How to Record Video Interviews With Relatives

We filmed my father-in-law eight months before he got sick. Nothing fancy — a phone propped on a stack of books, a clip-on mic from a $19 kit, an hour on a Sunday afternoon. He told the story of hitchhiking across the country in 1968 with twelve dollars and a guitar he couldn't really play.

I've listened to plenty of family audio recordings. This is different. When he gets to the part about the truck driver who fed him for three days, his whole face changes — he looks up and to the left, the way people do when they're actually back there. You can't hear that. You can only see it. That thirty seconds of footage is worth more to my kids than every document in the family tree.

Video is the highest form of preserving a person, and it's far more achievable than most people assume. Here's how to do it well without turning it into a production.

This guide is specifically about the video — the gear, framing, and footage. For the deeper craft of drawing out stories, we have a dedicated complete family interview guide, and this pairs with it rather than repeating it.

What equipment do you actually need?

Almost certainly less than you own already. The trap is thinking you need a "real camera." You don't. You need stable framing, good light, and clear sound — in that order of what people get wrong.

How do you set up the shot so it looks right?

Three quick rules turn "someone filming grandpa" into something that looks composed and lasts. None of them require any skill — just a minute of setup before you hit record.

How do you get them to actually open up on camera?

The camera makes people stiff for about five minutes, then they forget it's there — if you let them. The technique is the same as any good interview, just with a lens present: ask for specific stories, not summaries, and follow the energy.

"Tell me about the day you met Mom" gets you a story. "What was your marriage like" gets you a shrug. When they light up at a memory, stay there — "what happened next?" is the most powerful question you can ask. And let silences sit; the best answers almost always come after an uncomfortable pause you're tempted to fill.

You'll want a prepared list of questions so you never freeze, but treat it as a map, not a script. Our questions to ask your grandparents is a ready-made starting set, and the dedicated interview guide linked above goes deep on the craft of drawing people out.

How do you store and share family interview videos?

Here's where a lot of beautiful footage quietly dies: it sits on one phone until the phone is lost, upgraded, or full. Video files are large and singular — treat them like the irreplaceable originals they are.

The most durable setup keeps the footage, a transcript, and the context together in one private place the whole family can reach with permission — not locked on one device. A private family archive is built exactly for this: the video sits alongside a searchable transcript (our voice transcription feature turns the spoken interview into findable text automatically), so future generations can both watch the person and search what they said. For how video interviews fit alongside your family's photos, letters, and documents, see the family history preservation overview.

The bottom line on family video interviews

Use the phone in your pocket, a cheap tripod, a clip-on mic, and a window. Frame chest-up with the light in front, ask for specific stories, and let the silences breathe. Then back the footage up in two places with a transcript, so the one thing you can never re-shoot — a person, on camera, telling their own story — is safe. Video is the closest thing we have to keeping someone. It's worth the Sunday afternoon.

Ready to keep your family's video interviews safe and searchable? Start your family archive free →