For Individuals and Families
• Memories - Personal Histories and Life Stories
• Legacy Letters/Ethical Wills and Obituaries
• Speeches, Presentations, Eulogies and Tributes - Marking Special Occasions, Recognizing & Remembering
PERSONAL HISTORIES AND LIFE STORIES
Personal history services are labour-intensive,
sometimes requiring many hours of interviewing,
transcribing, videotaping, editing, revising, and
preparing materials for publication or audio/video
distribution.
Often a personal history is commissioned as a gift - for
a holiday, special birthday, anniversary, or milestone
event. Since virtually all major costs are in the first book,
video, or audio-recording, family members may choose
to share the cost, making the project an affordable
investment for everyone, from which all benefit.
“Let’s look at where the expense comes in. There are
essentially eight stages that almost all personal history
productions take. They are:
1. Initial consultation to decide what is to be included
in the history.
2. Interviewing the subject. This can involve anywhere
from 2 to 13 hours or more depending on the scope
of the production.
3. Transcribing the interviews in order to edit and
construct the story.
4. Editing and shaping the narrative.
5. Searching for appropriate photos, artifacts, videos,
sound effects, or music.
6. Completing a rough edit of the book, video or audio.
7. Presenting a copy to the client for review.
8. Final edit and completion of production.
The amount of time it takes to interview someone is
actually a small portion of the overall production. As
a rough guide, it takes anywhere from 10 to 15 hours
of editing for every one hour of interview. Personal
historians charge either set package prices, work by
the hour, or a combination of both. All professional
personal historians will provide you with a contract
spelling out the costs and payment stages.
So how much is it going to cost you to have a full
length personal history told? As I mentioned, there
are many variables that determine cost. But for
argument’s sake let’s look at one possible example – a
video biography. It takes about five to seven hours of
interview for a video biography and you can add to that
another five to seven hours for travel, set-up of lights,
Prices
WordVoice.ca
camera, and sound. If a personal historian is charging
$40 to $60 an hour, then you’re looking at a minimum
of $400 up to $840 just in labor to complete a set of
interviews. Added to this can be the cost of materials
and in the case of a video production, camera, light and
sound equipment charges.
Following the interviews comes the editing which takes
most of the time. If there are five hours of interview, it’s
safe to say it will take anywhere from 50 to 75 hrs. of
editing time. If a personal historian is charging $40/hr.,
then you’re looking at somewhere between $2,000 and
$3,000 for editing. Added to this can be the costs for
editing rooms and equipment. So at the low end of the
scale it will cost you anywhere from $2,400 to $3,840 for
a 90 minute video biography. Top end can be double
those figures or more. Beware of anyone suggesting
they can produce a full-scale life history video or book
for under $1,000. It can’t be done unless that person is
offering most of his or her time for free.
I think it’s fair to say that most professional personal
historians will work within your budget to come up with
a life story document that will meet with your approval.
It might not be the luxury sedan you’d imagined but
rather a nice shiny little compact car. The good news
though is that unlike cars which depreciate the moment
you take them off the lot, a personal history will gain
value over the years. It will in fact become a priceless
legacy.”
Excerpted from
• Dan Curtis, How Much Should You Pay A Personal
Historian — http://dancurtis.ca/2009/07/08/howmuch-should-you-pay-a-personal-historian
• See also Association of Personal Historians How
Much Does A Personal History Cost? —
http://www.personalhistorians.org/tell/faq.php
For Individuals and Families
• Memories - Personal Histories and Life Stories
• Legacy Letters/Ethical Wills and Obituaries
• Speeches, Presentations, Eulogies and Tributes - Marking Special Occasions, Recognizing & Remembering
Prices
WordVoice.ca
LEGACY LETTERS/ETHICAL WILLS AND OBITUARIES
Speeches and Presentations
Like other services, preparing a legacy letter/ethical will
or obituary will vary in cost depending upon the client’s
wishes and the length of the text and whether it will be
written, video or audio or a combination.
Define Structure and Content with You
• $150.00
Up to 2 Hours
• $50.00 Each additional hour or part thereof
The base cost of preparing a written last letter or obituary
will usually be:
•
•
•
•
Up to 500 words
Up to 750 words
Up to 1,000 words Over 1,000 words
$250.00
$400.00
$500.00
Depends on length
A 15% discount will be applied to the cost of additional letters.
SPEECHES, PRESENTATIONS, EULOGIES AND
TRIBUTES - MARKING SPECIAL OCCASIONS,
RECOGNIZING AND REMEMBERING
For any of these services, we use our standard approach,
namely, a one hour free consultation meeting to
determine your needs and how WordVoice can help you
Prices vary according to the specific type of service being
provided and your requirements. Where time pressures
are involved and the need for a quick turnaround, this will
be reflected in the cost.
Review and Revision of Your Draft
• $12.00 Per 100 words
Writing Your Speech, Presentation for You
Cost depends upon the type of speech or presentation
required – a business speech is different from a wedding
speech or toast for example, the amount of research
needed and the length of the speech as well as the time
given to produce the text.
• Basic cost — $60.00 per hour • Turnaround Time Premium
48 Hours
24 Hour
12 Hours $200.00$325.00$500.00
Eulogies
Eulogies and tributes are generally written under pressure.
We can work with you to either come up with a structure
and content for you to produce a text from or we can
draft the eulogy from the information you provide to us
and your wishes. The length may vary depending upon
what you wish to say about the deceased. So, the cost of
preparing a eulogy takes these factors into account.
Define Structure and Content with You
• $150.00
Up to 2 Hours
• $50.00 Each additional hour or part thereof
Writing your Eulogy for You
Our base cost includes discussion with you about content,
tone, special mentions, stories and anecdotes, etc. A five
minute eulogy normally means a text of around 1,000
words (120 per minute).
•
•
Base cost — $75 per hour Turnaround Time Premiums
48 Hours 24 Hours
12 Hours
$200.00
$325.00
$500.00
For Individuals and Families
• Memories - Personal Histories and Life Stories
• Legacy Letters/Ethical Wills and Obituaries
• Speeches, Presentations, Eulogies and Tributes - Marking Special Occasions, Recognizing & Remembering
Prices
WordVoice.ca
Helping You Deliver Your Words
Providing help – from tips and suggestions
about public speaking to videotaping and
playing back rehearsals - in delivering a speech
or eulogy can be quite intensive. How much
time and effort is involved, once again, depends
upon your wishes and needs. Also, there may
well be a time pressure element involved which
may add to the cost.
•
•
Base cost $75.00 per hour
There is a minimum charge of $150.00
Video Tributes
A video tribute can vary from a short, spoken
remarks by one family member or friend to
a significant production involving various
speakers, text and narration, music and
photographs, momentos, etc. all carefully
assembled to make for an outstanding product.
Given the range of possible tributes, it is
impossible to give more information on costs
than a range:
•
$1,000 — a simple, recorded tribute spoken
by one or two people and lasting five
minutes
•
$3,000 — a complex production involving
various speakers, music, photomontage etc.
lasting 10 minutes
WordVoice.ca
1 Inwood Drive
Kanata, ON
Canada
tel. 613.592.2947 | email: [email protected]