Video Reflections: How-to Tape and Interview Your Relatives

In the past, images of our loved ones were preserved in paintings and photographs. Today, we can send a message to future generations through the medium of video. Actress Penny Hays walks us through the detailed information contained in the printed companion guide: how to choose a location, set the camera and prepare the scene, before conducting a sample interview with 77-year-old author and commentator Heywood Hale Broun. Guide in hand, novice Hays conducts her first interview; fortunately, Broun is an oral historian's dream: articulate, witty, responsive and at ease. If this doesn't set you up for disappointment with your own relatives, it will inspire you to get moving with recording your own family's reminiscences. A serious genealogy can take a lifetime to compile. Most of us are not inclined to take on such a daunting task. For those of us with more modest goals, this provides the framework for creating a family heirloom. Recommended, with the caution that video tape has a limited life span. Aud: P. (J. Reed)