Video scrapbook: clips and voice notes beside the photos
A video scrapbook holds clips and recorded voices on the page with the photos. They play in the online book and the downloaded book. A printed or PDF page shows the page without the clip.
Start with 40 pages free. No card needed.
You have a clip of somebody blowing out the candles, or a voice note from a grandparent, and you want it in the book rather than in a folder on a phone.
In tbf scrapbook a clip or a recording sits on the page beside the photos and plays when the book is read online or from the editable download. Paper cannot play it, so plan for that.
Contributors can send audio and video as well as photos and words, and you decide which of it goes on a page.
See also: the online scrapbook maker, a memory book made by many people, Open the online scrapbook maker.
Make a digital scrapbook
Add your photos and keepsakes in tbf scrapbook, then arrange them on the pages. Make a video scrapbook online.
| On the page | Online book | Downloaded book | Printed book | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photos | Shown | Shown | Shown | Printed |
| Words | Shown | Shown | Shown | Printed |
| Video | Plays on the page | Plays in the offline reader | The still and the label; the clip does not play | The still and the label; the clip does not play |
| Audio | Plays on the page | Plays in the offline reader | The label only | The label only |
Which clips belong
A clip earns its place by what it holds that a photo cannot: a voice, a laugh, a name said aloud. Ten seconds of somebody saying happy birthday carries more than a minute of a room.
Trim before you upload. The part you would play to a friend is the part the page needs, and it is also the smaller file.
- A voice saying the person's name, or the nickname only one person uses.
- The moment a surprise lands, not the hour before it.
- A song at the table, from the first line to the end of the first verse.
- A child reading the card aloud.
File sizes against the free allowance
A minute of phone video at full quality can be over 100 MB; a voice note of the same length is a few MB. The free book holds 250 MB across forty pages, and three long clips can use it up.
Trim the clips, record voice where the picture adds nothing, and keep the full originals in a folder of your own. The book needs the part that matters, not the whole file.
Asking contributors for a voice note
Most people send a photo unless a recording is asked for by name. In the invitation, say a voice note is welcome, say how long, under thirty seconds, and ask one question for them to answer.
A question about one day works better than a brief. Which day with the person would you live again? What did they say that you still hear? They record on the phone and send the file through the link.
Labelling a clip so the printed page still makes sense
Every clip needs a still and a line of your own words beside it: who is speaking, where, and the date. Take a frame from the clip, or use a photo from the same moment.
On paper the still and the label are the whole entry. A reader holding the printed copy knows a recording exists and that the online or downloaded book has it.
Reading it online and on paper
Online, the clip plays in the book from its link. The editable .tbfbook download plays it in the offline reader. The PDF and the printed book carry the still and the label and nothing moves.
A printed copy comes in A4 portrait, A4 landscape or 21 cm square after a print proof. Check the proof for every page that carries a clip, because that is where a page can look unfinished.
Steps
Pick the clips
Go through the phone with the book's pages in mind. Keep at most one clip for a page, trimmed to the part that matters, and note who is in it.
Ask for voice notes
Send the invitation with one question per person and a length. Collect the recordings with the photos, before the closing date.
Place each clip with a still and a label
Put a frame or a photo from the same moment beside the clip, with the speaker, the place and the date in your own words.
Check both copies
Read the online book and play every clip. Then open the PDF and read the same pages with the clips silent. Fix any page that no longer makes sense.
Questions
Can a scrapbook have video in it?
Yes, in a digital book. In tbf scrapbook a clip sits on the page with the photos and plays when the book is read online or from the editable download.
What happens to the video when the scrapbook is printed?
The printed page shows the still and the label beside the clip, and nothing plays. The same is true of the PDF. Keep the online or downloaded book for the clip itself.
How do I add a voice note to a scrapbook?
Record it on a phone and upload it to the page, or have a contributor send it through the invitation link. Then write who is speaking and when beside it.