Are you one of those people who consider yourself "computer savvy?" Maybe you would rather call yourself "technology challenged." Either way, I can help you through the process of creating your very own custom home movie in a very fun way. I will walk you through the step by step process of organizing, editing and producing your own DVD movie.

1. The first step is the most important. You need to collect all your pictures and videos that you want to use in your movie. While doing that, you should be thinking about what theme you want your movie to be. For example: you may want to do your child's birthday in which case you want to collect all the pictures and videos from that event. I always make an annual family movie to share with our friends and relatives so every January I collect all the pictures and videos of the previous year for my movie.

2. Now you have all your pictures and videos that you would like to use for your movie. If you have any videos that are on outdated technology like 8mm or VHS, you will need to have them "transferred" to DVD. You can use a web service to do this for you and it's very inexpensive. Also, if your pictures have not been scanned into the computer, you need to scan them in or send them out to have that done for you.

3. When you have everything on a disc, you can begin the editing process. You should find a movie editing program that you can use easily. Some operating systems have movie editing programs built in. When you begin to make your movie, take time to think about how you want to tell the story. For example: if you wanted to do a movie on your child's life you might want to start with your pregnancy pictures or maybe the sonogram. If you sent out birth announcements, you could have the main screen be the announcement.

Be prepared to spend several hours in this step. The editing process will be the most time-consuming because you have to organize everything and be mindful of your timeline. If you don't want an extremely long movie, there will be some pictures or video clips that don't make it in the movie. This is why organizing everything beforehand is so important. You will have to stop and come back to the project several times. Don't expect to have the editing done in an hour. It will most likely take you at least 5 hours to ensure that you end up with a high-quality final product.

The next thing to consider is background music. The best movies have the perfect background music. For example, my last family movie featured an introduction to the family and I selected "We are Family" by Sister Sledge. It was great because it was upbeat and lots of fun.

Making a custom movie takes time and it is a creative process so ask other people to view your movie before you finalize it. Sometimes you get so used to looking at the movie, you can overlook small mistakes that others will see more clearly. The final thing you need to do is save your movie as an AVI file. AVI stands for Audio Video Interleaved and is commonly used in many programs for audio video projects.

4. With your final movie saved as an avi file, you now need to put in onto a DVD. Sounds easier said than done right? First you need to research programs that do "DVD Authoring." DVD authoring describes the process of creating a DVD video that can be played on a DVD player. Select a program that says user-friendly or easy-to-use. Once you have your software you can begin to make your DVD. You can choose to have a DVD menu or just an auto-play movie which will automatically start the movie once it's inserted into your DVD player. You need to buy blank DVD's and cases. It's nice to buy cases because you can properly store your DVD's without fear of them getting scratched and also so you can give them to your friends and family. Your local Office Depot or Staples will have blank DVD's and cases for you to choose from. Keep in mind that the more you buy, the better the price. Instead of sending Christmas cards out this year, you can send your loved ones copies of your brand new custom movie on a DVD. How impressive!