In the opening scene of a videography, a 90-year-old woman speaks as old-time music plays.
“My name is Mary ”¦ I was born in a small town in Pennsylvania called Palmerton on July 9, 1918; I was an only child, no siblings.”
It could be a scene from the Biography channel, but it”™s part of a video biography by Peter Savigny, a five-time Emmy Award-winning television art director and producer. He produces prime time-quality videographies, giving his clients a personal stake in history.
Another video might have popular appeal as seemingly any person would want to know how Grandma got caught skinny dipping and ran through the corn fields only to meet Grandpa for the first time while she was naked as a jaybird. Savigny got that story, too.
“When my parents died, I inherited a box of photos of them growing up,” said Savigny, who started Heirloom Biography four years ago. “They both died within two or three years of each other and I never got to ask them all the details. That”™s what made me start this; I said this shouldn”™t happen. This is the first generation in the history of humankind that we”™ve been able to use photography, audio, movies, to chronicle our life and actually keep a record of it. “We”™re a forward-thinking society; we don”™t want to take the time to look back and take some time to remember where you”™ve been. Every minute we live through we chronicle a bit of history, even the simplest life.”
Savigny”™s work doesn”™t come easy: Each hour of recording requires approximately 25 hours of editing. Savigny uses imagery and video from the National Archives and Library of Congress to illustrate the story. The cost begins about $4,000 and can run to $10,000 for a full production.
“It”™s hopefully one of those movies where you walk out and say, I”™ve got to see that again,” Savigny said.
After an initial screening meeting with the client, Savigny comes to their home, sets the camera and lighting up, puts a microphone on the subject and goes through a seven-page questionnaire that covers “everything from family background to your school years, your work, romance, meeting your husband or your wife, military experiences; it”™s very complete with personal perspectives and changes you have seen in your lifetime.”
Filming can take several hours, and Savigny puts “a lot of graphics in and do a lot of research, so it”™s like putting together a movie, and it costs a lot.”
“No one wants to watch a person talking for 20 minutes,” Savigny said. “When you can get absorbed in the visuals, the narrative drives the story and the visuals support it.”
It”™s like watching something on the Discovery channel, which is Savigny”™s background ”“ he was a television art director specializing in graphics for 20 years and worked for the History channel, Discovery channel, ABC and NBC.
“You get to a certain age and I decided I wanted to do something with more value, something where I could actually know that the end user was benefitting from it, not just oh, my stuff”™s on TV and I”™m advertising for sports or dog food or whatever, but make something that actually has lasting value, that has heritage,” Savigny said. “That”™s how I started this; I put my graphics degree to use to tell a story, and people will benefit from it generations from now.”
“Biography certainly is a very viable and important genre,” said James Carroll, chairman of the history department and professor at Iona College in New Rochelle.
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Carroll said the biography has a rich tradition in American history. Almost all the founding fathers left autobiographies in some form, and some of the country”™s most prominent historical figures ”“ including Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt ”“ have been “biographied” many times over.
“Now, rather than picking up a book, people can go to the Biography channel and get a summary in 60 to 90 minutes,” Carroll said. “However, even in the digital age, I still personally think written accounts will still be very prominent.”
Savigny”™s first client was his wife”™s grandmother, who was turning 90.
“I thought I”™d just practice on her, and it was a monster,” Savigny said. “It was a two-and-a-half hour final, but I got very, very in depth.”
Savigny also profiles businesses “with heritage and a story in mind, particularly family-owned businesses that have been around for 50-plus years.”
“It”™s usually a grandfather or great-grandfather that started it, and it can be a combination of a personal use or a corporate use,” Savigny said. “That”™s what”™s good about this. It”™s multi-faceted; I will interview the family members and the founding members as far back as they go and ask what was the original vision, what were they looking for. They may use it for historical purposes to show the descendants what”™s happened and how the family business began, but also to keep the corporate value alive, to show what the founding values were all about and the essence of corporate culture. It can also used for new investors or new hires.”
The prices vary so much due to clients”™ needs regarding length, depth and extras, like adding in home movies or having a hardbound book copy of a family photo album made.
“It”™s a la carte, and price depends how organized the person is with their photos and home videos and how much money they”™re willing to spend,” Savigny said. “To do a one-hour documentary for the History or Discovery channel ran $250,000 to $400,000 and it would take six months to do. I”™m doing that for what I think is one-tenth of the cost, but that would be $25,000 to $60,000 and that”™s what my competitors in the city are charging for this type of work, and they”™re not putting in as many graphics as I am; they”™re just doing cuts and dissolves of the person sitting there talking.
“The fact that I add so many graphics and archival research I think is a value-added, so I”™m tempted to go higher, but the general person just won”™t pay it. It”™s high for most, but it”™s low for the amount of work I do. I”™m hoping to figure out a way to either justify the price or make it more affordable for the average person.”
Savigny said many clients have told him they “would have paid triple for this” if they had known how satisfied they would be with the end result.
“I love seeing the reactions when people see it all put together in movie format,” Savigny said. “I”™m really trying to preserve something that lasts forever.”
Sometimes the stories that come out are pretty wild.
“I had one family that said we”™ve all heard our grandmother”™s story, we know everything about her, there”™s nothing we have not been told,” Savigny said. “They gave me a list of all the stories to go through, so I went down the list of questions and I said well I guess I”™m done, and then I said, you know I didn”™t ask you: How did you meet your husband? And she said, ”˜Well, I was skinny dipping in a farmer”™s lake, and we made too much noise so the dogs started barking, and the farmer shot his shotgun up in the air and said get off my property. We all got scared and ran through the cornfields without our clothes. I came out on a county road with nothing on. I flagged the first car down that I saw ”¦ it was the most embarrassing day of my life.”™ And then you hear from the kitchen in the other room the husband saying, ”˜But it was the best day of my life.”™ And that”™s how they met, and the whole family had never heard that story.”
Savigny offers another product called “tell me a story” where he interviews children.
“I ask them questions like, what are you going to be when you grow up? Why is the sky blue? Where does God live? So it”™s kind of an early-stage bio, and young kids have all the best answers,” Savigny said. “It”™s usually a bit more fast-paced and fun, because it”™s kids You keep that until they”™re 16 or 18 or they get married and you give them back the video.”
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Reach Peter Savigny at HEIRLOOMBIO@OPTONLINE.NET