DIY Life Story Video: Pre-Production

You will find a number of great tips and pieces of advice on this blog for making your own life story video – just browse “Recent Posts” or search the archive using “DIY”. Today we are going to go a little deeper and give you part 1 of a 3 part series on making your own life story video.

In our experience, most things in life boil down to choices. So, we are going to give you some of the more obvious choices in relation to interviews, photo gathering and video transfer and tell you what side of the equation we come down on.

Think of your life story video project in 3 sections
First, a quick bit of industry terminology. Video (and film) production is divided into 3 stages:
1. Pre-Production: planning, writing, resourcing, timing, location selection, research etc;
2. Production: lighting, filming, recording sound, etc
3. Post-Production: editing, animations, music, titles, packaging etc

OK, so you are going to make a personal documentary or a family history video for someone you know. Here are some of the basic questions that the newbie may have…

PRE-PRODUCTION PHASE CHOICES

Do I need to A. start with a script or can I B. start with a concept?
B. Most life story documentaries start out as a concept. You never really know what your interview subjects are going to say, so it’s hard – even in pro documentaries – to accurately predict the direction the film will take. One of the most important attitudes to develop as a documentary film maker is to be prepared to be led.

But you will need a plan: who you plan to talk to, what you want to ask them, where you would like to film them, what the over-arching story or concept is, and so on.

A. Scripts are de rigeur in narrative films, not documentaries. Occasionally we will write a kind of “treatment” for the subject – which may include some narrative which helps communicate the angle we plan on taking (and which may come in handy as voice over later on). We may also map out chapters and their likely content, and locations – if we plan to get the camera outside. Sometimes the end product resembles the treatment, and sometimes not so much.

Do I need to A. Meet the interview subjects beforehand or B. Just show up?

B. There are arguments both ways here. In our professional work, we always try to meet the client beforehand – and you will mostly likely know your “client”. We also try to meet the subject too (not always the same person as the client). But overall, we think you can just “show up” – particularly if you have a long list of interview subjects. You do need to work especially hard though to warm the interview subject(s) up for your life story interview – and don’t be in too much of a rush to turn on your lights and camera before you have fully explained what they can expect.

A. Meeting the subject beforehand can be useful for getting the outlines of the story. But oftentimes, the first telling of the story is the best. And your subject may feel (on a second telling) that they are going over old ground – watch out for the “as I told you before…” qualifiers that can creep in.

When getting the stories of older folks, it is more important in our opinion to talk to family members to get from them the stories that they would like told by your subject.

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Some other considerations in the pre-production phase
Keep in mind that it is in the pre-production phase of your life story video that you are going to be gathering photos and documents and other “artifacts” of the life – as well as the names of people to interview but other assets that will help you tell the story.

In addition, you will probably want to do some ancestry research to get the genealogy right. You can easily find immigration, census and other records that can be incorporated into the video either as graphics or as props for your interview subject to look at and discuss.

And you may have old home movies – 16mm, 8mm films; or old video cassette formats like video8, Hi8 and Digital8; or you may have already had your old video transferred to VHS, S-VHS or VHS-C and then onto DVD. Old movies are a great add and if you haven’t done so already then you need to consider a video transfer or film conversion – and there are plenty of service providers out there that can help out.

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Provide the questions before the interview: A. Yes or B. No.

B. Consistent with the answer above, we generally do not provide the questions up front. We feel you get a better answer when the person has not had a chance to rehearse (some subjects who have had the questions ahead of time keep reaching for their notes so as not to leave out an important fact).

A. There are exceptions: an especially nervous subject or one who simply demands to see the questions! Some of our subjects have failing memories (like we all do) and like to make notes ahead of time. The other exception we make is in relation to our “ethical will” type questions – we think you get better, more considered answers if the subject has had a chance to ponder.

What about photos: should I: A. Borrow and scan them or B. Film them (or photograph them) on the day?

A. In life story videos, photographs are a big part of the story. We think you need to borrow them and scan them and as far as you are able, restore them for later use in editing. Use nice, high scan resolutions.

B. You can film photos on the day – for example by having the subject looking at them and reminiscing – with you and filming them over their shoulder. And you can take digital images, either laid flat or in their frames. But all that should be supplemental. Nothing really beats a high quality scan, with dust removal and blemish correction then in editing nice, gentle Ken Burns type camera movement toward the important part of the image.

Good luck! And if you need any help just click on over to us here at Your Story Here Life Story Video and we’d be glad to lend a hand!

Next time: Part 2: Production Phase for your DIY Life Story Video

Filed under: DIY Tips & Advice, video transfers , documentary film maker, personal documentary

Irish History on Video: Divine Life Stories

Tom Devine lives in New Jersey and has ancestors who fought for Irish independence against the British. One of them was caught and jailed, then fled to America. Tom’s parents followed suit some 30 years later and created a large family, of which Tom is the oldest boy.

Tom’s mother has the story of the family’s Irish patriots, which include Tom’s grandfather (far left).

She heard it directly from him, her father, who has since passed away.

Needing to know more, Tom went back to Ireland in 2009 with both his parents to visit some of the old family haunts.

He took along his video camera and shot scenes of the countryside, gravestones, farmhouses, churches, and his parents reminiscing.

Wearing the Green
Tom, one of eight children, has learned to play the Irish rebel song “The Wearing of the Green” on the bagpipes. He plays that song, and others, each year in New York City’s St Patrick’s Day Parade:

Oh! Paddy, dear, and did you hear the news that’s going round,
The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground.
Saint Patrick’s Day no more we’ll keep – his color can’t be seen.
For there’s a bloody law agin’ the wearing of the green.

In 1920 Tom’s ancestors burnt down Ballintogher Barrack, used by the British to house troops. Tom has managed to unearth the local press story. The report notes that the rebels took care to ensure there were no inhabitants before starting the fire. Fighting for what you believe in runs through the family. Tom fought in Operation Desert Storm and his father – within a year of landing in America in 1954 – joined the US Army. Several of Tom’s siblings have also served.

Tom has been collecting information and stories about his family for years now.

He has maps, photographs, genealogical documents, an old audio recording of his grandfather, and much else besides.

Tom’s problem was what to do with all the information he had. There was too much for a slideshow, but maybe not enough for a book. Besides, a book would take too much of his time – Tom has a demanding career in medical technology.

So, after some internet research, Tom decided to create his own life story video documentary.

Life Story Video
“It’s increasingly common”, says Jane Shafron who runs Your Story Here Life Story Video from her Southern California home and who helped Tom with his family history project.

“The Baby Boomer generation know that their parents lived through some really dramatic events in the Twentieth Century. And they want their kids to learn about those experiences. Boomers are also in touch with the modern technology and so know what can be done to give the stories a thorough telling – even if they are unable, or don’t have the time, to do it all themselves.”

Tom’s Irish family history life story video project runs just over an hour and features interviews with his parents as well as his uncles and aunts. Personal and historical images are included, as are old documents and news stories. Tom’s parents are filmed in Ireland, New York and New Jersey revisiting significant places from family – and their own – history. The whole thing has chapters and is tied together with a voice over track.

Some of the interviews and all of the Irish footage Tom shot himself, and all of the US interviews and east coast location footage he asked Your Story Here to shoot. Not all of the interview material could fit in the main documentary, so a lot of what was left over formed a “bonus track” on the DVD. All the rest of the interview material, and all the other images, documents and other material – whether used in the life story video documentary or not – was collected on an archive hard drive which Tom now has.

“Getting the kids interested in their family history is a goal of all of our projects”, says Jane Shafron – who has recently been elected a board member of the Association of Personal Historians (www.personalhistorians.org/) – an expanding group of almost 600 individuals and organizations formed in 1995 to help people create personal and family histories through print, video and oral recordings.

Family History as a Pyramid
“With our video histories, we think of the project as a pyramid, with the easiest, most digestible part being at the top: That is usually a YouTube video preview, typically the introductory chapter of the documentary. That can be emailed around the family across the country or across the globe – and is something even the youngest grandchild can watch, or download to a device.

“Now, if you have watched the opening clip, that serves as a teaser for the documentary itself – typically 40 minutes to one hour. And being video, it’s attractive and accessible. Those who are very interested can watch the bonus tracks.

“And, for those who really want to take their interest in family history further, they can look at the “master tapes” of the interviews and, in a project like Tom Devine’s, they can get a copy of the archive hard drive and really knock themselves out!” says Jane.

Screening the Life Story Video
Tom had been planning a family reunion for months, and he hosted it just after the 2011 Independence Day holiday coinciding with his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. All his siblings and their families came, plus his parents, aunts and uncles; some folks even made the trip across from Ireland.

The highlight of the weekend was his family history documentary, and a family tree (designed by Your Story Here) showing all the ancestors he has so far identified and all the grandchildren (and great grandchildren) so far born.

A family history life story video can take up to 3 months or longer to plan, shoot and edit. So you might think that the whole process would have exhausted Tom Devine. Not one bit. He is now planning his next project: “Perhaps I will do a video on my brothers and my experiences in the (Gulf) war, as well as around September 11th”, he says.

Many in Tom’s family were first responders on the attack on the Twin Towers, and one member had to pay the ultimate price for his heroism. “We were all involved in many different ways, and people seem to think it is a compelling story.” As indeed it is.

You can see a clip of the Devine life story video project on YouTube here.

Filed under: Biographies , DIY, video tribute

Family Life in the 1950s: Life Story Video

This month’s life story video is the story of a typical 1950s family.

The 1950s were a little different to the 2010s
These days, from the perspective of 2011 and the tail of a very difficult recession, the 1950s present as a kind of golden period for America. The economy was expanding, nearly everybody had a job, and new and better machines kept appearing to help with household chores.

And from this distance at any rate – the country seemed optimistic and unified behind a set of agreed goals that today just seem a million miles away.

Of course, it wasn’t all Coke and beach umbrellas. We had the Reds to worry about, potential nuclear Armageddon, and vast race and gender inequality.

The Earls were a classic 1950s family
The Earls were a classic 1950s family. New bikes for birthdays, peanut butter and jelly school lunches, buzz cuts for son Ben, and vacations at the beach. And much of this happy time was captured by Ben in Super 8 Kodachrome. Their whole story was recently told in their family history documentary (extract follows):

Filed under: family history video, Personal Documentaries, Uncategorized , family history video, golf, personal documentary, WWII

More Life Story Video “Genres”

A while ago I started talking about life story video genres and I mentioned genealogy video and veterans video: Talking about Life Story Genres. And I promised to cover some more varieties of “life story video”.

Family Video Biography
When the project includes more than just the subject themselves, a grandparent couple for example, and when the project reaches back to cover ancestors and the sort of information we are used to seeing in a family tree, then you have what I call a family video biography.

Keep in mind that as important as the stories of the ancestors are (their histories taking us to a whole other country oftentimes) you probably don’t want to just confine yourself to their stories.

Filed under: Biographies, genres , ethical wills, family legacy documentary, genres

Fight Memory Loss With Life Story Video

Frances’ memories of her large Italian-American family, of being raised on a farm growing strawberries, of placing pine needles around the young strawberry plants; her memories of wandering in the nearby forest, of sneaking into the one-room school to “sample” pastries; her memories of Huey Long, of the breakup of her parents’ marriage – were all detailed and fresh as Frances preserved her life story on video.

The room seemed to close in around her as the afternoon played out and Frances came alive remembering the details of her life. She closed her eyes and recounted the night she and her husband were woken up by the call that another Kennedy had been shot – and specialist help was needed immediately.

You might be surprised to read that Francis has advanced stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Filed under: Biographies, memory loss , Alzheimer's Disease, memory loss

Family History in the Digital Age: Fine China and Lace Doilies Begone!

Let’s be honest. Family history used to be the preserve of the maiden aunts. To hear the stories we had to suffer through best china and arm chair doilies and endless digressions on medical procedures suffered by even older and more distant relatives (or worse, totally unheard of acquaintances).

The stories would come – between polite sips of tea and in a miasma of perfume and powder. As a means of enlisting the interest of the younger generations, it didn’t have a lot going for it.

Today’s younger generations are more interested in family history than ever before. The whole country is. But they are demanding that those maiden aunts (and all the rest of us who fulfill the function of family historian) get with the times. They want their family history accessible and they want it compelling.

Filed under: DIY Tips & Advice, family history video , DIY

WWII Survivor: Life Story Video Memorial

Volodymyr Szafranowycz survived the worst that the 20th Century could serve up. He is now dead; a troubled death in many ways – but who complains when death comes in the 80s? His family recorded the details of this 20th Century life in a life story video memorial. A video memorial whose value is now assured by the disappearance and eternal inaccessibility of its subject.

WWII Survivor Volodymyr Szafranowycz

The 20th Century was one of the ugliest in all of human history. Nations rose and fell, wars and revolutions were fought, and there was starvation and genocide – to say nothing of economic collapse and the threat of nuclear Armageddon. More than a few still alive among us suffered through much of this maelstrom. And some, like Volodymyr Szafranowycz – who survived the Nazis and more – have had video memorials erected to their passing.

Bloodiest Century
Was the 20th Century the bloodiest in all of humanity’s experience? Based on the sheer and absolute volume of death recorded, the answer has to be yes. The numbers are so staggering as to be incomprehensible. But is it really as Stalin once said: “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic”? For those who swam in the violent waters of the 20th Century, who came close to death themselves or who had loved ones die, there is tragedy aplenty in that million. And even more tragedy in the millions more who also perished.

Filed under: Biographies , video memorial, WWII

Talking about Life Story Video “Genres”

Life story video is the kind of thing that you can write about, and talk about, but you really have to see it to know what it’s all about. Because each project is going to be different – different in terms of subject, treatment – and even genre.

“Genre”? Life story video has genres?

Filed under: DIY Tips & Advice, genres , genealogy, genres, veterans video, WWII

Personal Documentaries Explained & Simplified

Lights, Camera, Personal Documentary!

What is a Personal Documentary?
Personal documentaries are life stories told on film or video. They typically present a life from beginning to end, and often cover ancestors as well as progeny. Personal documentaries combine interview footage with photographs, historical images, documents, music, archive footage, voice-over, objects and artifacts, captions and titles, personal or home movies, maps and animations, and other media as available. Normally, they are divided into chapters and most usually they are output, or delivered, to DVD.

There are 5 rules for the would-be DIY personal documentarian.

Filed under: Biographies, DIY Tips & Advice, Personal Documentaries , DIY, personal documentary

Video Memorials and Funeral Slideshows To Go

It’s best to celebrate a life with a life story video while the subject can actively participate.  And there is really no age limit to that.  Even memory loss can often be mitigated; or at least when it comes to Alzheimer’s it is the recent memories that seem to go first and the longer term memories can often still be accessed. In that way, personal and family history can be preserved.

But that is not always possible for the subject to participate.  So, when a loved one passes and the need arises to celebrate their life, we enter the territory of the video memorial and the funeral slideshow. What then are the best software options?

Filed under: Memorial Video , funeral slideshow, memorial video, video memorial