September is here. Soon, temperatures will begin to dip as we
swing into our Autumn routines. For Family Legacy Video, September 1 means the
deadline to register for the September video biography workshops is only two
weeks away. I hope to see you in Tucson this month. And if you can't make it
this time around, perhaps we'll meet another time. Look for workshop coverage in
October's Family Legacy Video Producer's e-Newsletter.
As always, feel free
to visit
www.familylegacyvideo.com to learn how Family Legacy Video can help you
preserve your precious family stories on video.
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.
From Florida, California and points in between, video biography enthusiasts will
soon converge on Tucson, Arizona for two exciting Family Legacy Video video
biography workshop events:
Create Your Own Video Biography (September 23-25) -
Family Legacy Video's president, Steve Pender, and the dynamic production duo of
Dan Crapsi and Ginny Temple usher you through the process of creating your own
family legacy video. You'll learn what makes a successful video tick and get
hands-on practice composing questions, lighting and taping interviews, shooting
family photos, and getting the video onto your computer. You'll also edit that
video and walk away with your own three-minute long "mini" video biography.
The Business of Video Biographies (September 26) - If
you're thinking of opening your own video biography business, this one-day
workshop is just the ticket. You'll
learn what you should expect to need and pay when it comes to equipment,
insurance, and music. Marketing and promotion also take center stage as Steve
shares his promotion strategies and tells you what's worked for him and what
hasn't. Graphic designer and marketing expert Dan Blumenthal (Blumenthal
Design Group, LLC) will discuss the importance of graphic design in creating
an image and brand for your company and how they can add to your bottom line.
September 15 is the deadline for registration. If you'd like to stay at the
workshop hotel, the Radisson has extended the deadline for discounted sleeping
rooms until September 8.
Complete details are available on the Family Legacy Video Web
site. Click on the banner below to visit the workshop page.
Thank goodness for newsreels. Once the source of contemporary
sights, sounds and news from around the world, they now offer irreplaceable
glimpses into times long past. The same can be said of your old family films. In
fact, you should think of those dusty 16mm, 8mm and Super 8mm movies as your
family's newsreels. The sounds and images they contain can truly help bring your
family's past to life. But before they make their way into your next video
biography, the films need to be transferred to another medium, one compatible
with your computer's editing system.
Many people these days are having their family films
transferred to DVD. That's fine, if all you want to do is watch the films in
their raw, unedited form. If you plan to incorporate some of your films into a
video biography, however, you'll need to transfer the films to a digital tape
format - either miniDV or Digital 8. The digital format you choose will be
determined by the kind of digital video camera you have, since that's what
you'll use to play back the films after they've been transferred.
You'll be best off having the work done by a company that
specializes in film to tape transfers. A reputable company will have the
expertise and equipment needed to provide you with a quality transfer. Plus, you
won't have to fuss with setting up a projector (or two or three, depending on
the number of film formats you have). Just be sure to make sure the company can
transfer your films to the digital format of your choice.
If you're bound and determined to do the transfers yourself,
here are some tips:
Set up your camera as close to the projector as you can. Your
goal is to have your camera lens as "dead on" to the projected image as possible
to minimize skewing and image distortion.
Use a tripod to keep your video camera stable. The camera work
in those old films is probably shaky enough, so don't add to it.
Project onto a regular projection screen, not a wall. A wall
may be okay for an impromptu "night at the movies" but can add unwanted texture
and imperfections to the image.
If your video camera has a manual white balance feature, use
it. Turn on the projector and let it warm up. (Don't thread a film into the
projector yet.) Power up your video camera, focus it on the patch of light the
projector makes on the screen, then initiate a white balance. This will adjust
your camera's internal color settings to the color of the light coming from your
projector and should give you colors on tape that are very close to what you see
on the film.
If there is sound on the film and your projector has an
external sound connection, run a cable directly from the projector into the
external input on your video camera. This should give you sound that's free of
the mechanical noise made by the projector. If this isn't possible, hook up an
external microphone and place it by the projector speaker.
If you can, hook up the video output of your camera to a TV
set. This will allow you to compare the image you see on your viewfinder with
what actually appears on the TV screen. Adjust the framing until you're happy
with it.
Good luck! We'll cover some of the editing techniques you can
use with film footage in a future article.
Survey finds family stories the greatest legacy of all
A new study finds that, when it comes to family legacies, an
overwhelming majority of people believe preserving family stories, histories and
values is more important than money.
A recent story by by Andrea Coombes of MarketWatch says that: "When it comes to
thinking about inheritances, both boomers and older Americans say money's not
everything. Instead, baby boomers say their parents' personal keepsakes, family
stories and final instructions are more important than the oft-publicized
trillions of dollars they're expected to inherit."
These attitudes were uncovered during a telephone and online survey conducted
for Allianz, the insurance company, by Harris Interactive.
According to the survey, "Seventy-seven percent of boomers said understanding
their parents' values is very important, 65% said enacting their parents' last
wishes is key and 34% felt receiving their parents' sentimental treasures is
very important."
The article goes on to say that when study participants were asked to choose
between one type of bequest, either money or values, not one person chose money.
The article quotes Ken Dychtwald, a consultant on the study, who said, "We're
not saying money isn't important and people don't enjoy receiving some financial
windfall, but ... the focus on inheritance is the wrong paradigm. What people
have an appetite for is to pass a large part of themselves along to the next
generation."
Fascinating stuff. It seems most people realize what Family Legacy Video
customers, clients and e-Newsletter readers know: Your precious family stories
are your greatest legacy of all. And preserving those stories on video is the
best way to share your family legacy with future generations.
On July 18, the office phone rang. At the other end of the line was Lawrence
Darani, who was calling from his home in London, England. Lawrence is a social
worker and is interested in helping individuals in London preserve their
precious family stories on video. In pursuit of questions to ask during video
biography interviews, he found the Family Legacy Video Web site. He loved the
site and called to tell me so.
Here's a bit of what Lawrence had to say:
"The main feature I liked about your Web site was access to your weekly
broadcast. I was able to hear the passion in your voice about what you were
doing for families and the satisfaction you got from it. I particularly liked it
when you said 'imagine if you had the same technology today a hundred years ago'
- it made me realize that we also need to see the person to see their body
language and the little quirks that are passed on from generation to generation.
The links in your Web site are clear and there is a range of choices according
to peoples' budgets and circumstances. So there is the visual, auditory and
kinesthetic experience when exploring your website."
Thanks Lawrence!
By the way, in response to requests from a number of international visitors
to the Family Legacy Video Web site, Family Legacy Video now ships to select
countries outside the USA.
Video biography sampler
available to prospective video customers
The latest addition to Family Legacy Video's marketing
arsenal is our Video Biography Sampler. The sampler contains one complete video
biography along with several short clips - all on one
DVD. Thanks to the sampler, prospective customers for Family Legacy Video's
production services can see for themselves the quality of the videos Family
Legacy Video creates, without having to scan through a number of DVDs.
In addition to being available to prospective customers, the
DVDs have been distributed to local media. Attendees at the September video
biography workshops will each receive a copy of the sampler.
Come see the show at the Family Legacy Video Theatre!
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.
Q:
Dear Steve,
I’ve got loads of photographs and negatives that I want to use for my family
history DVD. What resolution do you suggest I scan them into my computer at? And
do you suggest bringing them into an editing program, or creating a slideshow in
a relatively more simple photo software?
- - Nikki W.
A:
Hi, Nikki.
Thanks for writing! I'll do my best to give you some guidance.
The resolution at which you scan depends greatly on the size of the original photo,
how much of the photo you want to see on screen and whether you plan on zooming
in from the full photo to a close up on an area of that photo.
Standard Definition screen size for Digital Video, in pixels, is 720 x 480 (720
wide and 480 high). This translates into 9.6 inches wide x 6.4 inches high at a
resolution of 75 pixels per inch. In other words, if your photo is 9.6 inches
wide and 6.4 inches high and you scan it in at 75 pixels per inch, it will be
exactly the right size for video - UNLESS you want to zoom in on it. In this
case, you'll need to increase the resolution.
Why? Imagine a television screen. Now, insert into that screen a scanned photo
that's the same size of the screen. Perfect fit. Now, imagine you're using your
editing software to zoom into a portion of the photo. While the effect is to
seem to move into the photo, what you're actually doing is enlarging the photo.
If you could see past the edges of the screen, you'd see the edges of the photo
moving past them. Let's say you actually need to enlarge the photo three times
to get the close up you want. This means you'll need three times the resolution,
or three times the pixels, in order for the quality of the photo to be
preserved. Otherwise, you'll get a very soft or blocky-looking close up, because
all you're doing is increasingly magnifying the few pixels you have.
There's another reason you may want increase scanning resolution. At a
resolution of 75 pixels, smaller photos will not be big enough to fit the
screen. Increasing the resolution increases the size of the photo.
Increasing resolution also increases file size, however, so be careful. You can
wind up with some huge files. Importing these large photo files into your slide
show or editing software can really, to use a technical term, "gum up the
works" by giving your processor lots more work than it really needs to do.
So what you want to do is scan at only the resolution you need. 75 pixels may be
fine for some photos. Others, especially the smaller photos, may need higher
resolutions. Your scanner software should have a display that will let you see
the output resolution and dimensions of the image you're scanning. Select the
photo area you want scanned, and this display should show you the screen size of
the photo for the resolution you have chosen. You can then increase or decrease
the resolution as needed.
Also, don't be afraid to scan the photo a little larger than screen size. A photo editing program like Photoshop
lets you crop the photo
exactly to screen size and repair any imperfections in the image. You can then import
the newly cropped and touched-up image into your slide show.
As for your slide show vs. editing software question, I'd do a little thinking
about future uses for the photos. If all you want is to sequence your photos,
then simpler software would be the way to go. If you think, at some future date,
you may want to use these photos as part of a family documentary or video
biography, you may want to think about editing software that also allows you to
create slide shows. For example, Adobe Premiere Elements has a "create slide show" feature,
but it is also a very full-featured editing software program.
Of course, you may already have all the software you need sitting on your
computer right now. Windows XP machines ship with Windows Movie Maker. Macs with
System X have a program called i-Movie. Both of these free programs offer very
basic video editing capabilities that you can use to create a video slide show.
You might want to experiment with what you have to see if it meets your needs.
I hope this helps. If any of you have additional scanning insights, don't
hesitate to write. I'll include your info in a future e-Newsletter.
Cheers, Steve
Got a
question about any aspect of family history video production?
Send it to Steve at
steve@familylegacyvideo.com.
