Hypercompendia

Not exactly new, but I would consider it to be so when it’s being produced on a computer.  John Timmons and Maggie Ducharme collaborated on this piece with audio interviews, old photos, some new film shots and audio clips of big band music relevant to the era and to the story being told.

Ruth and Bob,  A Love Story (link to post with a trailer video) is a documentary style project that tells a story of a couple’s courtship, marriage, and family, focusing on the beginning in the last years of WWII and quickly following up to the present.  While it just dawned on me that video of the interviews Maggie did with her parents, the subjects of this story, would have been a nice addition, because this project was a surprise gift to them and to the family it would have been too big a tip-off.

The first step in the project was for Maggie to sit down with her mom and dad and get them to recall their meeting and their early years together.  She hit a bonanza of information, including the real "first" girlfriends and boyfriends.  This bit of information was a great way to start the story, rounding the characters for the audience and preparing them (as well as mom and dad I suppose) for the real love of their lives.  John integrated photos of the couple along with a few of friends and family, using zoom methods in the software program to focus on an individual within a group.  Other transitioning methods included fades that were primarily used for a break in time period or a major change in setting–such as the wedding, the children, or at the beginning, the war and the young soldier who was anxious to be home. 

Basically starting with a story, or two stories, one from each main character that reflects their individual viewpoints that lead up their meeting, their attraction, their marriage, through separation, children, and a few words for the present and future, the images back up the audio story being told.  Music immediately recognizable as of the era and particularly, of the War years, gave grounding to the images.

Collaboration, planning, focus, and knowledge of software such as Adobe Premiere along with microphone and web access to images and music files all went into effort to achieve not only entertainment and offer a gift to a special couple, but in taking on this task, John and Maggie have produced a bit of family history that can be shared now and handed down to future generations.