Written By: Camcorder Hut.com

One of the most popular and upcoming ways of using your digital camcorder is filming family history videos. Generally speaking, family history videos feature interviews with an entire family. However, a project like this takes planning and coordination of interviews as well as video editing. If you are looking for a project using your digital camcorder, a family history video is the perfect project to start!

Getting Started

Before filming, you should ask each of the family relatives to write a brief summary of what they will be discussing during their interview. These topics include family ancestors, past achievements, future goals, and even an interesting statement on where they see themselves in 10 or 20 years!

Next, plan dates on which your relatives will be available for at least an hour to two hours for an interview. Remember, there will be errors made by both the filming party and your relatives' interviews. However, these errors will be taken out during the editing process.

The Editing Process

After all of the filming has been completed, it is time to edit. There may be emotional out takes, filming errors, or interview errors. These problems should be addressed and either erased or edited.

Before deleting all of the recorded video, you may want to consider creating a “blooper” section on the DVD to show after the family history video is shown.

The perfect screen filler while an interview is taking place are family pictures. It is important to bring in other elements into the video to make it more interesting to the viewer. If you interview all 25 of your relatives, it will be boring to the viewer if you have consecutive interviews with face after face. Switch it up a little with pictures, or even a section for each family relative to show their talents such as playing an instrument. This can dramatically increase the attention of the viewer.

It is important to use a decent film editing program during this process. Windows computer users may have Windows Movie Maker available already installed on their computer. Or, an Apple user may have iMovie installed. One of the most popular and professional programs available is Final Cut Pro. But, if you have a small budget, standard editing software installed on your computer will do the job.

Burning to DVD

The final element of the filming and editing process is burning. Usually, a computer will have pre-installed burning software. However, if a program is not available, just search on Google for “free cd burning software”.

An additional option when burning is printing out CD covers. You can purchase special printing paper that has circular pre-cut CD top covers on which you can print designs or text. Simply peel them off and place on top of the compact disc. For example, you could put pictures of your family and a title such as “Smith Family Video”.

Choosing the Right Digital Camcorder

It is important to select a capable digital camcorder that will fit on your budget. For the clearest quality and best price, I recommend any of the following Panasonic Digital Camcorders at http://camcorderhut.com/panasonic.html or the JVC Digital Camcorders at http://camcorderhut.com/jvc.html . Both Panasonic and JVC camcorders offer camcorders that feature impressive recording methods, internal hard drives, and even high definition capable recording modes.

Get Creative!

Remember to always be creative and implement your own ideas when filming. This sort of project is a piece of media you will be able to look back and remember in 10 or 20 years and even show future relatives and generations in your family. So, make sure you personalize the video!