When the Lights Come Up

“We lost our dog of fourteen years last spring. I thought a tribute video might feel silly, but she was part of our family and I wanted the kids to remember her. Brandon treated it as seriously as he would anyone's grandfather. When it was done my youngest watched it and said 'she's still here.' That's what he does. He doesn't make videos. He gives you the person, or in our case the dog, back for a few minutes.”

“My father passed in March. I had a folder of photos I couldn't even open without losing it. Brandon took them and gave us back something we could actually sit and watch together as a family. It's the only place all of him lives now.”

“We handed over my mom's whole life in a shoebox of scanned pictures and just trusted him with it. What came back made my brother cry, and my brother does not cry.”

“When it played at the mitzvah, the entire room went quiet and then everyone was wiping their eyes at the same time. My son said it was the best part of his whole night, and there was a DJ.”

“People are still texting me about the video three weeks after the party. My aunt asked if she could get a copy to watch again. That never happens with a slideshow.”

“We played it at my dad's retirement dinner and his whole crew from thirty years at the plant just lost it. He kept saying he didn't know we still had half those pictures.”

“I was dreading it because our photos are a disaster, spread across three phones and an old laptop. He told me exactly what to send and handled the rest. I did almost nothing and it turned out better than I imagined.”

“I'm not organized and I don't have time. I sent him a pile of stuff and he shaped it into an actual story. He made it easy on purpose, and I noticed.”

“I'll be honest, I hesitated at the price. Then I watched it. I would pay it again without thinking twice. You're not paying for editing, you're paying for how it makes everyone feel.”

“We've spent more on things we forgot about a week later. This is the one thing from that whole year we will still be watching in twenty years.”

“I found Brandon through a friend who'd used him, and I've already passed his name to two other families. That's just how this works. You see one and you have to have your own.”

“Three people at the graduation party asked me who made the video. I sent all of them to him. Worth every penny and then some.”