Helping YOU preserve your precious family stories on video.
Family Legacy Video is featured in
Miami Monthly's Ultimate Gift Guide! (See the story below.)
Welcome
to the January issue!
Happy New Year! I hope you created some wonderful new
memories during the holidays. And, as the new year begins, I hope you resolve to
preserve your memories, stories and family storytellers on video. This month's
issue offers some tips on how to start your project and turn your resolution
into reality.
If you're in Tucson on January 15, come on over to the Holiday
Inn Palo Verde. Family Legacy Video has a booth at the Lovin' Life Expo and I'll
be there from 9 AM to 2 PM. Please stop by - I'd love to chat.
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.
PS - Those of you with Comcast e-mail addresses may not have
received December's e-Newsletter. I'm told the delivery problem has been fixed.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Here's your chance to
help shape our 2007 "Create Your Own Video Biography" workshops.
Family Legacy Video's "Create Your Own Video Biography" workshops were a big hit
in 2006. But before we schedule a workshop or workshops for 2007, we want to
hear how we can add extra value to the next workshop experience. If you think
you'd be interested in attending a workshop this year, please take part in a
short online survey. Your answers will help Family Legacy Video tailor the
workshop to meet your wants and needs.
Click here to fill out the survey.
Feel free to send the survey link to any family members and friends who might be
interested. And thanks to all of you who have already sent in your ideas!
You'll find a description of the workshop (along with testimonials from past workshop participants)
on the
workshop page of the Family Legacy Video Web site.
Begin your video biography now.
Here's how you start.
The process of creating your family history video begins with a vision. Your
vision.
Now, don't be intimidated by the word "vision." All it means is the way you
imagine your video is going to look and sound. The clearer your vision, the
easier it will be for you to pull together the resources you'll need to make
your video. For example, your vision may be for a simple, on-camera interview.
Or you may want to create something a bit more involved, including stills,
family videos and music.
If you've been watching TV most of your life, you've been exposed
to a wide variety of video techniques. You probably just haven't really paid
much attention to them. Watch some of your favorite documentaries in the next few
days or weeks and take note of what you see and hear. Is the show comprised of
nothing but on-screen interviews? Or are the interviews combined with still
photos, film and video clips? How do the shows proceed from one topic or scene
to the next? What kinds of transitions are used?
Once you have an idea of how TV programs are structured, take the next step and
imagine the video biography you'd like to create. Who is in it? What are they
talking about? What kinds of things do you see and hear? Make some notes of your
thoughts and ideas. Store your notes in a folder or three ring binder to keep
them handy and organized.
Congratulations - you now have a vision for your video. You're on your way!
Family Legacy Video's Deluxe
Video Biography is lauded as
an "ultimate holiday gift."
Family Legacy Video received a wonderful present in December. Miami Monthly, a
glossy, upscale magazine, included Family Legacy Video's Deluxe Video Biography
in a December feature that showcased "ultimate" holiday gifts. This came as a
complete and exciting surprise. If you can lay your hands on a copy of the
December 2006 issue of the magazine, you'll find Family Legacy Video on page 45.
If not, just look to your left to see our entry.
Family Legacy Video's president, Steve Pender, takes the show on the road this
January 15. Steve is hosting Family Legacy Video's booth at the Lovin' Life
Expo, an event presented by Lovin' Life After 50, a paper specializing in news
for folks aged fifty years and older. Samples of video biographies produced by
Family Legacy Video will be shown nonstop and copies of the Family Legacy Video
Producer's Guide will be on hand for sale. Steve will also have a limited number
of copies of Family Legacy Video's DVD sampler to give away.
The Expo runs from 9 AM to 2 PM at the Holiday Inn Palo Verde, 4550 S. Palo
Verde Rd., in Tucson, Arizona. So mark January 15 on your calendar, and then
stop by Booth # 63 to say "hi" and to learn how Family Legacy Video can help you
preserve your precious memories on video.
At left is a copy of the Family Legacy Video ad that Expo attendees will find in
their program guides.
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. NOTE:
Please be patient - you may need to wait a few seconds before a clip plays.
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.
Ask Steve - This month:
Sharing questions before an interview - an update.
(In last month's Ask Steve column, Steve recommended
showing questions to interview subjects before their interviews. Here, a reader
responds.)
Q: Dear Steve,
Forewarned IS forearmed and in the case of interviews does usually lead to more
complete and more thoughtful answers. But some people seem to feel obligated to
rehearse their delivery ahead of time. On more than one occasion I've had to
deal with extremely frustrated interview subjects who found themselves unable to
deliver on-camera (with the Cronkite-like sincerity they undoubtedly envisioned)
the "perfect" answer they had memorized prior to the interview.
I always make a huge distinction between seeing the questions
ahead of time and memorizing a speech!
- - Dave S., Clark, New Jersey
A: Hi, Dave.
Thanks for writing! You make an excellent point. I
still think it's best to provide interview subjects with their questions
beforehand. HOWEVER, I also think the interviewer should make it very clear to
subjects that the questions are meant to stimulate thought and help them prepare
for their interviews and that they SHOULD NOT try to commit word-for-word
answers to memory.
Cheers, Steve
Got a question about any aspect of family history
video production?
Send it to Steve at
steve@familylegacyvideo.com.
Family Legacy Video received a wonderful present in December. Miami Monthly, a
glossy, upscale magazine, included Family Legacy Video's Deluxe Video Biography
in a December feature that showcased "ultimate" holiday gifts. This came as a
complete and exciting surprise. If you can lay your hands on a copy of the
December 2006 issue of the magazine, you'll find Family Legacy Video on page 45.
If not, just look to your left to see our entry.
Family Legacy Video's president, Steve Pender, takes the show on the road this
January 15. Steve is hosting Family Legacy Video's booth at the Lovin' Life
Expo, an event presented by Lovin' Life After 50, a paper specializing in news
for folks aged fifty years and older. Samples of video biographies produced by
Family Legacy Video will be shown nonstop and copies of the Family Legacy Video
Producer's Guide will be on hand for sale. Steve will also have a limited number
of copies of Family Legacy Video's DVD sampler to give away.
