Personal Video Biographies
Family Memories Get the Look of a Professional Documentary
Dorothy Barrett, center, and her husband James and daughter Debbie. At the Barretts' request, Greg Farnese and Laurie Appel made a documentary about Dorothy, who had Alzheimer's. Farnese Personal Television Biographers hide caption
When Greg Farnese and Laurie Appel aren't doing their day jobs -- he's a cameraman at Philadelphia sport events, she's a clinical psychologist -- they are working in a new niche of the video market. The Swedesboro, N.J. couple produce 20-minute documentary biographies of ordinary Americans.
The customer provides still photos and home videos, if they exist, and a list of people to interview. Laurie does the interviewing and writing, and Greg edits the video on his home computer and narrates. The price, which averages around $8,000, varies according to the number of interviews and locations.
The result: a present for the living, a memorial for the dying -- and a personal possession that wouldn't look out of place on many cable channels. NPR's Robert Siegel, host of All Things Considered, takes a look at the "professional" home video trend.