Most humans are visual thinkers. Our thoughts are composed of imagery and pictures. And the right combination of images and sound coming from a TV or movie screen can inspire a wide range of emotions that leave indelible memories behind.

In addition to emotional impact, photos, family films and other memorabilia like newspaper clippings, trophies and medals lend your documentary what video pros call “production value.” In short, interesting and well-placed visuals make your video more fun to watch. And you DO want your family to watch. This is just as true for your family history video as for any Hollywood film. That’s why, after a Family Legacy Video client lets me know what he or she wants to talk about during an interview, I always ask what visuals are available.

It’s certainly great to have that interview with grandma and to be able to watch her tell stories about growing up on the family farm. Couple those stories with photos of her riding the old tractor or milking Bessie, mix in music that evokes the country life, and you add visual and emotional components that serve her story and make it even more memorable.

As you plan your interview, make a list of all the visuals you’d like to have in the video. Ask your interview subject what he or she can provide. Reach out to any other family members who may have resources. Collect those visuals and keep them safe. Don’t have anyone mail you one-of-a-kind photos. Have copies made for mailing or, if possible, go to where the photos are and videotape them there.

After the interview is over, you’re likely to find there are additional visuals you’d like. Remember to be as creative as possible and not to let a lack of family photos get you down. If you don’t have a picture of the farm, ask the tourist board for the state where your grandma’s farm was located to send you a picture of the countryside. Or find a vintage map showing the farm location, or a modern map that you can shoot and turn black and white or sepia using your editing software. Then, as the music plays, you can pan across the photo or map to set up the story about life on the farm. The possibilities are endless – and fun.

SEE what I mean?

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.

Ever thought a video biography could bring a family closer together? Happily, the renewal of family relationships can be a fringe benefit of video biography project.

Yesterday I received a letter from a recent client telling me about 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.”

When I was a kid, I had an uncle who owned a film camera. The only way he could get decent exposures indoors was to use lights. There were several of them, set in a bar that was mounted on his camera. When those lights were on, you could see nothing else. I can remember smiling sheepishly, waving, trying to be natural, all the while staring into what seemed light a million kilowatt glow.

While family members on the “business end” of today’s consumer video cameras may not have to deal with blinding lights, we all know how uncomfortable many people are when they know they’re being recorded; they feel self-conscious and so come across as stiff, nervous and unnatural on screen. What can you do to set your subjects at ease and ensure a more satisfying result? Here are some tips:

1. Start wide. A standard video technique is to start every scene out with a “master” shot. Simply put, this means first recording the entire scene as a wide shot. If you’re taping a party or a dinner, for example, set up your camera so you have a view of the entire room and everyone in it. Then start recording. If the camera is in a secure enough place you can even walk away from it for a couple of minutes so you don’t call attention to the fact that you’re taping. Set the camera on a bookcase, or on top of a TV, anything that gives you a panoramic view of the room or area. Even a tripod in the corner of the room can work; while people may notice it at first, they’ll get used to it and ignore it after a while.

2. Let people be themselves. Walking up to people, sticking a camera in their faces and telling them to act naturally is a sure-fire way to suck the spontaneity out of any shot. If you know your subjects are a bit skittish around cameras, hang back a little bit and use your camera’s zoom control to get that closer view instead of thrusting the camera into the middle of things. On the other hand, if your subjects are comfortable around you and your camera, don’t be afraid to move in close. You can even engage them in conversation if it suits you.

3. Don’t be afraid to direct. While you want to intrude as little as possible on a family scene, there may be times when a little direction is called for. Maybe you have an idea for an opening for your video – let’s say you want to show a long line of relatives, arms filled with presents, filing in through the front door. Don’t be afraid to tell everyone what you want them to do and enlist their cooperation. Set up your camera, place everyone where you want them to be, tell them what they need to do and where they should go after they do it. Then cross your fingers, press the record button and yell “action!” Remember to have fun and also accept the fact that you’re not working with professional actors. Be happy with what you get on one or, at the most, two tries.

4. Look for special moments. In every family gathering there are countless small, precious moments that help tell the story of your family. Maybe it’s a grandmother reading to her first grandchild, or a group chatting and cooking in the kitchen, or your cousins hanging holiday lights on the porch. Keep your camera close by. When you see moments like these, don’t hesitate to capture them on tape. An added plus is that when people are having fun and are truly engrossed in what they’re doing, they’re less likely to notice you and your camera (and if they do notice they’ll be less likely to care that you’re taping). Case in point: Years ago I was hired to shoot a profile of an insurance salesman. He was a wonderful, elderly gentleman. We spent a day with him and his family and, as my crew was packing up, I saw the salesman’s granddaughter sit down at the family piano and begin to practice. I quickly asked the salesman to join his granddaughter at the keyboard and hustled my cameraman over to the scene. The result was a lovely moment with grandpa and granddaughter enjoying some private time – totally oblivious to the camera.

5. Vary your shots. Shoot your subjects and action from below, above, straight on, from behind and in profile. Change your focal lengths from shot to shot, moving from close to wide. The more variety you have in the way you frame your shots, the more visually interesting your finished video will be. You can use the flip out monitor on your camera as a view finder to help you get those ultra high or ultra low shots you wouldn’t be able to get if you just relied on your camera’s eyepiece.

6. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Relax. Laugh. If your family sees you, the cameraperson/director, having a good time, the more likely they are to relax and join in the video fun with you.

Many estate planners are now looking to help their clients pass along legacies of stories as well as money. I met some of these forward-thinking professionals during a recent trip to Orlando, Florida.

The event was the annual symposium held by the SunBridge Network, a unique association of estate planners devoted to helping their clients meet their life and financial goals and create legacies to pass along to their families. Interestingly, they see life stories as being a valuable element of these legacies.

A good friend of mine from my high school days is an attorney specializing in estate planning – and a member of SunBridge. I hadn’t spoken to Jeff since high school, but one day last May he ran across the Family Legacy Video Web site, saw my photo and gave me a call. Long story short, on November 11 I found myself in Orlando presenting two breakout sessions to SunBridge associates interested in the subject of video documentaries.

I had a great time sharing my passion for family legacy videos and passing along what I hope was some useful information. It was also gratifying to see how the awareness of the value of using video to preserve family stories is growing.

Tripods designed for still cameras and those meant for video, while similar, are very different beasts. They both have three legs, of course. They’re both designed to provide a steady platform for your camera. But there’s a critical difference between the two.

It’s in the head of the tripod, the part where you mount your camera. Video tripod heads are called “fluid” heads. They’re designed specifically to allow you to pan the camera from side to side and tilt it up and down smoothly while taping. Try these moves using a video camera on a tripod designed for a still camera and you’re in for nothing but herky jerky movement.

If you don’t want to spring for a video tripod, check first to make sure your still camera tripod will hold the weight of your video camera (video cameras tend to be heavier than still cameras). Then set up your shot, start recording and don’t touch the tripod. It’s okay to readjust the camera position between shots, just don’t do it while you’re recording. However, one of the attractions of video is the movement it allows. You’ll find that camera moves, especially when taping family photos, add to the quality of your video. So even if you don’t think you’ll use it often, I encourage you to at least buy an inexpensive video tripod. I just bought a very nice Manfrotto for about $250. But you can find video tripods less expensive than that.

Family Legacy Video thinks seeing is believing – that’s why we created 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, and you’ll get to see Steve Pender talk about his passion for family history video in two television appearances. The Family Legacy Video™ Theatre is always open and YOU decide when the show begins. To visit the theatre, click here

Most elder family members are great sources of family stories and family history, but have little interest or experience with video technology. Many younger family members know little family history but are aces when it comes to computers and video. What can bring them together? Try a family history video project.

There I was, at a local Rotary Club, in the middle of a talk about creating family history videos, when one of the older members, a fellow in his mid-seventies, piped up. “This digital stuff seems like a lot of bother to me,” he said. “There’s tape, there’s discs – I really don’t know what’s what. Technology keeps changing and I can’t be bothered transferring from one format to another. I’ve locked all my family films in a cabinet, along with a projector, and when a family historian wants to watch them, that’s where they’ll be.”

I congratulated him for safely storing his family films and I had to admit he had a point when it came to technology. Rapid advances in computer and video hardware and software have been dizzying and sometimes confusing. BUT, when the choice is between preserving a precious video record of your family stories and history or losing them for all time, I don’t think the fear of a little technology should be allowed to get in the way.

So what do you do if you view technology as a hindrance rather than a help?

Look for the nearest teenager or preteen. Grandkids, grandnieces and grandnephews grew up with this computer stuff. To them it’s second nature. Why not enlist their help in creating a family history video they’ll treasure in years to come (kids being kids, they might not see the value in it now – but when they get older, they will). So butter them up a bit. Play to their pride in their computer and video expertise. And if that doesn’t work, have their parents make them help you. Once you get some momentum going, a family history video project is sure to spark their interest and creativity. You may find them getting just as excited about it as you.

Of course, collaborating with a younger family member on a family history video is much more than just a means to an end. It provides a great bonding experience, a chance to share quality time, to laugh and learn together and to create something of which you’ll both be proud. You’ll end up with a living legacy your family will love and with wonderful new memories that will last a lifetime.

I was on the phone with a sales rep last week. We got to talking about my business and as soon as she heard what Family Legacy Video was all about, she said, “I think what you’re doing is wonderful!” Turns out that, prior to her sales career, she was a nurse at a hospice.

She went on to say that she always tried to get families of hospice patients to tape remembrances with their loved ones and that so few families did. She hated to see so many memories and family stories lost. She was very passionate about the subject; I could certainly hear the emotion in her voice.

I can only imagine how emotionally trying having a family member in hospice care can be. But I encourage you, as does the former hospice nurse with whom I spoke, to spend some of those final days or hours capturing your loved ones family stories on video. They’ll be a lasting legacy you’ll treasure for years to come.

We’ve seen the scene in movies countless times. Bereaved relatives gather in a lawyer’s office. An attorney picks up a sheet of paper and begins to read, “I (insert name here) being of sound mind, do hereby bequeath my estate to…” And so on and so forth. A last will and testament, the document that details how a person disposes of his or her physical property after death, is a pretty common concept. But there’s another kind of will gaining popularity, one that focuses on spiritual and moral values as opposed to physical assets. And this will is often passed along before the will’s writer passes on.

It’s called an ethical will. Ethical wills have actually been around for three thousand years, but they’ve gained newfound popularity since 9/11. They can take the form of personal letters written to a child, grandchild, niece or nephew, an audio recording or a video. Ethical wills can incorporate anything a person believes is meaningful enough to pass on. The Web site www.ethicalwill.com lists some common themes:

• Important personal values and beliefs
• Important spiritual values
• Hopes and blessings for future generations
• Life’s lessons
• Expressions of love
• Forgiving others and asking for forgiveness

Why create an ethical will? According to
www.ethicalwill.com some of the reasons are:

• We all want to be remembered, and we all will leave something behind
• If we don’t tell our stories, no one else will and they will be lost forever
• It helps you identify what you value most and what you stand for
• By articulating what we value now, we can take steps to insure the continuation of those values for future generations
• You learn a lot about yourself in the process of writing an ethical will
• It helps us come to terms with our mortality by creating something of meaning that will live on after we are gone
• It provides a sense of completion in our lives

Video can be a powerful medium for passing along your values to a loved one. The conviction in your words and the passion in your eyes will leave a profound impression on the person for whom you create your video ethical will, as well as the generations that follow. You don’t have to do anything fancy from a video standpoint. To ensure a good quality video, just employ some of the basic organization, lighting and sound techniques described in the Family Legacy Video™ Producer’s Guide.

An ethical will can be a wonderful gift and a long lasting legacy, made all the more powerful by the use of video.