A family history in every shoebox

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Alan Francescutti helps clients weave a narrative from old photos and heirlooms.

Behind the camera, Alan Francescutti looks for the shot that will capture a moment or show a person’s humanity.

“My interest has been in capturing people, showing interactions between people or with their surroundings, something that’s candid, pictures that are story-telling,” he said.

As Bainbridge Video Productions, Francescutti now employs those same skills to help people tell personal histories through video – combining photos, on-camera interviews and personal artifacts – as well as such related services as photo restoration, and transfer of old videos or film to DVD.

Francescutti closed his business of 24 years, Madison Avenue Photo, last fall. Looking for the next thing to do, he was introduced to genealogy by a former customer, and found that the study of ancestry is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the country.

Beyond his technical knowledge to put together all the elements – from prints that need restoring and scanning to taping interviews and interweaving music and narration – Francescutti finds that his services help people who have been waiting for a “rainy day” to go through shoeboxes of photos.

He begins each project by helping clients sort through materials that may include photos, old films, documents, wedding dresses and heirloom furniture, to find the story that will define what goes into the video.

One couple traced their family lineage to before the Pilgrims; a separate but common history of the two families in the lumber industry became the story’s focal point. For another client, a composer, Francescutti told of how the man’s early family experience impacted his music.

“I have to be a bit of a reporter to ferret out the story,” Francescutti said, but the real work is “culling things down to a single person or event. It makes it a lot easier if you can wrap your hands around a timeframe or person instead of incorporating an entire life.”

From the narrative, Francescutti conducts and films the interviews. In post-production work, he scans in photos, sometimes taking new shots of family artifacts, and weaving it all into one story. A personal history will usually take four to six weeks to complete and costs about $2,000-$3,000.

Francescutti keeps a copy of each project as a back-up for several years.

“The more I get into this, the more I am told how people wish they had sat down with a parent or older relative before the history became fuzzy or lost,” Francescutti said. “Everybody I talk to says it’s a great idea, but a daunting task.

“What I do is provide a starting point.”

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Tales told

Bainbridge Video Productions offers personal history video services as well as restoration of old photos, transfers of prints or old home movies and tapes to DVD, portrait and wedding photography, and “love story” video presentations about the bride and groom commonly shown at weddings. Call 842-3936 or email bainvidpro@aol.com.