Family History Video / vets
 

I was looking for information on interview & gear techniques and tips, when I bumped into this... it's titled "Field Guide, Conducting and Preserving Interviews". It was prepared with the help of Ken Burns, for the Veterans History Project. If you know any war vets, this might make an interesting project.


http://www.loc.gov/vets/pdf/thewar-fieldkit-2007.pdf

Thanks, I looked over the Field Guide. Excellent info. for interviewing vets, and a reminder to me to focus on doing the basic stuff well. I'm more interested in filming general (not necessarily vets) personal histories and ethical wills as people think back on their lives, so I'd welcome any advice or references to resources along these lines.

For a relative novice that was very helpful in general.

I found it when I was trying to actually learn about how to stage an interview. When watching Ken Burns' "The War", I realized that a fair amount of thought was going into the lighting, the objects that were visible in the background that provide a certain mood (such as the lit fireplace, or dusty old books, a lamp etc.) I'd like to do a family history video using my two HV20's, and I'm wrestling with how I should approach the staging of it. For instance, should I record each participant separately, or would the interaction between the two main players (my folks) provide for a more conversational, and perhaps more engaging and lively tone. On another topic, I'm not entirely sure I'd want to emulate the "little or no fill light" look of Ken Burns' talking heads. It's a bit bleak (which of course is great if the subject is war.)

I've shot a bunch of hours of my parents talking about their lives. I shot some where they sat together on a small loveseat and talked about their lives together. I also interviewed them separately to get stories that didn't relate to their shared experiences. It worked well.

Of course it depends on how your folks relate to one another on camera. I've seen more than one documentary (2 PBS docs come to mine, one on Celebration, FL and the one on the history of Tupperware) where a husband and wife were interviewed together, and one spouse would stare blankly to the side while the other spoke. It was comical but a little sad, and probably not what you're going for... In any case, I avoided situations where they were both sitting together, but the topic didn't relate to both of them.

Good points. A few days back, I wondered if it would be better to interview my parents separately, but maybe some of their brothers/sisters beside them, at least when discussing their growing up years. But you're right that it doesn't make sense to have people on camera that weren't there and have no insights to share.