Who’s making your video?

The first step is to get as much information about who’s making your video as possible. Compare prices and services and talk to the people who will be doing the work. Make sure they treat you with respect and are genuinely interested in the stories you want to present. Trusting your interviewer is very important to the stories you will tell.

Get organized

Think about what you want to talk about. Try to gather your stories. Make notes. This Bit of History will send you a list of very general questions to get you started. After you have a chance to look at it we’ll go through it with you over the phone. During the initial interview we will ask you about your areas of interest and find where your best stories are. From there we’ll get a good sense of how to direct the questions in the video interview(s).

Choosing your photos

The initial interview should also help you in choosing the photographs you’d like to include in the video. We recommend photos that either illustrate a part of the story or acts as a trigger or bridge between two stories. Photos of the interviewee as a baby or as a child are always popular and often include past generations. Photos of pertinent events or milestones are good though more casual photos are often more telling as they often include more people, more background information and more action. Every video is unique and the photos will help to portray the character of the interviewee.