step one
Contact me to schedule your initial free consultation.
This will be an informal conversation with a two-fold purpose: to give you a sense of who I am and what I do, AND to give me a sense of what is meaningful to you, what interests you about this service, and what goals you have for the process.
Here is some information to help you decide if life story interviewing sounds right for you:
the basics:
We start with a schedule of five interview sessions. Each individual interview session:
-lasts no more than two hours
-takes place at your home or another comfortable and convenient place
-is audio-recorded and confidential
FEE STRUCTURE:
initial ten-hour bundle of interview time: $1500
I offer my interview services in an initial ten-hour bundle. I do this to ensure that I can deliver the depth of experience that you hire me to provide.
This also includes sound quality editing and editing of the recordings to your own specifications: I edit out whatever you wish to remove, and I divide the recordings based on how you wish to sort and share them. You then receive all the recordings in easy-to-play and easy-to-share MP3 format—yours to keep.
You can always decide to add more interview hours—however many you want.
Once we have reached the initial ten-hour mark, we can schedule as many (or as few) additional interview sessions as you wish. These additional hours are billed by the hour.
scheduling:
As mentioned above, each session lasts no more than two hours- in my experience, that is a nearly universal limit where people’s minds start to feel tired, and continuing with the interview becomes more of a mental struggle, no matter how enthusiastic we both might be! If two hours feels like too much, you can ALWAYS decide to do a shorter session that day.
This means that interviews will be spread out over a number of weeks, and I will work with you to come up with a plan that best suits your schedule and your preferences. Some people like to meet every other day in order to immerse themselves in the experience, others prefer to space our sessions out, so they can let memories percolate between interviews. Whatever your scheduling needs, I can accommodate you.
I travel to you for interviewing.
Legacy Life Stories is based in Vermont—for in-person interviews, your quote will include a per diem to cover the cost of travel and accommodation ONLY IF you are located over three hours’ drive from Montpelier, VT.
feel free to contact me with questions about any of this information!
step two
Consider the shape you would like your experience to take.
There are several ways we can structure your interview sessions : would you like to include someone important to you in your interviews? do you have a treasured collection you would like to focus on? does a combination of these options sound like a good fit?
TYPES OF IN-person interview services:
one-on-one LIFE STORY INTERVIEWS
in our confidential sessions, I listen to the experiences you describe, and I respond with questions that I formulate specifically to elicit greater richness of detail and to guide you toward other memories.
SHARED-HISTORY INTERVIEWS
with a dear friend, a sibling, a spouse, children; focus on a valued relationship and share the joy of reminiscing.
MATERIALS-BASED INTERVIEWS
can focus on photographs, letters and postcards, family trees, or treasured collections like vinyl records, travel souvenirs, recipes, and heirlooms.
step three
There are also many ways we can transform your interview recordings into share-able objects that are easy to access and enjoy. These items can be physical or digital (or both!), and we can work together to come up with precisely the kind of lasting keepsake you wish to share with others.