tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125194342009-07-08T10:27:49.745-07:00The Family Legacy Video Cafe is the Blog related to Family Legacy Video's commercial Web site. The Cafe is here to foster and build an online community for those of us dedicated to preserving personal and family stories on video. Please, pull up a virtual chair and join in!Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-12109629600934524402009-07-08T10:22:00.004-07:002009-07-08T10:27:49.753-07:00

I belong to the Catalina Rotary Club here in Tucson. One of the features of our weekly lunch meetings is a segment called the "Member Moment." During this time, one of our members takes three or four minutes to talk a little bit about his/her life. Well, last week one of our more senior members had some time in the spotlight - and he made his moment quite memorable. In a matter-of-fact way he

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-42277536301047165642009-07-02T10:26:00.005-07:002009-07-02T10:47:10.125-07:00

So, how can you take part in a series of fun, informative and inspirational video biography workshops without flying to Tucson, Arizona? Easy - just register for Family Legacy Video's "Video Biography Summer Session" - a series of online Webinars offering professional tips and tricks for planning and producing legacy videos - and learn in the comfort of your own home!The series is the result of

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-68666064316012372032009-07-02T10:05:00.003-07:002009-07-02T10:23:01.535-07:00

In 2006 I interviewed Charlie Wilson. Charlie is a former B-17 pilot and a large part of his interview focused on his exploits during WWII. Little did I realize that Charlie's video biography would lead to my own flight in a reconditioned B-17 - and a chance to experience, in a very small way, the aircraft that Charlie and his crews flew under very perilous conditions.Charlie's video biography

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-18535984675410306682009-06-01T10:28:00.006-07:002009-06-01T10:46:59.160-07:00

On May 19, 20 and 21, Family Legacy Video dipped its toes into the waters of online training - and found them warm and inviting."Video Biography 101" was the first in what may potentially be a series of sessions offering online video biography education to folks who don't have the time and/or budget to attend a workshop in Tucson, Arizona. Family Legacy Video's Steve Pender hosted the morning,

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-39009171445250275882009-05-04T10:25:00.006-07:002009-05-04T10:46:26.245-07:00

Family Legacy Video's hands-on workshops are a great value - but not everyone can travel to Tucson, Arizona. So Family Legacy Video is harnessing the power of the Internet to bring our workshops to you!Based on the responses to our recent online survey, we're offering the first in what we hope will be a series of Webinars to help beginners create legacy videos for themselves and their families.

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-68497305261514976452009-04-02T11:13:00.006-07:002009-06-01T10:46:15.096-07:00

Family Legacy Video's Steve Pender recently joined the Smart Women’s Café as a Contributing Expert.The Smart Women's Café is a new and exciting online networking and coaching site tailored to women. Site founder Katana Abbott invited Steve to join the Café after following his video biography work for almost a year via the Family Legacy Video Web site and e-Newsletter. Steve is part of the

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-85281069700766110112009-04-02T10:54:00.008-07:002009-06-01T10:47:47.003-07:00

Consumer camcorders have their limitations when it comes to audio. But there's a neat device that can give your camcorder some professional audio capabilities.For starters, most consumer camcorders have one stereo audio track. Those camcorders that have a connection for an external microphone can usually accommodate only one. And the output from mono microphones (most external microphones you'll

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-73803105481059858422009-03-04T09:45:00.003-07:002009-06-01T10:48:05.650-07:00

My wife, Halina, visited a quilting expo recently. She came back with vivid descriptions of the many beautiful, handmade quilts on display. As she spoke, some of the patchwork quilts I've seen in the past came to mind. You probably know the kind, the ones composed of fabric swatches of all shapes and colors. And I realized these quilts had parallels to family history.How? As I see it, our

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-2697621219962281812009-02-02T11:14:00.004-07:002009-06-01T10:48:22.706-07:00

Chocolate, flowers, a heart-shaped card and a candlelit meal are all the standard trappings of a Valentine's Day celebration. But it's about time another item was added to the list. I'm talking about video.Why video? Because the love story you share with your wife, partner or significant other is special and unique. It deserves to be told and preserved and shared. And video provides the perfect

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-85891580528781431012009-01-16T10:04:00.004-07:002009-06-01T10:48:40.557-07:00

If you have a desire to learn hands-on video biography tips and techniques from the pros, you'll want to join one or both of Family Legacy Video's video biography events this April:Create Your Own Video Biography (April 17-19): A comprehensive introduction to the video biography production process. Steve is joined by video veterans Dan Crapsi and Ginny Temple. You'll leave this three-day event

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-57600274326912781232009-01-06T09:57:00.004-07:002009-06-01T10:48:55.955-07:00

"The work that personal historians do is sacred. It's the work of the soul. It's blissful and heartfelt work."So said James Walsh as he began his presentation at an annual conference of the Association of Personal Historians. Walsh teaches history at the University of Colorado in Denver. He focuses on the oral tradition. This tradition - passing along history through the stories of the

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-76325107897690697282008-11-24T07:25:00.004-07:002009-06-01T10:49:34.999-07:00

You've just completed combining all the visual elements of your first video biography. Everything is in place - the interviews, narration, photos, text, etc. But don't breathe a sigh of relief yet - the audio mix is next! Maybe you have only two tracks of audio (interview and music) or perhaps you have three, four or more tracks holding various interviews, music cuts and sound effects. No matter

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-91384929487052718112008-10-03T07:20:00.004-07:002009-06-01T10:49:50.379-07:00

Video biographies are certainly wonderful ways to capture and preserve your precious personal stories and family history. They also tend to generate surprise benefits as well. Here are a few examples from Family Legacy Video's files:Uncovering an Olympic moment.Mary-Lou and Dick are a wonderful couple here in Tucson, Arizona. Mary-Lou's dad was a track star for Cornell around 1910. He also ran in

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-32020667262130199852008-09-11T10:11:00.003-07:002009-06-01T10:50:07.110-07:00

Occasionally customers ask me to edit interviews they've shot themselves. I'm only too happy to help them turn their raw interviews into more polished videos. Unfortunately, I can't do much about the picture quality, which usually suffers from insufficient lighting and hollow, low-level sound. Most of the time, there's also a third problem: shot composition. Now, even if you don't want to bother

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-65341076501147894202008-07-14T09:55:00.004-07:002009-06-01T10:50:23.812-07:00

Tucson’s Family Legacy Video, Inc., a pioneer in the personal video biography field, is holding two unique video biography workshops in Tucson in October, 2008.From October 17 to 19, a three-day workshop entitled “Create Your Own Video Biography” ushers attendees through the process of creating their own family history video projects. Participants will learn how to draft questions, light, shoot

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-66142018564210785712008-07-14T09:46:00.003-07:002009-06-01T10:50:39.806-07:00

I'd like to put my parents' stories on a DVD, but what happens when DVDs become obsolete? How will future generations of my family play the video?I hear variations of this question all the time. My short answer is always, "Don't worry, preserve your family history using the technology available to you now. Don't let fear of future technologies keep you from capturing your family stories today."I

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-56592607138196757432008-06-26T10:01:00.003-07:002009-06-01T10:50:54.004-07:00

Whether you're setting out on a cross country driving tour or wondering how to visually "navigate" through your next video biography, a good map can be a real asset. You can use maps to establish the locations important to your subject's story and also use them to impart a sense of movement to illustrate someone's travels.For example, I recently used maps to help tell the story of a married

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-3536030835429093272008-05-12T10:02:00.005-07:002009-06-01T10:51:09.526-07:00

"I want to get started in the video biography business, but I need experience. Where do I get it?" It's a common refrain and one I hear often from Family Legacy Video readers and customers. I usually suggest starting out by practicing on family and friends. But here's another option, one that will help preserve the stories of U.S. veterans and give you valuable interviewing experience.It's the

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-20782770871553457642008-02-19T09:36:00.005-07:002009-06-01T10:51:26.478-07:00

Tucson’s Family Legacy Video, Inc., a pioneer in the personal video biography field, is holding two unique video biography workshops in Tucson in April, 2008.From April 25 to 27, a three-day workshop entitled “Create Your Own Video Biography” ushers attendees through the process of creating their own family history video projects. Participants will learn how to draft questions, light, shoot and

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-40118518558871405352008-02-12T09:36:00.001-07:002009-06-01T10:51:44.835-07:00

Music can lend emotion and a sense of time and place to any video biography. And if any of the subjects of your video biographies are musicians, you may be able to use some of the music of their lives to lend a very personal touch to their video life stories.Here are two examples:A Family Legacy Video Workshop veteran recently finished a video biography that featured her father. Her dad had been

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-78554455181580336152008-01-08T13:18:00.001-07:002009-06-01T10:52:07.942-07:00

On December 21, 2007, I took to the radio airwaves to speak about video biographies. The experience was great fun - and I've archived the segment on the Family Legacy Video Web site so you can listen in!I was a guest on "Arizona Spotlight," a show broadcast every Friday morning and evening on Tucson's NPR stations KUAZ AM/FM. I actually visited the radio studio on December 5 and spent about a

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-67481824717177660382007-11-19T09:31:00.001-07:002009-06-01T10:52:24.701-07:00

Shortly after Labor Day, a reporter and photographer from the Explorer, Tucson's weekly newspaper, visited with we to talk about preserving personal history on video.The announcement of my workshops at the annual conference of the Association of Personal Historians kindled the interest of reporter Ty Bowers, who explored the subject of video biographies with me for a couple of hours. The article

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-8569178553868860672007-09-24T09:02:00.001-07:002009-06-01T10:52:42.188-07:00

If video biography and personal history is your cup of tea, you'll want to be in Tennessee this November.Author and award-winning video biographer Steve Pender of Tucson's Family Legacy Video will present two workshops (Preparing & Conducting a Video Biography Interview & Transcripts With Time Code: The Video Biographer’s Friend) at the Association of Personal Historians (APH) annual conference

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-88638460202358909922007-08-02T13:07:00.001-07:002009-06-01T10:53:25.449-07:00

Let's say you've decided to videotape an interview with two family members. In order to give yourself some options when you edit, you want to shoot them using two cameras. So how do you capture audio? And how do you synch up the tapes from your two cameras during editing?RECORDING AUDIOOption 1: You can mount a lapel microphone on each subject, run the mics into a mixer, and feed the outputs of

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12519434.post-13471944555915256642007-07-03T11:50:00.001-07:002009-06-01T10:53:45.619-07:00

Drop a pebble in the water; just a splash and it is gone;But there's a half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on,Spreading, spreading, from the center, flowing on out to the seaAnd there's no way of telling where the end is going to be... - AnonymousOn October 5, 2006, during the opening session of the annual

Steve Penderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18367028136098903915steve@familylegacyvideo.com0