Creating Paper Slide Videos

How to Make a Paper Slide Video for Family History

All the how-to videos I could find were designed for classroom use, but the method lends itself really well to  family history activities and telling stories about ancestors.

This video is made by a group of students illustrating the steps to create a paper slide video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvnl-r4tvbQ.

If you didn’t see the video, or just want to change the way they did them, here are some  other instructions that are specifically about doing a video on an ancestor. Feel free to use your imagination to create the video you want. These videos generally should be between 1½ and 3 minutes long. 

First of all find a story about an ancestor that you would like to share with others. That story can come from an interview with parents, grandparents, or other relatives, or you may find one you’d like to tell on FamilySearch.

Next write the story the way you want to tell it in your video. Once it is written the way you want to present it, divide it up so that you know what pictures you want to use to illustrate each portion of the story. 

Once the story is written and you know what pictures you need, you can draw, paint, copy pictures from FamilySearch or other history sources, or pose for, take photos, and print them to illustrate your paper slide video story.

After all the illustrations are made, practice reading the story aloud. When you feel comfortable reading it aloud, practice reading it with the person who is going to move the papers in and out of the camera’s field of view so the story moves smoothly with the story as it is read.

When you both feel comfortable with the process, have someone else hold a digital movie camera or a smart phone above the illustrations. If you feel the camera is too shaky, a tripod or phone stand can be used, but it is not necessary. Sometimes the shakiness adds to the charm of the video.

Start recording and tell the story as the slides come into and out of view. It is best if you can tell and record the story all in one take. That eliminates the need for editing afterword. Some mistakes are okay.

Now the story is ready to share.

If you would like some additional resources go to the following links:

This video is of a teacher using small drawings and recording the video in a little different way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP9FWmWbznc. 

This other video shows an elementary school child with still another different approach to their paper slide video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5uUtOGFzG4. To watech the children's video, you only need to wathch the first 30 seconds. The other 4 and a half minutes plus are of the teacher giving another set of how-to instructions.

There is a company, Common Craft that makes paper slide videos professionally. Their products, also, are geared to education. They also have several resources for sale. I am not endorsing their products, but there is a library of videos that you can watch for free, that might give you some ideas. There is one particular video that is fun to watch. The title is, "Zombies in Plain English"

If, you feel that your drawing abilities may not be the best--I as feel about mine--here is a paper slide video that shows one done with photos that were printed on paper first. It does have some problems and mistakes, but it does show one more way to do this project. And really, the point is to tell a story about an ancestor. Lewis Robison and the U.S. Marshalls.

There is a pdf document of simplified instructions that you can download, if you wish to print a paper handout. It is available for download here.