Preserving Your Family's Photography

Every family has them.  Boxes of old, yellowing, crumbling photographs.  And in quite a few of these old boxes are photographs in which there are people no one in the family remembers. The information has been lost as older family members pass on.

Decades ago, most families kept old photographs in picture albums and knew who the individuals were and what events were portrayed. But since the advent of digital photography, old albums have gone by the wayside.

We, at Reel DocuMemoirs, suggest that the best way to preserve your family story for future generations is to digitize your photographs.  It can be done with some of the oldest family members present who might have memories tied to the photographs.  The information they give can sometimes turn an old photograph of unknown individuals in 1910 into a photograph of Great Aunt Rosie and Great Uncle Manny on their wedding day, four generations ago.

And once they’re digitized, they can be shared between members of the extended family, some of whom can shed light on some of the unknown people and events in those photographs.  We have had great success coming up with information for our clients using this technique.

If you’re handy with a video camera, it might be fun to film the oldest family members talking about their memories of the people and events depicted in the photographs as they go through them. This way, you’ll be able to pass down those family memories in the best way possible-by those who were actually there.

At Reel DocuMemoirs we’ve been able to incorporate old videos and cassette audiotapes of ancestors long gone into our family history video documentaries. There’s nothing like the joy of recognition on the faces of today’s family members when they see or hear Grandpa Tom for the first time in decades. In their minds, he’s lived only in memory since he passed on. But for the youngest members of the family who have only heard mentions of Grandpa Tom, seeing and hearing him for the first time provides a connection to the past they will never forget!

Preserve Your Past...Inspire the Future with Reel DocuMemoirs!

The Premiere of "In Search of Grandma"

When I returned to my studio, I spent three months editing video, choosing family photos and home movie clips, writing and recording narration, and scoring it all with the appropriate music tracks.  I was quite nervous about premiering my family history documentary video “In Search Of Grandma” in front of my entire family at my mother’s 90^th birthday celebration. Some members of my family came from as far away as Paris, France for the event!

Shortly after completing the documentary, I conducted some test showings for friends to gauge the reaction from people not familiar with my family history. After positive reviews, I felt “In Search Of Grandma” was ready for the most critical audience possible: my own family.  As a room full of the toughest critics on the planet gathered around the big screen TV to watch the premiere, I wondered: “Will it live up to expectations?”

As the hour-long family history documentary video presentation filled the HD screen, I watched the reactions of family members from the youngest to the oldest. They were as quiet and attentive as can be. Even my youngest nephews (who never sat still for anything!) were totally engaged with their great-great grandmother’s life story. 

Everyone laughed uproariously at the funny parts. Tears flowed at the sad parts. And as the final credits began to roll, huge applause erupted from the 30 or so family members in the audience. My grandmother’s great-great-grandchildren experienced her life in a manner they will never forget.  My eight year old nephew turned to everyone and said, “Hey, we’re famous!” 

I was thrilled! This was by far the highest point of my media career. I can’t tell you how gratifying it was for us to give our children the gift of their heritage in an HD documentary film.  The precious story of how they fit into our remarkable family will be remembered for generations to come.  I was able to create a unique work of art that preserved our family history. After several comments to the effect of “Steve, you ought to do this for others!” the idea for Reel DocuMemoirs was born.

Next: What I learned about preserving a family history for future generations.

How We Did It

To create our family history documentary video “In Search Of Grandma”, we began by researching our family history. Taking the stories we already knew, we backtracked via ancestry.com and other archival sources as far back as the 1790’s.  This led to some interesting discoveries about my family’s ancestors, as well as contacts all over the world with distant relatives we had never met before.

Then my brother, sister, mother and I videotaped many hours of discussions of our family history before two cameras. One of them was used for wide shots of the four of us. The other was for close-ups of us individually.

In the studio I wove our on-camera discussions together with our family photographs, documents, tied together with some narration, mixed together with appropriate music tracks to create a definitive family history documentary video. We focused especially on my Grandmother and her role in making our family what it is today.

During this time, I upgraded my studio’s facilities for this project, using the video editing program Final Cut on my upgraded iMac to accommodate the complexities of documentary filmmaking. 

Creating “In Search Of Grandma” took three months of intensive editing. Every week I burned a DVD copy of what was completed up till then to view on a large screen television with top of the line surround sound to view critically to see what changes I needed to make. As the project got closer to completion, we planned to premiere “In Search Of Grandma” in front of the entire family, including relatives from all over the world, at my mother’s 90^th birthday party.

Next: The Premiere of “In Search Of Grandma”

Grand Opening of Reel DocuMemoirs

We are proud to announce the grand opening of Reel DocuMemoirs.  Reel DocuMemoirs specializes in helping families preserve their history in a professional, custom-made documentary film complete with interviews, narration, music, family photos, memorabilia and Ken Burns-style production techniques.  Documentary films are no longer just for telling the stories of the rich and famous. Reel DocuMemoirs will bring your family’s story to life and preserve it on film for generations to come.

Reel DocuMemoirs began with a conversation around the family table at my mother’s 89^th birthday celebration.  Among the beloved family stories we retold were all the familiar tales about my grandmother’s life.  We all speculated on the answers to questions we wished we could have asked her before she passed on 34 years ago. Now, I’ve been in broadcasting for the past 40 years and it occurred to me that we should preserve these memories and stories on film.  After all, we won’t be around forever and we knew our kids and grandkids would one day wish they had asked more questions.  That conversation convinced us how precious a family documentary film would be to future generations and we couldn’t wait to begin filming.

A few months later my mother, brother, sister, and I got together again to tell the family tales.  But this time I brought video equipment and set up a location shoot in my brother’s living room. I ended up flying home with six hours of family interviews and the entire archive of family photos, 8 millimeter film, documents and memorabilia in electronic form.  The next step was to give this treasure trove of family history the “Ken Burns” treatment back in my studio.  I could hardly wait to begin!

-Next time: The Production Phase-

To find out how Reel DocuMemoirs can help you preserve your family history go to www.reeldocumemoirs.com

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