Welcome to the March issue!
Greetings from the “video biography capitol” of the USA (at least I like to think so) – Tucson, Arizona! March came in like a lamb here and I hope the month treats you equally well. This month we take a look at a heartwarming project helping residents of an earthquake-ravaged Japanese village generate new photographs and memories. You’ll also learn how you can listen to my recent legacy video radio interview and you’ll find out about a recent addition to Family Legacy Video’s webinar offerings.
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 (888.662.1294) with any questions or comments you have.
Cheers! – – Steve Pender
__________________________________
Photographs and memories.
As a video biographer, I’ve seen firsthand how photos can trigger memories and how effectively legacy videos are when it comes to sharing family photos, and the stories that relate to them, with current and future generations. But what happens if you lose those irreplaceable photographs? This month I opened the latest issue of The Rotarian magazine to find an article about the residents of Ishinomaki, Japan, who are currently wrestling with that very problem.
In March, 2011, an earthquake followed by a twenty-foot tsunami decimated the town. The people who survived were left with their lives but practically nothing else. As part of the rebuilding effort, a team of photographers banded together to form a nonprofit organization called Photohoku (Tohoku is the region where Ishinomaki is located). The aim of the group is to help survivors create new photo albums and new memories. The photographers travel to the town, listen to survivors’ stories, take instant snapshots of the survivors and provide albums for the photos.
To learn more about this wonderful project, visit the Photohoku website.
– – Steve Pender
__________________________________
Don’t touch that radio dial!
On Sunday, February 5, Family Legacy Video’s Steve Pender took to the radio airwaves to discuss his favorite subject: legacy videos. Steve was the guest of Ron Zack, a Tucson estate planning and elder law attorney and host of “Law Review Radio” on KVOI-AM. Ron shares Steve’s keen interest in preserving, sharing and celebrating life stories through video; after finding Family Legacy Video on the Web, Ron invited Steve to share the Family Legacy Video story and to discuss the role video biographies and play as non-financial elements of personal legacies.
If you missed the live broadcast, don’t despair! You can listen to the recording here.
__________________________________
New playback option for Family Legacy Video webinars.
Family Legacy Video’s online webinar recordings continue to inform and inspire folks who want to learn the video biography production process – and/or pick up some pointers on the legacy video business. The webinars are designed to stream via the Web – but in order to work properly, users need to have high-speed Internet connections. Recently, Family Legacy Video has received requests from folks with dial-up and other slower speed connections to find a way to help them view the sessions as well.
The solution: Family Legacy Video now offers Windows Media Video (wmv) and mp4 versions of each webinar recording. These files, provided on data DVDs (these ARE NOT video DVDs and WILL NOT play in video DVD players), make it possible to view the webinars on Windows and Mac computers. The files are provided as “add ons” to the streaming sessions. In other words, you still need to purchase the streaming links – but for an additional fee ($9.95 per DVD plus shipping and handling) you can now also purchase a data DVD containing the session recordings as wmv and mp4 files.
An Important Note: Some of the streaming sessions contain sample video clips. The conversion to wmv and mp4 files renders these clips unplayable – so the clips you can view during the online sessions won’t play properly in the wmv and mp4 versions.
To find out more and to purchase webinars, visit Family Legacy Video’s webinar page.