During a funeral service, there are many useful ways to remember your loved one who has recently passed away. Many families put together video slideshows, often accompanied by a sentimental soundtrack that they can play at some point during the service. If you really want to create a one-of-a-kind video production that pays homage to your late loved one, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get busy. Instead of just compiling photos, set up appointments with various people from your loved one's life and ask them questions about the person. You can then take selected clips, edit them into a production, and share it with the people at the funeral home. Here are some things to think about if you go this route.

Arrange Consent In Advance

It's in poor taste to visit people who knew your late loved one, thrust your smartphone's video camera in their face and begin asking questions. While there are almost certainly some family members, friends, and colleagues who will be honored to be recorded for the video tribute, other individuals will not feel composed enough to help you in this manner. For this reason, it's vitally important to arrange consent from everyone in advance. Call people or use social media to seek volunteers for your project, and then move forward with setting up times to interview them.

Ask Different Questions

Open-ended questions can yield interesting responses that can add to the depth of your video tribute. It's important, however, to make sure that you ask a variety of questions; asking the same question to each person can often result in similar answers, which will lead to the final product feeling a bit repetitive. Questions can include asking people to tell their favorite memories of the person, talk about the lessons the person taught them, recount something that they'd like to tell the person, and other such sentiments. You can then pore through the clips to pool those that are the most poignant for including in the finished product.

Add Identification Titles

When you're editing the clips together, or having someone do the technical work while you provide input, make sure to add identification titles below each person. This will help those in attendance at the funeral understand who each speaker is. You might also wish to provide a brief description of the person's relationship with your late loved one. For example, a title could read, "John Smith, former colleague."

For more information on how to incorporate a video into your funeral service, it might be good to communicate with a funeral home, such as Michels & Lundquist Funeral Home.