How to make a tribute video for a memorial or funeral
To make a tribute video, gather the family's photos and video clips of the person, choose the ones that show who they were (with the people they loved, doing what they loved), put them in a gentle order, often from early life to recent years, and set them to calm music with soft dissolves between shots. Open with their name and dates, end with a short line from the family, and keep it to 3–6 minutes for a service, or about a minute to share online. Below is how to do each part without it taking days, and a real 60-second tribute made from family clips.
18 family clips became a gentle one-minute tribute with soft dissolves, warm color and quiet music. Sped up.
Gather the photos and clips
- Ask the whole family to add photos and videos to one shared album or folder. Siblings, cousins and old friends will have pictures no one else has seen.
- Ask for originals, not copies forwarded through chat apps, which shrink videos and photos.
- Scan old prints with a phone scanning app or a local photo shop; 300 dpi is plenty for a screen.
- Short video clips are precious: a laugh, a few words, a dance at a wedding. Even a few seconds of their voice changes a tribute.
Give everyone a deadline a few days before the service.
How long, and in what order
| Where it plays | Length | Roughly how many photos and clips |
|---|---|---|
| During the funeral or memorial service | 3–6 minutes | 60–120 photos and a few clips |
| Before the service or at the reception, on a loop | 8–15 minutes | Everything you have |
| Shared online with people who couldn't attend | 1–2 minutes | The 15–30 best |
Order is usually chronological: childhood, young adulthood, family life, recent years, then a final photo that feels like them. Grouping by theme works too: family, work, travel, hobbies, friends.
Music and pacing
- Calm and warm: piano, strings or acoustic guitar. A song they loved can be the centerpiece, but for anything posted online, use music licensed for your use. Platforms mute copyrighted songs. Music basics →
- Slow pacing: about 4–6 seconds per photo, with soft one-second dissolves between them. No fast cuts.
- Gentle movement on photos (a slow zoom) keeps them from feeling static.
- One warm color look across every clip and photo, so footage from different phones and decades sits together. Matching color →
- Let clips with their voice play with the music lowered underneath.
Titles
Open with their name and years ("Margaret Ellis · 1941–2026") or a title like "Remembering Mom". End with a short line from the family ("With love, from all of us") or a favorite saying of theirs. One elegant serif font throughout is enough.
The example: a one-minute tribute
We uploaded 18 short clips of grandparents with their grandchildren and wrote:
Make a gentle 60-second tribute video called "For Grandma and Grandpa" from these clips of them with the grandchildren. Calm pacing with soft dissolves, warm color, a tender piano track from the music library, and a simple serif title at the start and "With love, from all of us" at the end. No fast cuts.
Novacut chose nine of the clips that show the grandparents with the children, about six and a half seconds each, joined by one-second dissolves; added a warm grade across all of them; and set a soft, quiet library track ("Quiet Thank You") low under the picture with a slow fade in and out. It said the track wasn't tagged as piano and offered to search again. One more message set the title and the closing line on a single line each, in the same serif with a soft shadow:
For a real memorial, add photos to the same upload. They go on the timeline like clips, and a slow zoom on each keeps them from feeling static.
Playing it at the service
- Check the venue's equipment a few days ahead: TV or projector, connection (HDMI, USB stick, laptop), and speakers.
- Bring it two ways: an MP4 on a USB stick and on a laptop or phone.
- Export at 1080p, H.264, which plays on almost anything.
- Test the volume in the room; music that sounds right at home can be too quiet in a hall.
- Ask one person to start it, so the family doesn't have to.
FAQ
How long should a memorial video be?
3–6 minutes to play during a service; 8–15 minutes on a loop before or after; 1–2 minutes to share online. Fewer, well-chosen moments are easier to watch than every photo.
How many photos do I need for a tribute video?
At about 5 seconds a photo, a 5-minute video holds around 60 photos. Mix in a few short video clips if you have them.
What music is good for a funeral slideshow?
Calm instrumental music, or a song that meant something to the person. If you'll post the video online, use music licensed for that use, or ask your editor for an instrumental track made for the video.
Can I make a tribute video for someone who's still with us?
Yes. The same approach works for a retirement, a big anniversary or a milestone birthday: photos and clips through the years, warm music, and a message from the family at the end. Birthday videos →
Footage: Mikhail Nilov on Pexels (Pexels License). The family shown is not a real family's memorial and doesn't endorse Novacut.