1.      Make sure you have some kind of tripod or stand (or box or shelf or a stack of books – whatever!) to put your camera on.

2.      Practice.  Grab your spouse, your kids, your neighbor, your best friend and interview them about anything.  Or maybe interview someone in your genealogy group who will then want to practice interviewing you!  Then look at your interviews and check out the lighting, the sound, the overall look.  You’ll learn a lot by making mistakes or trying new ideas.

3.      Interview DAD.  Perfect weekend to focus on Dad.  Ask him about his family, how he liked to spend his time as a child, what he remembers about his dad.  If your Father’s Day is loud with family, make an appointment to meet with Dad on another day – but don’t put any of it off for long!!  If nothing else, “interview” yourself about what you remember about your dad or your children about what they remember about their grandfather.

4.      Continue to scan meaningful pictures.  A few minutes each week and you’ll have a lot of your family photos digitized and organized when our project is complete.

Details make the difference when interviewing.  Checking those details may feel overwhelming but doing so really shows in your end result. Attached is a Set up check list to help you.  Feel free to download it, print it, and take it with you.  The diagram above may also be helpful.  Download it here.

Be prepared, Boy Scout!

·         Have your camera fully charged. Take an extension cord and a recharger with you. 

·         Have your questions ready.  Use them as a guide but be prepared to capture a story or emotion that you may not have expected.  Return to your questions list when needed. 

·         Carve out the appropriate amount of time for your subject.  Get as much done as you can but don’t overtax them.  You may have to meet several times. Instead of two 4-hour sessions, you may have to meet in four 2-hour sessions.

·         Take your scanner for any pictures or letters or recipes or whatever that you haven’t digitized.

When you arrive, scope out a comfortable arrangement for your subject.  Their favorite chair or the sofa for them and you pull out a kitchen chair and sit opposite them.  You should try to be just a few inches taller in your seat than they are (don’t overdo it.) You’ll want to be at least 8-10 feet away, if possible.  Situate your camera just above your shoulder.  That way, when the interviewee’s eyes look slightly up to meet yours it will not only open their face, it will look very natural on camera.

Once you are all set up, do a sound and frame test. 

·         Check the sound level to be sure you can hear your subject.

·         Check for intruding sounds (air conditioners, dogs barking, TV on in the background, etc)

·         Check the background.  Move anything that may be distracting to a viewer. Add the warm touch if need be by putting something on a table nearby – photo, books, knick-knack, house plant.

·         Check the lighting.  Is the overhead light glaring off your subject’s glasses? Are they squinting at the sun through the open drapes? Is it so dark you can hardly see them?  A little glare off glasses is natural but if you can’t ever see their eyes, you may have to use a table lamp instead of the overhead.  You may have to close the drapes and put that table lamp on the floor between you without the shade – especially if your subject insists on wearing a hat. 

Try different things so your viewers will be listening to the stories and not distracted by poor lighting or poor sound.

B-Roll. Take some footage of your subject, looking through photo albums, or the family Bible, or old letters, or playing an instrument, or simply looking out the window.  Anything except looking at the camera.  Take at least 5 minutes of each “activity.”  This is called B-roll and it’s used when you want something besides them looking at the camera and telling a story. 

DON’T FORGET to scan any letters or photos that may be introduced while doing your interview.  

Interviewing is easy but important.  Preparing is worth a second week to make you aware of the details to get the best interviews you can. Last week we made you think about lighting and sound – both volume and surrounding noises.  This week we’ll look at some other details that can make a huge difference.

The first family history films I did outside my own family, I met with my subjects many times before we actually turned a camera on.  My employer thought I would need to get to know the family, their history, and my focus on their story before I got anything on camera.  It was a mistake.  When the stories were repeated, they were not as detailed because the teller knew I had heard them before!  In one instance, I then interviewed the children of my subject and they knew I had not heard their stories so they were much more in depth since they needed to set their stories up for me.  Future viewers will need even more set up!  If your grandmother tells a story about party lines, future generations may think she’s talking about line dancing at a party – not some unknown person on her telephone - a telephone with a rotary dial that’s attached to the wall!

I also storyboarded[1] the films as if I now had a script, knew what I wanted my subjects to repeat, and how I wanted them to word it.  Again, a mistake.  That’s how you would make a fictional movie with a script, actors and producers. A personal history movie should be more candid, more real, more relaxed.  You want to capture the family history, their stories, and the actual family.  That will be much more meaningful to future generations.

Consider having the camera on while looking through photo albums and then be ready to scan those photos for your project.  Photos can be very memory provoking and a fresh reaction is priceless.

All of this takes more memory on your camera and more editing later but your results will be well worth it!
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[1] Storyboarding is laying out the sequence of your movie by scene. We’ll look at it more closely later.