Photo Montage

A common element in most Bar/Bat Mitzvahs is the obligatory photo montage. It is actually my favorite part of the event! You can either ask your videographer or dj to make one for you, or create one yourself using Imovie, Final Cut, or any other video editing software. To avoid boring your guests with an overly long montage, a good rule of thumb is to keep it around 8 minutes long, maximum. Usually, that means you need to select about 60-70 photographs. Interspersing video clips and graphics helps create visual interest among the still photographs. You can also use what is called the "Ken Burns Effect", which creates the illusion of video on a still photograph by zooming in, zooming out, or panning around the photo. I found a wonderful example of a photo montage below. I especially love the opening graphic of the ipod, and how it's used to segway from one section to another. So clever! Enjoy!

Darrah's Bat Mitzvah Montage from Jeff on Vimeo.