A milestone birthday banquet is often the rare day the whole family is in one place. Children and grandchildren come back from wherever they live, old friends fill several tables, and the guest of honour sits at the front. A film of their life on the big screen, from childhood photos to holding a great-grandchild, is often the quietest moment of the evening, and the one most people film on their phones. Collecting the material takes the most time, so start as early as you can.
Running order
- Opening: one defining photo of the guest of honour, with a title such as "Celebrating 80 Years".
- Stages of life: childhood, school, marriage, career, retirement. Five to ten photos each, and video if there is any.
- Family time: the children when small, family trips, grandchildren arriving.
- Greetings: a line each from children, grandchildren and old friends, around ten seconds per person.
- Closing: a family photo, with one sentence from the whole family to the guest of honour.
For playback at the banquet, five to eight minutes works best. If there is more to include, make a separate full version for the family to keep.
Collecting material
- Old photos: gather them from siblings and relatives; scan them, or photograph them from directly above in daylight without flash. Write any year and place noted on the back into the file name or a list.
- Old video: have tapes and discs converted to digital files first.
- Greetings: send one message with recording instructions: phone held sideways, ten seconds, say who you are first. The method is the same as for a wedding; see collecting greetings videos.
- The guest of honour in their own words: if possible, record them talking about their life beforehand and place it in the middle or at the end; see the interview method in making a family documentary.
Important photos that are torn or faded can be restored first; for an assessment, use our repair site.
Easy to follow for every generation
- Large text on title cards, readable from the back table.
- Years and places on cards, so the younger generation can follow the order of events.
- Subtitles for greetings in Taiwanese or Hakka.
- Songs the guest of honour loved in their day change the atmosphere completely. Music choices differ between playing only at the banquet and uploading publicly; see music copyright for event videos.
Playback at the venue
Check with the restaurant or venue first: screen or projector ratio, playback equipment (laptop or USB drive), accepted file formats and where the sound comes from. Take the finished film for a test early, and bring a backup copy. See playing a video at the venue.
Before sending it to us
Sort the photos by period, list who appears in the greetings, and tell us the banquet date, the venue's playback equipment and the mood you'd like, through the form or LINE. A banquet date can't move, so try to have all material in three to four weeks ahead. Other kinds of private commission are listed under private commissioned videos.
Frequently asked questions
There are hundreds of photos. Do they all go in?
No. Thirty or forty of the most meaningful are enough for the banquet version; the rest can go into the full version for the family.
It's a surprise. How do we keep it secret?
Collect material in a separate group without the guest of honour, with a name that doesn't give it away. Mention it when you contact us.
There's only a week left. Is that enough time?
It depends on whether the material is all collected and how long the film is. Tell us the date and the state of the material first; see rush video editing.
