What to record for a life highlight reel

The hardest part of recording a life story is not the camera. It is the blank page. People sit down, someone says "tell us about your life," and the answer is a résumé. Résumés are not what grandchildren want to watch.

Ask for scenes, not summaries

Replace "what did you do for work?" with "what was the first morning at that job like?" The first question gets a job title. The second gets a story with a smell, a boss, a mistake, and a laugh. Scenes are what survive.

Questions that reliably work

• Where did you wake up when you were seven years old? Walk me through that house.
• What is a sound from your childhood that doesn't exist anymore?
• Tell me about the day you met each other.
• What was the hardest year, and who got you through it?
• What did your mother say that you still hear in your head?
• What is something you were completely wrong about?
• What is the best meal you ever ate, and who cooked it?
• What do you want said about you that has nothing to do with work?
• What should this family never stop doing?
• Is there anything you've never told us?

A running order that edits well

1. Open on one strong sentence — something surprising or funny. This is the hook.
2. Roots: where they came from, in one or two vivid scenes.
3. The turn: the decision, the move, the meeting, the loss that shaped everything after.
4. The work and the years — kept short, kept concrete.
5. The people: what they'd say directly to each person watching.
6. Close on the line they most want remembered.

Practical notes

• Record longer than you need. Ninety minutes of footage becomes a strong three-minute film.
• Shoot near a window with the light on their face, never behind them.
• Put the phone on anything solid. A stack of books beats a shaky hand.
• Sound matters more than picture — get the phone within four feet, and close the door.
• Let silences run. The sentence after the pause is usually the one you keep.

If you'd rather not run the interview yourself, that's what our guided packages are for: we send the question list, sit in remotely, and prompt in real time.