How much do we remember from our childhood? This is one of the questions examined recently by Canadian research scientists.
I’ve just finished reading Blanks for the Memories which highlights aspects of the research originally published in the journal Child Development…Read more.
Posted in Interviewing, Personal historian, Questions, Tips
Tagged Canada, childhood, How to, Interviewing, Life stories, memories, memory, Personal historian, recall, senses, sensory, Tips, unlock
What part of a Life Story do you focus on when it appears patients may have only a few weeks or days to live? Patients may initially indicate that they want to talk about the broad spectrum of their lives from childhood to the present. The reality, unfortunately, is that they’re not likely to have enough time to complete such an undertaking. Here’s what I’ve suggested…Read more.
What makes a video biography memorable? Is it the person being interviewed? Or is it the inclusion of archival photos and movies? Or could it be the clever use of audio and visual effects? All of these are significant but the most important factor – the #1 secret to a first rate video biography is … Read more.
Posted in How to, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Tips, Video production, Writing
Tagged digital storytelling, engaging story, feature film lessons, Filmmaking, how ro, life story, Media Production, story, structure, technique, Tips, video, video biography, video life stories, visual effects, Writing
At Victoria Hospice we’re into the third year of a Life Stories service for patients registered with Hospice. This is a program that I initiated and continue to be involved with as a trainer and a mentor for our Life Stories Volunteer Interviewers… Read more.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment on my articles. Here’s my yearly roundup of the posts that generated the most comments. These aren’t necessarily the articles that received the largest number of viewers but clearly they got people talking.
For those of you who may have missed them, here’s your chance to see what caused the flurry of comments. If you’ve already read them and didn’t comment, it’s not too late to join in the discussion! 
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Posted in Business, Marketing, Personal historian, Questions, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged Annie Dillard, CUSO, Family, fees, Ghana, Home, Life stories, Marketing, memories, No, Parenting, Personal historian, Questions, self employed, Tips, West Africa
The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.
~ James A. Baldwin
Imagine that you’re coming to the last chapter of a book or the final hour of a video life story you’re doing. It may be your own or it could be a story you’ve been hired to record. Every detail has been covered from childhood to the present. How can you wrap up this life story in a way that feels satisfying? As a colleague said, “The book is ending; the life is not.”… More
“The key point [of my interviews] was empathy because everybody in their lives is really waiting for people to ask them questions, so that they can be truthful about who they are and how they became what they are.”
Marc Pachter , Cultural Historian
Marc Pachter founded Living Self-Portraits at the Smithsonian and was its master interviewer. In his TED talk below he shares the challenges of getting a good interview.
…if all you’re going to get from the interviewee is their public self, there’s no point in it. It’s pre-programmed. It’s infomercial, and we all have infomercials about our lives. We know the great lines, we know the great moments, we know what we’re not going to share, …
Marc recounts several interviews and how he cut below the surface conversation to have his subjects reveal the truth of their lives.
Marc’s talk reminds me of the advice I give to those I train for life story interviewing. I tell my students they need to ask the “courageous questions”. These are the questions that people have been waiting to be asked all of their lives. It requires courage on both sides. The interviewer must be confident enough to raise the questions. The interviewee must be unafraid to answer them.
Our work as personal historians, unlike Marc Pachter’s, seldom involves the famous. But the need to go beyond the pre-programmed responses is the same. How do we do that in a way that’s both incisive and empathetic? Here are some clues.
Intuition is that ability of knowing without any rational explanation – a kind of sixth sense. I’ve talked about this to some degree in a previous article, How to Listen with Your Eyes.
When we’re engaged in an interview, it’s not just the words we’re listening to but also the subtext. It’s the eyes that give us clues to what’s behind the words. Our subject may express happiness and contentment but the eyes are sad. We may hear kindness and openness but the eyes are angry and narrowed. If we’re doing our job well, we need to check out this dissonance with our interviewee. By listening with our eyes we unearth a richer more authentic story.
Trusting your intuition and blurting it out doesn’t mean that it’s always right. And that’s okay. People will set you straight if you’ve missed the mark.
As a rule, I generally preface my hunches with something like, “I have this feeling and I might be totally off base but I’d like to check it out…” [followed by the courageous question.]
With time and practice we can begin to trust our intuition and put it at the service of our clients.
An elephant in the room can crush the intimacy from an interview. To help people express themselves and as Pachter says “to feel what they … [want] to say and to be an agent of their self-revelation” we need to be fearless in acknowledging the elephant.
The caveat is that we must always be clear on our intent. We are the means through which people can speak unburdened. Our intent is not to embarrass, intimidate, or expose the interviewee.
For example, in my work I’ve found that most of those at the end of life welcome an opportunity to talk about their fears and hopes. But I also know that it’s not uncommon for friends and family of terminally-ill patients to avoid the subject of death altogether. While it’s perfectly understandable, such silence can leave the dying feeling even more isolated.
Curiosity is one of the key tools in an interviewer’s toolkit. It’s both playful and disarming. The question begins with “I wonder or I’m curious…” and invites an exploration between you and the interviewee.
Questions that are asked out of curiosity usually lead to responses that are authentic and deep.
For example, after listening to your interviewee go on and on about their terrible childhood you might ask, “You’ve painted such a bleak picture of your childhood, I was wondering what were some of the good things that you can recall?”
Such a question stops the interviewee from the pre-programmed, infomercial described by Marc Pachter and gives the person an opportunity to dig deeper and uncover some bright spots.
As personal historians we owe it to our clients to ask the courageous questions. One’s life story is more than a sterile recitation of dates, names, places, and events. Ultimately it’s about the complexity and richness of a soul’s journey. Courageous questions unlock this richness and give heart and substance to a personal history.
Photo by Pulpolux
Thanks to my APH colleague Pat McNees of Writers and Editors for alerting me to Marc Pachter’s TED talk.
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Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.
~Diane Ackerman
How much do we remember from our childhood? This is one of the questions examined recently by Canadian research scientists.
I’ve just finished reading Blanks for the Memories which highlights aspects of the research originally published in the journal Child Development.
Neuroscientists believe that there are different kinds of memories, stored in many different neural circuits. “We can’t go to a particular spot in the brain to see where our third birthday party is stored,” says Dr. Hudson….
Scientists think the brain’s prefrontal cortex processes experiences, using sensory input from the eyes, ears, nose and mouth, sorts them into categories, and tags the various memory fragments with specific associations (smells of home, friends from camp, bugs, a pet, for example).
Reading this made me realize how important the senses are to unlocking childhood memories. I must admit I could do a better job of incorporating sensory questions into my interviews. To get me pointed in the right direction, I’ve written a few sample “sensory” questions below.
I tested some out on my mother and she had great fun. It turns out that a taste she strongly associates with her childhood is jelly beans. Her mother would carefully count out five each for her and her two siblings. Today this may not sound like much but during The Depression jelly beans were a real treat!
How much do you incorporate sense-related questions into your interviews? Do you have a favorite “sensory” question?
Sight
Sound
Taste
Touch
Smell
Photo by h.koppdelaney
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Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Tips
Tagged childhood, How to, Interviewing, Life stories, memories, memory, Personal historian, recall, senses, sensory, Tips, unlock
Posted in How to, Interviewing, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Tips
Tagged challenging interview, How to, Interviewing, life story, questions to ask, Tips
What makes a video biography memorable? Is it the person being interviewed? Or is it the inclusion of archival photos and movies? Or could it be the clever use of audio and visual effects? All of these are significant but the most important factor – the #1 secret to a first rate video biography is good story telling.
Basically your video biography needs to have the same narrative structure that goes into creating a good feature film – pacing, suspense, and character development. It’s true that your production isn’t for broadcast and will only be seen by your client’s family and friends. But that’s no excuse to make it boring!
Here are a few ways you can improve your story telling.
And I don’t mean flashy effects. That’s window dressing. A good feature film captivates you in the first few minutes of the story. Edit a clip from the main interview that establishes your subject’s character. It might be something that’s funny, heavy with portent, sad, or revealing. Cut that into your opening. Later decide what visuals (e.g family photos, home movies, etc.) you might want to accompany this opening segment.
It’s not enough to string together the chronology of a life. You need to use techniques that will give the narrative energy and create momentum. One approach is to shift the emotional tone. For example, after your subject has recounted a sad story fade to black and then come up on an account that’s happy. Or if your subject has been railing at the world, jump to a tender story. Trust me it works.
Another way to keep the story moving is to create a jump in time. This can improve your storytelling immeasurably by eliminating material that’s lackluster. For example, the story of a woman who struggles to get an education during the Depression and eventually goes on to university is riveting. But her university years are less interesting. What’s really intriguing is how she gets her first job after graduating. So find a clip from her interview that can be used to jump directly to her first job. It might be something she says like, “I had great fun at university but it was my first job that really tested me.”
Suspense is the principal engine that drives your story. Suspense is created by your audience asking and getting answers to such basic questions as, “What is the subject’s quest? How does the subject resolve the challenges along the way? Will the subject reach a goal? What happens when the dream is achieved or not achieved?”
Here’s the bad news. Unless you’ve asked these questions in your interviews you’ll likely have little to help you create suspense.
As Sheila Curran Bernard, an an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning writer, said, “In documentary, as in drama, you have to collapse real time into its essence.” Believe me, not everything your subject says is worth including in your video. Eliminate anything that doesn’t support your main story. For example, an anecdote about “Aunt Flo” might be interesting but unless it somehow illuminates some facet of your main subject, Aunt Flo should go! To give you some perspective on this, I shoot an average of six to seven hours of interview for a one-hour video biography.
Your ending should provide a satisfying resolution to the central journey. It must be short and not introduce any new story lines. The final scene can be in the form of a simple summary statement from your subject. Or it can be some end cards that bring the story up-to-date. Whatever you choose, don’t make the mistake of creating multiple endings.
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Photo by Steev Hise
Posted in How to, Life stories, Personal historian, Questions, Tips, Video production, Writing
Tagged engaging story, feature film lessons, how ro, interview, life story, story, storytelling, structure, technique, Tips, video, video biography, video life stories, visual effects, Writing
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