Family History Video
 

As a Christmas gifts this year, I am going to produce and give a family history video consisting of old & current photos & video, and interviews with Grandparents. This will be my most robust production so far, but I think it will be well worth the effort and am excited to get going. I have to make 3 different videos to cover my family and my in-laws, so starting now should give me plenty of time before the hoidays to avoid too many last-minute sleepless nights. The whole project will be a suprise for everyone except the grandparents who are being interviewed.



Currently, I am putting together a list of questions for the "secret" interviews and would love to get some ideas on what to ask the Grandparents. Anyone have any question suggestions?

Ask them to tell you their story. They each have a story to tell of their life, have them tell you and use excerpts. Interms of actually questions I don't have any recommendations.

Just ask a general question and let them talk. That gives the best sound bites.

Grandparents have lived history-depending on their age perhaps WWI, the great depression, WWII, the advent of the the industrial age, modern aviation, the phone system, FDR, Truman Et Al. I love talking to people that have been thru the day before me (and I've been around a while) to hear the stories of their lives-especially as it pertains to their family. I met one gent who came here from Russia thru Ellis Island and he gave me the run down on his entire family from the time he was a kid about 10 to 2 years ago when he had turned 90.
To get them started, ask something like 'talk about your childhood-tell me your earliest memory' and then just let 'em talk.
Have fun,
Don

Thanks for the help...
 

Well, I figured that I really wouldn't have to ask many questions and could just let them talk and have lots video to choose from. I know I've heard most of their stories at some point during my life, but I am really looking forward to hearing them again and maybe some things they have never told me. Plus, I haven't heard any stories from my Grandmother-inlaw, so I'll be hearing her history for the first time.

I pretty sure that years down the road I will be really glad that I put this together. Now I have to educate myself on lighting tips and try to find a low-cost, mini-jack lavaliere mic.

I was thinking of offering this service to local Retirement homes. My grandparents are dead and I really didn't even know any of them, I'm sort of 0 for 4 in the grandparent field.

I think this would be invaluable for family members but there are a lot of legal issues with Nursing homes. Good luck and I'm certain it will be great. Oh yeah, not only can you have the video of the interviews but I would scan in some very old photos and they could narrate the picture or just make a slide show with the as old as possible photos.

None of my 1st generation US born relatives were very talkative, and if they knew they were being recorded, they pretty much clammed up. Having any of them do a narrative was a non-starter. So, recording had to be discreet.

The fix was to have them separately & together look through the photo albums & record them reminiscing about the pictures and answering questions.

Nothing stirred those old memories & brought out unheard stories better than pictures. Be prepared to have such a huge volume of good dialog it'll be hard to edit down.

Whatever you'll end up with, it'll be a family treasure.

Yeah, I asked them to gather lots of old pictures and I figured they could tell a little story about each one or something that was going on around that time in their lives. Luckily, both sets of my Grandparents love to tell stories and have not lost any of their memories.

With the interviews and photo montage it should nice. As for offering this service at assisted living/nursing homes, what are some of the legal issues?

I'll see how this turns out and will likely start offering this service myself. It seems like a product that would be fun to produce and tresured by the customer. A "win, win".

laws
 

I'm not sure if you have heard of HIPPA laws. (sp?) They are privacy laws and my wife use to work in a home so I can assure you they are EXTREMELY tough.

If I'm delivering flowers to Mr. X and ask the desk if he is there, they cannot tell me if he even resides there. If one resident asks about the health status of another you CAN'T tell them, even if they are best friends. There are good reasons why but they went too far with the laws.

If the resident gives permission you obviously can but if it is their child wants it done the facility will have to seek permission from the resident before you would even be allowed in the door. My suggestion would be to go to HR or the facility manager and tell them what you want to do and see if they can offer that as a service or atleast advertise it. I was lucky enough to know people that work there and gave me a person to solicit my wares to.

good luck

Thanks for the info.
 

Obviously, I wouldn't seek to take advantage of the older folks, but would go through their dependants and/or caretakers to advertise such a service. Unfortunately, their are a lot of people out there looking to sucker seniors out of money.

I think a product like this is more for the younger generations of a family and something they can pass down for years to come. It's kind of funny to think that future generations will have home video footage of their great, great, great, great, grandparents to watch. I have a Great Grandmother, 90, who is in good health and my son, 6, will remember his great, great grandmother being alive.

when youre doing the interviews..lets say with grandma.....aks her some of the same questions you will ask grandpa. this allows you to intercut their stories since they may have very similar answers. you let one of them start the story then cut to other.... grandpa's version where grandma may have left off.

i do this all the time with interviews in general.

this technique is very common on news magazine shows, vh1 behind the music, etc.

Thanks for the tip.

I know this is an old thread but ...

I have used this kit many years ago and it pretty much works to get stories from grandparents.

http://www.livingfamilyalbums.com/Contents_GPKit.htm

Ah, it's an old, but living thread. I'm still working on this video. Thanks for the link.