Life stories
Everyone
has a unique, epic story to tell. Sadly, it may never be told, never recorded
in any way. So much passes into oblivion every day, as memories fade and disappear.
What do you know about your grandparents? Parents even. We can create a record
for you, or for them. It'll be priceless to your descendants, and family historians
of the future!
The documentary record can be about your own life, or about someone else's. You could ask us to prepare it with their knowledge, or as a 'This Is Your Life' style surprise. You can either tell us about yourself, or set up interviews and access to other sources for us to work from.
If you'd like to interview an elderly relative yourself, but would feel uncomfortable about doing so, let us do it for you. You might want to do it yourself, and you might do it brilliantly - but will you get round to doing it? Or will you do what most people do, and leave it until it's too late?
There's sure to be material there for a thousand-page book, or a three-hour film, at least. We could perhaps do that for you, but you might prefer something more modest! It might well be an exaggeration to call the product of one interview a biography (perhaps 'memoir' would be more accurate) but it would still worth doing.
Biographers rightly distinguish between their art and simple reportage, but even this is not necessarily easy to do well. It's like painting a portrait - bound to be subjective. We'll take the time to be sure of what you want, and the style you want.
Alternatively, you may have a life story, family history, local history or company history, fairly well researched already. We can help you see it through to publication, either in print or electronic formats, or both (see below).
What
medium or format?
You choose
how your story is presented: budget single copy mono printing or high volume
colour printing, or just text and photographs. You might be surprised how cheap
it has become to print short-run booklets - 25 copies of a 16 page A4 saddle-stitched
card-covered booklet can be printed for around £30. Our job would be in
the editing, presentation, preparation for print, and liaising with the printer.
Or you may prefer electronic formats like CD/DVDs, or websites, which arguably offer cheaper and more appropriate media for presentation. Many people think automated computer slide shows and albums are a better and more convenient platform for presenting photographs than printed paper or a conventional projector screen. Whatever medium, or combination of media, you choose, we can supplement it with video or audio copies of any interviews undertaken.
Where
we work
We are based
between Bristol, Bath and Wells, and mostly we take commissions from clients
in those cities, plus Somerset, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire.
How we work: research
A simple
biography could be based on one recorded (video and or audio) interview, and
access to whatever materials you suggest as relevant - for example old photographs
or documents. The more detail you want, the more interviews we can do, the more
research we can do. We are also happy to undertake more demanding historical
research - we have over 25 years experience of directly accessing / utilising
/ interpreting national and local archives. If you have acquired, or are going
to leave, a collection of documents and albums, we can catalogue them for you.
How
we work: presentation
Our team
members have a range of skills to enable both print and electronic formats to
be professionally prepared in-house, at low cost. If you want examples of interview-based
stories we have produced in the past, click on the examples below, or the link
to our recent (2003) books.
This website was also created in-house (but you wanted us to produce a more
complex website with more features, we could probably create what you want).
Examples:
printed formats:
The examples which follow show work from two decades, and reflect different
kinds of treatment for different kinds of stories (we also have nearly twenty
years experience of publishing books,
booklets and other publications, too diverse to fully illustrate here).
The
politician
The promoter
The diamond wedding
The sculptress
The keeper
The poacher
electronic formats
For websites, see websites.
Other examples are either still under construction, or contain references to
living people and were not designed to be broadcast on the www. These formats
could be put on CDs or DVDs for your friends or family, or on a website if you
thought it appropriate. Other options:
Story
with photographs / video / sound clips
Photo album / slide show
Family history database with video clips / photo album / slide shows incorporated
Presentation
Video