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Planning ahead can change your shoot from poor to excellent. After reading through all these tips of what to shoot, you’ll have a better idea of the specific shots you want. Here is an example of a shot list: Wide Shot (WS) of subject (S) walking to car, opening door, getting in and closing door,…
Storytelling has been around since before humans were Homo sapiens. We tell stories to relate events and important news, to entertain, to keep our cultures and communities strong, and to make sense of our lives. Telling our stories has become more popular than ever as our culture embraces the personal story on talk shows and…
I have just finished creating an eBook, entitled, 20 Ways of Preserving Memories of Parents and Other Loved Ones. There are countless ways to capture the memories of the people you love. I came up with and found a select twenty ideas that I categorized into Digital and Photographic, Writing and Books, and Arts and Crafts….
Junius Stephenson slowly and carefully takes out the drafting instruments from the felt-lined box. He explains how each one was used in his work as an engineer designing solid waste disposal systems. Now, of course, everything is done more quickly on computers, but maybe we miss out on something real and tangible when we don’t…
Who are the elders in our families and communities? Often, they are people who have paved the way for the things we take for granted now. The oldest has been through the depression, suffered through the holocaust, or fought in World War II. Some have broken through racial or gender barriers to take their place…
Eva Talks about Camping from Personal Story Films on Vimeo. At Personal Story Films, we encourage elders to share their stories on camera. We make a unique, professional film about their lives, and their families receive a priceless treasure. What are the benefits to storytellers themselves? As many have learned, sharing life lessons and wisdom helps us feel a…
Montage from Personal Story Films on Vimeo. There are many media for recording memories – video, writing, oral history audio, cookbooks, scrapbooks, photographs, and more. My favorite, of course, is film or video. Why? It is rich and full, personal and beautiful. It allows you to capture that special grin of his, the way she uses her hands to…
What do you most want from your parents? Their money and property, or their stories, life lessons, and wisdom? According to research, a large majority (74%) of people over 45 would rather inherit life lessons and values from their parents than money*. You probably also want their stories, and have a way to remember their…
I feel passionate about the importance of having our parents’ and grandparents’ stories recorded. For several years, I had been working on a video documentary about my father. I filmed him telling stories: about taking care of chickens with his mother, fishing with his father, being a teenager during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, and…
