All about the imagery that you might use in your life story family history film or book.

Photos, films and slides are the main imagery that will make your life story family history film or book visually captivating. See in your mind’s eye a beautiful montage of images of your grandmother at the same time your grandmother’s life story is being told, maybe with her voice or yours. Your family will love watching that at the next family gathering or on their own phones. Imagine flipping open your family history book and seeing all your grandfather’s photos displayed in one place, right beside the narrative about his life. Now that’s bedtime story material!

The most at-risk and most precious form of these visuals are the old photographs that are down in the basement, up in the attic, or in a box somewhere. Likely there may be only a few people living who remember the names of the family members in those old photos. So the clock is ticking on showing those old photos to the family’s elders and identifying them. Do it now. Once those living relatives are gone, the people in the old photos become lost, unknown faces and there really is no way to identify them. Facial recognition technology has come a long way but it only recognizes similar faces. Somebody still needs to do the identifying. 

Photo albums are very useful for video interviews. The Fingertip Tour is a method whereby the album is placed on a table and the Storyteller uses their finger to point out people in those old photos and tell their stories. The camera films over that person's shoulder down at the photo album. This is an excellent method for cataloging who the characters are in the photos. Old 8 mm films and slides and even analog video footage like camcorder tapes are perfect fodder for family history films and also books. They just need to be digitized correctly. Your personal historian from Heirloom Films can advise you on how best to handle this.

Don't overlook the hutch in the dining room behind those glass doors. Often there are medals and trophies and ribbons and certificates and cherished family keepsakes stored there. The visuals that illustrate the stories can trigger new stories and they might even lead to related publicly available newspaper articles, newsletters, and historical documents and books. Even old love letters can make beautiful visuals either scanned and directly applied to the pages of a book or shown in a family history film with a voiceover and some heartfelt music.

If you’ve got old paper print photos or slides that you’d like to digitize we can give you a quote and then help you make something out of them.

Schedule a free Family History Zoom Consult with personal historian Cory Bretz.

Good family history interviewing creates a recording, video and sound that can be used in your life story family history film or book.

In the making of any life story family history film or book inevitably there will have to be some interviews. Those who are still around know those old stories and are in a better position to guess. But somebody is going to have to ask them. That’s where interviews come in. With today's modern technology interviews can be conducted in a lot of simple ways. Still the best way is in-person, face-to-face with two COVID-19 vaccinated people in the room: Interviewer and the Storyteller. And you might have a techy friend handling gadgets like cameras, audio recorders, lights, batteries, etc so you can focus on the stories.

Interviewing isn’t hard if you do two things: Listen deeply and ask good questions. Typically an interview session is somewhere between two to four hours with breaks. A professional interviewer is skilled at being methodical in helping the Storyteller cover their stories in a way that makes sense, is interesting, and efficiently gathers the facts and the complete story. Sometimes using props like photos, mementos, trophies and memory zingers like newspaper headlines, letters, scrapbooks and documents can trigger stories that aren't actually forgotten but are just buried deep inside one's memory. Emotion is a key element of a Storyteller’s delivery and the Interviewer is key to creating a safe and non-judgemental space for deep sharing to happen.

Other methods of interviewing use online digital platforms like Zoom, Google Meetings, FaceTime, and Skype. The video quality might not be as good as being in the room with somebody with a great video camera but the fact that we can include people in films and books who are on the other side of the country or planet without having to get in an airplane is a huge advantage. It also adds powerful, credible content in a first hand kind of way. The trick is setting up a date and time with your interview subjects and making sure that they have a working internet connection and a webcam-equipped computer, tablet or phone. These virtual interviews turn out quite well actually.

The product of a good interview is a recording. The best approach is to record with video and sound and that way you can then later make either a film, book or both. The audio recording is most useful if transcribed into readable text so it can be searched and later used for reference when editing video or edited into a readable narrative for your book. Even the old-fashioned telephone works good enough for story-gathering and smart phones have great apps that can record an interview phone call and automatically transcribe the audio into editable text!

Personal historian Cory Bretz can coach you on how best to use these technologies so you can record the stories of your family members. Or you can schedule Cory to do the interviews for you in-person in British Columbia or online almost anywhere.

Schedule a free Family History Zoom Consult with personal historian Cory Bretz.

And to get you started, download free 110 Interview Questions that you might ask your Storyteller during an interview. 

“Once upon a time there was … “ Life story family history films and books are basically just stories combined with images. Having genealogical information like dates of birth and dates of death and places is nice, perhaps even important but the main ingredient of any interesting and inspiring family keepsake is stories. Each of the characters in your book or film has a story and it's based on the challenges and triumphs of their life. They grew up somewhere and perhaps moved somewhere else. There were certain things going on in their town or city. Their lives and choices were influenced by world events. They had interactions, partnerships, conflicts and love affairs with other people. And everybody has accomplishments, big and small. Stories don't have to be earth-shattering or epic, but there does need to be a story.

The nice thing in storytelling about people who have passed on already like your ancestors is that there's very few people around who can dispute the stories that you tell about them. So the invitation is to gather what you can about each person and then make some assumptions, draw some conclusions, maybe even give yourself a little artistic license to add a touch of fiction to round out the story. You see this all the time: “Based on a true story”. The point is to honour and celebrate that ancestor. A good story is a great way to do it.

When I was growing up, my uncle told me many amazing, inspiring big fish stories. As I look back (and after doing some some research) I would say about a third of those stories were actually true and the other two-thirds were brilliant make-believe! As a kid I loved those tales and learned lots about life. Allow yourself to nurture your family’s kids with nourishing, entertaining stories.

To help you with your storytelling we created the Life Story Questionnaire. Just by filling out this document for each of your characters you’ll be able to hone in on things like schools, careers, military service, places, historical events, achievements, and relationships so that you can surmise their story. It’s not a difficult process. And you’ll be surprised about how much you actually know about your ancestors.

Stories have a typical formula. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. The most versatile storytelling metaphor is “The Hero’s Journey”. You can use it to sequence the happenings of an ancestor’s life into a compelling and meaningful adventure that makes your readers and viewers look forward to the next bit of the story and they’ll think you’re a master writer. Writing and editing is easy for some and more difficult for others. If you get stuck personal historian Cory Bretz can help you with this creative process so it becomes fun and rewarding. Or he can ghost-write it for you so you can take the credit without any of the frustrations!

To get started, download the Life Story Questionnaire for free. You can also schedule a free Family History Consult on Zoom with personal historian Cory Bretz to strategize your best storytelling approach.

Read Number Three: Interviews [COMING SOON]

In the meantime, check out some samples of life story family history films and books to get some ideas for your project. 

You already know that you are getting involved in a family history project that is both very inspiring and valuable to your descendants. You can see the smiling faces of your future great grandchildren reading your book or watching your film. And you’re also probably figuring out that this labour of love requires an investment of your time, money, and perhaps your creativity too. You can definitely do it yourself but you’ll increase your chances of success if you get some help. Personal historian Cory Bretz talks about the Five Things For Getting Started that will need your attention, time, energy, and decision-making ability. 

Number One: Characters & Genealogy

All films and books are finite — you can only cram in so many people’s stories. Decide who the main characters are going to be in your life story family history film or book. Yup, pick out which relatives are going to be the stars. Be certain to include yourself and perhaps your spouse(s). Make a list of your parents, step parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, maybe even your children and grandchildren who you think need to be reflected in your film or book. Having that list of names helps you focus in on what information and imagery will be needed to put this project together. Understanding the breadth of characters and the stories that they represent determines the amount of time, effort and very likely the money that you'll need to make available to create this amazing family keepsake … and to do justice in honouring those ancestors.

To help you with this step we developed the Family Tree Chart that makes it simple to map out who your relatives are so you can start making casting decisions. This is also the time to go crazy with DNA and genealogy because you will be needing the basics about your characters. WARNING: Genealogy can be highly addictive and will definitely prevent you from getting to the next next steps if you get stuck there. Resist the temptation to add another 100 ancestors to your tree. While that might be fun and even valuable, those ancestors won’t be featured in your film or book and you could be wasting precious time for the next crucial step.

Building a basic family tree is a useful step because it can be reflected as an illustrative graphic in your life story family history film or book to explain how your weird uncle is actually related.

At Heirloom Films and Storybooks we can help you coach you on genealogy, research it for you, and we’ll put together that family tree. You can schedule a free Family History Consult on Zoom.

Download our free Family Tree Chart  to get started casting your characters.

Click to read Number Two: Stories

So you think you're ready to make your life story family history film or book, right? Maybe you’ve already started or you’re stuck somewhere in the process. Or maybe you just lay awake at night thinking about it! You just want to get it done! Let's talk about what's involved in being ready to move forward.

You already know that you are getting involved in a project that is both very inspiring and valuable to your descendants. You can see the smiling faces of your future great grandchildren reading your book or watching your film. And you’re also probably figuring out that this labour of love requires an investment of your time, money, and perhaps your creativity too. You can definitely do it yourself but you’ll increase your chances of success if you get some help. Personal historian Cory Bretz talks about the Five Things For Getting Started that will need your attention, time, energy, and decision-making ability.

Why does all this matter? If you don’t get done your life story family history film or book your descendants are very likely to have absolutely no comprehension of who your parents really were. They certainly will not understand anything about your grandparents. Your grandkids and future great grandchildren won’t see any inspiring examples of related family members who lived meaningful lives, with beauty, genius, determination, and vision. All of that will vanish in an instant if you don't get done your book or film. Sorry to be melodramatic but it’s true.

On the plus side, getting done your project and being able to give the next generation a beautiful and educational life story family history film or book will make them proud to be members of your family. You’ll be inspiring them to greater things, giving them values and concepts that embolden them, encourage them, and help them through tough times...forever. You’ll be helping the next generation understand that they come from a long line of amazing people. Just imagine how good it’s going to feel to be part of creating that positive legacy in this world.

Being efficient and effective is the name of the game in getting done your life story family history film or book.

Here's five things that you’ve got to look at as you get started. You don’t have to do them alone but you or somebody else has to do them. Maybe your kids or your siblings will come up with something...or not. But these five things have to be done to inspire the next generation. And who’s the perfect person to do it? The perspective that they need to survive and thrive in the future? Yours. You can do it. And our personal historian Cory Bretz can help.

Here goes. Click to Read Number One: Characters & Genealogy

Also, check out some samples of life story family history films and books to get some ideas for your project. 

In this short clip Bob tells the story of his father coming to Canada from Poland just after World War I. You can see the actual video editing timeline to get an idea of how these projects are assembled. It's literally thousands of bits like photos, interview footage, audio, music, narration, and titles all sequenced together.

Bob and his wife Helen spent several afternoons with personal historian Cory Bretz sorting out their photo collection and doing simple storytelling sessions. They had started by completing the Life Story Questionnaire so the process was straightforward. 

Later Cory put together all the interviews and photos into Draft #1. Bob and Helen made suggestions for changes and the final version was generated. They were so thrilled to show the film to their grandchildren. Bob passed away 18 months after the interviews were completed.

Your life story family history film can be made the exact same way so you can inspire the next generation! 

The power of a photo montage video is that music and images create a sweet emotional space that truly honours and celebrates those we love. Seen together that collection of old images creates a whole life, a journey, and inspirational salute of a life well-lived. The music creates excitment and atmosphere. The photos captivate the imagination. There is enough room for the viewer to recall their memories, tell their own stories and have their own unique response. 

The simple photo montage video is usually about 100 images, some suitable royalty-free music, and some on-screen titles. Whether it's sequenced chronologically or by life themes these videos are best around five to ten minutes long. 

To get started you need to digitize your paper print photos. They should be acquired at high resolution, developed, and saved as RGB JPG, PNG, or TIF. Locate and sort through your digital photos get them into the same place with the scanned paper prints. Then find some royalty-free buyout music that you like — and the license — put them together and you've got a photo montage music video!

Themes are perfect for photo montage videos. Make sure you know something about the person or subject of the video. Their interests, likes, and idiosyncrasies will influence things like colours, style of music, and typefaces. You can even add in buyout animation and stock imagery to add context, energy, and interest. 

The nice thing about photo montage videos is that they provide a flexible foundation for more advanced film options. For example can add andio and/or video interview footage or voice over your own script. Tell the stories that go with those images and introduce the characters, putting names to the faces. 

Once your photo montage video is ready you can download it to your computer, laptop, tablet or phone. To show it big, connect a projector or big screen TV. To show it far and wide share your screen during your online Zoom session or upload the video to streaming platforms like Vimeo and YouTube. Be sure to send the video link to all your friends and loved ones. 

A photo montage video will add excitement and emotion to your next event or celebration. 

Arrange a free quote. 

When I first met Skumpy I liked her instantly. She had a unique blend of humour and humbleness, decorum and irreverence. We very quickly became friends and tongue-in-cheek sparring partners. I could tell that she liked me because she would gently feign shock and outrage at things I would say, all the while smiling and winking. It was very endearing. But this wouldn't last very long. 

Margaret Christensen -  or "Skumpy"  as she had been nicknamed by her sister a lifetime earlier -  had been issued a terminal diagnosis by her doctors. She had been told her prognosis in the summer of 2019 that she would be gone by December. Struggling with all the effects of an illness and coming to terms with her impending transition, Skumpy made time for a video interview and a review of her photo collection.  

The complexities of life prevented us getting together until mid October and she transitioned about 6 weeks after this interview. We did the interview in her living room, her on her favourite couch. She was self-conscious about her oxygen tubes and of course, her appearance. But she very quickly understood that what she shared was far more important than how she looked.