We really love the feel of telling stories through video. It brings storytelling to life in moments. We have created this page of video resources, links, templates, and articles to enjoy. Take a moment to browse and read articles we have written about our tried and true video storytelling experiences.
(Disclaimer: This page contains a few affiliate links which means if you purchase some of the products with our links, we make a small commission. We really appreciate it! This is a tiny part of our income, but every bit helps.)
Evalogue.Life video articles
Ten tips for fast and free video storytelling
Children, technology and family stories = magic
Get 10% off an annual plan with Animoto with our coupon code. Click here.
Best affordable microphones we use
Video Stories: Free, easy and awesome new video tools you’ll love
Use Free Adobe Spark and Animoto (subscription):
- Tutorial for Adobe Spark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikek-y5jNE8
- Start using free Adobe Spark: https://spark.adobe.com
- Video – Getting started with Animoto: https://youtu.be/qYH8Vr4U420
- Get 10% off an Animoto subscription with our code. Click here.
Graphics, Images, Music and Narration:
- Make pretty graphics using free Canva templates & images online: https://www.canva.com
- Check out Canva’s collection of video templates by clicking here
- Adobe Express also makes graphics. Check out the Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) Page: “Create beautiful web pages in minutes.” (There are free and premium versions): https://www.adobe.com/express/create/video
- Unsplash for royalty free images: “Beautiful, free photos. Gifted by the world’s most generous community of photographers.” https://unsplash.com
- Archive.org: “A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music…” Great selection of royalty-free historic images and video clips. https://archive.org
- Public domain images at NY Public Library: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org
- We sometimes purchase high-quality images and B-roll video clips from iStock. They have a large selection of photos that don’t look so stock.
- We love the ShotBox to photograph personal documents, heirlooms and artifacts for video.
- Check out your local FamilySearch library for scanning and digitizing many types of your family’s media, for free.
- QromaTag – an app that allows you to permanently attach the story with the photo. In technical terms, it embeds labels, dates, and other descriptions into the photo’s meta data, so it is like writing on the back of the photo. It even has a speech recognition tool and a way to scan and organize photos too. Click here for the QromaTag website.
An overview about using copyrighted music
We liked this article to give some background about using music. This is why we prefer using the music included in the free libraries with Animoto and Adobe Spark, because you won’t get in trouble for using the songs. Click here to read the article
Editing and digitizing audio:
- Download free Audacity software for editing audio: http://www.audacityteam.org
- Edit, Save and Transcribe Audio –12 tips family historians: https
- ://evalogue.life/record-voice/
- Digitize cassettes with Audacity: You can connect a CD or cassette player to your computer and digitize it for free using Audacity software. I use Audacity a lot for editing audio file, and it has been a wonderful tool. Check out this YouTube video for how to complete the process. Click here to watch a YouTube video showing how. If this seems like too much hassle or you don’t have the right equipment to play your old formats, have our friends at Larsen Digital do the work for you. They have done a great job for us on reel-to-reel audio and old film reels.
Microphones we use for making video:
- Sony lavalier (lapel) microphone. This is not the cheapest model, but is a good solid mid-grade mic. Click here to get it on Amazon.
- Desktop podcast grade Blue Yeti microphone for narrating videos. For many home uses, you don’t need something this fancy, but we use it a lot and really love this model.
- Rode boom microphone for recording multiple speakers for video, or in noisy locations where we can’t use a lavalier (lapel) microphone). Here is a kit with the pole.
- Our favorite digital recorder by Olympus. Check it out on Amazon by clicking here.
The art of interviewing for family stories:
- Free interviewing mini-course: https://evalogue.life/mini-course/
- Questions everyone should ask – free printable
- Great interview questions
- Transcription tools and reviews: https://evalogue.life/transcription
You Tube
Here is a link to our YouTube channel if you’d like to watch our videos. We invite you to subscribe. 🙂 This way you can watch all of our videos using the different tools we teach about plus the tutorial videos we showed in class.
Would you like help?
We love meeting with clients one-on-one. In these sessions we can storyboard your memoir, map out a custom plan to tell a life story, or help you get organized. We also make slideshow videos for clients.
- Click here to contact us for a free consultation or to schedule an appointment
- Click here for an overview of the life story services we offer, and our rates
Family story videos:
- Slide show videos:
- Once initial interviews are done, slide show videos without voice narration cost: $125 for the first 90 seconds + $30 for each 30 seconds thereafter. Clients provide approximately 5 digitized high-resolution photographs for every 30-seconds of video.
- For voice narration, add $40 for every 30 seconds of video. The narration can come from audio clip(s) pulled from interviews, or can be done by one a voice-over professional (we work with several).
- Produced videos:
- For other custom video work, please contact Evalogue.Life. Costs vary, but family story videos generally run from $250 to $450 per finished minute of video depending on whether filming is needed, and how much editing is involved.
Life story interviews
We conduct professional life story interviews, which are often given as gifts to parents or grandparents. Each interview takes several hours of our time, and includes the initial consultation, life story questions, approximately 50 minutes of audio recording, audio files on a flash drive, and the interviewer notes.
Coaching and custom plans:
If you have the spark to write your story, but would like to collaborate on getting organized, storyboarding your tale, or handling technology, we love coaching clients. This is a cost-effective way to save a lot of learning curve. We will give you our best tools of the trade and let you pick our brain, packaged with a boost of encouragement. Use the form below to contact us and tell us about your project.
Gift certificates:
Gift certificates are available in any amount and make a meaningful alternative to buying “stuff.” We have many families give their parents, grandparents or partner a life story interview for a holiday or birthday. Please fill out the form below so we can connect and provide you with the gift certificate you’d like.
Disclaimer: This page contains a few affiliate links which means if you purchase some of the products with our links, we make a small commission. We really appreciate the support you give us when you use our links. It’s a tiny part of our income, but it helps!