PROJECT TOPICS INSPIRATION
the people who shaped youchildhood storiescareermarriage and relationshipshistory you lived throughlessons learnedtalents and creativityspiritualitychallenges and triumphsopinions and beliefsplaces you've been
RECORDED ORAL STORYTELLING SERVICES
A Recorded Oral Storytelling (ROS) Project is the best way to document a person’s life stories, memories, experiences, and critically, the essence of who they are. We’ve developed a process called the Eternal Story Method that takes you from just a concept to the securing of your family’s legacy and heritage.
The Eternal Story Method has four phases:
- Project Planning
- Story Recording
- Story Processing
- Legacy Planning
There are many types of ROS Projects, including some that will include photo albums, relics, artwork, music, scrapbooks, and much more!
FAQ
- Initial Consultation
We hop on a Zoom call and talk through the details of the project. Whose memories are you wanting to document? What are the big themes or topics you want to make sure we cover? Who might want to be present for the storytelling? Do you want to talk through any photo albums? Is what we do a good fit for you? - Project Planning
Some projects are straight-forward and others can require a little planning, such as gathering of stories, memories, and experiences (we call this Memory Indexing), and deciding from a list of our curated topics the Storyteller wants to talk about (this is completely customizable to the project). We will come up with a list of interview questions - Story Recording
We’ll meet with your Storyteller (that’s you and/or your loved one) on Zoom. We’ll ask the questions, and all the Storyteller has to do is answer (if they want to). You can keep booking sessions until the stories are told. - Story Processing
Once the stories have all been shared and recorded, we will deliver the raw files to you via your preferred Cloud Storage.Note: We also offer video editing, deeper organization, indexing, and transcription services, but for the sake of completing the very most important step (recording the stories), we’ve separated these services to keep the price affordable for you and your family.
- Legacy Planning
We’ll guide you how to best ensure that these videos get passed down to future generations.
Anywhere in the world that speaks English (for now). We conduct our Story Sessions on Zoom or a similar platform with the exception of special circumstances local to the Indianapolis, IN area where we are located.
This depends on which services you purchase.
For just the basic Story Sessions, we will send you the raw video files from the Zoom session, plus an AI transcription of the videos, and place these in a Cloud Service of your choice (ie: iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Sync, etc)
If you include decide to purchase the Story Processing Service, your videos will be edited into clips based on the stories being told, labeled, organized into folders, and then uploaded to the Cloud Service of your choice, along with the AI transcripts of each file.
That is perfectly fine! We understand that not everyone feels comfortable sharing personal stories with a stranger, but may open up more to a loved one. We want you and your Storyteller to have the best, most comfortable experience possible.
For this approach, we would recommend our inexpensive Membership to give you the tools, resources, and step-by-step instructions of how to conduct your own project. You can join the waitlist here.
Or, if you’d like us to do everything for you except the interviewing and recording, contact us and we can work with you on the logistics and pricing.
The short answer is, don’t worry about it. We’ve got you covered. We have an ever-expanding library of questions that will keep Storytellers sharing as long as they want to. And we always green-light or red-light topics before we ever start storytelling, so we’re never asking about topics the Storyteller doesn’t want to talk about. All the Storyteller has to do is show up and we’ll take care of the rest.
Yes! Absolutely. In fact, these can make for great interactions, capturing the dynamic between two or more people.
We encourage families, couples, friends, and caretakers to participate together. Most of the time, this helps ease any awkwardness (which usually goes away after a few minutes of storytelling anyway), and can keep participants on track and remind them of memories and details they might not have thought to add. In situations where a topic may be difficult, having another person there can also help ground the Memory Giver.
That’s true! When The Memory Collective was founded in 2019, the Heirloom ROS Project was our primary offering.
We still love this idea, but because these books are hand crafted from start to finish (meaning, we are cultivating the content, transcribing, researching, editing, proofreading, punctuating, formatting, photo-editing, and working with an artisan book bindery for premium book design, quality, durability, and longevity), it was a pretty expensive process.
When the pandemic hit, we shifted our focus to the most important part of any project: getting the stories recorded. And we are so glad we did! Our goal has always been to help families of all income levels affordably document their personal and family stories. Though the books are beautiful and meaningful, we don’t want an expensive price tag to scare people away from completing the first, most important step (which is required to create the Heirloom Book anyway).
If you are interested in our Heirloom ROS Project, you’ll first need to complete a regular ROS Project because it is the foundation of the Heirloom. One completed, we can begin the work meticulously pairing your photos with your transcribed stories, and ultimately format them into an exquisite book designed for durability and longevity.
THE TMC MEMBERSHIP
We are building an affordable all-in-one solution for capturing your family’s stories, heritage, and legacy. The TMC Membership will allow you to conduct your own ROS Projects our Guide Library, Topic Kit Library, and Life Summaries–all using technology you already have.
included in the membership
Up to 10 Storytellers On One Account (with the ability to add more). This allows families to see their loved one’s stories separated (not all jumbled and confusing), but together in one place.
Learn about the forward-thinking ways we look at legacy, heritage, and the potential of what Recorded Oral Storytelling can do for your family in our Guide Library.
Get access to our entire Eternal Story Method. From project planning to recording to story processing to creating a legacy–we’ve taken everything we do and outlined them in a library of written Guides (with plans to create video courses). It’s like an interactive e-Book where you can find the exact thing you need help with in a pinch.
Access to an ever-expanding library of questions to ask your loved one (with unlimited space to take notes, write out the answers, or even paste in a transcript of the answers) so you can tailor your project exactly how you want to.
A Life Summary is a collection of themed charts that collect the most important details about the Storyteller’s Life. It can be used as an overview of the person’s life, a way to promote storytelling, and a quick reference. Your grandchildren and future generations could easily learn about the people who came before them.
In the Membership, you’ll find Project-tracking, Memory Generating Exercises, Specialty ROS Projects for including photos and scrapbooks and artwork, ROS Journaling with your kids–there’s enough in this membership to last not just your lifetime, but for generations. This membership is guaranteed to help you think about your family’s legacy in a new, inspiring way.
faq
Our ROS Project Services are, for the most part, entirely done for you. They are a higher cost because they involve our direct time.
The Membership takes everything that we do in our ROS Project Services and teaches you how to do it yourself, plus gives you all the tools and resources you need (and then some).
