Song ideas??

Sometimes less is more. Call his wife and/or best friend and find out what kind of music the Chief likes, listened to or listens to , or even mentioned. The choices you mention are fine, except being from New England and knowing something about folks from the Cape I suggest you do some checking first. I think the "64" one could be taken the wrong way, even if the Chief is retiring.

Just a thought--if you have photos that span the career you could get a bunch of different tv theme songs that also span the same years (tv theme songs from cop shows) ---secondly put every variation of the word (retirement/badge/police...) in the search field of the itunes music store sometimes something just catches your ear...
But I think the viewers might like the name that tune quality to the music from the tv themes--

...you could get a bunch of different tv theme songs that also span the same years (tv theme songs from cop shows)..

for me, that is a terrific idea, Siobhan!! ++ for you!!

my input is just to get some TopTens of the different years, from Elvis to Backstreet Boys, but would use them only as "chapter intros"... my personal experience is, that the whole song lyrics never match with pictures... I prefer instrumentals, doing my own dramatic... he had for sure his ups and downs in his career, therefor you have cheerrs and cries in the music (the later, some slow classics is allways fitting..)

but "Cop Themes" - grrrreat idea!!! ..... TJ Hooker, here we come.... ;-)))

"A Policeman's Lot is Not a Happy One" from the Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan

or Walking on the Moon recorded by "Police"!!!!

Hi Ellyn,

hard to explain without knowing the details of your project...

imagine...... (it ALLWAYS start with imagination...)
30 years of life as policeman
8 segments: rookie, the early days, success, death of a friend, Streetkids, .. whatever.

* every segment has a fade from black, shows an illustrating still (he at policeschool, his first uniform, getting his first medal of ..., a cemetry in rain, teaching a class.... I would manipulate that stills in Photoshop, make some "art", make them black&white, sepia, two colors, b&w with some handpainted single colors etxra, make them "rough"... it is just an illustration...-
* you title that segments... slowly moving titles,,,, no idea, what the engl name is, but I personally like that two lines counter moving... VERY slow....
* within these 5 - 10 sec you play a tune, esp, with "that" line fitting to the "theme" of that segment...
* fade out pic and music (music allways overlapping a little into next clip)
then start "real segment", use some instrumental music...

hope, you catch the idea..... a video says more then thousands words in a foreign language... ;-))))

I'm afraid, I'm a lot older then you 😉, no long before Louis...

no, for "tears" in his career, I meant more Mozart's Requiem et al...

I know, these "your life in pictures" movies NEED a slow "tear and fear" section, some kitsch (same in english, right?), try to make it black&white, make it slow, instead of transitions/cross disolves fade to black/fade from black... don't be afraid of showing "nothing" in a video!! drama needs pauses...

officer krupke-west side story

don't forget bad boys..............

Dear Ellyn,

I recently downloaded "Kind and Generous" by Natalie Merchant for a movie for my mom. THe chorus repeats "thank you" several times- you might want to use just that portion of the song in your movie. CHeck it out- a very nice song.

Jennifer

Well, I'd agree that one of the better approaches would be to call his family and ask. Failing that a 'cop' theme would be nice, e.g. the original Starsky & Hutch theme. Also a classic (even if more sombre) would be 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra (which can go entirely the wrong way since it includes the words 'final curtains').

Hope this helps,

-ch

Please Note:
I work for cf/x, and may profit from posting here.