Delivering a funeral presentation to the venue: how it works
When it is time to put together a funeral presentation, you probably have a great deal on your mind. You have just lost someone, so it is hard to know where to begin. We hope this article points you in the right direction.
Get in touch with the venue
This is always step one. Together with the funeral director you decide where the service will be held, and the venue is the one responsible for playing the funeral presentation on the day. If your funeral director does not know how they prefer to receive it, give the venue a quick call and ask:
How would you like the funeral presentation delivered? Is it fine if I bring a ready-made PowerPoint, or do you have your own system?
Some venues, whether a crematorium, a funeral home or a church, use their own system. In the UK you will often come across providers such as Obitus or Wesley Media. These are online applications in which you build the presentation yourself and which the venue can then play back easily on their own equipment.
If they do use their own system, you or the funeral director will usually be sent a link to start building everything.
When they want or accept a PowerPoint presentation
When a venue asks for a PowerPoint (PPT) funeral presentation, the idea is to create a single file that the venue moves through with a few clicks during the service.
At this point you will need to settle the running order of the service. Which music will be played, and who are the speakers? You talk this through with the funeral director and agree a final running order.
By now you will probably already have started gathering photographs of the person who has died, both to choose the image for the order of service card and for the presentation itself.
Making the funeral presentation
The running order is set and the photos are gathered. Now it is time to build the presentation. If it has to go into the venue's own system, you start there. If it needs to be a PowerPoint, you can (if you are reasonably comfortable with computers) create a new file yourself or start with an online tool such as Funeral-ppt.com.
The music
Music will have been chosen for the service, so it is important to have those files to hand. Some systems include a music library you can pick from. If not, there are various ways to obtain an mp3 of a song, which can then be added to the presentation.
The photos
A distinction is often made between photos shown during the music and photos shown while someone is speaking. You can choose to show the fixed photo (the one from the order of service) during the speakers, or it may feel right to show an image that suits the speaker or their story.
Once the music is gathered, it is worth looking at the total length of the songs during which a slideshow will run.
We recommend keeping the pace gentle, roughly eight seconds per photo. Do bear in mind, though, that the length of the transition is taken from that time. If you use a calm transition (usually a fade) of one and a half seconds, that time is spent on the fade rather than the photo.
So divide the total length of the music (in seconds) by the number of photos. If the result comes out below eight, it may be wise to use fewer photos.
It also depends a little on the music itself. If a song has tempo and energy, the photos may change a touch faster.
Building the file or filling in the system
Now everything is lined up and the groundwork is done, you can start building the file. Every programme offers a preview. Once it is all in, show it to anyone else involved and make changes where needed.
Ask for confirmation
When the presentation matches the running order and is complete, everything is essentially ready for the service. If it is in the venue's own system, you can assume they will be able to play it well on the day. If it is a PowerPoint, deliver the file (along with any instruction sheet or running order) to the right person and ask them to confirm whether they will check it once on their own equipment.
It is always reassuring to have a second opinion from the place where it will actually be played. Even though you can assume the presentation will run the same for them as it does for you, something may have been overlooked, or their computer may not behave quite as expected.
It happens regularly that people run into playback problems on Apple devices, or that a very high-quality video stutters on a less powerful laptop. Once you have that confirmation, you know everything is in order and you can close this part of the preparation with peace of mind.
One thing that makes this easier: when you build the presentation with Funeral-ppt.com, the final version comes with a shareable download page for the venue, so the location can collect the file and the instruction sheet from one place.
Frequently asked questions
Can a funeral venue or crematorium refuse my PowerPoint if they have their own system?
Yes, they can. It varies from venue to venue whether they are flexible about accepting and using a PowerPoint funeral presentation alongside their own system. Experience has shown that families and funeral directors do not always deliver everything neatly, which is part of why these systems were developed in the first place.
When a venue insists on their own system as a firm requirement, they can turn down even a perfect PowerPoint presentation. You can always get in touch, though, to ask whether they might make an exception (sometimes they will, occasionally for a small fee).
How do I work out how many photos I can fit within one song?
To keep it simple: is a song around three to four minutes? Then, for a calm pace, use up to about twenty photos.
To go into the detail:
- Convert the length of the song into seconds and note it down. A song of three minutes and twenty-four seconds becomes 204 seconds.
- Check the length of the transition set in the PowerPoint file (if one is used). A calm transition is usually one and a half seconds.
- Divide the number of seconds by 9.5 (eight seconds is the time per photo for a calm pace, and 1.5 seconds is the transition).
- Round the result up or down, and that is the number of photos you can place within the song.
In our example that is 204 seconds / 9.5 = 21.47. So with 21 or 22 photos you keep to a calm pace.
For faster, up-tempo songs this can be higher, and you can divide by 7.5 or even 6.5. The quicker the photos follow one another, though, the less time there is to dwell on any one image and let its emotion sink in.
I am still stuck, is there any support available?
If you do not have people around you who are handy with computers and can lend a hand, there are always options. Ask the funeral director first, or get in touch with a company or person who specialises in this. The team at Funeral-ppt.com are glad to help; you can reach us at support@funeral-ppt.com.