Video Biography Genres

No doubt about it - video biography is growing. As the technology gets cheaper and more accessible (case in point: have you noticed how many people now carry around those new "Flip" video cameras; soon to be replaced by cellphone video) and as our interest in genealogy rises (the birth of the genealogy TV show and the growth of Ancestry.com help attest to this) so too do the numbers of us who follow the urge to produce our own family history documentary.

What we choose to call what it is that we are doing is all over the map.

In "video biography", is the issue just nomenclature? Is it really case of one size (one name) fitting all with the basic approach always being the same? Or, does this exciting movement toward personal documentary offer us a cornucopia of distinct approaches? And it it does, what are those approaches?

Having been in the business of documenting personal and family histories for around 5 years now, I have formed the view that there are indeed a number of distinct genres for video biography. And I think the whole endeavor can be enriched by both professionals and subjects considering a clutch of exciting approaches.

In my list then, I have 10 video biography genres.

1. The Video Love Letter
You love someone so much - usually a spouse or partner - you want to tell them in a fresh, unique and public way.

Tom Patty is firmly in this category. He created a video love letter to his wife Susan. In it, we hear about Susan's life story so far (although she is still quite young) and we hear from all her friends, many of whom created mini-performances in her honor (a poem, a play...). The love letter incorporates clips of the couple's Tahitian wedding and it starts with an introductory flourish by Paul James "The Gardener Guy".


2. The Veterans Video
We owe so much to our soldiers: they have put themselves in positions of peril and risked their lives answering our country's highest and most difficult call. And in so doing they have often had such extraordinary experiences that for many years afterward they are barely able to tell about it.

What's defining for many of the "old soldiers" I have interviewed - including World War II veterans - is their modesty. And that holds true in the following example of a GI who served in Europe in 1944 and 1945.


3. The Personal History Video
If there is such a thing as the "vanilla" flavored video biography, then it must be the personal history video.

Here is told the subject's life story from soup to nuts using all the material to hand - including personal photographs, home movies, historical or archive images and footage, music, chapter breaks, captions, titles, credits and all the rest. In the personal history video, you shoot an interview on video and you try to capture the subject in an environment that's meaningful to them historically.

(The spotlight in the personal history video falls on one individual. The corresponding genre that covers the whole family is: 4. Family History Video: See for example "Pat and Ben's Family History Video Project".)

Sometimes you can get lucky, such was the case of 'Doc' Wylde who, in addition to being a successful, forceful and charismatic man, had rare Kodachrome home movie footage from a road trip he and some buddies took to Guaymas Mexico in the mid 50s.


5. The Ethical Will
This I have covered in a recent blog post on ethical wills on video. So, 'nuff said for now.

6. The Memory Loss Video
Memory loss video is a specialized case where the subject is losing their memory - usually due to Alzheimer's disease - and time is of the essence in preserving their remaining memories for the benefit of the surrounding family: Memory Loss Video

7. The Genealogy Video
Sometimes the subject has more than the average interest in, or more than the average amount of, genealogy and ancestry information.

The challenge becomes to incorporate documents and stories of distant ancestors into a genealogy video that is engaging and connected to modern people and modern times. One approach is to film the subject with props - for example, showing them doing ancestry research on their home computer. Another approach is to film them visiting graveyards where ancestors are buried.

Still another approach is to show traditions that have been passed down by the elders, such as recipes and cooking.


8. The Video Memorial
Sadly, sometimes we just don't make it in time to record a life story. Then we must deal with telling about the person through interviews with friends and family - and images, captions, quotations, music, home movies and so on.

When time is short - a memorial service is scheduled in mere days for example - then you may need to lean on photographs, words, and music alone.


9. The Business Biography
A subject's career often gets short shrift in family histories. For the children, a parent's devotion to business is often emotionally associated with a feeling of abandonment and even deprivation.

And yet for the working parent, their devotion is often the apotheosis of their love. It is only because of their deep, deep love and concern for their children that they can sacrifice what they most value - time with the child - to achieve material comfort and financial security for them.

And for some people in some careers, they overcome and achieve so much that their success becomes a beacon and a source of pride for generations to come. So it is right and proper that achievement and sacrifice is honored and recorded.


10. The Performance Video
For young lives particularly, the focus often falls on an activity or an achievement. A theater performance perhaps, or a sporting success.

The challenge for the video biographer here is to create a meaningful project that converts what is often mundane and repetitive footage into something extraordinary. In performance video, the star of the show (after the subject of course) becomes the video editor.

Musical performances work well for the "performance video" genre of video biography and - as for all performance video - the child involved can have fun sharing them around through YouTube or Facebook (being cautious with privacy issues of course).


Have we exhausted the video biography genres?


Jane Lehmann-Shafron is a video biographer who co-founded Your Story Here LLC Personal Documentary, a video production company that specializes in all genres of video biography. Based in Orange County CA, she was recently featured in national women's magazine "Woman's World" and her award-winning films have been featured in festivals in the United States and Canada. She can be contacted on 949-742-2755 or through her website.