We are planning on trying to prod my grandpa (father's side) into telling us some stories about his life, the war, etc. My grandma (mother's side) recently passed, and it has all of us really thinking about things. Mostly, how come we didn't talk to them more and get their stories? I mean, my grandma was born in 1920. That is a lot of time, and a lot of stories... What sort of things might you ask? I am thinking of showing it as a "one sided" interview. Keep the camera on him and just ask the questions and then when I edit replace me talking with a black screen and the question. I helped my fiance with a project for one of her classes and we did an interview this way and the result was really cool. Thoughts?
I did something similar with my now deceased grandfather about 15 years ago. I treasure the tapes. I set up the camera as you are planning and tied it back into a TV, so that we could see what he looked like as he spoke. We talked a bit at the start with the camera set up and running (putting a pic on the TV) but not recording, to get him used to it. We talked about current events and after a few minutes, I hit the record button with my remote. I don't think he realized that I was recording till sometime later. By then he was talking quite openly and he never even looked at the TV again. I started out talking about his childhood in general and worked our way up through is his entire life, though not all at one sitting. I didn't ask difficult questions at first but later, after we got to talking, he really let her rip. Obviously don't ask him how many enemy soldiers he killed. Ask him to describe how the weapons worked or which ones he liked or disliked. Ask him about army food and basic training. Ask him about when he was scared the most or what was the funniest thing to happen to him while he was in the service. Ask him if he has seen any of this buddies after he came home. If you have a good relationship with your grandfather, I'm sure you will be able have an enjoyable conversation with him. I guess what I am saying is to not treat it as an interview, but just you and your grandpa sitting around ratchet-jawing, enjoying each other's company. My grandfather has been gone for almost 5 years now and I cherish those tapes we made as much as I do the recordings of my children's births. I think he understood what they would mean to me after he was gone. I look forward to my grandchildren seeing those tapes of a man that I dearly loved and miss so terribly. Try to let your grandfather understand that aspect of why you are doing it, maybe he will be willing to open his heart up to you, as my grandfather did for me.
If you haven't checked this thread out it might be of help too. http://www.ww2f.com/military-servic...h/19600-veteran-interview-question-guide.html
Good call, on both accounts. It will help. Somebody recommended this book: Amazon.com: Grandpa, Tell Me Your Memories: Kathleen Lashier: Books I am sure that it won't be long before the conversation just gets going. I am going to try to get my Dad in it as well. Might try to sneak my grandma in too. I'd rather it be more family oriented, but obviously there is a big part of it from the war. I think he was an Engineer of some sort, in the Navy. Electrical stuff. I'd really like to get the camera down into his shop when he is down there. It is crazy how he knows exactly where everything is. My Dad said he would ask him to go get tools all the time and he would describe exactly what the tool looked like, the color (he is color blind too), length of handle, whatever. Of course, it was buried somewhere and my Dad couldn't find it. Grandpa would go down there, take all of 30 seconds to walk over to a pile of stuff, and pull it out from the bottom.
Then DO IT! Time is slipping by. I regret so much that I have only a minute or two of my father's father on tape, he was such a pistol ball! I have talked to his wife like I did my other grandfather, so I have a good history from her. My mom's mom (wife of the grandfather in the above post) died 26 years ago, I did not have a camera then and I have very little audio of her. My regret. I plan on soon, sitting down and recording my parent's recollections, as they are nearing 70. Obviously I was around for a lot of their life, but it will still be good to have it recorded, once again, for my grandchildren.
Just as an update. We did this on this past Friday. My Dad had also heard about this on the radio: National Day of Listening. It seemed to be pretty fitting. I am glad that more people are trying to do this and really push the effort forward. I did learn a few things. I need to rig up a microphone (I am also looking at a wireless bluetooth one for the camera). My grandfather is a little quiet. He has never talked really loudly anyway but it was really difficult for the camera to pick him up. Fortunately it is loud enough that I think I could clean it up. I am not sure how I am going to do this, but I think it will all work out. I have about 2 hours of raw video to edit down. I will probably have a good hour and a half. We barely made a dent in everything. We got through some of his HS time, how my grandparents met, and his brief time in the service (it was more towards the last couple years of the war and a year or so after as he was in a "critical" position as a radar tech). A little bit about my Dad and Aunt as kids and a few blips about their parents houses. There is much more to get down....
Dang I missed your post. Thanksgiving Holiday and all that. Please let us know how everything came out and I hope the good man will be willing and able to talk up a storm!
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