Family Legacy Video’s website still has the same address, but as of August 18, 2011 it has a whole new look! The Family Legacy Video website team worked intensely over the past month to create a site that’s warm and inviting, informational, professional and user-friendly. The major goal was to create the most effective and informative video biography site possible. I think you’ll find that our new platform successfully shows off our custom legacy video services – as well as our range of do-it-yourself products and services, like guides, music and webinars. Have we succeeded? Please let us know!
Category Archives: video biographer
Working with your video biographer: Travel.
In many ways, technology has certainly shrunk our world. All you have to do these days to get in touch with someone on the other side of the globe is dial a phone or log on to the Web; within seconds you can be chatting, either by voice or text. It’s easy as pie. But let’s say, after doing some research, you find that the video biographer you want to hire is located in another part of the country, like Tucson, Arizona? How easy will it be to work with someone who may be hundreds or thousands of miles away?
The short answer is that a long distance relationship with a video biographer can work quite well. In fact, I’ve worked with clients from coast to coast and points in-between. But there are some things to consider when looking for a professional outside your local area.
COST
Might as well deal with this issue first. Not a week goes by that I don’t get a call from a prospective client asking me if I can travel to their location outside Arizona. When I say yes, the next question is usually, “Does travel add to the cost?” Quite honestly, it does. A video biographer living and working in your area doesn’t have to bear the expenses that come with airfare, hotel rooms and rental cars. Your local pro also won’t need to spend an extra day’s worth of time traveling to your location and back home. In all fairness, it’s only right to reimburse the video biographer you hire for travel expenses. Personally, I don’t “mark up” travel – I just pass along the actual costs to the client. I can either add the costs to the agreed-upon budget or subtract them from the budget. Let’s say I have a budget of $20,000 and travel expenses of $1,000. To be able to devote all of the $20,000 to the video, I would add the $1,000. The client would then pay a total of $21,000. If the client can’t go as high as $21,000, I can subtract travel expenses, leaving $19,000 to devote to the actual video production.
COMMUNICATION
Staying in contact during the course of production is crucial. You’re likely to have lots of questions about the process and your video biographer will also need information from you. Some people prefer chatting face-to-face or just feel more secure dealing with someone local. However, a professional video biographer, working long distance, can consult with you and conduct preinterviews over the phone just as effectively as in person. One word of caution: You and your video biographer SHOULD NOT rely entirely upon e-mail. E-mails can sometimes be cryptic and incomplete; they also don’t convey emotion well. When I want to send a reminder or ask for a small bit of information, e-mail is fine. For anything more than that, I prefer to pick up the phone and call.
KEEPSAKES
If you do choose to work long distance, you’ll need to decide how to best get your family photos and other mementos into your video biographer’s hands for scanning and shooting. If you’re comfortable shipping your items make sure you wrap them well and cushion them to guard against damage. Clients have been shipping me photos, singly and in albums, for years. Nothing has ever been lost. The only damage in all these years resulted when a client sent a glass-covered photo that wasn’t properly protected, resulting in some breakage. While shipping long distance has worked fine, I understand that some families may be uncomfortable with the thought of packing up their old photos and trusting them to FedEx. That’s why I always ask my long distance clients if they have any photos or other items that they aren’t comfortable shipping – or that wouldn’t be practical to send to me. Knowing that, I can build in some extra time before or after the interview taping to scan or shoot the keepsakes on location.
Working with your video biographer: Visuals.
The foundation of a successful video biography is a well-researched, conducted and recorded interview. But just as important as what the storyteller says during his or her interview is what viewers see. Many times it’s just fine to have the storyteller on screen. Other times, the interview can be wonderfully enhanced by visuals that illustrate the incidents, people and places being described.
What do I mean by visuals? Photos, certainly. But visuals can also include family movies, newspaper and magazine clippings, yearbooks, wedding invitations, journal entries and memorabilia like medals, awards and trophies, etc. Knowing what kinds of visuals can best enhance a storyteller’s legacy video is one of the strengths a professional video biographer brings to the table.
When I first sign a client, we talk in a general way about the kinds of visuals that may be available within the family. Then, after I learn more about the storyteller during the preinterview process, I’ll send the client a specific “wish list” of all the visuals I think will help contribute to the video. After the on-camera interview, I often follow up with a final list, based on other stories that surfaced during the videotaping. These lists guide my clients during their searches for the perfect images to include in their legacy videos – and will often give them ideas for items they might never have considered. After all, as a professional visual storyteller I’m used to thinking visually – and I use this experience to help direct and inspire my clients as they search through their family archives.
Knowing how to use these visuals effectively is another strength a professional video biographer brings to a legacy video project. But that’s another story. Before you can use those visuals, however, you have to find them. And before you can find them, you have to know what to look for. A professional video biographer is just the one to guide you on “the hunt.”
Why hire a video biography pro?
So you’ve decided that 2011 is the year you’re going to create that long overdue video biography featuring your grandparents, or your mom and dad. You own a pretty nice consumer camcorder. You’ve dabbled in editing. You’ve even created birthday video DVDs for family members. Who’s to say you shouldn’t take on that long-awaited video biography project yourself, instead of hiring a professional video biographer? Who indeed. But before you decide, you might want to think about what a professional has to offer:
Organization
In order to proceed smoothly, a video project needs to be organized from start to finish. A professional video biographer can bring years of organizational experience to the table. A pro can talk with you about your goals and wishes for your video and then design a production that meets your needs and your budget. A pro knows how to start a legacy video project and then proceed efficiently each step of the way. A true professional treats you, the client, like the executive producer – consulting you and ushering you and your family through the process.
Creativity
A professional video biographer will be well-versed in visual storytelling techniques. He or she can offer you a number of ways to approach and treat your family stories and storytellers. And a pro will have a realistic idea of the cost and time involved in the different options he or she offers you. A real pro will be able to show you samples of past work so you can make informed decisions about the creative direction of your legacy video.
Production Experience
Your storytellers deserve to be presented in the most flattering way possible. A professional can insure that your storytellers look and sound their very best on camera. This means professional lighting, knowing how to compose a pleasing shot and using a high-end camera to capture the image, along with top-notch microphones to ensure great sound. A pro will also know how to make a storyteller feel safe and comfortable during the interview in order to ensure an effective “performance.”
Editing Expertise
The final edit is where the magic happens. A video biographer who is an experienced editor can take all the raw elements collected during the production process (interviews, photos, films, music, sound effects, etc.) and turn out a program that exceeds your wildest expectations.
Time Management
Best of all, a professional video biographer can be working on your project steadily, not squeezing it in during a free moment here and there like you may have to do. This means your video biography actually gets done in 2011 – and doesn’t get put off for yet another year.
True, you’ll have to pay for the service – but in the end, the value a professional can bring to your project can be well worth the price.
Facing the music.
(Disclaimer: I am not a copyright lawyer – I don’t even play one on TV. This article is not meant to take the place of professional legal advice.)
Music. It’s a key creative ingredient in video biographies. Music can establish pacing, create moods and evoke historical eras. But there’s another aspect of music use video biographers need to heed: the legal side. Why?
Let’s look at a couple of hypothetical situations.
A. The storyteller you’ve just interviewed described herself as a devoted fan of Nat King Cole. Based on that, you decide to feature the song, “Unforgettable,” as the music track for the opening and closing of her video biography and to use other Nat King Cole songs as background music throughout the program. You buy a few CDs or download the songs you need, and set to work.
B. Your legacy video subject is a musician. He talks about how early Bebop influenced his musical style. You demonstrate the influence by playing a few bars from a Charlie Parker tune, then segue to your storyteller playing his own saxophone composition.
So, are these legal uses of copyrighted music? If not, what risks do you take by using it?
The answer to question one depends on how you interpret the fair use provisions in copyright law. Fair use allows you to use copyrighted material, without licensing it, in your documentaries and personal video biographies under certain conditions. Those conditions are outlined in a great guide, entitled “Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.” A pdf download of the guide is available at the Web site of the Center for Social Media & Social Impact. The link to the best practices guide is on this page. I urge you to visit the site, download the guide and acquaint yourself with fair use.
According to the guide, there are two key questions courts consider in copyright cases:
1. Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
2. Was the amount and nature of material taken appropriate in light of the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?
Judging by these two questions, I’d consider example A to be a blatant violation of copyright law. Importing a copyrighted piece of music into your video without licensing it and using it to underscore your video doesn’t transform the music at all. You’re simply just repeating it. Example B is probably another story. Here you’re using a short excerpt of copyrighted music in an appropriate way – to illustrate a point. Much different.
So what do you do if you really want to use copyrighted music in your next legacy video? The answer: You need to license it. That means going to a music publisher or a rights agency, telling them how you want to use the music and finding out what it’ll cost to get permission. Sounds simple, but it isn’t. Most music publishers aren’t interested in dealing with those of us creating videos for limited distribution. They don’t see profit in it. And if they do respond to your inquiry, you can very likely expect the cost to bust your budget. By the way, the kind of license you’ll need is a music synchronization license. Unlike the right to just listen to a song that you buy, a synchronization license gives you the right to synchronize that music with visuals in a film or video.
Other options? I can vouch for stock music. There are lots of companies offering music specifically designed for use in film and video. Depending on the company you choose, you may pay an annual licensing fee or a per use fee. Or, if you choose to buy royalty-free music, you’ll pay just once – to purchase the song – and then retain the rights to use it in any number of productions. The stock music library I license has a wide variety of music that gives me the creative options I need – and I never have to worry about rights, since the synchronization rights are included in the licensing agreement. Clean and neat – no muss and no fuss.
You may also choose to build your own music tracks by purchasing software that enables you to layer rhythm and melody samples. Or you might search craigslist (try “creative” under the “services” category) for a budding musician willing to let you use his/her tracks for free or low cost in return for acknowledgement in the video and perhaps a copy the musician can add to his/her portfolio.
So what do you risk when you use unlicensed music? The copyright holders can sue you, of course. But so far I haven’t read about many lawsuits directed at folks creating video biographies or wedding and event videos, even though some of them make extensive use of popular music. That’s not to say that someday publishers won’t wake up and realize that all our small companies taken together represent a potentially tidy profit for them. If and when that day comes, I don’t plan on being a test case in court.
Aside from protecting myself legally, the other reason I don’t use unlicensed music falls under the ethical/moral category. Folks who create music deserve to profit from their creations. I feel it would be wrong for me to generate income from the use of their work without reimbursing them. And since the current system makes such reimbursement difficult and expensive, I take an alternative route: stock music.
The bottom line for me when it comes to music: Unless it qualifies as fair use, I never use a cut I haven’t licensed or gotten permission to use. For me, doing otherwise would be illegal, unethical and unprofessional.