We received an email from a reader suggesting we write an article comparing the cost and time it takes to create your own keepsake video as opposed to hiring us to create a Legacy video for you. We thought this was a great idea.
When you walk into your local computer store, you are met with aisles of the newest technological toys. They are enticing indeed. We can barely walk into a computer store without turning into a 3 year old at eye-level with the candy aisle! How simple it all looks. Just plug this equipment into the computer, install this new “amazingly simple” video software and TA DA, a Hollywood production spits out your DVD drive. If only it were that simple.
As our reader explained, “I figured that between the cost to upgrade (Scanner $170, video card $100, slide show software $100, VCR $80, DVD Burner $75, ram (just for the video) $45) I ended up spending over $570 just so I could create one family keepsake video for my mother for Mother’s Day. I estimate I spent about 80 hours from start to finish, mostly to figure out what I was doing and work around bugs and crashes.”
He wanted to do this himself because, as he explained, “I guess the reason I chose to do it myself was more for CUSTOMIZATION, but perhaps you could stress that the do it yourselves might save themselves some time, money and aggravation by using your services.”
Thank you David for that great letter and we are sorry we weren’t able to help you with creating your Mother’s Day video but you do bring up some terrific points.
At Legacy Multimedia, we have been doing these videos for years. We have the highest quality commercial equipment and the latest versions of professional software and on top of that, we know how to use them. We can create a video in a fraction of the time it would take you to follow our reader’s path. And as for customization, all of our work is customized so we give you exactly what you want and not your photos stuck into some template from an inexpensive off-the-shelf software product. Just something to think about when you’re wandering around the electronics store.
argh indeed! I’ve also been playing around with the various video editing suites recently. No small task to make a video interview, which I thought would be straightforward. On on.