While a well-told life-story book or memoir preserves the narrator’s voice and stories in detail, a video or DVD presentation preserves the narrator’s actual voice and image. Years after the narrator has passed on, his/her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can see their loved-one again and hear his/her voice.
Like our book projects, all of our videos are tailor-made to fit the diverse needs of our clients. Before we begin, we schedule a complimentary consultation to determine the scope and budget of your project.
THE PROCESS
Before the videotape interviews begin, we’ll meet and give you a list of pre-interview questions. This questionnaire covers specific names and dates important to your story and gives us a roadmap for your interviews. During this meeting, we’ll also decide where the interviews will take place, what other places or items of interest should be filmed, and what the narrator or narrators will be wearing. Since most of our videos are filmed in the home of the narrator, we’ll choose a visually interesting area to stage the primary interviews.
A typical video biography requires an hour of set-up time, three or four hours of interview time, an additional hour to film family heirlooms and choose photos to be included, and an hour of wrap-time. Like our audio interviews, our video interviews are relaxed and informal.
Because of the set-up and interview time required, it’s more economical if we complete the interviews in one day. Typically, we tape for an hour at a time with 10-minute breaks in between. But we can stop and take a break whenever the narrator chooses.
Depending on how many photos are edited into the final piece, the post-production (editing) time takes two or three weeks. Our local clients (or Sedona visitors) often like to sit in on these sessions and give us feedback.
Once the editing has been completed, we’ll decide which media is most appropriate for your finished product. Our most popular choice, DVD, requires additional time for authoring.
On the next page you can view clips from some of our projects.
