Make the song personal with a video montage to introduce, reinforce, or simply review any of your primary songs. I’ve planned and created a video montage for this year’s program choice song, We’ll Bring the World His Truth.
We’ll Bring the World His Truth
Creating a Video Montage
I started by requesting pictures from the Primary families in my ward Facebook group. The request could also go out by the Primary email chain, if your ward has one. I requested pictures of their children as babies, as a family, in front of the temple (marriage/family), and pictures of their baptism.
**Note, landscape pictures will work best for video. Make sure to mention this in your request, though we still used portrait orientation pictures from those that were provided.
Next, I downloaded the mp3 file from LDS.org for We’ll Bring the World His Truth. The download button is over on the right hand side.
You can use Windows Movie Maker or the Apple equivalent, or any other video editing software you might have. There are even tools that are easy as drag and drop all the pictures and audio and it will make the video for you in a click of a button.
I used Filmora and started by adding my music track. I add a quick intro slide to overlay the intro part of the music. Then, I added in all of the pictures the families had provided. I added all of the pictures, and then adjust the settings to make each picture show for 2 seconds. This worked great for the number of pictures I had to get us through the 2 verse we are using for the Program.
I then just trimmed the audio track to the length needed and then saved the video as a video file so it was ready to show.
Because the video uses pictures for more than just my family, I won’t be sharing it here, but I do plan to use the video as part of the program – if it gets approved! Otherwise, I’ll post it on the Facebook page for the families to enjoy.
How to Make a Video Montage
I’ve created a short little video clip to show you about creating the video. I apologize in advance that it was over exposed – I think it was just because of the brightness of the screen. Anyways, hopefully this can help some!
If you have any problems viewing this video, see it on my YouTube channel here.
Using the Video Montage
During Primary
During Primary singing time, I’ll start by singing the song one time through with the kids and my flip chart. Then, I’ll tell them I made something really special to show them. I’ll ask them to listen (not sing) and silently watch for their Primary friends!
I’ll ask them to raise their hand if they or someone in their class was featured in the video!
Then, I’ll ask everyone that raised their hand to stand up and sing the song together with me. Anyone who didn’t raise their hand (usually the grumpy boys) will get to sit out the first round, but I’ll call on them next.
Then, we’ll switch. Everyone who sat down through the last time through will sing through the song for the group. If everyone stood, you can skip this time.
We’ll watch the video again and sing along with our faces and do a “popcorn” singing where if they see their face they’ll stand for that few seconds and sing extra loud, while the whole primary continues to sing along with the group.
Finally, we’ll “race” the video. I’ll mute the video so it’s the pictures only, and we’ll sing through the song in FAST mode and see if we can make it through the song twice before the pictures end. Double check if your pianist will be up for this challenge before you suggest it to the Primary kiddos.
Having those times when they are not singing, and just listening to the words, does help them learn the words despite how it may seem. They’re able to pay attention to the lyrics, rather than scramble to try to sing words they may not remember.
My hope is to be able to use the video montage again as part of the program to add a unique element to the presentation, but even if not the kids will really love seeing their faces and helping the song to feel more relateable to them!
Pop over next to see our Stacking Cup game for We’ll Bring the World His Truth!