Often, these folks, like my friend and client Jack Koller, were people who were very skilled in some aspect of what we did. As an example, Jack is an excellent photographer, so he was intrigued by how we mixed photography with sound and somehow got an audience-ready show out of that.

In later years, that person might have been a camcorder enthusiast, or a sound specialist, or even a writer.

Because of the way we started– right out of college with no formal education in what we decided to do for a living– I became more of a generalist. Plus, we could only afford so much gear. My partner Ric and I were good at certain things, but it was the holistic aspect of the audience experience where we had to be strong. In short, if the equipment was average, the end product better be above average. By not being ultimately strong at any one aspect, we offered a product that had to be more than the sum of its parts.

However, with hardly a quarter century of living under our belts, the answer to the question of "How do you do that" was often "Uh, I don’t know."

Well, having been at this for quite a while, I’ve had more time to think about it, and so I put down on paper (well, actually a PDF) my thoughts on how one assembles the kind of video I love to do most– the tribute video.

A tribute video honors an individual, either on a personal level or a business level. It looks at their life, their achievements, their family lineage, their ups and downs. Ultimately it is a celebration. It is usually emotional, and usually has real impact on an audience. It’s pretty much how I got my start.

So today, we quietly launched the sale of our book,
“Tribute Videos for Love & Money”, which is really a book about how
to tell a video story, or more bluntly, how to make really good videos.

It uses as it’s main examples “tribute videos”. But the lessons are far more universal.

It is 120 pages or so, generously illustrated, and is accompanied by tutorials and samples, some ready now, some ready soon. The layout and design by Diane Wilson compliments the warmth of the subject matter.

I hope you’ll consider looking at what the book has to offer and
perhaps purchasing a copy for your family video-maker, your company
video people, or yourself. There are a lot of good ideas in it, and a
pretty good explanation of the philosophies and structures of
videomaking we have been using for the past 35 years. Go here: http://www.videostoryschool.com.

I will be mailing a copy to current clients. But if you can’t wait, email me and I’ll zap one out to you electronically right away.

Thanks

Brien Lee