TimeTrackers - for British and Australian Family History research, teaching, publication and film making

What this clip is about

This 90 second Quicktime segment comes from a longer DVD that we've made to show some simple but effective techniques to make an interview interesting. The original digital tape is just about broadcast quality - much better than the tiny clip that appears here.

How did we make it? First of all, we filmed the interview with Mike on mini-DV tape, then we edited the tape on our computer and blended in some additional video pieces that we had from previous visits to Lewis. Then we selected and inserted some suitable old photos and processed them with slow panning and zooming; this is likely to be the most common way of illustrating the stories of our elders. If you are fortunate enough to have some video (or even old film), this can be converted to mini-DV format and added in to the story as appropriate.

We then added titles, text, voice-overs, maps and music, finished the project and made it into a DVD. When you come and talk to us about your project, we'd love to show it to you.

Demonstration video clip

Mike Murray talking about his early life and the wonderful Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides (top left hand corner of the UK)

Some examples of DVDs we've made for our clients