PROJECT TOPICS INSPIRATION
elder's storiesoral biographylooking back: childhoodlooking back: marriagestories of heroismlooking back: careerprogression of musicjourney of spiritualityjourney of recoveryprogression of artlife then verses now
ORAL STORYTELLING PROJECTS
An Oral Storytelling Project is a way to quickly and affordably document the memories and stories of you or a loved one (or multiple loved ones). We arrange a way to interview the Memory Giver(s) directly, teaching them about the process and how to think about memories, and guiding them through the topics that they or family members have selected. Depending on your budget, we can also process these stories, organize them, index them so they are searchable, keep them safe for you online in your personalized Memory Vault, turn them into a transcript so they can be read, and much more.
Oral Storytelling Projects can also begin live, at an event, and can capture moments as they unfold. For instance, at a wedding, a family reunion, bachelorette party, or vacation, your thoughts, reactions, actions, and observations can be documented live.
If you are interested in an Oral Storytelling Project, book a consultation call using our contact page, and we’ll meet with you on Zoom to answer any questions and find out more details so we can best serve you.
Read on to find out more.
ORAL STORYTELLING KITS
An Oral Storytelling Kit is a great way to conduct a DIY oral storytelling project from home solo or with your family or friends. Each Kit represents a topic to thoroughly talk about without overwhelming you with hundreds of potential questions all at once. You’ll find kits tailored to childhood, marriage, high school, college, pets, hobbies, philosophy, religion, music preferences, career, military service, veterans, friendships, relationships, anniversaries, holidays, travel, moving, immigration, heritage, beliefs, current issues, politics, character building, and more. Every kit will provide unique questions specific to the topic and also comes with resources to guide you through the process from all perspectives, whether you are the one asking your loved one questions, or you are the one documenting your own memories.
One Kit will have roughly 25 questions to it; we wanted to balance making sure you had enough to talk about from one Kit while not overwhelming you with 300 questions that would likely deter most people from starting at all. And this way, it’s a very low cost, not a huge time commitment, and you can customize your experience by picking only the Kits you’re interested in. Each Kit provides training for simple recording practices, how to think about oral storytelling, maximizing your time, and more!
We recommend pairing these kits with our Subscription service! They are the perfect duo and help you never run out of things to talk about. You can work your way through each kit that is relevant to you, and when you’re done with it, you can comfortably cross it off your list knowing you’ve documented what you need to on that topic for your family’s personal history books.
KIT TOPICS EXAMPLES
musicchildhoodmarriagefriendshippetshobbiessportsthe futureparentingspiritualitybooks & moviesbucketlistdreams & goalstriumphsself-love developmentsexuality
MESSAGES INSPIRATION
read a childhood bookshare a travel listwish them happy birthdaycongratulate them on graduatingshare a favorite memorytell them a storysing them a songdrop in just to say hishare a must-watch list
MESSAGES FROM BEYOND
Messages From Beyond is a service that allows you to record a message for a loved one, to be delivered at a time of your choosing in the future.
These are kind of like a mini, sentimental, life insurance policy (but, um, way more affordable) that you take out with us on the off-chance that you aren’t there for your kids’ graduation, or your 30th wedding anniversary, because something sad happened, and you’re no longer here. Messages From Beyond allows you to still say what you would have said if you could have been there, and to give points of connection to those who might not have had a chance to know you well enough in life.
Like a majority of our services, Messages From Beyond comes with educational tips, tricks, philosophies, and things to think about to get the best experience.
TIME CAPSULE MEMORY STORAGE
This service is our personalized, dedicated Cloud storage for your family heritage data. You pay for what you need and always have the option to add more storage if you need it.
The intent is for this to be the place you store your memories online. Not scattered between Cloud services, your phone, your laptop or desktop, your thumb drives and hard drives, and the shoe boxes of photos and journals spread between closets and dusty attic boxes. When you need to find something (or your loved ones need to find something), they only ever need to look in one place. Your data–your photos, audio, video, artifacts, etc–will all be linked to your account and organized, so that when the time comes to pass your memories down, it’s easy on your loved ones. We also provide some helpful educational material about organizing your content, what constitutes a memory, and how to make sure your digital time capsule gets passed down.
WHAT CAN I STORE?
original musicphotosscanned in journalsaudio filesoriginal artwork3d scanned filesoriginal storiesvideos
WHEN YOUR LOVED ONE PASSES ON
easily inherit memoriesfind memories quicklyshare with your familylower your stressfocus on what's important
PASS IT DOWN
Pass It Down is a service that designates who you’d like us to pass your memories to in the future, whether you’re storing your memories with us or not.
We work together to develop a snapshot of all the memory data you want passed down, where it’s located, and who you want it passed down to. Then we check in with you and your beneficiaries once a year to keep things up to date, and to keep us at your fingertips so we can be the most valuable to you.
AUDIO JOURNALING SUBSCRIPTION
With our Audio Journaling Subscription service, you can add stories, memories, experiences, and heritage to your virtual time capsule–what we call your Memory Vault–as you go by submitting audio journals to our company. We will organize and index your memories for you so that they are searchable. They are kept safe and consolidated so that they can be easily accessed by the family members and descendants you want.
Audio Journaling (or Video Journaling, if you prefer) is also the perfect way to capture moments as they are happening. Imagine being the father of the bride, wandering around the wedding with nothing to do until the big moment. You could walk around with your phone, recording and thinking aloud as you notice the decorations, the weather, the people, your too-tight shoes, how nervous and excited you are for your daughter. Or what about when you’re on vacation with your little kids at Disney World (who will definitely not remember this trip because they’re too young), and you pull out your phone while they’re sitting on the bench eating a Mickey Bar, and you ask them on camera, “Tell everybody where we’re headed to next.” And they shout, “Magic Kingdom!” And you ask, “And who are you going to see there?” And they scream, “MICKEY MOUSE!!” and throw their ice cream into the air in their excitement. You’re capturing what will one day be a memory, live, as it’s happening.
Read on to find out more.
SUBSCRIPTION TOPICS INSPIRATION
childhood memoriesnew baby at homeabout to or just got marrieddaily life journalingcurrent/old college storiesmilitary memoriesactivism memoriesyour creative journey/projectscurrent/old high school storiescareer storieslife then verses now
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
ethicsrecording techniquesgenerate memoriesorganizationsetting goalsinterviewing techniques
ORAL STORY COURSES
If you’d like to learn about all the facets of oral storytelling, this is the service for you. Right now, we put together a customized course for individuals depending on their interests and goals.
Some topics we cover are:
- Planning your project
- Ethics of oral storytelling
- Styles of oral storytelling
- Generating memories
- Recording technology and techniques
- Conducting interviews
- Organizing content
- Planning for the future
If you’re interested in getting a personalized education on oral storytelling, please contact us for a consultation.
ADDITIONAL SERVICES
Though The Memory Collective is a small company right now, we still strive to be the only place you’ll ever need to go for your memory preservation needs. We offer personalized services that fit your situation and preferences. For any of these services, please reach out to us directly and we’ll work with you on details, planning, and pricing.
LIVE MEMORY SHARING SESSIONS – CONTACT FOR DETAILS
ARTIFACT PHOTOGRAPHY – $100/hour
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY – $100/HOUR
BLU-RAY VIDEO CREATION – CONTACT FOR PRICE
DIGITAL BOOKMAKING – CONTACT FOR PRICE
PHYSICAL BOOK MAKING – CONTACT FOR PRICE
CREMATION ASHES TRANSFORMED TO GLASS – CONTACT FOR DETAILS (PRODUCTS MADE THROUGH BLISS GLASS LLC)
