A dedicated producer guides your commission from beginning to end, researching your story, consulting with family, and leading heartfelt interviews.
Our approach
Effortlessly share your life story with loved ones
We offer a truly personalized service. Here is our approach to tailoring the most memorable film possible, as well as some practical tips for filming.
Our team
The team dedicated to telling your story
Your project is assigned a focused team of specialists to seamlessly transform your life story into a motion picture.
A veteran cinematographer coordinates the lighting and cameras, creating a visually stunning interview environment.
Camera technicians and sound operators record high-fidelity audio and visuals.
An archivist carefully preserves and catalogs the family’s photographs, films and documents.
A lead editor shapes many hours of footage and materials into a compelling narrative that is unmistakably yours.
A team of editors further polishes and enriches the films with graphics, animations, and other visual enhancements.
Audio specialists mix the film to accommodate each viewing format, from the web to televisions and home theaters.
Producer
A dedicated producer guides your commission from beginning to end, researching your story, consulting with family, and leading heartfelt interviews.
Gathering the mementos
Gather what you can find.
We take care of the rest.
Our average film weaves in more than 250 photographs and archival materials. We scan each at archival resolution in your home, comprehensively
label them, then restore and individually animate every one. This is a core element of our approach to crafting a unique and compelling narrative. The originals stay with you, and you keep the collection for good in a private digital archive.
Gather what you can find
- As many photographs and home videos as possible
- Prints, albums, slides and negatives, clippings, certificates and medals
- Letters, diaries and recipes in their own hand
We take care of the rest
- We send you a simple guide to help you sort them
- We copy every print and album page at your table, at archival resolution
- Afterward, the planning, the questions, the filming, and the edit are ours
Photographs and albums
Prints, albums, slides and negatives, whatever the box holds.
Home movies and tapes
Camcorder tapes, VHS and old discs, transferred and cleaned up.
Letters and documents
Letters, certificates, diaries and recipes in their own hand.
Keepsakes
Medals, jewelry and the objects that carry a story.
Artwork
Paintings and drawings, made by them or for them.
Digital media and press
Websites, interviews and press, social posts, wherever their story was told.
What you keep
Made to last, and made to be handed down
A physical edition for the shelf, ready to watch at any time.
The digital feature film, as well as a short film to conveniently share.
White-glove support: our team is available to provide support for your film after delivery.
- Optional
Heirloom portraits, shot on set and printed to accompany the film.
A private archive in your name, kept on our servers and ready to retrieve at any time.
The original footage is also permanently kept and available for retrieval.
Further copies for anyone you want, printed in any format of your choosing.
- Optional
A private premiere for family and friends, arranged and documented by our team.
Preparing for filming
Everything worth knowing before filming day
What to wear
For the sake of authentic storytelling, we recommend wearing your usual attire rather than dressing up specifically for the occasion. We generally advise against fine stripes, small checks, and tight patterns as they can shimmer against digital sensors. Go easy on jewelry that rattles near a microphone.
The room
Spaces with north or south facing windows are preferable for soft natural light, but rest assured that we will make any necessary adjustments with the lighting equipment we bring. Our production team will reach out before filming, and any photos or videos of the rooms beforehand will help us set up faster upon arrival. If there are any appliances nearby that hum, we ask that they be unplugged during filming.
Pets
As much as we love furry companions, we ask that any pets spend the filming hours outside of the house, or in an area of the house where they can’t be heard on camera. If a pet is important to the film subject’s story, let us know, and we will film with them during a break.
Scheduling
For a one-day shoot, we typically arrive mid-morning and wrap up in the late afternoon, but we ask that you keep the rest of the day open in case of a delay. Most of our interviews take three or four hours total, with plenty of breaks and check-ins to make sure nobody is flagging. If the film subject tires easily, we’re happy to split the filming across several visits.
If someone’s nervous
Some clients voice concerns that their lives aren’t interesting enough. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In practice, the “interview” is a relaxed conversation that brings out memorable stories from even the most reserved family members. Our producer will be well prepared with icebreakers so you’ll forget the cameras in a matter of minutes.
Who else is in the room
It’s completely up to you whether you’d like a present audience, such as family members, while the interview is running. All we ask is that the room is quiet while recording.
Answering in whole sentences
This is the one piece of advice we give everybody: try to answer in complete sentences so the interview questions can be left out of the final film. Instead of “Yes, 1962,” say “We moved to Houston in 1962.” Our producer will remind you as needed during the conversation, but many of our clients find it to be an effortless adjustment within the first hour. You’d be surprised how much this one tweak can add to the immersive feel of our finished documentaries.
Questions Families Ask
There is properly
no history, only biography.
Most often, a family member, whether it’s you, your parents, your grandparents or other relatives. Many of our clients commission the film as a gift to commemorate a special occasion.
Yes, wherever the story lives. Any travel is folded into the price we agree together, so there are no surprise costs along the way.
Most films take about three months from start to finish, including planning, scheduling, archiving, filming, and post-production work. The majority of the timeline is dedicated to an extensive post-production process with many rounds of technical and narrative refinements.
Films begin at $35,000. The final price depends on the story’s scope and the work it involves.
On the first call we’ll give you a clear sense of the likely cost, then send a written proposal with the exact figure, agreed upon before anything begins.
A limited number each year. Each film takes months of careful work, so we make sure we aren’t overbooked. We’re happy to take advanced bookings for future calendar years.
Yes! This is an incredibly convenient way to capture stunning portrait photographs for the family. On the filming day, we set aside a break to make portraits of you and your family on the same set that we use to light the film. We can also take portraits in specific spaces of your home.
We will also take discerning photos throughout the production process. You will receive a collection of finished photographs, chosen and retouched by hand, including framed premium prints and portraits in any size. They are offered alongside the film, for an additional cost.
Film is what we do best, so it stays our focus. When a family would like a companion book or other keepsakes, we’ll arrange them through trusted partners.
Yes. For multilingual families, our producers work fluently in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese or Korean, and we can arrange others. Every film comes with subtitles.
Of course. The film is yours, and we never share it or show it publicly without your permission. Extreme discretion is part of what you are paying for.
Prima Persona is Latin for “first person,” and our entire business model relies on capturing real people in their own voice. We never script, clone or fake anyone’s voice, image, or likeness. The authorship is human from the first question to the final cut.
A videographer records an interview. We are a specialized film studio that produces feature documentaries.
That means carefully researched questions written for each person, cinema camera packages, and a post-production process that takes multiple months: this includes hundreds of your photographs woven throughout the film and carefully animated, a thoughtfully curated musical score, a studio sound mix, and a finished film of feature length.
The difference comes from the significant resources, time, and expertise required to produce a bespoke work of storytelling that rivals film studios and streamers, at a fraction of the traditional cost.
Send a message through our inquiry form. We’ll write back to arrange a no-obligation consultation call. If the project feels right, a deposit holds your place and we begin to plan.