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WHICH PHOTOS SHOULD I CHOOSE TO INCLUDE IN MY MONTAGE?
You may already know the exact pictures you'd like to include in your DVD Slide Show, but here are some additional tips that may help. Choose pictures that are candid and show character. Try getting a a mix between close ups and group photos and photos that show the most important stages in someone's life.
Choose more horizontal shots than vertical shots. The reason being, TV screens are wider than they are high, so horizontal shots fill the screen and look much better. Vertical shots will appear on the TV screen with black borders on each side (or will need dramatic cropping). There's not a problem with the borders, but too many vertical shots one after the other won't be as pleasing to look at as horizontal ones. Please avoid photos that are too small or out of focus.

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WHAT ARE SPECIAL EFFECT TRANSITIONS?
Special effect transitions are the way the slide show moves from one picture to the next. The song you choose typically dictates which transition effect you'll use. With a slower song, a simple fade in/fade out usually looks the best. For an up tempo song, a little more livelier transitions may go well. If you don't specify which you'd like, we will choose which looks the best.

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HOW MANY PHOTOS DO I NEED FOR A 5, 10, or 20 MINUTE MONTAGE?

• 50 photos result approximately in a 6 to 8 minute production
• 100 photos result approximately in a 8 to 12 minute production
• 150 photos can be 12 to 14 minutes long
• 500 photos.more than an hour
• 1000 photos.two hours

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WHAT SIZE PICTURES CAN I SEND?
We can work with any size pictures up to 8x10's.

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CAN I SCAN THE PICTURES MYSELF AND SEND THEM TO YOU?
You sure can! You may scan them and burn them to a CD and mail it to us, or if you'd like, you may upload them to our web server. Contact us for further instructions.
If you are scanning the photos yourself, please keep the following in mind. The higher the resolution, the better your photos will look on the screen, so up to 300 pixels/inch is great. Unfortunately, less than 100 pixels/inch will result in a very grainy picture. You need to save the images as JPEGS, please give them an identifying name or number.

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SHOULD THE PHOTOS I SEND BE VERTICAL OR HORZONTAL?
Horizontal photographs or landscape photos will look the best on a TV screen. Vertical photos still look good, but there is a black border around the photos when shown on the TV. It's usually best to space your vertical photos throughout the show if possible.

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CAN I SEND PHOTOS TO YOU IN FRAMES OR SCRAPBOOKS?
Please remove photos from the frames or scrapbooks prior to sending to us.

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WILL YOU DIGITALLY CROP MY PHOTOS?
Typically, we will not crop each photo unless it will enhance viewing experience.

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HOW SHOULD I CHOOSE THE ORDER FOR MY PHOTOS?
We will prepare your project in the exact order that you send the photos to us. You can choose to organize them in two different ways.

For wedding Slide Shows, most people will show pictures of the groom growing up, pictures of the bride growing up, and then pictures of them together.

For other pictures you could do:
1. Chronologically, for example: baby pictures, childhood pictures, high school, college, dating.
or
2. By theme eg: eating, moving, vacationing, Mother's side of the family, Father's side of the family, cars he has owned, fancy dresses she has worn etc...

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HOW LONG WILL EACH PHOTO APPEAR ON THE SCREEN?
Each photo will appear for between 4-6 seconds, 5 seconds is normally the most suitable but this can vary depending on the nature of the photos, the tempo of the music and the special effect transitions we're using.

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HOW SHOULD I CHOOSE MY START AND END PHOTOS?
Make these your very best shots, as often they will appear in the screen the longest, or will have titles layered on them.

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I'M WORRIED ABOUT SENDING YOU MY PHOTOS. HOW DO I KNOW YOU WILL RETURN THEM IN THE SAME CONDITION AS YOU RECEIVED THEM?
We can understand why you would be worried, because we know how important your photos are. It's because we know how irreplaceable photos and the memories they evoke are that we treat your photos as if they are our own. To this day, we have never damaged or lost any photo entrusted to us. We guarantee your photos will be returned to you in the same condition as we received them, unless something catastrophic happens that is out of our control.

To put you further at ease, we employ all manner of precautions in our studios to protect your photos (including no liquids or food allowed in the work room). Due to the shipping process being totally outside our control, we do need to ask you to sign a waiver on our order form that absolves us of any responsibility for your materials during the shipping process.

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HOW CAN I PROTECT MY PHOTOS WHILE THEY ARE IN TRANSIT?
Package your photos well using hard cardboard on all sides to provide a solid shell for your photos. We also recommend you use a plastic Ziploc bag to contain each section of photographs to protect them from any spillage or rainy weather during the delivery process.

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DO I HAVE TO WATCH THE DVD ON A COMPUTER ONLY?
No, the DVD that we create can be watched with a set-top DVD player or a computer equipped with a DVD-ROM drive. All you need to do is to insert the DVD disk into the DVD player and play to watch on the TV.

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WILL I HAVE TO MANUALY FORWARD THE PICTURE SLIDES?
No, once you press play button on your DVD player, the slides will move through on their own.

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CAN I CREATE SECTIONS IN THE DVD SO I CAN WATCH SELECTED SECTIONS?
Yes, for an added fee, we can create a menu that points to individual sections of the DVD of your choosing. You can select the section that you want to watch, and press enter to watch it.

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CAN MY OLD BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS BE TRANSFERRED TO DVD?
Certainly! We advise transferring as many of your old photographs to DVD to digitally archive them.

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WILL YOU RETURN MY PHOTOGRAPHS AND MY MUSIC CD'S?
Yes, your original source material (music & photos) will be returned to you with your order.

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HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO COMPLETE MY PROJECT?
This depends upon the type of packages and services you require and the complexity of the project. Simple video montages are created generally within 14 days. More complex montages that contain a number of video clips and Magic Photos, can take more like 6-8 weeks.
We can also accommodate "rush" jobs in the case of unforeseen events such as funerals. We will ship your completed simple tribute video within 48 hours of receiving your materials. For all projects, how quickly you can provide us with all of the required source information and materials will reduce completion time.

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HOW DO I SEND YOU MY PHOTOS AND MUSIC?
We accept mail by either confirmation USPS or any parcel service (UPS, FED-EX, DHL, etc), or you can upload your pictures to our server.

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WHY DOES IT TAKE 1 HOUR TO EDIT A 15 MIN VIDEO?
When editing video, there is a lot more time involved than just the minutes of the video length. There is capture time, import time, edit time, export time, and render time.
Capture time is the actual length of the video. If it is 15min long, it will take 15min to capture it.
Import time is the time it takes to get the video edit timeline set up and the video imported and transcoded into the editors format then put to the timeline.
Edit time is the time it takes to scrub through the video frame by frame to make the edit cuts and transitions and etc...
The render time is the time it takes to finalize the video and save the final video into the format needed. Depending on quality, it may take more time to save it, than it does to capture it. The greater the quality (DVD vs YouTube), the longer it takes.

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IS IT SAFE TO SEND YOU MY PHOTOS AND VIDEOS?
Yes! We will return your materials, packed safely using every precaution. We treat everything you send us as if it were our own.

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WHAT IF I DON'T ORGINIZE MY MATERIALS?
Please try and organize your material before you send them as it will make for the best slide show. Only you know the order you'd like the photos shown. However, if you don't organize them, we'll try our best and generally will put them in chronological order. No refunds will be given for unorganized material.

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CAN I CREATE MY OWN DVD VIDEO SLIDESHOW MONTAGE AT HOME?
Yes. Many people are interested in the art of home based videography and digital imaging. Most new computers today come with rudimentary tools that are capable of creating a digital video production of some type. However to produce the quality of production that you will receive from us, you would need to invest a lot of time and expense that you may not wish to undertake.

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WHAT IF MY DVD DOSEN 'T PLAY?
On average 98% of all players will play back our DVDs. Not all DVD players play "burned" DVD's. If your disc doesn't play in one player, try it in another. All DVD's are tested on 3 DVD players before being shipped out. No refunds will be given for a disc that won't play due to incompatibility. We haven't had a customer yet that couldn't play our disc. Although it would be rare to have one not play, it is possible on older players.

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WILL YOU KEEP A COPY OF MY DVD?
We will keep the master of your DVD on file for 6 months, for the sole purposes of reordering unless you specify that we don't. After 6 months, we completely erase all of your files from our production computer.

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WHAT ABOUT PHOTO RETOUCHING?
We will do some minor photo retouching of digital images to enhance the DVD Photographs experience. This will include color correction, cropping, straightening, red-eye correction and enhancing the detail and lighting when needed. This will be done as part of the service to insure that your DVD Slideshow is a truly moving experience.

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CAN I PICK MY OWN MUSIC?
Not only can you pick your own music, we highly recommend it. Only you know the music that helps you feel the full potential of the montage. To include copyrighted music you must own the original recording to be used in your production. Use of the track will be covered under your fair use rights of ownership. Any music you wish to use that you don't have the original recording supplied for will be an additional charge for each song. You will then own the songs and the music copyright will be transferred to you upon completion.

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CAN YOU WORK FROM NEGATIVES OR SLIDES AS WELL AS PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEOS?
Yes. We can work from any type of photographic materials such as prints, negatives or slides. We can also use other types of paper media that can be digitized on our flatbed scanners. This would include items such as announcements, newspaper articles, brochures, flyers, ticket stubs, cards and letters, licenses or just about anything you can imagine.

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CAN I ORDER ADDITIONAL COPIES OF MY VIDEO?
Yes. At the time of purchase you can order additional copies of the DVD. We will also keep products on file for 6 months and you may reorder any time during that period.

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CAN I ADD MY OWN VOICE MESSAGE TO THE MONTAGE?
Yes. You will need to provide us with the recording and instructions on how to use the recording. You can provide us this recording in any format that you like (CD, Audio Tape, .MP3, .WAV). Please contact us for additional information if you would like to do this.

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