How it works for others
Combining the elements of cinema verite and traditional documentary interview formats, your family's stories and history are woven into a broadcast quality documentary.
Crafted out of interviews with your family member(s), action shots from their daily life(s), interviews with other family members and friends, as well as photos, diary entries, home movies, music and more, your family's history is condensed into a fun, entertaining, and revealing 30-120 minute video documentary.
Perhaps you want to create a film about your mother, your parents, your grandfather or both your grandparents, whoever it may be, the experience will make a priceless gift for them and the video a priceless gift for you and the rest of your family. Once you and your family have realized how important it is to create a legacy video about one of your family members, there are several steps and decisions that follow.
Obtain Permission
The most important factor to consider is whether or not your family member(s) will be willing participants, because their cooperation is essential to the process (unless you are interested in surprising them with a tribute documentary). It is important to realize that once the process begins, it will be your family member who is holding the reins of the creative process. After all, it is their story that they are telling. It is essential to the process that the participants' privacy and trust are upheld at all costs.
Initial Consultation
An initial phone consultation with you is necessary to get the ball rolling and to provide certain information (like where your relative was born and when, where they lived, etc.) in order to begin the research phase. This is also the time to discuss any particular stories or memories you would like to see captured in the documentary. For more information on how the process works please see the process page.
Gift Certificates
A gift certificate is provided that you can present to your family member(s), outlining the process and explaining how it works. If you are considering giving this gift to a family member, you might want to direct them to this web site so they can read about how it works themselves.
Cost
Creating a life-story documentary is time consuming and there is no formula. Each life is unique, as is every life-story documentary.