Mother's Day is an opportunity to honor your mom with something special. If you're struggling to come up with a gift this Mother's Day May 8 — or if you just want to do something different — a video can be a unique present you can make for Mom that she's bound to treasure for a lifetime. Here are some ideas for making a special video.
Invite the whole family
If your family members live far away from your mother, then her being able to "see" them can be an extra special treat. Try to collect video clips from several different family members wishing your mom a happy Mother's Day. Most computers and phones these days have some sort of built-in video recording capability and could be used to shoot a short contribution to your film.
If you or your siblings have children, try and include them in the video as well. Each family is different, but typically the more people you can include in your film who are close to your mom, the better.
Up close and personal
Not sure what to say in your video message to Mom? Tell your mom what makes her special to you. Recount a heartwarming story or funny mishap from your childhood. Unique stories add a nice, personal touch to your video and will be something your mom will want to watch over and over again.
A picture's worth a thousand words
Try incorporating photos of you and your mom into your video, as well. Pictures can be great to lay over some of the video clips of you or your sibling talking; they can even be set to music and watched like a music video of your childhood.
For instance, try putting a picture of you on your bicycle on the screen while you're telling the story of your mom showing you how to ride without training wheels. Try mixing together pictures from when you were growing up with photos of your children or grandchildren.
Most basic video editors provide the option to create slide shows of the pics within your editor, with built-in transitions between images.
Short and sweet
Stories are great. Including lots of people in your video is great. Including lots of people telling 20-minute stories is going to get old very fast.
Try to keep individual contributions in your video down to a few minutes or less, especially if you are including many different people in your final product. If you're combining pictures and video, try using the photos to break up the individual video clips.
Running behind?
Did you know some video sharing sites such as YouTube allow you to upload videos and set them to private status? If you're finishing your video at the last minute, you can upload your finished product to the site and send the link to your mom via email. She can then bookmark the address and watch it whenever she likes, without having to hunt down the file.
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