Rj McHatton's Journal

Ship of Miracles

rj@inventiveproductions.com — Sat, 11 Oct 08 14:49:00 UT

I am proud to be finally finished making my new docuementary, "Ship of Miracles." This has been a five year project. I have met so many wonderful people, that my life has truly changed. You can learn more about this film at http://www.shipofmiracles.com RJ

What are the questions?

rj@inventiveproductions.com — Sat, 13 Sep 08 19:27:00 UT

What are the Questions ?

One of the most common questions I am always asked by people is:

"RJ, what specialized questions do you normally ask a person when you interview them for their custom video biography?"

Well, the list of questions I use today are pretty much the same questions I used back in 1992 when I started doing video biographies.

Back in the early days I compiled a list of 99 of the best questions to ask a person about their life.

Over the years I have added some questions and deleted others. Today I normally ask 124 specialized questions in my Video Biography interviews.

Some people ask me if these questions are top secret, or somehow copyrighted or a business secret. I guess I could go out and put in an application to protect these if I wanted, but my personal goal is to help inspire people to tell their stories, not restrict people.

I really do not think my specialized list questions are the Only secret to a successful video biography. I think they do help spark ideas and memories that get the ball started to a great video biography interview.

I think that these questions are excellent, remarkable, and thought-provoking. It really is not about statistics, but more about the memories and the stories, the laughter and tears of a wonderful life.

I do think the questions could help anyone to sit down with a loved one to talk about the good times, and they could help them to capture the great stories of that person's life.

If anything, I hope these questions might inspire you to actually go do it. Go interview your dad or your mom. Get them started talking and telling the great stories and moments of their life. Do it today. Get a video camera or a tape recorder and do it today.

To help inspire you to do this, I would be happy to email you a copy of my specialized 124 questions if you want.

If you would like a copy of the 124 questions, just call RJ today at (425) 284-1900 and ask me to send you the questions for free. I am happy to help you.

Warm regards,

RJ McHatton

Inventive Productions LLC

"the Autobiography Company"

www.inventiveproductions.com

Studio (425) 284-1900

John Adams, Richard Price, and Samantha Power

rj@inventiveproductions.com — Sun, 16 Mar 08 22:32:00 UT

The day began with me driving my daughter Crissy to her new job at PetSmart. She is very excited about her new job because she will be able to be with lots of animals. Then I went to Inventive Productions to work on my finishing touches to my documentary film "Ship of Miracles." I needed to change the description on one of the people I interviewed. Then I found to my chagrin that a major file in the movie has gone off line. This caused me to work for a couple hours of frustration to try to fix the problem. But then my daughter called and asked me to pick her up. My son Jason and I cleaned up my Suburban. Tomorrow he is going to change the oil for his auto shop class. I was very impressed with the new Tom Hanks-produced mini series "John Adams" on HBO. The series is based on the book by David McCullough. I have always been a fan of John Adams and David McCullough. When I was a kid I read the great John F. Kennedy book, "Profiles in Courage." One of the most powerful chapter in that book was about the courage of John Adams when he represented some British Soldiers in a very unpopular murder trial. David Morse is the most perfect George Washington ever captured so far on film. I could not help tearing up when they had children and women and men each read parts of the Declaration of Independence at the end of Part 2. I definitely am planning to watch the entire series if I can. Reading the Sunday newspaper has been a ritual for me ever since I saw my father do it all throughout my childhood. He used to quickly go to the "want ads" to search for interesting deals. One time I remember him going off and buying a hundred movie theater seats. What did we need with a hundred movie theater seats? It did not matter, because he made them a "ridiculous" offer and they took it. I remember when I ran movie theaters back in the early 1980s in Fresno. I became hooked on the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. It was during my peak screenwriting days. I remember giving myself a goal to find a good story for a movie in each issue. Sure enough, I never missed a Sunday without ripping out three or four interesting, unusual, or incredible idea for a movie. I tore out the articles and put them into folders or a box. Even these days, I don't usually read a paper without finding at least one great idea for a movie. This week I was excited to discover that the authors Richard Price and Samantha Powers are coming to Seattle to talk about their new books. The only problem is they are talking at the same time in different parts of the town. Tonight I am writing up my goals for the week. Tomorrow I am going to shoot an interview with an architect for a Corporate History documentary we are making. I emailed several of my editors for other projects to see if things are going well. And I also emailed a couple clients to give them updates. I also sent some emails to some long time friends that I have not connected with in many years. This week's top goals: 1. Finish changes to Ship of Miracles 2. Finish writing the short story "Road Trip" 3. finish chapter to new book "Beat Your Boss to Work" 4. write five new ideas for short stories 5. make one new painting 6. upload some of my short stories to my website