I can't believe a year has flown by since the Family Legacy
Video Producer's e-Newsletter
debuted in July, 2004. Many of you have written throughout the year to tell me
how much you appreciate the monthly dose of information and inspiration this
newsletter provides. Keep writing - I'll always be glad to hear from you. Please encourage your family and
friends to subscribe so they can benefit as you have. And don't forget - I'd
love to include your testimonials and stories about your family history video
experiences. Feel free to send me a paragraph or two. You may wind up in the
next issue!
I hope you enjoy this issue of the Family Legacy Video™ Producer's e-Newsletter.
Please
e-mail me at
steve@familylegacyvideo.com or phone me toll-free (1.888.662.1294) with
any questions or comments you have.
This past May, a Family Legacy Video client got to watch her
father run for the first time - in the 1912 Olympics! This heartwarming story
was featured in the June 22 issue of the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson's morning
daily.
To read the online version of the story,
click here.
To download a pdf version of the story,
click here.
The plant in the photo at left is called a "night-blooming Cereus." It's a droopy, spindly little cactus that exists here in Arizona. What makes it special is that it blooms only once a year, usually sometime between May and July.
It's actually a pretty neat event. A plant that looks like a dead stick suddenly sprouts stalks topped with golf ball-sized buds that eventually open into beautiful white flowers. They last for one night and morning, then wither away.
The Cereus is so nondescript that my wife and I didn't even
know we had two of them in our yard - until we saw some during a trip to the
Tucson Botanical Gardens and realized, "Hey, that's what those strange plants
in our yard are!"
Last year was the first time I went on a serious "Cereus
watch." When the buds opened, I was ready with a camera to document the event.
Just last night our Cereus bloomed again - and my wife and I spent some time
admiring the flowers that grace us with their presence just once a year.
So what's this cactus got to do with Family Legacy Video and
you? The blooming of the Cereus is a special event. If you blink, you can miss
it. It's such a rare event that it inspired me to document it through images I
can now share with you. The stories that make up our lives and our family
histories are also special and rare and deserve to be preserved on video, both
to enjoy now and to pass on to other family members.
And don't wait too long; in the blink of an eye your
storytellers and their precious stories can be gone for good. So I urge you to
capture your family storytellers while they're in "full bloom." Unlike with the
Cereus, you might not get the chance next year.
Family Legacy Video is excited to announce it's
autumn Video Biography Workshop in beautiful Tucson, Arizona. The final details regarding dates and
venues
will be e-mailed to the Family Legacy Video e-list, and added to the FLV Web
site, in two weeks.
Possible weekends have been narrowed to two.
If you have a preference,
e-mail your choice of dates to Family Legacy Video by July 7.
Here are the tentative dates, prices and schedules.
Discounts for early registration and payment will be offered.
Dates: Friday-Sunday, September 23-25 OR
October 21-23 (Do you have a preference? Let FLV know by July 7.) Cost: $375
Optional Day – (Monday Sept. 26 OR Oct. 24)
– The Business of Video Biographies: Marketing and business advice for those who
are new to, or interested in, the Video Biography business.
Cost: $175
Tentative schedule:
Friday
8:30 am Welcome/Introduction
9:30 am Video Documentary Techniques
11:15 am Preproduction: Laying the Foundation for Your Video Biography
12:30 pm LUNCH (on your own)
2:00 pm Preproduction, cont’d
3:00 pm The Art of the Interview (Conducting the preinterview & composing questions.)
4:15 pm Introduction to the Gear: Camera, Lights, & Sound
5:30 pm End, Day 1
Saturday
8:30 am Production: Lights, Camera, Action! (Expert lighting techniques using
professional & homemade lights.)
11:15 am On Location (Setting up and recording interviews.)
12:30 pm LUNCH
2:00 pm On Location, cont’d
5:30 pm End, Day 2
Sunday
8:30 am Postproduction: Putting it all Together (Preparing for your edit, screening
& logging tapes, transcribing, creating a video blueprint/paper edit.)
11:15 am Getting Video Into Your Computer (Capturing & organizing clips.)
12:30 pm LUNCH (on your own)
2:00 pm Editing Techniques
5:00 pm End, Day 3
Monday (Optional)
8:30 am The Business of Video Biographies (Introduction: Learn your craft!)
9:30 am The Gear & What it Costs
11:15 am Marketing: Creating a Brand & Image
12:45 pm LUNCH (on your own)
2:00 pm Marketing: Generating Buzz (Using PR, the Web & Advertising.)
4:15 pm Pricing Your Services
5:00 pm End, Optional Day
DVDs offer video and sound quality far superior to what you'll find on VHS videotape. But that's not all. If you've bought or rented movies on DVD, you're already familiar with another great feature - the ability to surf from one section of
a DVD to another using menus and chapter buttons.
By its nature, VHS can present a program to you in only one way, by playing it from beginning to end. Sure, you can shuttle the tape or fast-forward and rewind
it to reach certain points in the program, but these are very imprecise methods.
By the way, if you want your Family Legacy Video DVD to play like a tape, it can be designed to do just that. In fact, our standard DVD plays automatically when you insert it into your player. When the program ends, it starts playing again, and keeps right on playing until you stop it.
Top that, VHS!
If you want the convenience and control of the full, menu-driven DVD experience, Family Legacy Video's DeluxePlus™
DVD is for you. Custom
menus, composed of your photos and frames from your video, give you the option of playing your video biography from beginning to end
OR jumping precisely from chapter to chapter within the program.
Here's a sample DeluxePlus™
DVD menu:
The DeluxePlus™
DVD also offers a custom DVD cover that gives your DVD package
that "major studio release" look. Like to see what a complete DeluxePlus™
DVD
package looks like? All you have to do is
visit the
Video Production Services page of the Family
Legacy Video Web site.
Plan your holiday family
history video gift-giving now
Summer may have only just begun, but if you're planning to
create a video biography as an end-of-year holiday gift, you'd best get started
now. A successful video project, like any worthwhile endeavor, requires
planning, creativity and effort. Give yourself plenty of time, especially if you
have some learning curves (like that new editing software you need to learn) to
conquer.
So don't wait. Get started! And remember that Family Legacy Video is here to
help.
The Family
Legacy Video Theatre is the online theatre where you
can view all the video clips streaming from the Family Legacy Video Web site.
The clips you see there will surely inspire you with ideas for your family
video, plus you'll get to see Steve Pender talk about his passion for family
history video in two television appearances.
You'll see a window containing a video screen with controls and a list of clips.
Decide which clip you'd like to view and click on the correct speed (High, Low) to match your Internet connection. In the bottom right of the theatre
window is a list showing the appropriate speed for your kind of
connection.
Enjoy the clip!
Select another clip or close the theatre window.
The Family Legacy Video
Theatre is always open, and YOU decide when the show begins.
Readers who clicked on the Family Legacy Video Cafe icon in the
June e-Newsletter wound up at the Workshop page, not the blog. Please accept our
apology.
If you'd like to visit Family Legacy Video's new blog, please click on the FLV
Cafe icon
below. It works - honest.
Ask
Steve - This month: Sending your precious photos by mail
Q:
Dear Steve,
Before I send off my precious memories, I have a couple of questions. Do I have
to send them registered mail? How can I be sure I will get them back?
- - Kit
A:
Hi, Kit.
If you're nervous about sending original, one-of-a-kind photos (as I would be),
I'd recommend copying them and sending the copies. If you have access to a
digital still camera or a scanner, shoot or scan the photos at high resolution
and then send them to me on a CD. If you use a digital still camera, make sure
you shoot the photos straight on so they appear flat and not slanted. You can,
of course, also copy the originals using a film camera. Family Legacy Video can
scan your print copies.
If you decide to send photos, pack them
securely in a box or in a padded envelope with some cardboard to guard against
bending (it helps to write: "Photos Enclosed - Do Not Bend" on the envelope).
I'd recommend sending them Priority Mail. For a small additional fee, the Postal
Service offers delivery confirmation (they provide a coupon that you fill out -
you can check online to see when your package is delivered). I will also phone
you to let you know when your photos arrive. If you feel more secure adding
Registered Delivery to your package, feel free to do so. According to the Postal
Service Web site, "Items you send with Registered Mail are placed under tight
security from the point of mailing to the point of delivery. And you can verify
the date and time of delivery and the delivery attempts online."
Family Legacy Video will return all your materials, including the finished DVD
copies, by Priority Mail. For an extra fee, Registered Mail can be added. You
will be notified via e-mail the day your order is mailed. I promise that the
photos will leave Family Legacy Video in the same condition in which they were
received.
Cheers, Steve
Got a
question about any aspect of family history video production?
Send it to Steve at
steve@familylegacyvideo.com.
