Blog Layout

Creating a Memorial Slideshow/Movie For Your Loved One’s Funeral

A Memorial slideshow/video is a fantastic and very personal way to honour the life of your loved one. It typically showcases the life and times of your loved in a format that everyone can enjoy and reflect on, and while they’re usually tear-jerkers, they certainly don’t have to be.

Memorial videos are normally played as a part of the funeral service within the chapel or church and provide a time of reflection for family and friends, but they can also be played at the wake afterwards so that people can have a little more time to enjoy the imagery.

So, what are the top tips when creating a memorial video:

The reality is that there are no real rules surrounding the images that you use, its all very personal to you and your loved one and family. And there’s no such thing as the ‘perfect’ memorial video. But if you’re a first timer in this space and aren’t quite sure where to start, here’s what we’d recommend.

Brainstorming

Take some time to go through the photos that you physically have, as well as any online, on your phone or camera. Ask other family members if they have input, if they have an image that’s just “perfect” for the memorial. What interests did they have, Were they part of a sporting club during their childhood? Did they have an extremely tight-knit group of friends? Did they have a pet they adored? Or maybe they loved nothing more than sipping ice cold mojitos on the beach? Brainstorm everything they loved, and create a list of people you could contact to get hold of some happy snaps and videos of them doing what they love, with the people they love.

Gather all the photos, videos, and voice recordings you can

Make sure you label all the photos you’ve received from friends and family so you know who to return each photo (or video) to after scanning everything onto your computer. There’s nothing more frustrating than handing over some of your favourite memories with a loved one, only to never have them returned to you.

Find the perfect sound track

This is part of the fun. So many genre`s Rock N Roll, Country, Classical, Jazz and the music should fit the deceased. Be original, and select a song that will truly reflect that person. This is a great way to honour them and add a little more meaning to your video.

Share the video after the funeral

A memorial video is such a wonderful way to show your love for your loved one, while ensuring all their loved ones feel included and as though they played an important part in the deceased’s life. Chances are, if you’ve borrowed images and videos from others, they’ll love a copy of the video for themselves, too.

Save Save Save, Save early Save often

Save it. Save it everywhere. On a USB (do those still exist?), a hard drive, the Cloud, or whatever storage facility (physical or non-physical) you have access to. You’ll be putting hours of work into something you might want to watch again at a later stage – so make sure you’ve saved it securely.

I’m not up to doing myself!!!

Your funeral director can also provide you guidance on professional services that can provide a highly polished video for a reasonable cost and they will normally forward the video directly to your Funeral provider or to the Memorial Park on your behalf in the correct format with music embedded.

This is an important part of the process. It will help the family to be involved in the process, will invoke memories and possibly start the healing process.