Movie Studio
Welcome to the Movie Studio - the home of our photo montage movies! We take you through each step of the movie making process so that it is easy to understand and easy to put together. Let's begin with taking a look at the overall process involved in making your movie.
Movie Making Process
Designing your photo montage movie is as simple as "Lights, Camera, Action" with three phases to the process (see image below). The first phase. "Lights: The Director's Job", is the one you need to be most concerned with since it is the work you need to do to assemble and ship your order to us. This phase includes 6 steps which are: 1. Select Your Pictures. 2. Organize Your Pictures. 3. Choose Your Music. 4. Choose Your Background(s). 5. Place Your Order. 6. Ship Your Order To Us. More details about each of these steps is covered in our How To Guide.
The second phase, "Camera: The Producer's Job", is what we do to create your movie. Although this is a very technical job, it is easily understood by grouping our tasks into five steps. 1. Scan Your pictures. 2. Produce Your Movie. 3. Make Your DVD. 4. Create Your Package. 5. Ship Your Movie To You.
The last phase in the process, "Action", is simply to gather your friends and family and enjoy the show!
You Are The Director
Making a photo montage movie is very personal. That is why we make sure you are involved as much as possible in the decision-making process. As the director, you call the shots! This means you get to choose:
- The number of pictures.
- The number of songs.
- How long or short your movie will be (based on number of songs and pictures).
- The background(s) (more details on backgrounds is on our movie package pages).
- What captions are used and how many (select packages only).
- The overall theme and color scheme.
- The order the pictures will appear on the screen.
- What the intro and closing will look like.
- The screen size of your movie (full or wide screen).
- Other details based on the package you select.
We Are The Producers
Our movies are a complete package! We don't skimp on the details or make you pay extra for every little feature. All our movie packages include a base set of features which create a great movie. Mix those together with the added features included in each package and you now have an award winning production! As the producers, we do the following with no additional charges:
- Scan all your documents, pictures, negatives and 35mm slides (referred to as simply "pictures" throughout the site).
- Purchase and download all songs you've chosen on your behalf.
- Create a full color cover and DVD to match your theme.
- Create your movie using the Ken Burns Effects.
- Add transitions between your pictures so the movie is smooth and fluid.
- Create a Main Menu.
- And do any additional tasks related to the package you select.
The Red Carpet Treatment
We believe in a high level of standards when working with your media and creating your movie. That is why all of our movie packages are given the Red Carpet Treatment.
This includes:
- The Archival Touch
- High Quality Scanning
- Photo Enhancement
- Professional Sound
- Professional Quality Media
Red Carpet Treatment Details
Archival Touch: We take great care in handling your photos, negatives and slides. Our fingers never touch your negatives since we use archival gloves during the scanning process. We also use a special photo cloth to remove fingerprints from pictures prior to scanning.
High Quality Scanning: Our minimum scanning resolution is 300 dpi and is at least 2400 dpi for slides. All pictures are saved in the .tiff file format for the best preservation of your picture details.
Photo Enhancement: All pictures that we personally scan will be digitally enhanced. Photo enhancement includes restoring faded pictures, fixing minor flaws (such as remove pen marks, minor lines, and dust) and adjusting brightness and contrast. It is by no means a full photo restoration of pictures. We cannot fix badly torn pictures or ones that are extremely bright, dark or faded.
Professional Sound: Your video will have the professional sound like the Hollywood movies. All music is faded in and out so you won't have any abrupt transitions.
Professional Quality Media: We use the highest level of professional DVD's meant to give longer life to your video. We also use printable DVD's so you don't have to worry about labels peeling off and damaging your DVD player.
Special Features
Along with the standard features of our movies, we also offer the following Special Features which may be added to your movie package for an additional charge.
- Digital Picture Discount
- Custom Pages
- Video Segments
- Photo CD/DVD
- Include Both Wide & Full Screen Versions
- Sneak Preview Service
- Excessive Photo Organization
- Additional DVD Copies
- Rush Service
- Shipping Fees
Special Features Details
Digital Picture Discount: If you supply us with all digital pictures, you will receive a discount on the package price (not including the cost of extra features).
Custom Pages: Add a custom page with a poem, personal note or quote. In depth custom pages need to be discussed prior to ordering and may require additional fees based on the complexity of the page.
Video Segments: You may include your own video segments as long as they are already in a digital format (MPEG, AVI, MOV, or QuickTime format) and are no longer than 5 minutes each.
Photo Disk: Have a safe archive of your pictures by ordering a CD or DVD of the pictures we scan for your order (included free in some packages).
Wide & Full Screen: Include both screen size versions of your video on your DVD and choose which one to watch from the DVD menu.
Sneak Preview Service (recommended): Order our sneak preview service to be able to see your video on-line before the final production. This service allows you to make certain changes to your movie. See our FAQ to learn more about which changes are allowed .
Excessive Photo Organization: If your order arrives to us in a complete mess, we will charge you an hourly fee to organize the photos to the best of our ability. In this situation, you will be notified prior to our working on it.
Additional DVD Copies: Order extra copies of your video at the time of the original order or at a later time.
Rush Service: Rush service may be available for your order. You must contact us to see if our schedule allows for a rush service order to be processed. If you do not call ahead to make these arrangements, we cannot guarantee your order will be rushed.
Shipping Fees: Shipping fees are not included in the package price and must be added into your final price.
Special Features Pricing
| Additional Costs & Extras | Price (each) |
| All Digital Pictures Discount | -15% |
|---|---|
| Custom Pages | $10.00 |
| Video Segments | $15.00 |
| Photo CD of Scanned Images | $5.00 |
| Include Both Wide and Regular Screen Versions | $75.00 |
| Preview Service | $30.00 |
| Excessive Photo Organization | $25/hr |
| Additional DVD Copies (with initial order) | $15.00 |
| Additional DVD Copies (after initial order) | $25.00 + s/h |
| Rush Service Fee (Minimum of $25) | 20% |
| USPS Priority Shipping | $15.00 |
| USPS Express (2 Day) Shipping | $40.00 |
Movie Packages Overview
We have two categories of photo montage movies- classic and special. Our Classic Movies are geared for all occasions, holidays and events while our Special Movies are designed for a specific event such as a memorial service or wedding. Within each category, there are several different packages offered.
All of our movie packages include the base features discussed above and then each package has additional features added. All of our Special Features seen above can be added to any of our packages. The special movies have a bit more structure to them which usually guides the number of songs and pictures used throughout the movie but our classic movie packages give you the freedom to create a movie that has as few as 25 and as many as 200+ pictures.
Movie Making Tools
To help with the movie making process, we have put together a set of resources and tools, each of which is described below.
- Movie Demos: Watch some of our movie demos to have a better understanding of the different movie concepts such as transitions, chapters and main menus. You can also watch full demos of some of the packages we offer.
- Backgrounds Gallery: Select your movie background(s) from our large gallery of background images and animations. Our gallery also has special images which are geared for title pages and the main menu. Organized by theme, you can easily jump to subjects of interest to find the perfect setting for your movie.
- Creative Idea Center: Our Idea Center will help you design your movie by offering two diferent tools. The first tool is to see different ways you can organize your movie. The second tool provides music suggestions where you can listen to clips of songs.
- How To Guide: A complete guide which you may read on-line or save to your computer and print. This guide will take you through the steps of preparing your pictures and shipping your materials to us.
So Let The Show Begin....
