C Brand Designs

DVD Ordering Instructions

C Brand Designs prioritizes easy ordering for our clients! See below for simple instructions. Plus, our order forms are available; just download, print, and fill them out.

1. Collect your photos and put them in order! This is often the toughest and most time-consuming process. It helps to think of your slideshow in sections. For example, a slideshow tracing a person's life might have sections including birth, childhood, teenage years, young adult years, married years, and senior years. A slideshow featuring a couple might show photos of each person growing up, then photos of their families, then photos of their friends. Keep in mind that horizontal photos will fit better on the screen than vertical photos, although we can use both of course.

Slideshow length: Since the length of your slideshow depends on how many photos and songs you have, this is difficult to figure out ahead of time. You can guesstimate the length you have by estimating 4–5 seconds for each photo (plus any video clips you might also include). You may also ask us to shoot for a specific length for our editing, such as 10–15 minutes. This is generally the best length for showing at a party or event. However, if your slideshow is a larger project, such as a show tracing your family's history over 100 years, your slideshow might last two hours – which would be fine since in that case, completeness would be more important than length.

2. Put your photos in slideshow order and number the backs of the photos with stickies or small labels. Please do not write with a pencil, pen, or marker directly on a photo's back, as this can create distortions in the photo's paper or bleed through. Each photo you give us should have a unique number: 1, 2, 3. Many of our clients find it works best to rubber band the photos together or divide them up into envelopes – this way, the photos stay in order.
    About digital photos: If you want to include photos from a digital camera, you have two choices. One, burn the digital photos on a CD for us. Or two, have the photos printed professionally as 4x6 glossy prints. (In other words, please do not print the photos yourself, because we will not be able to scan them at optimal quality.) Ask us if you have any questions about how to prepare digital photos.

3. Select music that will play throughout the slideshow. Each photo is on the screen for about 4–5 seconds, although we will extend some photos' length to accommodate zooms and pans. For your planning purposes, however, planning for 4–5 seconds per photo is useful (and then leaving a bit of extra time in the music to be safe).
    Again, thinking of your slideshow in sections is helpful in planning the music. For example, for the "baby's birth" section, you might include 15 photos and select about 60–75 seconds of a particular song to play while those photos are shown on screen. The next section with photos of the baby becoming a toddler might include 30 photos (about 2–3 minutes) and feature a second song. Our editing will take into account your instructions and we will craft a professional slideshow around your photo order and music selections. We can easily fade out a song halfway through and start another.

Don't be too concerned about lining everything up perfectly or exactly. Usually, giving us a song and telling us "I want these 25 photos to be set to that song" works fine. We will custom-edit it for you; hey, that's what you're hiring us for!

4. Titles, Captions, and Video Clips. Do you want title screens during the slideshow? (I.e., a screen that says "Best wishes, Brian and Jen!") What about captions on some of the photos? (For example, for a presentation at a rehearsal dinner, the bride and groom are easily identifiable, but you might want to identify members of the bridal party with our on-screen captions.) Are there any short video clips that would complement the slideshow, in between photos? Captions and titles are easy to write using our order form. Video clips are also simple to set up on the order form; just tell us the start and stop time on the tape for each clip you want to use.

5. Write a title for your DVD. Your title can be two lines of text. It will appear on the Main Menu, DVD cover insert, and disc. A sample title would be:

6. Fill out the Photo Slideshow Order Form, available on the Photo Presentation page as a downloadable PDF. (Just ask us if you would like us to send you a printed copy.) If you need help with the order form, just let us know. And if the order form is too confusing, feel free to write out your slideshow instructions in a way that makes sense to you on a piece of paper. If we have questions, we'll ask.  Please leave contact info for us to reach you whether it's by phone or email.

7. Mail your photos (including cover photo), music (on CD), and order form to us.  If you are mailing, please use the mailing address on the order form, and feel free to e-mail or call us to let us know your package is on its way. We ask that if you mail your materials, please use a trackable carrier like for safe shipping.
   
Please note that you must pay for your order in full before production can begin. You may pay via check (payable to Cynthia Brand), or by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, or Discover) through Paypal.  For  pricing see the DVD Pricing and Order Form

8. Our turn! We'll e-mail or call you to let you know that your materials were received. (Hey, we know how nerve-wracking it is to put this stuff in the mail!) Then we'll get to work. If your order form raises a question, we'll be back in touch. Turnaround ranges from 3–4 weeks for a DVD Photo Slideshow (we ask that you plan for a month when ordering any slideshow). If a slideshow is exceptionally lengthy, we may contact you to discuss a timetable.
If you need the slideshow to be completed in 2 weeks or less, a 10% rush fee will be required – and depending on our current workload, may not be possible.

9. We'll mail your DVD and all original materials back to you! (Trackable, of course.) If you're local, we can arrange pickup/delivery options. And then . . . enjoy the show!