3 Hours to Capture a Lifetime?
June 13, 2019 4:04 PM Subscribe
I have a 3 hour block of time and an iPhone to capture key points of my 83 year old mom's life. What strategies/apps will help me with this process?
My 83 year old mom is visiting from out of town for my daughter's college graduation. We have a 3-hour drive to get to the graduation. My 3 sisters and their 16 offspring/my mom's grandchildren would me like to use that time to capture my mom's memories and history of her life. They are all sending questions they'd like answered. Technology available - my iPhone XS with 256 GB of memory. Are there apps that would help with this process, both for recording, and sharing? Other tips or suggestions?
My 83 year old mom is visiting from out of town for my daughter's college graduation. We have a 3-hour drive to get to the graduation. My 3 sisters and their 16 offspring/my mom's grandchildren would me like to use that time to capture my mom's memories and history of her life. They are all sending questions they'd like answered. Technology available - my iPhone XS with 256 GB of memory. Are there apps that would help with this process, both for recording, and sharing? Other tips or suggestions?
In a car with background noise, I'd get yourself some mics - don't have to be expensive or fancy, I've got these and have produced video interviews with an iphone that have been good enough to get picked up by TV news later (the phone was old enough to have a jack plug headphone socket to plug the mics in, which helped, YMMV with an XS). You can just clip them onto each of your lapels and you'll soon forget about them, and they make a huge difference to sound quality.
If you have anything that can provide specific prompts, that might help - old photographs etc. The probelm with people submitting questions is that you don't always know what to ask that'll unearth the most interesting things. I've done something similar with my mum a couple of times, the second time was easier than the first: The second time was the day after she'd given me her childhood diary that she'd just found. Nothing dramatic, but it described the day-to-day of her life, so I could go through and ask about individuals or little details, and that kicked off much more reminiscence than me asking general questions like "What was it like when you lived in xx?"
posted by penguin pie at 4:14 PM on June 13, 2019 [7 favorites]
If you have anything that can provide specific prompts, that might help - old photographs etc. The probelm with people submitting questions is that you don't always know what to ask that'll unearth the most interesting things. I've done something similar with my mum a couple of times, the second time was easier than the first: The second time was the day after she'd given me her childhood diary that she'd just found. Nothing dramatic, but it described the day-to-day of her life, so I could go through and ask about individuals or little details, and that kicked off much more reminiscence than me asking general questions like "What was it like when you lived in xx?"
posted by penguin pie at 4:14 PM on June 13, 2019 [7 favorites]
Just. Be. Curious. Don’t look for a story. Just ask about something she remembers. Whichever question she decides to answer. Let her. Don’t change direction. She’s the expert of her own life.
posted by MountainDaisy at 7:07 PM on June 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by MountainDaisy at 7:07 PM on June 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
tripod or something that can hold the phone for you, so you can interact normally and just let it do it's thing
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 7:41 PM on June 13, 2019
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 7:41 PM on June 13, 2019
Best answer: I strongly endorse penguin pie's suggestion to get a lavalier mic for your mom (it's probably ok not to wear one yourself). You really want to have clean audio for a recording like this. I've done a lot of documentary video work with people talking in cars and I know how much ambient noise can interfere. Make sure the microphone you buy either has a lightning connector or you have a 3.5mm-to-lightning adapter (since the iPhone XS doesn't have a headphone jack).
Somebody else should be driving the car while you make this recording. If anything goes wrong with the phone or mic you're unlikely to catch the problem while driving. Also it'd be best for you to be able to focus on talking with your mom, reading her body language, and picking up cues from her facial expressions.
Make sure the phone is 100% charged when you start. If you don't end up using a lavalier mic, you might want to have either a car power adapter or a portable charger to avoid any chance of the phone dying mid-interview. There are adapters you can get that would allow you to plug in a charger and a mic at the same time, but they don't seem very reliable from what I've read.
Eliminate as much extraneous sound as possible. Turn off the radio. All windows should be completely closed. Keep the fan as low as possible while still maintaining a comfortable temperature. Try to make sure the vents are not blowing directly at the microphone or the phone. Remove noisy jewelry from your mom and anyone else who's in the car. Make sure nothing (jewelry, clothing or hair) is rubbing against the mic.
Are you planning to record video or only audio? If you're going to shoot video, do the following before you start:
1) Make sure you know how much actual free space the phone has - I'd say you want at least 50GB free.
2) Since you'll be sharing this with a lot of people, you might want to set the 'Formats' to 'Most Compatible' (on your phone the default setting is 'High Efficiency', which uses a more modern form of compression that will make the video incompatible or very difficult to watch for people with older computers).
3) Set the 'Record Video' settings to 1080p at 30fps. You could shoot 4K if you have a lot of free space on the phone, but you'll end up with some pretty big video files that not everyone in the family might appreciate.
While shooting, do the following:
1) Put the phone in airplane mode. This will save battery and also prevent interruptions from calls/texts/emails.
2) Double-check when you start recording that it is actually recording!
3) If shooting video, do whatever you can to not have the sun behind your mom.
4) If shooting video, stop briefly every 45 min to an hour so you don't end up with one humongous file. Just be sure to start recording again immediately each time you stop (and make sure it's actually recording!).
5) If shooting video, landscape mode is best even though it's only one person in the frame.
Whatever you decide to do re: shooting video vs. only audio, do a brief dry run. Test the mic if you get one. Play back the test recording to see how it sounds and/or looks.
With that many people contributing questions, you should really spend some time whittling down and condensing them to whatever seems most important and most likely to elicit good responses. You know how talkative or reticent your mom is so use your best judgment when thinking about how expansive she'll likely be. It's not necessary to go chronologically, but it can sometimes be helpful as one subject often naturally leads to another.
I generally agree with MountainDaisy's advice for a conversation like this. It's going to be hard to resist bombarding your mom with questions, but you should let her go at her own pace and talk about the things she thinks are important... up to a point. Most people are not natural storytellers - they dwell too much on details that are unimportant, they lose the thread and go off on tangents, they leave details out that may actually be important or interesting to others. And that's ok a lot of the time - you aren't always the best judge of what matters most. But if these three hours are really the only opportunity to record this conversation, you kind of need to provide some structure and guidance.
So you're walking a fine line -- guiding your mom towards certain subjects that your family wants to know more about and perhaps interrupting if things go obviously off track -- but really erring on the side of letting her say what she wants to say.
posted by theory at 2:19 AM on June 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
Somebody else should be driving the car while you make this recording. If anything goes wrong with the phone or mic you're unlikely to catch the problem while driving. Also it'd be best for you to be able to focus on talking with your mom, reading her body language, and picking up cues from her facial expressions.
Make sure the phone is 100% charged when you start. If you don't end up using a lavalier mic, you might want to have either a car power adapter or a portable charger to avoid any chance of the phone dying mid-interview. There are adapters you can get that would allow you to plug in a charger and a mic at the same time, but they don't seem very reliable from what I've read.
Eliminate as much extraneous sound as possible. Turn off the radio. All windows should be completely closed. Keep the fan as low as possible while still maintaining a comfortable temperature. Try to make sure the vents are not blowing directly at the microphone or the phone. Remove noisy jewelry from your mom and anyone else who's in the car. Make sure nothing (jewelry, clothing or hair) is rubbing against the mic.
Are you planning to record video or only audio? If you're going to shoot video, do the following before you start:
1) Make sure you know how much actual free space the phone has - I'd say you want at least 50GB free.
2) Since you'll be sharing this with a lot of people, you might want to set the 'Formats' to 'Most Compatible' (on your phone the default setting is 'High Efficiency', which uses a more modern form of compression that will make the video incompatible or very difficult to watch for people with older computers).
3) Set the 'Record Video' settings to 1080p at 30fps. You could shoot 4K if you have a lot of free space on the phone, but you'll end up with some pretty big video files that not everyone in the family might appreciate.
While shooting, do the following:
1) Put the phone in airplane mode. This will save battery and also prevent interruptions from calls/texts/emails.
2) Double-check when you start recording that it is actually recording!
3) If shooting video, do whatever you can to not have the sun behind your mom.
4) If shooting video, stop briefly every 45 min to an hour so you don't end up with one humongous file. Just be sure to start recording again immediately each time you stop (and make sure it's actually recording!).
5) If shooting video, landscape mode is best even though it's only one person in the frame.
Whatever you decide to do re: shooting video vs. only audio, do a brief dry run. Test the mic if you get one. Play back the test recording to see how it sounds and/or looks.
With that many people contributing questions, you should really spend some time whittling down and condensing them to whatever seems most important and most likely to elicit good responses. You know how talkative or reticent your mom is so use your best judgment when thinking about how expansive she'll likely be. It's not necessary to go chronologically, but it can sometimes be helpful as one subject often naturally leads to another.
I generally agree with MountainDaisy's advice for a conversation like this. It's going to be hard to resist bombarding your mom with questions, but you should let her go at her own pace and talk about the things she thinks are important... up to a point. Most people are not natural storytellers - they dwell too much on details that are unimportant, they lose the thread and go off on tangents, they leave details out that may actually be important or interesting to others. And that's ok a lot of the time - you aren't always the best judge of what matters most. But if these three hours are really the only opportunity to record this conversation, you kind of need to provide some structure and guidance.
So you're walking a fine line -- guiding your mom towards certain subjects that your family wants to know more about and perhaps interrupting if things go obviously off track -- but really erring on the side of letting her say what she wants to say.
posted by theory at 2:19 AM on June 14, 2019 [5 favorites]
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posted by brainmouse at 4:10 PM on June 13, 2019 [4 favorites]