The stories the grandchildren haven’t heard yet.
A filmed conversation with your mum, your dad, or whoever in your family holds the stories. Recorded properly wherever they are most comfortable, and edited into a legacy film your family keeps.
Film coming soon
Most of what your family knows about its own history has never been written down. The name of the street. What the kitchen smelled like on a Sunday. What they were thinking the first time they met the person they married. The job they nearly took instead.
So we sit down for an afternoon and I ask. Two cameras, proper lighting, a small microphone on the collar, and me steering the conversation so nobody has to worry about where it goes next. Most people talk for around ninety minutes, but that is entirely up to them. Some want longer. Some have said everything they wanted to say in an hour. Either makes a good film. What comes back is usually 25 to 35 minutes. I do not cut to a running time, I cut to what is worth keeping, so if there is more than that worth keeping then the film is longer. Told in their own voice, in their own chair.
If there are photo albums, get them out. I film the photographs on the day and cut them in where they belong, so the faces arrive at the moment the story does.
Old home video is welcome too, entirely up to you. It needs to already be digital, on a memory stick or sitting in a folder somewhere, because I do not transfer tapes or cine reels myself. Any high street shop will do that, and if there is a box of them in a loft it is worth doing anyway.
There is no right age for this. Most are in their seventies, eighties or nineties. Plenty are in their sixties, sharp as anything, and have simply never been asked. Some are a good deal younger than that and have decided they would rather this existed than not, which is reason enough.
Most people who get in touch are arranging it for a parent. Some are arranging it for a grandparent, a brother, a wife. Some are arranging it for themselves, which takes a certain amount of nerve and tends to make the best film of the lot.
They will tell you they aren’t interesting. Everybody says that. Everybody is wrong about it, and you can usually see the exact moment they work that out for themselves.
A whole life, one afternoon, kept properly.
Four steps, about four weeks from the first call to the finished legacy film.
Twenty minutes, usually with you rather than with them. I explain how the day works from my end and what it looks like from theirs, we find a time that suits their week, and you ask me whatever you want to know. I work from a set of questions. You are welcome to ask them yourself on the day or leave it to me, and plenty of families end up doing a bit of both.
I send you the list I plan to work from. Add whatever only your family would think to ask, cross out anything you would rather I left alone, and send it back. Those additions are almost always the best material in the finished film. I print your version and work from that on the day.
At home, or wherever they are living now. I come at whatever time suits them, set up quietly in the room they are happiest in, and we talk. No crew, no fuss, tea whenever they want it. Family are welcome to stay or to leave us to it.
Delivered within four weeks, digitally, ready to send to everyone in the family and to keep for as long as you like.
Two cameras, lighting and a lapel mic. As long as they want to talk, usually around ninety minutes.
Usually 25 to 35 minutes, edited and graded. Longer if there is more worth keeping.
Photo albums filmed on the day, plus any old home video you already have digitally.
Digital, within four weeks of the shoot.
Included within an hour of Haslemere.
Available if there is more to say, or another person to film.
The full legacy film. The questions, half a day filming, the photographs, and the finished film delivered within four weeks.
Travel included within an hour of Haslemere. Further afield is fine, just ask.
Start with a name and a sentence. I will call you back and we can talk it through properly, with no obligation either way.
Email hello@jacksongresham.com Phone +44 7484 786713Jackson Gresham Films. Based in Haslemere, Surrey.