memorial_tribute_video_production v1.0.0

name: "memorial_tribute_video_production" description: "Produce a memorial tribute video on a funeral deadline: gather photos from family phones and prints without losing or damaging originals, scan and restore copies in a proven order, run the music licensing check that separates playing a song in the room from recording it into the video, proof every name and date with one named family approver before render, and deliver tested files for the service screen, the family, and the online obituary. Use when making a funeral slideshow, memorial video, celebration of life tribute, or obituary video, or when fixing one that is due within days."

Memorial Tribute Video Production

Purpose

Deliver a tribute video that plays correctly in the room, reads correctly to the family, and carries no rights problem into the copies that last. The hard parts are not the edit. They are the deadline, originals that must go back unharmed, names and dates nobody checked, music that was legal to play and illegal to record, and a venue system nobody tested. This skill runs those five risks in order.

Most slideshow tools auto arrange photos, drop in stock music, and render with no intake, no licensing check, and no proofing step. This skill ships the intake and proofing workflow, the licensing check, and a worked two day delivery in references/delivery-specs.md.

Workflow

1. Lock the deadline and the playback route first. Get the service date and time, the venue contact who runs playback, the venue deadline for receiving the file, the playback route and file format, and who presses play. Some venues want the file 48 hours ahead for testing. The venue deadline is the real deadline. See references/delivery-specs.md.
2. Name one approver. One family member approves photos, captions, names, dates, order, and the final cut. Record the name in the job folder. Group approval stalls and conflicts on a funeral deadline.
3. Run the music check before any song touches the timeline. Playing a song in the room and recording it into a video are different rights, with different licenses from different owners. Work through references/music-licensing-check.md for every destination: room, family copies, livestream, online post. Write one check line per song. No line, no timeline.
4. Collect photos without losing originals. Follow references/intake-and-proofing.md. Digital: original files only, never screenshots or feed saves, one intake folder with a subfolder per contributor. Prints: clean dry surface, gloves, edges only, never remove a print from a mount or album, never write on a print, keep arrival order, return in arrival order with a confirmed handover.
5. Scan and restore copies only. Flatbed at 300 dpi or higher for prints 4x6 and larger, 600 dpi for small prints. Save a TIFF master where practical and edit a JPEG working copy. Restoration, cropping, and repair happen on the copy. Show the family any repair that changes what a photo shows.
6. Build the manifest and plan the runtime. Log every kept photo in a manifest CSV using assets/manifest-template.csv: order, file, section, caption, names, dates, proofed. Default order is chronological, thematic is the alternative, never a mix. Run python3 scripts/tribute_plan.py runtime --photos 48 --hold 4 --transition 0.5 --music-seconds 227 --target-min 180 --target-max 420 and settle length with the family before editing. Most tributes run three to seven minutes.
7. Cut to the music route you actually cleared. Build the recorded versions on licensed, public domain, or family cleared music. Where the family wants a commercial song and only room performance is covered, build a muted picture file timed to that song for venue playback plus a safety service file with the cleared track recorded in.
8. Proof before render, every time. Export a proof with order numbers burned in plus a one page proof sheet of every caption, name, and date. The approver checks spelling, dates, places, titles, and order, then signs off in the manifest. Run python3 scripts/tribute_plan.py check manifest.csv. It fails the job on unproofed rows, order gaps or duplicates, and missing files. No clean check, no render. Any later fix goes back to the approver.
9. Export per destination. Service master: MP4, H.264 video, AAC audio, 1920x1080, 16:9. Family copy: the same master plus the project file, manifest, and proof sheet. Online version: same picture cut, music swapped where the licensing check requires it, test uploaded unlisted a day ahead where the platform allows it so a block is found before the obituary link goes live. Specs in references/delivery-specs.md.
10. Test on the venue system and hand over with a failure plan. Play the actual final file on the actual venue equipment, start to finish, and set the audio level there. Deliver two local copies on separate devices, labelled with the name and version. Agree the failure order in advance: backup copy, one player restart, then carry on with the service and play the tribute at the reception.

Output Contract

• Service master: MP4 (H.264, AAC), 1920x1080, tested on the venue equipment, with a labelled backup copy on a separate device.
• Family package: the master file, the project file, the manifest, and the signed proof sheet in one folder. Prints returned in arrival order.
• Online version where requested: picture cut with online cleared music, checked for claims or blocks before the link is published.
• Job record: intake answers, one music check line per song with its evidence, the manifest with proofed set to yes on every row, and the approver name and sign-off date.
• Runtime and photo count stated to the family before the service, with any cut photos named and kept in the intake folder.

Operating Rules

1. Originals are sacred. Never edit, convert, rename in place, mark, remove from a mount, or keep a family original. Every change happens on a copy, and every original goes back in the order it arrived.
2. Never record a commercial song into a video on the assumption that private, personal, or non-commercial use makes it allowed. It does not. Performance cover is not recording cover, and a funeral home license does not clear family copies, a livestream, or an online post. Each destination gets its own check.
3. Never invent or guess a name spelling, a date, a place, or a relationship. If the family has not supplied it and proofed it, the caption comes out. A blank caption is a small miss. A wrong name on the service screen is the miss everyone remembers.
4. Never promise a commercial song will stay up online. Automated claim systems can block, monetise, or track a posted video, and the result can differ by country.
5. Do not let the service wait on a file. If playback fails twice, the service continues and the tribute moves to the reception. Agree that order with the funeral director before the day.
6. Speak plainly about limits on day one: photo count, deadline, and what licensing allows. A family told early can pick a backup song and a shorter cut. A family told at render can only be disappointed.
7. Keep grief in the room, not in the workflow. Ask once for sensitive exclusions at intake, handle corrections without debate, and never argue a caption with the approver. Their call on names, photos, and order is final.