of my brothers and their kids and then my family and kids. Was nice but expensive.

Entire project was around $700 but then not many people made them.

One of my friends also paid $700 and got one made for her parents as an anniversary gift.

Mine is on VHS, one day I need to get it converted to DVD.

Wow! $700 seems pretty steep unless there was a lot of fancy visual effects added into it. If it was just creating kind of a slide show to music, that seems like way too much to pay for something like that. Unless there's something I'm missing, I would guesstimate charging half that for that kind of project, but there may be aspects to it I don't know about.
Were the pictures already in digital format or did the person they hired have to take a box of old photos and convert them all to digital? If so, that makes more sense as that would be very time consuming.

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.

Steve

They had to scan everything. This was in 1993 or somewhere around there and I'm not even sure we had scanners for home use.

They did a lot of music.

They came out to my house and did a videotape of my two boys - then young teenagers.

One was sitting with a big photo album and the oldest one walked in and asked him, "Hey - what you doing?"

The other, sitting with the books said, "I'm going through some of the old family photo albums. Mom is explaining who some of the people are"

Then he scooted over and makes room for his brother to sit down.

Then the oldest one said, "Can you start at the beginning again, doesn't look like you've gone very far and Joe said, "Sure and then flipped the book to the first page".

His brother asked him, "Who is this? It looks like a really old photo."

You hear my voice, (Done in the studio as the picture is showing. "It is an old photo John. That is my great grandfather Bonner. Your great-great grandfather. He is my grandmother Bonner's father. His name was (whatever it was). And on this page, that is his wife, (Callie Gilbert Bonner), your great great grandmother on your mom's side.

And this is my grandmother, you great grandmother, Amner Lorene Bonner. She was borh in 1898! And this is her husband, your great grandfather - Clarene Bonner and when he was born.

The picture showing at that point was of their great grandparents. I gave the names of who they were, when they were born or a tidbit of information about them if I knew anything.

Then John asked, "Is there a book for Grandpa Gibson's side of the family? I told him their was, and handed him another big album.

Then we did the same thing with my dad's grandparents and his parents.

Once we got through my grandparents and great-grandparents with the boys asking questions and me answering the questions about who the people were as the camera showed the pictures which were scanned in at the studio.

Then one of the boys said, this is really interesting - lets look at another book. Then the other one said, "that sound good - I want to see it too." That is the end of them being in it on video.

The next thing was a sign with my daddy's name and then pictures of him growing up. Then one with my mom's name and her growing up. I asked mom what she wanted for daddy's pictures of him growing up and she wanted, "Love Me Tender".

Then one called "Henry and Jeannelle" which were my parents when they were dating and married but before kids. Mom loved Andy Williams' "Hawaiian Wedding song" so we used that for their pictures.

Then one "Gibson Family" which was my parents and my brothers and me growing up in Miami.

Then a sign that said, "Henri's family" and that was pictures of me and my first husband and my two boys growing up.

Then Randy's Family - pictures of him and his wife and their family growing up.

Then my other brother's family on a sign and then his family growing up.

Then we had a sign that said, "Aunts, Uncles and Cousins" with other relatives on them.

One for "Family Friends" which showed friends throught the years that my parents were close to, including some of the friends we grew up with.

Mom loves the song White Christmas when sang by Bing Crosby so I added a sign that said, "Christmas over the years" and it showed Christmas pictures from all of us with White Christmas in the background.

If I had it to do over again I would do it the same way - with two of the teenagers or younger on video asking about the pictures with a voice to the side answering them.

I had to go into the studio to add my voice in and I never was seen in the video.

• Henri Jean Said:

Sounds like a very special and well thought out video for sure. I can do all the narration stuff to as I'm a musician first and have a recording studio, but I still think that seems like a lot to pay for that. You seem happy with it and that's what matters most.