Our website has a new look

htto://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Today our website http://tearsofjoyvideo.com got a new look.  It has been the same look for a number of years, and it was in need of updating.  For one thing, many of the videos posted could not be played on Iphone and Ipads and since many people these days are using these means to search the web, we thought it was important to have at least the main pages compatible for these means.

Since we were already making these changes, we decided to completely revamp it.  Here is a list of the things that has changed.

1) The pictures and video.  As already stated, the videos have changed to be able to play on all devices.  We also have added a few new videos to our site.  We have changed out the pictures.  Now all pictures on our site are personally created by us.

2) Packages.  We have new packages and with that new pricing.  We have also streamlined the site to make organizing and ordering your product  a lot easier.  Prices are basically the same, but now you are not pigeon holed into a number of pictures.  You can choose the one that suits your needs and then add as many or as few pictures, songs, titles and video clips you want to create your video.

3) Photo book creation pricing has also changed and has been streamlined for easy ordering.

4) We added a new product called Digital greeting card montage.  This allows you to have us create small video message to a digital video download that you can either send by email or load on to personal devices to send a greeting for a special occasion, or just to say hi or I love you.

5) Some items that were hidden on the site before are now easily accessible, like our scanning, and transfer services and our slide art. We have also added a products section, which in the coming months will list products we are creating from our own video and pictures for sale to the public.

6) Photography-We still offer photography in our area, but we are only doing portraits, no event photography.

7) Biography videos.  We have created a simple, low cost way to turn your video montage into a biography video, either by you filming it yourself with our instruction or in the San Diego and surrounding areas, we can come out and film your interviews.

8) We have highlighted our celebration of life/memorial packages into their own private section.

Take a look at the site and for those who have been on our site before, give us your input as to what you think.  If you have any suggestions on other ways we can improve, or anything that is unclear in what you read, please give us feed back here.

If you live in the USA and know someone who would like to have a video created, we would appreciate you letting them know about our site.  Our videos make excellent gifts for family and friends.

Newborn Photography and Video

I have been working doing newborn photography and video for a few years now.  There is nothing more exciting than being there to celebrate a new life.  I have also had couples give me their pictures and video to create a video of the new baby experience or babies first year of life or the birth of their baby.

I love creating pictures and videos of my clients and the ones they love.  But celebrating a birth is one of the best experiences because it is the start of a life, a hope, a future…

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Creating Children’s Stories on Video

We don’t have kids ourselves, but my sister and I have made a number of videos with my brother’s kids as they are growing up.  We were the cool aunts who showed them how they could make their stories become real.  Our first attempt at creating a story with them was at a princess party we held in their honor.  We set up the green screen and filmed them in front of it.  A month later we presented them with this story:

Next my middle niece Zoe decided she wanted to take a story she had written and create a movie.  She did not want to be in it, but she convinced her sisters and her sisters friend to star in the show.  She directed it, and narrated it, I served as the camera person and my sister edited this one:

A few years later our youngest niece Sophia wanted to do her own video.  She loved to watch the cooking channel and she wanted to make her own cooking show.  Mind you she made her cupcakes from a box…but you have to start somewhere. This is what we made with her:

What this did for our nieces is help them to see there is no limit to what their imagination can do.  Zoe and Sophia are a little older and we have taught them how to edit their own films.  But they enjoy looking back at these films and remember the good times we had making them.

Maybe you are not great in your editing skills, but if you have a video camera, a digital camera or even a smart phone you can film your kids telling their stories and then send them to Tears of Joy Video to create their stories. Inspire their imagination. http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

What ways have you used to inspire your children’s imagination?

The Perfect Love Story

Last week I had a client call me. He said he would like to create a video for his girlfriend to tell her how much he loved her. What a great idea!

He sent me over his favorite pictures of them and her. He also sent a recorded message to her he recorded on his IPhone to put behind the pictures and then picked out 3 songs that had meaning to them as a couple. The final product was a video that would melt any woman’s heart. I told him for sure, she would cry “tears of joy.”

Today I got this message from him: Thanks again for all of your help with my video–Sylvia really really loved it and it was a great surprise and keepsake for both us! You did such a great and timely job on this and I really appreciate how you went above and beyond to make this just right for us! ~Scott (BTW-he gave me permission to share this)

I ask you women out there, how would you like it if your husband or boyfriend created a video like this for you?  What unique ways have you had your boyfriend or husband tell you he loved you?

Videos that help you reconnect with your family

A while back I had a client call me to tell me her mothers reaction to one of our videos. Her story gave me chills. I had created a video for her father’s memorial. They decided to play it at her brother’s house afterwards. They played it in his family room and kept it playing over and over again for hours.

During all that time, her mother sat on the couch and watched the video over and over again. For a number of years her mother has had Alzheimer’s and hasn’t even recognized her own children. But her daughter told me as she watched this her face started to light up. She used music that was all her fathers’ favorites and her mother started moving to the music.

After a while she started recognizing her husband and her children on the screen. By the end of the evening she was telling people, this is my daughter. She was recognizing all her kids. Her daughter said it was amazing how she reacted to the video. It was just for a while, but for them this experience was amazing.

She called me to talk to me about creating her mothers story now. She wants to do this while her mother can still respond to it.

Even now this story is getting me emotional. To know that something I created allowed these kids to have connection with their mother again. That is priceless!

If you would like to reconnect with your family, give us a call (877) 887-8658 or go to our website for more information http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

If you have had a parent with Alzheimer’s, what ways have you used to reconnect with them?

My Favorite Storyteller

(Mom when she was young)

The best storyteller in my life was my mom. My mom was handicapped, but as her body broke down around her, her mind was as sharp as a tack. She had a way with words that made everyday occurrences seem like major events, and she had a memory (which she passed on to me) that she could remember things far back in her life with deep detail. My sister and I used to go sit on her bed and ask her to tell us stories of her life. We had heard these before, but we never tired of hearing them over and over again. I can repeat these stories in detail like my mom, and have past them on, but no one could tell them like her. For certain stories she even changed her voice for the characters, and she did the facial expressions of the person of the event she was relating. When I relate the stories-some of the story is lost. We lost that with my mom’s death.

Storytelling is an art. Some are writers. Some cannot write, like my mom (there were no home computers when she was alive-and her disease caused her not to be able to write-even her signature was hard), but they have a great way of telling a story. If our video business was around when my mom was alive, I know I would of forced her to tell those stories on camera. But now the way she told those stories is lost forever.

I believe my mom’s story telling was passed on to my sister and me through our talent of creating video montages. Now with our video business we cannot only create our own stories, but we can help our customers create their stories. When we capture their story with their pictures and video, many times they come back to us and say it was much better than they ever expected. Yes, they cry “Tears of Joy”! It is rewarding to know we have captured their family stories, their memories-and now they can have them forever. We know from personal experience what that means.

These stories don’t have to be of some spectacular event. Like my mom, your best stories are lying in your own personal experiences that happen to you everyday. Sharing your feelings and then your solutions or the lessons you learned from the situation.

Check out our site. http://tearsofjoyvideo.com/Biography-Interview-Packages.html. If you live in the San Diego area we can interview you on camera and add your stories in with your pictures and video. Outside of San Diego, we have do-it-yourself instructions on how to capture your stories with something as simple as an Iphone or digital camera and then add that to your video.

We would love to hear your story. As our tag line says: Everyone has a story…What’s yours? Who was your favorite storyteller?

Pet Videos and Photography

Tears of Joy Pet Video in the San Diego Area

http://www.tearsofjoyvideo.com/Pet-Video.html

 

 

Dog Video

Tears of Joy Video Sample Dog Video

http://www.tearsofjoyvideo.com/Pet-Video.html

A business that touches the heart

Our Story of how Tears of Joy Video got started

Two sisters, Juli and Cathie Dodd, who were trying to make their father happy started “Tears of Joy Video”. These two sisters had been involved with photography and video for many years. Juli had purchased a full editing suite and they had made some amazing video’s that impressed all their friends. Their father was their biggest fan.

Their father became ill and had to undergo an operation. One evening after the operation, Cathie was sitting with him and watching a TV program. It was a biography about Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnez, with home movies and stories of their life. He asked his daughter if they could make a video of his life like that. She said, it would take a lot of work, but it could be done. A few days later he was suffering from complications from problems after the surgery, and his daughters were worried he wouldn’t make it. Juli asked what could she do to help him get better. He said he would like a video made of his life. She said if he got better, she would make a video of his life, and then they would have a big party with all his friends and watch it. Just saying that seemed to brighten his spirits, it gave him something to look forward to. Within the next few days his health improved, and he was able to recover. But he didn’t let his daughters forget their promise.

Cathie began the project by collecting all the pictures and slides and scanning them to the computer. Then she transferred their old home movies to video. Then she created a list of questions and in a number of video sessions, she sat down with her dad and interviewed him on camera about his life. After that Juli and Cathie made a list of their dad’s best friends, called them and made appointments to interview them on camera with funny stories about their dad’s life. During this whole time Juli was collecting a list of songs that meant something to her dad and to the family over the years. Now with all the data in place, came the project of putting the whole thing together.

As the girls worked on this project, they realized they were not just doing it for their dad; they were creating a piece of family history that they could keep forever. Through the pictures, movies, and interviews they were recreating their life, their memories. They had lost their mother years earlier, but part of her came back in the video, and now with this video, they had a part of their dad they could keep with them forever. They rented a restaurant and had over 100 of his friends and relatives. The film was met with rave reviews. But that moment was a memory they will never forget. They realized that instead of waiting till he was dead to remember him for all he did, they got a special chance to celebrate his life while he could still celebrate it with them. They also got a chance to show him how much they loved and respected him, and that was not only shown to him, but all his friends who attended that night. In fact he was in a room filled with love.

From that video came many more requests from friends for videos. A friend of the sisters, another Julie, who attended that night, was also involved with video montages. Together they discussed starting a business. That is how Tears of Joy Video was born. http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Here is a portion of that video:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/565638/jack_dodd_his_own_story_part_1/

Let us know what you think of the video below.

New Celebration of Life-Memorial Packages

Tears of Joy Video of Encinitas, California would like to announce their new Celebration of Life Packages.  Two sisters, Juli and Cathie Dodd, who have owned the business a little over 7 years, created these packages after helping a number of their clients with their memorial videos.

“At this emotional time of loss many of our clients were overwhelmed with all they had to do in getting ready for the memorial of their loved one, “ said Cathie Dodd. “They would ask if we knew someone who could create the programs, the picture poster, a personalize guest book, or a memorial website.  Since we had done this many times for friends and in our own family, we offered to do it for them. They were very happy to have one service where they could give all their photographs and have everything prepared for them. We decided to create a package that would have all these items created for them at one low price.”

Why did they call them the “Celebration of Life” packages?  “We were noticing a trend in our clients steering away from the traditional funeral, and instead holding a Celebration of Life memorial service where it focused on the life lived instead of the death” said Cathie Dodd “Our products all are creations that help people focus on this wonderful person by using photographs, video, titles, and stories.  The Celebration of Life Package seemed to be the best name for what is being provided”.

Since many people are planning their own memorials or celebrations of life outside the memorial homes or churches, many are looking for creative solutions to make their celebration special.  Tears of Joy Video Celebration of Life Packages could be just what you are looking for. They have helped clients in their own backyard of San Diego, as well as throughout the United States. The owners have been through this a number of times and can offer suggestions to help you create the perfect celebration, bringing honor and lasting memories of the loved one who was lost. They are experts at turning your grief into Tears of Joy.  Their packages can be found at http://www.tearsofjoyvideo.com/Celebration-of-Life.html  or call them toll free at (877) 887-8658.