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Posted by Bettina Hein
Sunday, 28 December 2008

In December 2003, I called my grandfather Karl to tell him: "Opa, I'll be home for Christmas soon and when I'm there, we'll make a movie with you as the star." On December 19, 2003 my beloved grandfather passed away before I could get home. And I don't have a single video memory of him which makes me incredibly sad to this day.

I resolved to do it differently with my grandmother Maria. My husband and I took the time to interview her on video twice about her life. When she passed away this last October we were able to to quickly edit a memorial video for her funeral. People laughed and cried seeing her on video one last time.

From my own experience, I've come up with these 5 simple steps to help YOU record your family's history in less than an hour. Do it before it is too late.

 

1. Just Do It: 0 minutes

Every day counts - I don't mean to panic you but as my story above shows, a few days can make a big difference. Don't wait until you have the perfect camera, the perfect lighting, the perfect mood. Just start. If you're at Grandma's now and won't be back for 6 months, ask a neighbor for their video camera or buy an inexpensive Flip camcorder at your local electronics store. Trust me on this one: just do it. Tomorrow could be too late.

 

2. Prepare the interview: 5 minutes

Take a blank sheet of paper and (just) copy the following time line bullet points onto it while leaving some space between each point:

  • birth (birth date, birthplace, names of parents, grandparents and siblings)
  • childhood (schools, places lived, sports, memorable trips and events)
  • education (high school, college, apprenticeship etc.)
  • service (military service if applicable, rank, function, where stationed)
  • marriage (how they met their spouse, courtship, wedding)
  • family (births of children, places lived, places of worship, family trips)
  • career (first job, promotions, companies, achievements)
  • hobbies (crafts, sports, travel, art etc)
After you've copied down these points add in some family events or stories that you've always been curious about. What was Grandpa's first car? Where exactly did he serve in Korea? Did Uncle Alfred really join the circus when he was young?

 

3. Gather old photos and memorabilia: 10 minutes

Grab those photo albums or boxes of unsorted photos your interviewee has stashed away. Ask them to put the albums in order and start with the earliest one first. I know there are hundreds of photos in there, so ask your interviewee to talk about the most important ones. What is most important? Most probably photos with a lot of people on it or plainly those the feel they need to talk about most.

 

4. Set up the shoot: 5 minutes

If you can, shoot your interview in daylight. Pick a table close to a window. Have your family member sit facing towards the window. In addition, turn on the light in the room. Set the camera on a small tripod or on a stack of books. Make sure your family member is not too close and he/she is in focus. Record your subject for a couple of seconds - then check if you like the background, the lighting etc.

 

5. Tape the interview: 40 minutes or longer

Start your interview by asking your interviewee to state their full name, date and place of birth to warm them up. Then follow the time line you set up in step 2. As you cover each of the steps in their life, ask them to show you a couple of photos that belong to that time period. Let your family talk about a photo first, then, before progressing to the next photo, take the camcorder and film that photo with a steady hand (use both hands for stabilization).

Also: don't interrupt your interviewee to ask questions. Wait 1-2 seconds after they finish a sentence to then pose your next question. This makes it MUCH easier to edit the material afterwards.

Bonus tip: 6. Don't over-do it

Your (most likely) elderly family members are usually thrilled to tell their story but don't over do it in the first interview. Your subjects will tire out relatively quickly. Do a first 40 minute interview and then continue the next day. If you only have one day, consider breaking your interview into 2 to 3 sessions with a least an hour's break in between.

Do you have any tips to add? I'd love to hear how you've captured your family story and what you've learned. Just add a comment below.

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Posted by Bettina Hein
Thursday, 11 December 2008

On Tuesday night, the Pixability team was in full action for its biggest public appearance yet. DJ, Randy, Josh, Dale and I packed up almost all of the monitors at the office to build a video wall for our booth. We got to present at the Web Innovators Forum in Cambridge, MA in front of 700 people as one of the selected start-up companies.

We had tons of people show up at our booth - there was a lot of interest for our product. It seems that - in a recession - people like the idea of a company actually asks for money for its product :-).

We also saw some other cool companies there - not related to video, but interesting nonetheless: for example Local Motors (crowd-sourced car design with local manufacturing) or Tripchill (mobile travel assistant).

 

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Posted by Bettina Hein
Tuesday, 09 December 2008

Have you ever wondered what your dog does all day when you're at work? Yesterday I found a great product at Think Geek that allows you to attach a camera to your pet's collar. Check it out here.

This is a still digital camera that captures images every 1, 5 or 15 minutes. You can then download the images at the end of the day and see what Fido has been up to. I wish they had this gadget in a camcorder/H.264 version.

I love the idea of seeing the world through someone else's eyes. Wouldn't it be great to have a video of your pet that changes perspectives: you filming your dog and the dog filming you back?

I'd love to hear from someone that has tried this experiment with their pet. Have you attached a (unobtrusive) video camera to your pet and let it take videos of its world? If you send me your pet video footage, Pixability will edit it FREE.

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Posted by Bettina Hein
Thursday, 04 December 2008

My husband has been filming since he was 10 years old. You can imagine that he has been asked to record many family events on camera. He gladly complies with those requests – it gives him something to do and he doesn’t have to listen to Uncle Joe’s stale jokes over and over again ☺. But one thing he hates is editing the footage afterwards because it is so time-consuming. Sounds familiar? We’ve compiled some tips to you save time and help you film better family videos. Here they are:

 

Starring Grandma

Let’s say you’re the designated videographer for Grandma's 80th birthday and the whole family has flown in to celebrate. Make sure you show Grandma in detail – not only during her celebration but may also as she’s getting ready to go to the party. Take some close-ups of her at home and later on during the party.

 

Show the locale
Take what the pros call ‘establishing shots’. Is the party taking place in Grandma’s backyard? Then show the house from the driveway, take some shots of the entire backyard and then zero in on the patio where the party is going on. Are you helping to build the tent in the backyard? Put your camera on a tripod and record the process. Remember to hold still on a shot without zooming for at least 10 seconds.

Co-starring Uncle Joe and Baby Madison
Family videos live from showing the family, so don’t forget to capture everyone on camera. People will enjoy your final movie more if they see themselves in it at least once. Don’t try to record the whole group attending in one shot. Instead, focus on small groups of people at a time and during different activities. One sure crowd-pleaser is to take extensive footage of all children and animals at the event.

 

Remember the lighting
Lighting is one of the most tricky things when filming a family event. As a camcorder accessory you can buy mountable lights to get properly lighted footage – you’ve probably seen wedding videographers with this accessory. I wouldn’t recommend this for your average family reunion – most people don’t enjoy being filmed that way. Instead, try to take as many good shots during daylight hours and turn on available lighting at the event locale (without ruining the mood). If there are scenes you’d like to capture during the evening, get a monopod/tripod or stabilize your camcorder on a bar or tabletop.

 

Zooming in on the birthday cake
While a family celebration is all about the people attending, a good movie also shows some of the details of the event. Get close-ups of the birthday cake, the presents, the table decoration and even the buffet. Make sure to do this as much as you can by walking up to the objects, not by zooming in on them. Using zoom too much creates shaky and sometimes pixilated images.

 

Now get out there and film reunions – armed with these tips you might even get booked for your neighbor’s events ☺. And if editing it is still too much work, Pixability can do it for you. We take the tedious burden of editing off your hands and leave you to bask in the glory of being the creative genius that shot all the brilliant video footage. If you’re interested in how we do it, check out our website.

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Posted by Bettina Hein
Monday, 01 December 2008

Welcome to Pixability’s blog – we’re very happy to have you drop in on us. So many people have been urging me to start this blog and here it is, finally!

I hope you're rooting for us - please tell what me think. We love candid feedback and are always eager to improve our service with your help.

 

So what is Pixability all about?

Simple: most people take videos and NEVER do anything with them. We want to change that. So send us your shoeboxes full of tapes, your hard drives full of footage. We know it's bothering you that your family memories are just rotting away in the closet or attic. Pixability can help.

 

Smart technology & creative people

It’s our idea to make families happy by employing smart technology and creative people from all over the world. Our creative people take your video footage and turn it into custom movies. Our motivation is to create lasting memories for you: we want you to show a Pixability movie of your child’s first steps at his/her wedding in 2035!

 

How to create better videos and preserve family memories

We’ll be using this blog to give you insights as we work toward that goal, give tips on how to create better videos and how to preserve your family memories.

 

Out of MIT

For the past few months, we have been working hard to launch and improve www.pixability.com. Pixability itself was born at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where I was a Sloan Fellow. We’re located right off of the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

If you like our work/mission or have feedback for us please do leave us comments below or send them to bettina@pixability.com.

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