I agree. I really can't see following through with this project under these parameters. Your client probably doesn't understand how fast the images will fly by and will be quite disappointed in the final product.

It's our job as the "experts" to educate our clients, and quite often that means not blindly following their instructions.

You asked if $1,000 was "fair" - it's completely unfair for you to take her $1,000 and give her exactly what she asked for.

If I were in your shoes, I'd create the montage for one of the songs you mentioned that has 170 images. Let her see how bad that will look, then she will understand she needs to cull this collection down to about 400 images.

The customer is always..... well, almost always.... ok so in our field it's pretty close to never really, but if they're paying and it's what they want and you show them and they don't care then take the cash, do the edit and let the chips fall where they may.

Months ago on the phone I tried to tell her that a picture should be on screen anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds. A minimum of 3 seconds!

She says she HAS to have all these pictures in.

I sat this lady down today in my living room and showed her a typical montage and explained the work that goes in to making the pictures 'move you' with the music, the movement, etc.

I tried to tell her that picking the best 1,200 pictures would help... but she HAS to have all of them.

ALL OF THEM.

Yes... all 1,650 pictures. Otherwise someone will have their feelings hurt.

So... $1,000 bucks for $1,650 pictures set to the music she chooses... Heck, that's 0.006 cents per picture!

What a bargain!

It may be reserved but you still need to finish the project before you can actually get in...

Good point...

This can really go to the weirdest wedding jobs hall of fame or some sort... :)

Santo

I can't wait till she asks him to swap the 132nd pic for the 781st, and change the transition somewhere about 32 minutes in but she's not sure quite where.

Or better yet, leave just one picture out and see if she notices.

Wow, I get about $1000 for 100 picture montages. And you're getting the same for 1650. Although as you said, really no creative editing, just putting it in.

Well, you tried and sometimes that's all we can do. In the end, she's the one writing the check.

Are you going to drop these individually on the timeline? It would be great if you had some automated way to do it.

$1000 for a 100 picture montage is pretty nice. I'm sure location has something to do with that. NY is slightly more affluent than Louisiana.

I personally hate doing these things and don't even try to sell them. I should jack my price up to your range to dissuade people from doing them.

$1000 for 100 pictures..??

I'm thinking to switch profession to be slideshow specialist now..

maybe "cinematic wedding slideshow" as the company name...

500 pictures a week and I'm good.

:P

Santo

I'm using Final Cut... and the nice thing is once I import the pictures, I drag a marquee and lay them on the timeline all at once.

Then I lay down the music... then drag another marquee around all the pictures on the timeline, change their length (2 seconds to 1 second 21 frames or whatever) until it closely matches the length of the song... and BOOM! DONE!

I wonder if I were to put a picture of me in as a baby if anyone would notice... ;)

When you start talking about inserting random photos Fight Club comes to mind...

A bit tongue in cheek - Treat the images as if they are MJPEG frames and render it as a DVD. At 30 fps, the running time will be just under a minute - far less boring that way! Of course you won't see much because every thing is going by so fast - but that's probably good. I sure that anyone who has to endure watching this compendium of boredom will appreciate your "artistic" brevity.

Actually that's the best description I can imagine for this thing. Made me laugh, thanks.

In fact I think he should add "compendium of boredom" as an order option on his website.