Asked often, answered plainly.

Thirty minutes by phone or video. We listen to who the story is about and where things stand, recommend the right product, sometimes a smaller one than you had in mind, and send a written quote, valid for thirty days. No obligation, and we never follow up more than once.

Professionals, interviewers trained in oral history, writers edited by second writers, directors and editors for film. Small, senior teams: the person who talks with your mother is the person who shapes her story. Technology transcribes and archives; it does not do the telling.

From two to three weeks for a Memorial Biography to five to seven months for a Founder's Legacy. Every turnaround is published on the pricing page, and rush delivery, about half the published time, is available at +25% where our schedule allows.

Remote suits most families: gentler on the subject, works anywhere in the US and Canada, and the shipped kit records beautifully. Choose in person when you want scenes of home and daily life and a longer finished film. The consultation gives you an honest recommendation either way.

A prepaid box arrives with a lavalier microphone, a small light and a phone mount, and we walk you through it on a fifteen-minute setup call. Your interviewer directs each session by video. Afterwards, everything goes back in the box with a prepaid return label.

We go at their pace. Sessions can be shorter and more frequent, a family member can sit in, and we can pause for weeks and resume. Good days are used well; hard days are rescheduled without fuss. Our interviewers are chosen for patience first.

English, throughout. Other languages and bilingual editions are arranged case by case, tell us what you need in the consultation and we will be straightforward about what we can do well.

Digitally if you have scans, or by tracked post if you don't, we scan, restore where needed, and return every original the same way. Tapes and film can be digitised from $40 per tape; larger photo collections from $250 per hundred.

Anything: wording, order, photographs, whole passages or scenes. Two full rounds are included on every product, and nothing is printed, published or shared until you approve it. If a change goes beyond the product's scope, we say so and quote it before any work is done.

On final delivery, once payment is received in full, the copyright is assigned to you, the films, the files, the pages, the books. We keep nothing to license or resell, and we only showcase work with your written consent. This is written into our terms, not just our marketing.

Only the people you share the private link with. Nothing is listed, indexed or public unless you choose to make it so, every participant signs a consent form before recording, and deletion is a request away.

Every online page is hosted for the first year at no charge, then $49 a year or $195 prepaid for five years, a small honest fee we can keep charging, which is why we don't say “lifetime.” Every file, including full-quality masters, is downloadable at any time, and film and audio work also arrives on an archival USB drive.

By secure Stripe invoice, emailed after your consultation, payable by card, bank debit or bank transfer. A 50% deposit confirms your dates; the balance is due before final delivery. We never take card details by phone or email. Deposits are paid on the same secure invoice; details on the payments page.

Yes. Stripe, the payment platform used by millions of businesses, processes every Existenz payment. We never see or store your card number, and Stripe emails your receipt directly.

Both. Any product can be paid as three equal monthly invoices at no extra cost, and gift certificates apply as credit against any product for 24 months from purchase.

The deposit is refundable in full before the first interview, less any kit shipping already incurred. Once interviews begin, work is billed to the stage completed and the remainder refunded. If a death or illness interrupts a project, we pause or adjust without penalty, always.

Yes. Prices are published in US dollars, and Canadian families and partners may be invoiced in CAD at the prevailing rate, just say so in the consultation.

Yes, many families reach us through a partner. The introduction is all they do: you deal directly with us, their code travels with your enquiry, and it never affects your price. Some partners apply their referral commission to your invoice as a credit.

Three ways. The material comes from recorded conversations with a professional interviewer, not from forms filled in alone. The output is finished work, film, audio, print and hardcover, not only a web page. And you own everything: full copyright, downloadable masters, no perpetual licences. That is where the prices come from.