Lifestories
LIFESTORIES IS HERE! We believe Lifestories is the nation's first professional service geared to preserving the memories and life histories of "ordinary" Americans whose lives are actually extraordinary, not only in the context of their families and communities, but also in terms of their real contributions to the history of America. If you have reached your 50th or 60th birthday - let alone your 70th or 80th birthday - your recollections of experiences and achievements are vitally important, not only to your family and friends, but to posterity. What does Lifestories do? We tell the story of your life! In a tested and affordable format, we videotape your recollections - in the comfort and privacy of your home or, in the case of some elderly clients, in a nursing home or other elder care setting - efficiently but comprehensively, allowing you to recall and detail the incidents and memories that have made your life unique. How does Lifestories differ from the "oral history" projects we've heard about? There are several fine oral history projects, most conducted by academics or museum-related groups. But they are focused on individuals in the context of some "theme" that interests the researchers. For example, some projects record veterans' war experiences only. Others are interested in the founding of local communities or organizations like unions or large corporations. We know of no oral history project that focuses on individuals as individuals, in the context of their families and their total life experiences. Moreover, oral history projects have been slow to incorporate videotape, many still using only audiotape. And since they are conducted by academics, they tend to lack journalistic flair and interest. Isn't an academic background important? Lifestories' owner, Dr. Ellen Brandt, is an Ivy League-educated Ph.D. historian, with many years of college teaching experience. But you may recognize her by-line as a high-volume popular and business journalist, with well over 3,000 magazine and newspaper articles to her credit. Dr. Brandt was the long-time business editor of Woman's World Magazine and has been a contributing editor at literally dozens of other publications over the past 25 years. So she is that rare individual with both academic and journalistic prowess. What is included in the Lifestories package? The final product is a professionally-edited one-hour videotape highlighting your Lifestory. We give you 20 copies of this videotape, so you can widely circulate them to friends and family members, perhaps including them with Christmas or Chanukah cards or distributing them on birthdays, anniversaries, family reunions, or other special occasions. We also suggest that you give copies of your Lifestory to local libraries, historical societies, and organizations to which you belong, as a lasting archive of your valuable experience and memories. We can make as many additional copies of your Lifestory as you wish for a very low added charge. In fact, if you were to order an additional 100 copies of your videotape, the cost of the entire taping session would be essentially free! In order to achieve your one-hour videotaped history, you will need to participate in a one-hour or less preliminary telephone conversation with Dr. Brandt, from which she'll prepare a printed agenda of questions. The subsequent videotaping session will take 2-3 hours, scheduled at your convenience, including evenings or weekends. Don't worry about "rehearsing" for the taping. You'll have time to refine and expand your recollections, and the final product will be professionally edited. If you have a collection of some sort, photographs, or other mementos you wish to include on your videotape, we will be able to incorporate them into the finished product - even incorporating music is possible. Think of PBS documentaries like The Civil War or Baseball, and you'll get an idea of possible inclusions. How much does it cost? The all-inclusive cost of the Lifestories package, with 20 copies of your videotaped Lifestory, is $600, half payable before the initial interview and half payable upon receiving your 20 videotaped copies. With travel, equipment, editing, and simple time costs, we believe this is an extremely reasonable cost for this service. Are there any surcharges? Lifestories is offered without surcharge in Suffolk and Nassau Counties, where parking is readily available. In Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, there is no surcharge if you provide parking for us. If we need to use public parking, we will include that fee as a surcharge, because it is simply too difficult to carry all the equipment involved without driving. There will be small bridge toll and extra mileage surcharges, agreed upon in advance, for clients in the Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester, northern New Jersey, and southern Connecticut. Dr. Brandt intends to make several extended trips per year to Florida to videotape Lifestories of Florida residents. If your parents or relatives live in Florida, ask us about our schedule. Will you tape in nursing homes or assisted living facilities? We are very happy to do so. But we don't wish to break any rules, so we'll have to get the permission of the facility's management, usually not a problem. We are also happy to videotape the Lifestory of a memory-impaired client. This may entail extra interviews and extra expense, however, if the 2-3 hour taping session is not sufficient to yield enough material for an edited Lifestory. If a client has had an especially distinguished career, can you produce a more extensive Lifestory? Absolutely. We realize some clients will have had extraordinary careers as teachers, attorneys, physicians, nurses, politicians, engineers, small business owners, or nonprofit activists. In these cases, you can hire us to produce a several-hour documentary Lifestory of significant historical interest. This may involve interviews and tapings over several months and will, of course, entail more expense. Feel free to discuss such major projects with us, so we can devise plans for accomplishing them. Can a married couple be videotaped for a joint Lifestory at no additional cost? Yes, we are happy to videotape a couple or a group of siblings at no additional cost, provided it can be accomplished within a 2-3 hour taping session. We might even be able to videotape the history of an unrelated but connected group of people in this timeframe. For example, you might wish to have a videotaped record of your long-time Friday night poker game, your bowling team, or your local book club. The only proviso is that we can do it in a 2-3 hour taping period with a one-hour edited videotape as the final product. May we see samples of Lifestories already taped? Yes. We are preparing a one-hour sample tape, which includes excerpts from several completed Lifestories. Ask us for a copy. How do we get more information? Please call Dr. Ellen Brandt at (631) 758-0491 any time day or night. She'll be happy to answer your questions and, if you wish, come to see you in person before you make a commitment. We look forward to recording YOUR Lifestory! Lifestories, Limited. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 799, Medford, NY 11763. Telephone: (631) 758-0491. Website: In development.
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