A film for a funeral, a memorial, or a goodbye

Most occasion films are built around an idea that makes them feel made for one person: an age, two names meeting, years counted. A memorial film should have no idea in it, on purpose. The person making it has three days and no capacity to make decisions, and the kindest thing a film can do is ask for very little and then behave quietly.

What it should do

• Nothing is counted. No number, no age, and no tally of years.
• Nothing is celebrated. No lights and no confetti.
• The pace is slow, and the film is short. In the chamber, Calmer slows the whole film down.
• Only the name, and one line if there is one. Silence is a complete answer here.

What it asks of you

As little as possible.

• A name.
• A year, or two.
• One line, or none. Both are complete answers.
• Photographs only if you want them. Not a gallery, and not a selection nobody can face making.

The goodbye that is not a funeral

Two other goodbyes are lighter. A neighbourhood saying goodbye to somebody who is moving away, where each neighbour writes one line; written as a script, each line is its own paragraph and becomes its own scene, so the film is a small album of voices instead of one person's speech. And a message to somebody who is ill, which should be short and calm, with greetings from several people, and nothing funny in it unless the sender wrote the funny part themselves.

Why the honesty matters most here

A person arranging a memorial is not in a position to be sold to. So this page says plainly what Nine does: a film of your own needs a plan, a template or a script puts in only the words you wrote, and Nine sends nothing to anybody. You get the file and decide who sees it.

Making it in Nine

A film of your own comes with a plan; the free part of Nine lets you look and try, and never makes a film. On a plan there are several ways in. Start from a template puts your own words into one of Nine's templates, a name and one line, a card that holds still, or three points, and adds nothing to them. A script takes the words you already have, in your order, and each paragraph becomes a scene. Just an idea needs only a sentence. A voice recording makes the film run as long as you talk, with your voice as its sound. On the Film plan a film is up to 30 seconds.

The film is drawn, so it needs no photograph. If it should show your own photographs, the plans with a library, Film + Transparent and above, make a film from your own pictures, placed as they are and never retouched. Music is added afterwards in the chamber, calm or with a beat, and goes into the video file when you save. Nine sends nothing to anybody: you get the video file, or a private review link, and you decide who sees it.