Helping YOU preserve your precious family stories on video.
Family Legacy Video's Steve Pender
is all smiles following
the
2005 Arizona Video Festival. (See the story below.)
Welcome
to the
January issue!
Happy New Year! Please accept my sincere wishes for a year
that's prosperous, happy and filled with unforgettable family memories. This
issue highlights some of the benefits that result from preserving and passing
along family memories, stories and history. You'll also find a couple of
testimonials that I hope inspire you to start or continue your own video
biography project.
As if that's not enough, this month's Q&A offers tips on ways
to transfer your old 78 rpm recordings to audio CDs.
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 toll-free (1.888.662.1294) with
any questions or comments you have. Visit Family Legacy Video on the Web
at:
www.familylegacyvideo.com.
A personal note from Steve:
Thanks for your support & understanding
To my wonderful customers, clients and friends: A new chapter
in my life story began in November 2005. That was the month I was diagnosed with
prostate cancer. I'm very hopeful that this chapter will be a brief one, no more
than a footnote really, in what I intend to be a long and fruitful life.
However, before this chapter can be brought to a close, I'll need to have my
prostate removed. Surgery is scheduled for the morning of January 9. I
anticipate a period of at least two weeks or so during which I won't be able to
react as quickly as I'd like to fill orders and reply to your e-mails and
phone calls. I also won't feel comfortable scheduling further workshops until I
know I'm back to 100%. Thanks in advance for your patience, understanding and
support.
By the way, if you're male and you've passed your 40th birthday, I urge you to
schedule a yearly blood test to check your PSA level. PSA (prostate specific
antigen) is the hormone produced by the prostate. A rise in your PSA level is
the surest indicator of prostate problems (although a rise in PSA doesn't
necessarily mean you have cancer). It's a simple test and the best way to
catch prostate cancer in the early stages. The earlier you catch it, the better
chance you have for a cure.
Telling family stories
improves children's self-esteem & academic performance
Telling and preserving family stories is fun and fulfilling.
But you may be surprised to learn that sharing family stories and family history
can promote and enhance the self-esteem and academic skills of your
children and grandchildren. At least that's what some new research indicates.
The research is detailed in a recent Wall Street Journal Online article.
Click here to read this
intriguing story.
Ever thought a video biography could bring a family closer
together? Happily, the renewal of family relationships can be a fringe benefit
of a video biography project.
Family Legacy Video recently received a letter from a client describing the
wonderful effect his mother's video biography has had within his family. Here's
the first paragraph from the letter:
To date we have distributed over thirty-five copies of my mother's video to
family members. We started with our close family, Mother's younger sister and
sister-in-law. After the word got out to the cousins, we were inundated with
requests for videos from other family members. Mother's only surviving sister,
who is seventeen years younger, was not aware of the Washington adventures and
many other items that the three older children had experienced. Mother and her
sister are now much closer because of the video. Many nieces and nephews with
whom she'd had little contact are now in touch with her again. Thank you for
providing us with a Family Legacy Video that will be passed down and enjoyed by
our family throughout the coming generations.
While a video biography is sure to be appreciated by future generations of your
family, this letter shows that preserving your family stories on video can have
a profound and positive effect on your current generation as well. What better
incentive do you need? Get started on your video biography project this year.
Family Legacy Video received an Honorable Mention at the 20th
Annual Arizona Video Awards Festival. The company was recognized
at the festival awards banquet in Phoenix on December 4 for the video biography
entitled "Marion Lucile Jones." The video chronicles the life of Marion Jones and
was commissioned by her son, Tucsonan Doug Jones.
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 have some old 78 rpm recordings that I'd like to transfer to CD.
However, my turntable doesn't play 78s. Any ideas?
- - Dan B., Denver, Colorado
A:
Hi, Dan.
I do have a few ideas for you. There are companies that specialize in
transferring 78 rpm recordings to CDs. Try searching the Web for "78 rpm to 45 rpm" (or
some variation of that) and you should turn up a company or two. If you'd like
to try converting the records yourself, you have a couple of options. I just did
a quick search and turned up software by a company called DAK that's designed to
do just what you're asking. I can't vouch for the company or the software, but if
you want to research them, here's a link:
http://www.dak2000.com/reviews/2050LP78s.cfm.
If you have a digital camera and editing software that allows you to
vary the speed of your clips, here's a slightly roundabout way of accomplishing
your goal:
1. Hook up the outputs of your turntable to the inputs of the your digital video
camera. You'll most likely need a cable that will connect on one end to the
phono outputs of your turntable and that has a mini plug on the other end that
is compatible with your camcorder.
2. Play the record at 45 rpm and record the output of your turntable onto
your digital tape. Since you're playing the record at 45 rpm, it will sound
quite slow. We'll take care of this later.
3. Capture the audio recording onto your computer using your video editing
software.
4. Add the audio recording to the timeline and then use your editing software to
increase the speed until it sounds normal (you'll need to increase the playback
speed of the audio clip between 73% to 73.5%).
5. Output the file as a .wav or .mp3 clip.
6. Burn the clip to a CD (choosing the option that allows you to create an audio
disc).
A couple of notes: Since the level of the sound coming from your turntable is
low, you will need to raise the volume of the clip using your editing software.
Also, if you have lots of crackles, clicks and pops, you may want to look into
some specialized audio software to help reduce them.
I recently used the procedure outlined above to help a friend/customer capture
two vintage audio recordings made by his wife. He distributed the CDs to family
and friends and included a letter that gave some background into the recordings.
It's a touching story. I'm including a part of his letter below:
In 1944, Velma Jean Delinger was born at home in Winchester, Ohio. In 1946, a
traveling recording studio came to the Winchester school and Jean made a
recording. Jean used a hymn, "Alone," and a poem, "A Mother's Love," from the Cadel
Tabernacle book. Ironically, Jean's family did not have a record player and Jean
presumes that none of her family ever heard the record. This record traveled
with Jean and her most treasured items in the family move to Columbus, Ohio, and
several moves there. When we were married, Jean brought it along to San Diego,
thence to Ohio, on to Colorado, to Oregon, back to Colorado, and finally here to
Tucson. A few weeks ago I was looking through some of our stuff in a storage
locker and found this record jammed in a box of very old photos, unprotected
and in rather poor condition. It was made of cardboard with some sort of
coating, thus quite subject to scuffing. My friend Steve Pender, of Family
Legacy Video, was able to salvage the voice on the old 78 rpm recording and
eliminate much of the noise. Now we have a nice compact disk of Jean's 1946
performance. It has great significance to me since it was made 16 years before
Jean and I met. Now, 53 years later, we are hearing this 13 year old girl's
beautiful voice.
Cheers, Steve
Got a
question about any aspect of family history video production?
Send it to Steve at
steve@familylegacyvideo.com.
