Chroniclization Video is a video service. Our mission is to help you record and save the stories, memories, and opinions of your life so that you and those you love will be remembered long after you’re gone.
Our primary service is the Life History Interview, a video recorded conversation about your life. But we have other products that are also used to tell the story of a life. These are generally meant to be fun and enjoyable (not that there may not be moments of emotion), and the intention is to help you tell your story, what is important to you, what matters to you. It’s your story, we want to help you tell it.
We strive to provide our services at reasonable prices so that everyone can enjoy the peace of mind and fulfillment of archiving their life on video.
Click the links to find out what we offer.
The Life History Interview
Still our Flagship product, preserving your life history for the future.
Celebrities, politicians, and “influencers'“ of all kinds are interviewed every day by journalists, historians and other “influencers” eager to find out about their lives and hear their opinions on a wide range of topics. But they are not the only people who have a story to tell.
What if someone had interviewed your grandmother, asking her to speak about her joys and tribulations, her opinions of the world she lived in and what your parent was like as a small child. You would think that movie was invaluable.
You have the opportunity to make that video for your grandchildren so that they will always know you.
At the Chroniclization Project, we help people tell their stories through the life history interview, a video recorded conversation about your life. Everyone has memories, opinions, and stories worth preserving.
We believe that everyone deserves to be interviewed, because there are people who want to see it.
Regardless of the package you purchase, we will create a professionally edited video using your supplied photographs. The full interview will be presented as multiple chapters along with a shorter highlight video.
These are the packages we offer
(Each package includes a fully edited video with included photographs, and music)
Short (approx. 1 hour)
A perfect length for a single subject or experience. Make a tribute to parents or grandparents, tell the adventure of your year traveling, your connection with a famous event. This is also perfect for a recent school graduate, to review the past and record the hopes and dreams of the future.
Medium (approx. 2 hours)
An abbreviated life history. Choose a few subject areas to discuss. You can definitely hit the high points of a life in this interview.
Long (typically 3-4 hours)
The full life history. We will discuss your parents and family, your young years, family, career, cultural interests such as music and movies, as well as hobbies, interests and opinions.
Documentary (4+ hours)
We will do the full sit-down interview, and in addition we will get footage of you interacting with friends and family, working your hobbies or pursuing your interests to create a fully edited, compelling documentary film about your life.
End Of Life Video
For People Facing The End Of Life, An Opportunity To Leave Behind A Gift For Their Loved Ones
Whether it is illness or the onset of dementia, it is important to seize the opportunity to leave a gift for your family, a video that would be an invaluable memento.
We offer free of charge an approximately one hour video allowing you to tell your story, summarize your life lessons, or leave a personal message.
This is not an interview, this is your video that will reflect what you want it to be. I will help you create the video that you want to create, communicate what you wish to say in an beautifully edited video.
We are honored to be able to help you create this video for your family. It is important that you understand that we do this only for you and your family, it is a private video that we treat with the utmost sensitivity. It is not our intention to impose our filmmaking on a difficult situation, we shoot with a minimal set up and can arrange multiple sessions if needed.
The Couples/Anniversary Video
Tell Your Story Together
You and your spouse or partner have history together that you want to share. How you met, who asked who out. Tell the story in this approximately one hour video. This is not an interview, we help you tell your story by interacting with each other.
This is perfect for new parents. Relate the details of the pregnancy and delivery as well as the feelings associated with a life changing event. This is a birth memento that will be cherished for years, watched by the child when they get older who will marvel at their young parents gushing over his or her cute escapades in diapers.
This is perfect for older couples. Recount your courtship and kids’ births, but also all the stories, life lessons and memories that have held you together through the years. A cherished document particularly for a milestone anniversary.
There are other combinations that would work quite well to tell a common story of shared history. Parent/child, siblings, cousins, best friends. A perfect way to document your relationship with anyone who is important in your life.
Pop-Up Video
Video As A Group Activity
For any event or gathering, consider the video pop-up. The equipment is set up allowing anyone to sit solo, in pairs or groups and create a spontaneous video remembrance, or message. This is a much less formal video than the other services, allowing for multiple groupings and footage of short or long duration.
Perfect for your next family gathering. Siblings can reminisce over old times, confess their childhood sins for mom and dad, leave a message for absent family members, share memories from your time together.
Great idea for weddings. Allow your guests to share their remembrances of the bride or groom, leave their congratulatory messages and tell their own story of what they witnessed of the couple.
Consider it for a memorial. Having a private, quiet chance to give a remembrance of a departed friend is something that some would prefer over the ‘open mic’ portion of a memorial service. A chance to tell the story or relate the importance of a friend is part of the lasting legacy that a memorial is intended.
Reunions of all kinds, Church functions, parties or group gatherings. Any get-together of people, where remembrance or message or celebration can be recorded will be a valued keepsake from the event.
Biographical Documentary
You’ve probably seen biographical films before- photos, maps, and documents gliding across the screen as a voice over narrates the story.
Imagine you had such a film for your parent, grandparent, or other loved one. A permanent tribute to their life, passed on to the next generation so that they can know and understand the person like you do.
We manage the project by helping you gather the information, writing the script and editing the video. Added to the narration, on-screen or voice-over anecdotes and remembrances by multiple family members or friends gives additional voices and perspectives.
The scope of the project can vary a great deal but you will be left with a professional video relating a human story.
A short clip of a documentary film we made of my grandmother
Memorial Videography
We can help perpetuate the legacy of a loved one by video recording the memorial service.
There are some who would consider this an unneeded, unwanted service that may even be in poor taste. I can understand that reasoning, but allow me to make an argument that this video would be an important part of anyone’s legacy.
Certainly it is a difficult day, one in which you will not wish to be photogenic or pleasant on camera. And the idea of a videographer sticking his camera in the faces of the mourners would be criminal insensitivity.
First of all, as most services conform to the presentation style of a speaker at a lectern, we set our camera in the back of the venue using a long lens, and capture the speakers, not audience reaction or close-ups of family members. Our goal is to capture what is said about the deceased.
Even though some services still have religious rites and ceremonies, it is much more common now to have a lighthearted celebration, with fun anecdotes and touching remembrances of the deceased. Let’s be honest, a memorial is not the time to dwell on one’s faults or shortcomings. It is these stories, simply and affectionately told by friends and family, that add so much to the understanding of who a person is. They may be small moments but they are a reflection of how others viewed the person.
It should be obvious that my mission is the recording, saving of moments which reflect on who a person is, what the essence of the personality is, and what the events of his life are. The baby video documents a birth and attendant emotions. The couples video tells the story of love and romance, the life history interview encompasses all of it. The video remembering the passed adds another opportunity to fill in the sketch of who this person is, what was thought of them, and what kinds of things did they do.
Certainly there may not be much interest immediately in viewing such a video, though later after the initial shock has gone, maybe some would wish to hear again the witty stories. But even if it’s never watched by those who were there, it serves as an important document of the family that will be very important and illuminating to those too young (or not yet born) to understand what was going on here.
If the purpose of a memorial service is to put our best foot forward in honoring a loved one, having it recorded would be very much appreciated later.
