People are often a little shy about asking what a life story film costs. They ask about the process, the cameras, how long the day takes, and then, near the end of the call, quietly: “And roughly what are we looking at?”
We would rather you did not have to wait until the end of the call. So here is the plain version, with the numbers, what each one includes, and a few honest notes about what makes the price what it is. There is no catch at the bottom.
The short answer
A first conversation on camera starts at $800. A full life story film starts at $4,500. Most families begin at the first number and decide about the second one later, and we have built things so that nothing is lost by taking it slowly.
Everything below is in Canadian dollars, as of the date on this post. If you are reading this much later, the Packages page is the one to trust.
$800: the Starter Session
This is where most families begin, and it is the one we would gently point you to if you are not sure.
A Starter Session is a 30-minute filmed conversation with a guided question booklet sent ahead of time, so your parent or grandparent knows what to expect. It is edited into a short film of five to eight minutes, with basic editing and digital delivery. It is meant to answer one question: what does this feel like?
The part that matters most is the credit. If, within 60 days, you decide to go on to a full package, the whole $800 is applied to it. The Starter Session is not a smaller product you pay for twice. It is the first half-hour of a longer story, and you decide whether to keep going once you have seen it.
$1,800: Letters on Camera
Some people do not want to tell their whole life. They want to say a few particular things to a few particular people. Letters on Camera is a parent or grandparent speaking directly into the lens, three to five minutes at a time, one letter for each child or grandchild. Dear Anna, here is what I want you to know.
It is the most direct thing we make, and families often open the letters years later, on a birthday or a wedding morning. Starting at $1,800.
$4,500: the full life story film
This is the one people imagine when they hear “legacy film.” A two-to-three-hour interview, with a professional interviewer and more than 150 guided questions across childhood, family, work, love, hard years and the things a person wants the next generation to carry. It is edited into a cinematic film of 30 to 60 minutes.
Included: the interviewer, filming, editing, colour grading, music and digital delivery. The film is yours, stored privately online, downloadable, and shareable with whoever you choose.
For families who want both sides of a relationship, a two-person documentary (a parent and an adult child, interviewed separately and together) starts at $5,800.
The things you can add, and what they cost
None of these are required. Some families want a shelf of them; most choose one.
A USB keepsake box ($150) puts the film on an engraved drive in a presentation box, which is the thing many people want to wrap. A legacy photobook ($550) is a 40-to-60-page hardcover with portraits, old family photos and quotes from the interview printed alongside. A podcast series ($500) edits the audio into three to five episodes by life chapter, good for the relative who lives far away. Subtitles and translation ($250 per language) are for families who speak more than one. Additional DVD or Blu-ray copies are $120 for a set of three, and we can digitize old photos, slides or tapes from $150 and weave them into the film.
What is not on the list
There is no subscription and no annual fee. The film does not expire, and you do not pay to keep watching it. There is no charge to download your own film. There is no fee for the pre-interview; that conversation, where we learn which stories matter and which topics to leave alone, is free and comes before any booking decision.
We are also not going to add travel to a Lower Mainland address. If you are elsewhere in Canada, or further, we are glad to come, and travel is quoted separately and plainly.
Why it costs what it does
We think you deserve to know where the money goes, so here it is in one paragraph. A full life story film is roughly a day of filming with two cameras, proper light and proper sound, and then several days of editing: listening to every hour of the interview, choosing what stays, grading colour, placing music, cutting old photographs in, and making a draft you can review and change. That is most of the cost. The rest is the pre-interview, the question design and the quiet work of making a person comfortable enough to say the true thing.
A phone on the kitchen table costs nothing, and we have written before about why you should press record this weekend regardless. What you are paying for here is a finished heirloom rather than a file: something your family will watch in twenty years without needing to be persuaded.
How payment works
Half when you book, the balance before the recording day. E-transfer, cheque or wire. If you are giving a session as a gift, a gift card lets the person book when they are ready, which takes the pressure out of the moment.
What it keeps
We began with numbers, so we should end with the other side of the ledger. A voice that says your name the way only they say it. The pause before a story they have never told. The laugh that arrives a second before the punchline, every time. The kitchen they grew up in, described so precisely that a grandchild could draw it.
Those things do not have a price, which is exactly why people hesitate to ask about the one that does. We hope this made it easier.
If you would like to talk it through, the first conversation is free. You are warmly invited to book a pre-interview, and we will give you a plain estimate for the story you have in mind.
