In Pre-Production you lend us your old home movies or film, photos, and any music you choose. We then put together a guideline for an interview and set dates for the interviews. In Production phase we shoot the interviews, any miscellaneous footage of important places and such, and begin loading materials into our studio’s computer. In Post-Production we make a rough cut of the video, integrate any graphics or narration, then make our pre-final cut, including fixed audio, music, more precise editing, color correction, and other finishing touches. That version of the project we will bring for you to view and approve. If there are no changes to be made the project is put onto a DVD for you to keep in your family treasure. The DVD and all the raw materials you provided that were not already returned are delivered and the project is “in the can”.

Although each project may differ slightly depending on what you are looking for, below is a more detailed guide for what Marksman Ship Pictures could do for a typical Heritage Movie:

1. Home Movies – The first step is to dig up your old home movies and sift through what you would like to appear in the final product. Moving images of the past add a lot to a project, so if you are lucky enough to have them we highly suggest bringing them to the table.

Marksman Ship would like your role in making your Heritage Movie to be made as easy as possible; our other major concern is getting to the heart of your project. MSP can go through tapes with you if you need some assistance, or we can even go through tapes on our own. If you are able to be in on this initial process, however, it assuredly will go a long way. This may seem a tedious process, but it is well worth it, as no one will know who or what is important to your family as much as you.

You may elect to review your movies yourself. What you will want to do, if you are playing them on a VCR, Beta machine, or camcorder is rewind the tape completely, eject and reinsert the tape, then play and watch the counter on the camera or VCR. When you see a section you would like in the video, make a note of the timeframe and what we should be looking for. If you are dealing with 8mm or 16mm film you should consult with us as to the best approach to work them into the final video.

2. Photographs – The next step is to locate all the photos that will be featured in the project. These could be shown during interviews, in photo montages with music, or even as a “who’s who” section in the DVD with the pictures and the names of those in them.

To help us in the editing department, it would be good to write on the back of the photograph(or on a sticky note attached to the back) who the people are (left to right), where it was taken, what was the event, and when, but the most important are of course the names.

This will help us properly match any narration to the right faces. The more details, the more we can get to the heart of your family story, which is instrumental in constructing a great Heritage Movie.

3. Organize Interview – For this next step we will help you draw up a blueprint for the interview (or interviews if there is more than one person to be featured in the film). Together we will discover some of the topics to be covered, some basic questions we can ask, some stories we would like the subject to tell, and have a solid outline for the flow of the movie.

Having a well-structured Heritage Movie will fill gaps in your family video project, steer it in a direction, and make it storytelling affect stand out. We want whoever sees your family’s Heritage Movie to be thoroughly engaged throughout the entire experience.

4. Music – Music tells a story as much as words and pictures. When selecting the music you would like featured in the documentary, think about what kind of music matches the mood of the piece. Maybe use music that is important to the subject, or songs that encapsulate who the person is. Maybe they are songs from the times that person lived, if they are no longer here. Another option is for us to score the movie with a personalized soundtrack, which truly could give your movie a sound that nobody else has.

5. Lastly we will setup a schedule to meet the interviewees on site, which could be a location of particular significance, but of course does not need to be. If you have prepared your photos, music, and home movies they can go to Marksman Ship Pictures’ studio to begin loading them into the computer.

6. Once we have the dates in place we will assemble a small film crew, usually ranging from 1-2 filmmakers. These team members will set up the video camera, microphones and lighting for the interview. Depending on the sound and light in the selected place, the requirements may vary, but a good setup takes around a half hour. It is quite doable for one filmmaker to prepare and conduct the interview, it simply may take a little longer.

7. Your Heritage Movie interview gets underway. Our goal is to get as much as possible in the first day of shooting. A typical interview day could go up to 6 hours of shooting, it really depends on how much steam the interviewee has. If more days are needed, or a tighter schedule is required, we will arrange accordingly.

During the interview we may think of questions that may be particularly good for the Heritage Movie that were not thought of before. The “blueprint” we drew up in Pre-Production we do not necessarily want to act as a script, but moreover a guideline for a dialogue, which will be most natural and successful when it ends up on screen.

8. At the end of the interviewing we break down the setup, which takes approximately 10-20 minutes.

9. Once your interviews, photos, music and home video materials are lined up at our studio, we’re ready to begin the exciting part—building your movie.

10. After transferring any film, VHS tape or other analog media to a digital medium, they will become editable. Following our notes from our “blueprint” discussion with you, we will begin assembling a rough cut of the movie. We will incorporate your photographs as well, enhancing them by removing defects on the photos such as tears and dust as much as possible. These improvements will be made to our digital copies of your photos—your originals will remain in the condition they were received. We also lay down any other voice-over narration or music into the rough cut.

11. Once the rough cut is complete we will fine-tune the visuals with tighter, more exact editing. All the photos and video will undergo what is known as Color Correction, in which we will bring out the colors and fix contrast, so as to attain the highest quality image. Any video dissolves, fades, or other transitions to be added will be placed between clips at this point.

Additionally, if you would like to have custom-built motion graphics integrated into the movie, we develop and insert those as well at this juncture. The capability of the program we use for these graphics is quite revolutionary in the private video market. Up until a few years ago it would have cost tens of thousands of dollars to achieve what we can do with this current technology.

12. Audio is the last major task, and at this phase we will examine audio peaks, add fade transitions, adjust the volume to be consistently audible throughout the movie, and add any appropriate ambient “atmosphere” sound or sound effects desired.

If there are sections of video, in the home movies you gave MSP for instance, that require special treatment of sound (ie. a plane flies overhead and someone cannot be heard, air conditioner hum, etc.), we will remove as much of the noise as is allowed, which in most cases is a significant improvement.  We take the sound experience seriously and focus to make it as clean and controllable as possible.

13. When this version is finished, we will meet with you for a private and personal pre-final screening. The purpose of this is to ensure that all the work, in your eyes, has amounted to a superb Heritage Movie that you are not just satisfied with, but excited about. If there are any things you would like to change, this will be the time to let us know.

14. After the viewing and giving final notes, if there are any, we will sit down for a few minutes to draw up the basic look for the DVD, or at least decide what features you would like on the DVD. If you would like us to just handle it, we can, but if you are looking for a specific arrangement, such as slideshows, bonus features or commentary, we figure that out here.

15. Finally, the DVD is constructed. It will include music from the movie, chapter selections, and any other design plan you went over with us. Once your DVD is ready, we will deliver it along with any of your raw materials that have not already been returned. If you would like the raw interviews you can have those put on DVDs as well.