Memorial Slideshow and Photo Album: A Practical Family Plan

Confirm the available running time, the file format and screen at the venue, the deadline, and one person who can approve the selection for the family. Make a short, reliable slideshow before attempting a complete photo archive. It is acceptable to use fewer photographs or show a single approved image if time or energy is limited.

1. Step 1Ask the venue what file it can play, how you will deliver it and whether sound is needed.
2. Step 2Choose the family reviewer and intended audience. Ask which topics or images to leave out.
3. Step 3Select a small set of clear photographs in a separate working folder.
4. Step 4Make a simple cut with an opening, three or four life chapters and a closing.
5. Step 5Review the exact export, test it with the venue and keep a second local copy.

This page offers a production plan. It does not ask a family to complete an exhaustive biography or turn private grief into a public project.

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The photo album can preserve more pictures, captions and stories for later. The slideshow is a timed selection for a particular viewing. Copy files into the edit folder so excluding a picture does not remove it from the archive.

Ask contributors for up to five meaningful photographs, names where known, an approximate year and a short memory. Keep uncertainty visible: “around 1985” is more accurate than an invented date. Store original scans and phone files separately from cropped or restored copies.

A request can be brief: “We are preparing a private tribute for [Name]. If you would like to contribute, please send up to five photos by [date], with any names, approximate dates and memories you know. [Reviewer] will choose the service selection. There is no pressure to send anything.”

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The rows below are blank prompts, not an account of a real person’s life. Copy them into a private document and give the reviewer enough context to decide. Keep sensitive explanations out of the public captions.

Ask the family about estrangement, children, illness, religious wording and private addresses before including them. A contributor’s permission to supply a file is not permission to publish everyone shown. When a decision is unclear, leave the item out of the service cut and retain it privately for review.

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“Remembering Alex” is a finished 60-second teaching slideshow. Alex and the three memories are fictional. Its original AI-generated images show a garden, tea on a kitchen table and a walking path; no real person, death, home or family photograph is represented. The disclosure remains visible throughout.

Download the sample MP4, descriptive transcript and complete editing plan (JSON). The transcript includes the visible words, the persistent disclosure and descriptions of the images. There is no spoken audio requiring speech captions.

The example uses ordinary interests without inventing life dates, relationships, beliefs or a cause of death. It shows one restrained editing choice; it is not a recommendation that a family replace personal photographs with generated images. For a real tribute, select approved pictures and wording with the family, and leave out an image they do not want to show.

This small cut is one minute in total, including its cards. The four-minute calculation below is a separate option for a larger selection. A complete short film can be a more practical service choice than an unfinished long one; test the exact file at the venue before relying on it.

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For a four-minute example, reserve ten seconds for the opening and ten for the closing. The remaining 220 seconds can hold 44 photographs at five seconds each. Divide them into four chapters of 11 photographs, such as early life, relationships, work or interests, and everyday memories. These are optional groupings, not a required life story.

Sixty photographs at six seconds each already fill six minutes before any additional cards or clips. If you add a 30-second spoken memory, reduce the photograph count or extend the agreed running time. Count overlapping narration and transitions once on the actual timeline.

Use the photo-count guide for other running times and the tribute-video planning guide for choosing a structure. Keep transitions simple; a legible face matters more than a new effect.

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A short approved voice recording can be meaningful, but silence is also a valid choice. Use music only with permission appropriate to the planned playback or distribution. Check that speech remains understandable and that captions reproduce the actual words.

Use a town or region when a place explains a memory. Do not put an exact home address into a public map. A map-led section may suit a life across several places; it is optional and should not delay a service-ready slideshow.

Review the music permission checklist and caption and transcript guidance with the intended audience in mind.

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Let the family reviewer watch the exported file from beginning to end. Check spelling, dates, cropping, captions and the opening and closing wording. Test the same file on the venue’s equipment; a working editing preview does not prove the exported file will play there.

Keep the approved master, the original files and the permission notes in clearly named folders. Agree who may receive a link or download after the service. A later private album can include more memories when the family wants to return to it; it does not have to be completed on the service deadline.

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