"Ever wondered what kind of a movie your life would make?Thanks to some sophisticated computer software, you can now find out. And who needs Hollywood? Vicki Johnson does it all on Bainbridge Island.With the editing software currently available, you can take photographs or material from a VCR or camcorder, add music and voice-overs and combine them into an 'A&E' biography, Johnson said.Her company, Video Tributes, does just that. You find and assemble your old photos, write a script and, if you wish, choose the music. Johnson will assemble it all into a video documentary.The production can get a lot more elaborate, with animated graphics and sophisticated segues. But Johnson says the pictures themselves are what makes a video meaningful.You don't want to overdo, Johnson said. You want the power of the pictures to come through, rather than the special effects.The pictures come from the family albums of the well-organized, and from the boxes in the attic for most people. Slides and home moves can also be used as source material. Johnson scans them into a computer, puts them in proper order, then edits the narrative and music to match, all out of her home studio in the Crystal Springs area.Base prices range from $75 for a simple video with 25 photos, one song and a greeting to $1,200 for a package that integrates 400 photos and ten minutes of home movies. Additional customizing can add to those figures. Johnson said she got interested in the business after seeing a tribute video at a memorial service some three years ago.It is just such a powerful vehicle for telling the story of a life, she said. It was really emotional for me and for everyone. I decided then that this is what I wanted to do with my life.Johnson took some classes in Seattle on computer editing, did a lot of reading on her own and set up shop in the last year.LIke every business, it starts slowly, she said. But I'm getting a lot of word of mouth, and I'm working with wedding consultants to try to get going.While the form may be new, there is nothing recent about Johnson's interest in communications. When she and her husband were living in Anchorage, Alaska from 1976-86, Johnson was the chief publicist for the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, a mid-February festival that is sort of a far-north version of Mardi Gras. She also worked on some films produced by the state of Alaska.When the family came back to Bainbridge in 1986, she got involved in the campaign against the Port Blakely project, which would have brought hundreds of homes to the southern end of the island and condominiums and retail at the head of the harbor. She edited a newsletter for the South Bainbridge Community Association, which was one of the project's primary opponents.That couldn't have had a better outcome, preserving the head of the bay, she said, referring to the land that the Bainbridge Island Park District has acquired for a park.She also owned Madison Avenue Garage at the corner of Madison Avenue and Wyatt Way, which she sold two years ago. The best thing about the video-tribute business, Johnson said, is the response she gets from customers.People truly love the videos, she said. There's something about seeing a life story unroll on the screen. Everyone who has had one says they watch it over and over.Johnson said the venture also taps into her long-standing personal interest in family history and genealogy, an interest she believes is widely shared.We are losing so many wonderful family stories, about the Depression, World War II and the times our family members lived through, she said. (I) believe more and more people will be trying to preserve that through something like these videos. "

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