What is a video profile?
For most adoptive families, Print Profiles are their first opportunity to connect with birth parents. Print profiles usually include information about the adoptive family’s home, neighborhood, family members, motivations to adopt, hobbies and much more.
But what if these profiles were watched instead of read? What if birth parents could actually see a couple interact? What if they could witness the couple’s personalities, instead of just reading that they have good personalities?
What if they could actually hear and feel their desire to become parents?
By showcasing the qualities that can only translate to video, Video Profiles allow prospective birth parents to better envision their child’s life while growing up in your family. With the help of adoption and birth parent professionals, we have designed a step-by-step process for families to create Adoption Video Profiles that will help foster a connection between you and birth parents.
How does the process work?
You will receive step-by-step instructions, educational videos, and emails to guide you through the entire Adoption Video Profile process from start to finish. These instructions will explain how to shoot various interviews with you, family members or friends and additional footage to supplement the interviews. You will have 15 days to film and will send your footage through a secure project to your Show Pro Video Specialist. If you need more than 15 days, you will be able to request an extension within your account.
Your Video Specialist will watch all of your footage and is specifically trained, with the help of adoption professionals, to know how to then select the best clips and edit it into an emotive story geared towards birth parents.
You will receive a draft of your Video Profile within 21 business days of when you complete filming in which you then have the opportunity to provide feedback.
What are the benefits of doing a video profile?
Video Profiles benefit the birth mother by helping her choose the best adoptive family for her adoption plan. Consequently, there are also many benefits for adoptive families and benefits for adoption professionals:
Video Show Your Family – Imagine picking your spouse with only photographs and a few pages of written information. Now imagine picking a family to raise your child by only using that same information. Video Profiles allow a birth mother to learn more about you so that she can feel more secure about the family she has chosen.
Video Profiles Showcase Personality – Print profiles are a great way to connect with birth parents, but they are only able to present so much. They cannot express how compassionate, funny or outgoing you are in person. In video, your personality and everyday lives can be easily seen.
Video Profiles Help Lower Chances of a Disruption – Many birth mothers watch a family’s video multiple times throughout the matching process, which helps her stay committed to the family and remind her why she has chosen adoption for her child. While Video Profiles don’t eliminate disruptions altogether, they give birth parents a stronger sense of knowing the family, which helps them remain dedicated to their adoption plans. Videos are also often used as an “icebreaker” when talking on the phone or meeting in person for the first time.
Video Profiles Reach More Prospective Birth Parents – Every year, more and more birth mothers are searching for prospective adoption families on the Web, and an increasing amount search for them on YouTube, the world’s second highest trafficked search engine.
We are afraid of the filming process and how we will come across on video. Are we alone?
It’s really important to keep in mind that almost all families feel awkward or uncertain when filming each portion of the Video Profile, but the interviews, B-roll and music will all be combined together with our Video Specialist’s expertise to form an effective Video Profile.
We only select the best parts of what you submit to be used and we have a lot of experience in video editing, storytelling and specific adoption training from birth parent professionals. Remember the goal of the video — to help prospective birth parents get better understanding of what life would be like as a part of your family. So be yourself, have fun, and we will take care of the rest!
Can I see the interview questions are instructions before I order the kit so I can prepare ahead of time?
Unfortunately, we do not give access to our instructions and questions before payment is received in order to protect our Video Profile process.
Once you place your order, you will have access to an online account that has step-by-step educational materials to walk you through the entire process, including the interview questions.
How long do we have to film? We want to try to schedule our filming to fit around certain events.
We recommend that families try to complete the filming within 15 days to keep the process moving, however if you need more time you may request an extension for an additional 15 days within your account.
Can we film on our vacation?
Some vacation footage is great! However, it is important to remember that birth parents are very interested in seeing what day-to-day life would be like for their child. Therefore we ask that the majority of your footage takes place within your own home and community and also corresponds with the answers to your interview questions.
We don't have children nearby to interact with or are not able to film with children. How can we film a video profile?
We have had plenty of families in similar situations that have made really effective Video Profiles and in those cases they can expand on the sections about themselves, their relationship, their occupations, and even their pets. Make sure you follow the instructions carefully and get more clips of the two of you together and your lives to help fill in the video.
You will also have an opportunity to submit photos or previously shot footage that you may have of yourselves interacting with children. Further instructions on how to do so will be provided. Please let us know if you need any specific suggestions on what to film!
We are returning family so do we need to shoot a new video profile or can we reuse footage from our first video profile?
We do ask that you film an entirely new Video Profile again. First of all, we want to hear about and see all the changes in your life since adopting! We also do regular updates to our interview questions, educational materials and overall process to improve the quality of the Video Profile. When you are ready to begin you can log back into your original account and click the New Order button.
We want to update our video profile. What is the process?
Updates are done with a tiered fee. Please reach out to us at video.specialist@showpromedia.com to get started.
How much does SP Media charge for a video project?
SP Media’s rates change based on the type of video project you are interested in. For more information about pricing, please contact SP Media. Once you register a Video Profile account with Show Pro, you will receive a more in-depth FAQ and information as well as access to a Video Specialist to help guide you through the filming process.