How we get as much out of time with our clients as possible
By Hûw Steer, Family History Films
We’re always conscious of the busy lives our clients lead. When working on our family history projects we spend a great deal of time planning how to use our time with you as efficiently - and enjoyably - as possible. Here are some of the ways we do it.
1 - Streamlined Shooting
When it comes to filming, we make the most of every hour we spend on set with you. We’ll build our interview schedule around your own, whether that means filming on weekends, in the evenings, or flying halfway across the world to meet you. Our camera crews can set up as efficiently as an F1 pit-stop, no matter the location. We’ve conducted interviews during family gatherings, in world-famous museums, and even on the move.
Setting up for a shoot
Our interviews are just as efficient. We can easily film with multiple people in a single day, staying focused on the important details while ensuring everyone is at ease with our questions. Even if somebody can’t make it on the day, we can simply film with you remotely using one of our local crews.
2 - Start Right Away
Our research team get to work as soon as possible on every project. Even before we’ve set up initial interviews, they’re building detailed family trees and hunting for stories. We start those interviews as soon as possible too - while we’ll record you in person for the film itself, we perform research interviews via video call, so we can learn what you know about your family’s history to help kick-start our research. Whether you know nothing at all about your past, or if you have many mysteries you want us to solve, by the time we put you on camera we’ll have plenty to tell you.
3 - Scan Now, Sort Later
Filming is just one of the things we can do for you. Your family photos and videos are not only valuable to you, they’re invaluable for illustrating our films and books. But when there are hundreds - or even thousands - of images to deal with, it can seem like a daunting process to sort them all. If you’ve got physical assets, we can scan them when we visit you for filming, or arrange for them to be digitised at one of our facilities. Our team can then organise them for you into a comprehensive, indexed archive. You don’t have to lift a finger to sort your photographs - though you might have to tell us who’s who in the older ones.
Our archive team examining some fascinating records
4 - Getting Ahead Of Ourselves (With Writing)
By the time we’ve finished filming with you, half your film may already be written. There’s no need to wait for our footage to come back - thanks to the comprehensive research we’ll have already undertaken, our writing team can get started with many sections of your film before we even set out to film with you in person. The same goes for our bespoke books - we can write chapters while writing your film at the same time. Our researchers, writers and interviewers work in concert to make our creative process as efficient as possible, no matter what sort of project they’re working on. Your time is valuable - we’ll make sure we use it properly.
If you’d like to see our efficient process for yourself - whether for a book, film or archive - get in touch via email at jonb@myfamilyhistoryfilm.com.