How To Prepare For A Liberty Heritage Documentary

A Liberty Heritage documentary or family history video is a wonderful way to honor your family members and create a lasting legacy for future generations.

Here are 6 primary steps that you can do in preparation for your Heritage documentary.

6 Steps To Making A Family Heritage Documentary

Step 1: Arrange Selected Family Members To Be Interviewed

It’s up to you how many family members you’d like to interview. The important thing to remember is that elders are here and gone before you know it, so don’t procrastinate. Even if you’re not quite ready for us to begin your documentary, go ahead and sit down with your family members and record their stories. The key thing to remember when interviewing a family member is that you want them to be as comfortable as possible so that their true personality comes out. So choose a location and time where they will be most relaxed. Also, to help trigger their memories, have on hand old memorabilia and photos. Or have them watch old home movies and record them describing what they are seeing and remembering.

Step 2: Gather Photos, Memorabilia and Old Home Movies

 Look for items that were discussed in the interviews that you can overlay on top of what they’re describing.

Items might include old heirloom jewelry, a stack of love letters, a wedding dress, artifacts from wars, children’s clothes, old money, etc.

Step 3: Draft An Outline

You can make your documentary super simple and just play one interview right after the next, overlaying images of what each person is saying. Or you can get fancy and categorize the interviews into subject matters and weave together the interviews based on stories or periods of time. There is a whole art to the storytelling process, we encourage you to discuss the outlining process with one of our Liberty Entertainment Group representatives.

Step 4: Upload or Mail Footage, Photos & Written Interviews To Liberty Entertainment Group

Depending on how much footage you have, your existing flash drive or email messaging may or may not be able to handle all that video data. Please consult with one of our representatives to figure out the best way to get your material to us, if necessary we will create a special cloud account to expidite the process or we can simply have you mail it to us and we will scan/digitize it on our end.   

Step 5: Let Us Assemble Your Documentary

There is no right or wrong way to edit your documentary. But we would like to review with you our basic video editing and layout process to help you get the best possible result.

Step 6: Share Your Liberty Heritage Documentary At The Next Family Gathering 

What a great gift to share Heritage Video at your next family reunion or holiday gathering. Imagine the laughter and tears when family members watch their personal history play out before their eyes. We can either upload the video to cloud storage, burn DVD’s or hook up your computer to a projection screen at your event.

Like to learn more? Contact our friendly staff at Liberty Entertainment Group for pricing and more information.

 Call: Main 213-422-2878 Voice: 323-305-4676 ● E-mail: info@libertyentertainmentgrp.com
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Persuading Elders to Record Their Family History on Video

Many of our elders are hesitant to have the stories of their lives captured on video. Some are fearful of the camera and are intimidated by their perceived notion of the interview experience. Others are simply humble or don’t believe that their stories are worthy of being told. Here are a few ways to approach the more resistant elders of your family, as well as some ideas about how to actually conduct their family history interview.

 The best time to approach resistant parents or elder relatives is during a family gathering, reunion or holiday. When multiple family members share their desire to have their elders’ stories recorded for their grandchildren and future generations to enjoy, the fears that the elders hold can surely be trumped by the love and respect that they now feel.

  Let them know that they are doing you a favor. Preface with, “It’s important to me and the rest of our family to record the stories of your life. Your history is my history, and I really want your grandchildren to know where they came from.”

 Deep down everyone wants someone to care about who they are and the stories that they have to tell, even if they say otherwise. By highlighting your desire to keep the family legacy alive eternally, you can crack through their walls of fear and humility.

Choose a setting that is familiar and comfortable to the elder being interviewed. Their home or the home of their children will create a relaxed atmosphere which will greatly enhance the quality of their storytelling.

To help elders feel more at ease with this experience, get a third party to perform the interview. Many times family baggage and judgment can get in the way of honest disclosure, and an experienced interviewer will create a safe and supportive space for your elders to relay their stories freely.

Hire a professional videographer to record the interview. When you get your elders to agree to the experience of sharing their stories, you want to be sure that the video is produced successfully. Many aspects such as lighting, sound and editing can be overwhelming for a family member or amateur to produce effectively. Also, many times the videographer is also the interviewer, so be sure to have him or her meet the interviewee before the day of the recording to create a comfortable rapport. Don’t hesitate to ask for samples and references to assure that you hire a truly experienced and responsible professional.

Like to learn more? Contact our friendly staff at Liberty Entertainment Group for pricing and more information.

 Call: Main 213-422-2878 Voice: 323-305-4676 ● E-mail: info@libertyentertainmentgrp.com

Visit Our Webpage