PRODUCTS

Oral Storytelling Kits are a digital product (a PDF) that contains a curated set of questions aimed to draw out memories, stories, and thoughts on a particular subject. A single Kit will contain roughly 25 questions, instructions of the best methodologies to record responses, what to do with them after. They also have space inside for you to make notes about your specific memories you’d like to talk about. Kits may be bundled together for discounts and are best utilized with our Subscription Service.

YOUR CHILDHOOD – $7

WEDDING – $7

YOUR NEW BABY – $7

YOUR CAREER – $7

YOUR PARENTS’ OR GRANPARENTS’ CHILDHOOD – $7

FOR YOUR KIDS – $7

BELIEFS & AFFIRMATIONS – $7

Our Oral Storytelling Courses will teach you about the process of conducting your own Oral Storytelling projects at home for personal documentation or to interview someone else. They can cover topics like what equipment to use, how to conduct an interview, ethics and moral considerations, exercises that can help trigger memories, and more. The courses will be personalized based on your level of comfort in different areas and learning styles. They’ll include a combination of video and audio instructions (hosted online), and downloadable resources to help you. Instructor help with the course will be available by email.

PERSONALIZED ORAL STORYTELLING COURSE

(4, 8, OR 16 LESSON PACKAGES)

    SERVICES

    If you’re planning to conduct your own oral storytelling or, generally, any project that involves capturing memories of you or a loved one, you might need some help along the way. We are here to be that resource for you. Hire us by the hour to Zoom with you and go over where you’re stuck, how to get organized, go over recording techniques, interview techniques. Think of this as a tutoring session for your project. We aren’t doing any project work for you, but we’re guiding you to reach your goals and get unstuck.

    1/2 HOUR TUTORING SESSION – $50

    1 HOUR TUTORING SESSION – $100

    1 HOUR ZOOM WEBINAR/SEMINAR – CONTACT IF INTERESTED

    We curate a personalized interview (or series of interviews) designed to draw out the intended memories of a single person or multiple people. This is based on a 60-minute exploratory Zoom/call included with the purchase of any ROS Project.

    Interviews can be conducted on Zoom or on the phone if Zoom is not possible. In-person interviews are currently only possible if you’re local to Indianapolis, IN (unless you’d like to pay for me to visit you! :D)

    The result of an ROS Project is an organized video library of your loved one’s stories. In a few clicks, you’ll be able to explore their childhood stories, high school and college years, their adult life, and so on–and find the exact story you’re looking for. I also create a PDF resource that contains a list of timeline and age events, important locations, important people, and anything else I pull out of the interviews.

    Please contact us directly so we can explore your goals and help make a recommendation which ROS Project would be right for you and give you a quote.

    Life Story Overview (2 Hours of Storytelling)

    Life Story (8 Hours of Storytelling)

    Complete Life Story (16 Hours of Storytelling)

    Sometimes, when people gather to honor a person or tradition, it’s the best time to document the memories of many people all at once. We offer this Live Event Memory Sharing service to do just that. We can meet with bereaved families to plan a Memory Sharing Session at a funeral, celebration of life, or private session with a selected group of people. For happier tidings, we can attend family reunions, weddings, anniversary parties, bridal showers, bachelor/ette parties and more to capture memories from all who want to participate.

    These sessions can be tailored to your needs and preferences and be as active or passive as you prefer; we can sit back and let those who are interested come to us to participate, or we can actively encourage people to come to us and share stories (since this is a kind of new concept, they may not quite understand how to participate).

    At the end of your Live Session, you will receive a copy of all audio/video files of the Session, unedited. Our other processes, such as Audio/Video Editing, Transcription, etc) may be added on, but we don’t automatically include them so as to make this service available to as many income levels as possible. We do recommend (especially for more than an hour of audio) using our Audio/Video Editing service for your own ease of future listening.

    Note: Live Memory Sharing Sessions are currently just offered in the Indianapolis area without a travel fee.

    **Due to Covid-19, Live Memory Sharing Sessions may have limitations, restrictions, or cancellations. If we feel like the event is not planning to follow CDC-advised safety practices, or that the danger level has increased since accepting a job, we reserve the right to decline or cancel service (with refunds, if applicable).**

    With our A/V Processing Service, we take audio or video files that you either already have or have acquired via our Memory Session Service and edit the audio/video so it is broken down into smaller, bite-sized pieces. We also appropriately name, summarize, keyword tag, and index each file created. You wind up with a series of audio or video files and a PDF of the information each file contains to create a simplified, searchable database of your memories.

    We recommend this service for any audio or video files that contain many memories or stories within one long file, or if you have a lot of small files but they’re unlabeled. Think about it. If you had four two-hour long files and you’re looking for one specific memory, how likely is it that you’re going to take the time to listen until you find it? And you’d have to do that every time! Or maybe you have lots of small files, but if none of them are labeled by story, you’re still going to have to listen to all of them to find the right one. Maybe you’re motivated enough to do that, but will your kids or grandkids be? The point is to pass these memories down. Having us process your files gives you an easy way for you and your descendants to easily find the story or topic they want whenever they want in a minute instead of hours.

    Note: This is considered a one-off service, whereas the Subscription Service, mentioned below, uses a recurring A/V processing service.

    AUDIO/VIDEO PROCESSING (Contact for Price)

    A/V TURNED TO CD, DVD, BLU-RAY, ETC  (Contact for Price)

    Transcribing is the act of writing or typing out everything that is said in an audio or video file. So we take audio or video files that you either already had or have acquired via our services, and we transcribe those files into a digital, typed format. We listen to the files in full 2-3 times for accuracy. We proofread the entire transcript, do additional research for certain unknown words, gain clarity of uncertain words by following up with you if necessary, and tailor the transcript to your preferred style of transcription. If we can, we add “descriptive character action” that help illustrate what is visually happening in a video to give better context to the dialogue (ie: [sarcastically] [does a jig in his seat] [his eyes widen in shock]).

    You wind up with a PDF transcript with file and time stamps that correlate to their original audio or video files. You can also include photos, which we can format into the transcript for an additional cost.

    AUDIO/VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION (Narrative-Style – Contact for Price)

    PHOTO DIGITIZATION (Contact for Price)

    You submit artifacts such as transcripts of oral storytelling, journal entries, photos, captions of those photos, scanned pieces of art, personal writing, artwork, etc. We take all of that and bind them into an ornate physical book to serve as a family heirloom. We do proofreading, content editing, formatting, visual embellishments (like decorative borders, chapter headings, etc), and interface with the book bindery who performs the printing process. These books are not published (no ISBN and not for sale other than to the customer, though multiple copies can be printed).

    Heirloom Memory Collective – Contact for Quote

    Our Subscription Service has multiple levels designed to meet you wherever you’re at. Each level includes a yearly check-in with the account holder to determine who the account will be passed down to in the event of their death, and how to get ahold of that person. This ensures that stored memories will be given to the person who can pass them down.

    Time Capsule is our first level, and it essentially gives you a place to store the files you want to make sure are safe, consolidated in one place, and passed down to the right people at the right time. You can think of it like another Cloud Storage service you’re already familiar with. The difference is, we only want your precious memory files–the things you specifically want to pass down to future generations. This isn’t the place to store miscellaneous files; we really want you to honor that because if and when the time comes for us to contact your designated recipient, we don’t want them to have to sort through a bunch of junk! We want them to open up your Memory Vault and see all the priceless photos, journals, transcripts, artwork, and videos, and be able to hear your voice on those audio files. Not hunting through bills and work files or grocery lists or software files. The price is determined by how much storage you want.

    Audio Journaling is our second level and includes all Time Capsule benefits. Audio Journaling allows you to allocate a small amount of time each week to capture your memories (either the recent ones, or ones from the past). Using your smartphone or other personal A/V equipment, you record either audio or video of yourself sharing memories or thoughts about the present time. You submit your audio, video, and photos on a weekly or monthly basis for us to process similarly to our Oral Storytelling Audio/Video Editing services. Think of it like audio or video journaling that you could do on your own–with the main distinction being that with our services, you have added accountability to actually do it, and you don’t have to sort, organize, label, or summarize your own files. We do that all for you, and the memories you submit become part of a searchable catalog that can be easily referenced, shared, and passed down. The price is determined by the amount of content-processing–which is based on how much you submit.

    Note: This is considered a recurring service, whereas the Audio/Video Editing Service, mentioned above, is a one-off service.

    Time Capsule Memory Storage Subscription Service – $10/mo

      WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

      I’ve made some friends along my entrepreneurial journey who aren’t doing what I’m doing, but offer beautiful, personalized services that complement the sentiment of The Memory Collective. Message me and I’ll get you in touch with them right away!

      Cremation Ashes to Glass Art – Contact for Details (Products made through Bliss Glass LLC)

      Voice Over / Dramatic Reading – Contact for Price