Little Dream Pictures FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Responses by Edward Craft, Creative Director, Little Dream Pictures

1. Typically, how long are the movies you make?

Around thirty minutes, give or take.

Short movies are best when they are meant to be shown at a special event. It's hard to hold the attention of a large group of people for more than five or ten minutes.

Similarly, even when your movie is meant to tell a family story from videos shot over a long period of time, it's best not to go too far beyond thirty minutes.

2. How do you decide what to use and what not to use?

We don't come in with any preconceptions. The first thing we do is watch every minute of everything you give us. By doing that, it usually isn't very hard to tell what is special to you and what isn't. The story reveals itself. We really only have to decide how to pace various parts of the movie, because that's what drives the editing. Even the pacing is often driven by the music, and the right music usually reveals itself, too.

Keep in mind also that some decisions are easy. For example, if you have footage of your child's first steps – even if it isn't very good – I guarantee you it will be in your movie.

3. Does my video have to be in any particular format?

No. Even if you have some of the old Sony Betamax tapes, we can work with them (assuming they haven't deteriorated).

4. Can we send you copies of our tapes to work with?

This is going to be a long answer.

We would greatly prefer to work with your originals. Your movie will look best if we work with your originals. An exception would be if you recorded with a digital video camera and have made a purely digital copy. But few people have the equipment to do that.

Every other form of copying results in a severe loss of image quality. This is especially true if you copy to VHS. It's still true if you have a DVD copy made of your tapes, because DVD-making involves such extreme compression. Can we work with copies? Yes. Will we if you insist? Yes. Just know that the picture quality won't be what it could be if we had your originals.

If you are concerned about losing your tapes in transit, here is my advice. Make a copy, but you keep that, and send the originals to us. Send them to us by Fedex and let us know when they are to arrive. Fedex rarely loses anything outright. We have never had a problem with them. By knowing when the tapes will arrive, we can be sure someone is here in person to receive them.

5. Can we include still pictures to be used in our movie?

By all means, yes. That includes slides, too. We have made movies completely from photographs. Photos can be put in motion to tell a story just as well as video. (The best example is the amazing movie Ken Burns made about the Civil War, working only with photographs.)

If you have some objects that you want in your movie – airplane tickets that you would like to see flying across the screen, for example, send them along. We can use them.

6. I have some old Super-8mm movies I would love to have included in my movie. Can you use them?

Yes. They have to be converted to digital video. We outsource that, so there is a reasonably modest additional cost. But it's a good thing to do anyway, for preservation purposes.

7. Can I select the music for my movie?

Yes, and you would probably want to for a short movie, five minutes or so, which probably only has one song. For longer movies we definitely want to know if you have any desires for music, and we'll be sure to meet them. But it's also a good idea to give us some room to be creative. What we come up with may surprise you. We don't start a project with a plan for what music to use. To a large extent, we let inspiration have its way with us. That makes the editing work a lot more fun. It is also the reason no two of our movies are ever alike.

8. I have seen the sample of your own family movie. I'm afraid I'm not as good at shooting as you. Can you still make a decent movie out of my video?

Thank you for the compliment, but I'm not nearly as good a videographer as my movies make it appear. The editing makes me look much better than I am. So, the good news is that our editing will do the same for you!

Some of my photography training transfers to video, but not all of it. There are a lot of unique skills involved in shooting video. I don't know them all. But I know a few key ones, and they appear on our Video Tips page.

9. My new computer came with free digital video editing software. Why can't I do this myself?

You probably can make a decent basic video using the entry-level software on your computer. Apple's iMovie, which comes pre-installed on every Macintosh, makes the task as easy as possible. But you may not have the equipment, time, skill and knowledge to produce a professional movie.

The amount of time required is considerable. We're professionals. We have a lot of experience and use state-of-the-art equipment. Even with this, it takes us several hours to produce each minute of your finished movie. It also takes a great deal of time and talent to syncopate the right soundtrack to the video images. And, quite frankly, it is very hard to edit your own video. It is very hard to leave footage on the cutting room floor. Few writers edit themselves, and just as few filmmakers do.