Legacy Video Lounge Podcast Steve Pender - Personal Historian & Video Biographer

In this episode, award-winning news reporter and magazine feature writer Elena Acoba and Family Legacy Video, Inc. president and award-winning legacy video producer Steve Pender conclude their discussion about the legacy video production process.



Questions Steve addresses in this segment include:



• How do you help storytellers prepare for their life story interviews?

• How do you make storytellers look and sound their best?

• What's the key to ensuring storytellers look and sound natural during their interviews?

• What techniques do you use to keep storytellers focused and on track?

• Do you ever shoot footage other than an interview?

• How do you successfully interview a storyteller who is nervous or has memory issues?

• What elements can give a legacy video a more high-end documentary look and feel?

• Once you start editing, is it too late to add something new?

• Do clients ever want to sit in on the editing sessions?

• Please describe the approval process.

• What control over the final legacy video does the client have?

• Have you ever created more than one legacy video for a family?



If you’d like to watch excerpts from a variety of legacy videos produced by Family Legacy Video®, you’ll find them here.

Award-winning news reporter and magazine feature writer Elena Acoba continues her discussion with Family Legacy Video, Inc. president and award-winning legacy video producer Steve Pender.



In Part 3, the focus turns to the legacy video production process.



Questions Steve addresses in this segment include:



• How does someone hire Family Legacy Video, Inc.?

• Please provide an overview of the legacy video production process.

• How much does a legacy video cost?

• How long does it take from contract signing to delivery?

• What decisions does someone have to make before starting a legacy video project?

• How do you ease a reluctant storyteller's concerns about appearing in a legacy video?

• How much control do a client and storyteller have over the finished legacy video?

• Does an interview have to be done all at one time?



Elena and Steve conclude their discussion about the legacy video production process in Part 4.



If you’d like to watch excerpts from a variety of legacy videos produced by Family Legacy Video®, you’ll find them here.

In this episode, the second part of a four-part series, award-winning news reporter and magazine feature writer Elena Acoba continues her interview with Family Legacy Video, Inc. president and award-winning legacy video producer Steve Pender.



Questions Steve addresses in this segment include:



• What if my family doesn't have a "fancy" story?

• I'd love to put my family's story into the context of general history. Can that be done in a legacy video?

• What do I need for a legacy video?

• Do I need a specific topic for my legacy video?

• When did legacy videos become popular?

• Why do you create legacy videos?

• What's your legacy video story, Steve?

• What do you like best about producing legacy videos?

• How many legacy videos has your company created?

• Does everyone have a story to tell?



If you’d like to watch excerpts from a variety of legacy videos produced by Family Legacy Video®, you’ll find them here.

Family Legacy Video, Inc. president and award-winning legacy video producer Steve Pender is usually the one behind the camera (or microphone) asking the questions. In this episode, the tables get turned as Steve takes the "hot seat" and is quizzed by guest interviewer Elena Acoba.



Elena is a long-time, awarding-winning news reporter and magazine feature writer. In her own writing and editing business, she has interviewed thousands of people to tell the stories of companies, organizations and individuals.



In this episode, Elena and Steve start off their chat by focusing on the following legacy video-related topics:



• What is a legacy video?

• Why would someone want to create a legacy video?

• Can I still make a legacy video if the subject of the story is no longer alive?

• If I can record an interview using my phone, why do I need to hire a professional?



If you'd like to watch excerpts from a variety of legacy videos produced by Family Legacy Video®, you'll find them here.



Stay tuned - there's more to come!

Over the years podcast host, personal historian, video biographer, and Family Legacy Video president Steve Pender has spoken with lots of storytellers who’ve shared the stories of their WWII experiences, involving everything from combat overseas, stateside duty, and memories of life on the home front. In Episode 21, Steve shares the recollections of one couple, Dick and Mary-Lou. They met in college prior to the war, and then married shortly after it began. Luckily, the marriage far outlasted the global conflict. Even though this is an excerpt from a video biography, it also works fine as an audio-only piece.



Steve is often asked if he can interview multiple storytellers in one sitting, or only one at a time. Actually, it all depends on what works best for any given situation and group of storytellers. For the piece included in this episode, Steve interviewed Dick and Mary-Lou separately, asking them similar questions, and then editing the two interviews together to create an engaging story flow. But Steve has also interviewed groups of two, three, and more storytellers in one sitting. Some reasons to do that: if the storytellers are more comfortable in a group, the dynamics created will be more entertaining and interesting, and if the family is looking for more of a live, spontaneous feel.

The oldest members of the Baby Boom generation have started to retire. Because of that, the United States is now in the midst of the biggest transfer of wealth from one generation to another that the country has ever seen. But according to Barclays Wealth Insights, history has shown that 70% of family wealth fails to transfer to the third generation. One of the main causes of this failure is not preparing your heirs to appreciate and properly manage your estate; to be aware of the history behind it and to share in a family vision that will shape their stewardship of your family wealth moving forward.



In this episode, podcast host, personal historian, video biographer, and Family Legacy Video, Inc. president Steve Pender is joined by personal historian and author Stephanie Kadel Taras, Ph.D. They share some real life examples of how their high net worth clients used life story legacies, in both video and print formats, as communication tools to pass along their values and visions surrounding family wealth to the next generations of their families.



Stephanie is an author and personal historian. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She started her company, TimePieces Personal Biographies, in the year 2000. Stephanie works with clients who want to tell their own stories, hire a writer to work with family members, or document their organization’s history. Her 2013 memoir and social history of West Virginia, titled Mountain Girls, won a West Virginia Writers Book Award. Her 2008 history of Eckerd College won an Independent Publisher Book Award.