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In professional 'personal documentaries,' memories polished – and preserved
DVDs that chronicle people's lives – the ultimate memory keepsake – are centerpieces at weddings, funerals, and anniversaries.
from the February 29, 2008 edition
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"People are making life-transition videos for the same reason they used to make scrapbooks," says Patricia Aufderheide, author of "Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction." It's a chance to "leave and make memories and thus extend the life of the person and event. "
As with bar mitzvahs, slide shows set to music – documenting the journey from infancy to engagement – have come to be a regular part of weddings. They are the most popular video that Lifefilm, created in 2006, produces. In the past few years, the numbers of this type of film, sometimes called "love stories," have doubled, says Dan Argenas, communications director for Wedding & Event Videographers Association International.
Professionals don't come cheap, though. The cost of a Lifefilm begins at about $5,000 and can easily reach into five figures, depending on length and complexity. At Boston University, Mr. Muchnik says he tries to teach students to gauge what clients can pay. "Usually anything under $1,500 isn't worth anyone's time," he says.
There are some less expensive alternatives available. Bruce Merwin, a professional cinematographer in Coral Gables, Fla., creates personal documentaries starting at $600. "I'm probably way under where I should be," he says. "But the thing is, I'm a one-man band."
Mr. Merwin sees himself as a sort of historical iconographer, like a contemporary cave painter. "I can scratch out these people's lives in a cave so that many, many moons from now, others can step into the cave and see what [life] was like."
It's the same desire, to capture a life on film for loved ones, that led Tyler and Brent Cassity to create LifeStories. In 1989, the brothers, who own cemeteries in Missouri and California, began setting photos to a soundtrack and screening them at funeral services.
Today, through their company Forever Enterprises, they also offer the more elaborate LifeStories, divided into seven-to-10 minute chapters that start at $395. The longest film that Christina Geisen, a senior editor for LifeStories, has worked on was 15 chapters. It took up two DVDs. "But I watched a little of it today, and it's still interesting," she insists.
The time and work that goes into these films is intensive. "In any given interview," says Lifefilm's Brancaccio, "75 minutes [are] whittled down to, say, one minute."
Asked if she might have cobbled together something on her own, Saunders, who provided the Lifefilm team with 40 DVDs' worth of home movies, seems stunned. "Never," she gasps.
Less than a week after Tiana's celebration, where Saunders says the video was a hit with parents, she was already looking ahead to the next bat mitzvah and an accompanying Lifefilm for her youngest daughter. Thankfully there's still time – about four years – to collect footage.
• Matthew Shaer contributed reporting from New York.
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