FAQS

How long are projects?

Recorded oral history interviews usually run anywhere from 2 to 12 hours in length and are scheduled over several days or weeks at a location of the narrator’s choosing, normally at a client’s home or at our home office in Madison, Wisconsin. However, during this age of global pandemic, we are currently offering remote interviewing through various online platforms or by using digital recorders that we send directly to you. Within a project, interview sessions normally run 90 to 120 minutes. Post-production and project delivery are normally completed within 4-12 months of the final interview.

How much does this cost?

Budgets range greatly depending on the scope, format, and amount of production involved. After determining with you the scope, format, and approximate length of your project, we are happy to provide you an estimate for your project, free of charge. If our services do not match your available resources or specific wishes, we will do our best to point you towards other services and resources. For a general price list or an individual estimate, please contact us.

Who holds the copyright?

Explicit oral history agreements regarding copyright, confidentiality, and standard use and distribution are discussed in our preparation phase and defined in our service agreement with you. You decide who will receive copies and access to your archive.

Where can I meet you?

Once our world emerges from the global pandemic with widespread vaccinations and safe ways to meet in person, Life History Services will resume providing face-to-face interviewing services at the local, national, and international level. Reasonable travel budgets will be included in project estimates and may include air and ground transportation, lodging, travel time, and miscellaneous expenses. Until then, we will be using high end recording equipment to conduct interviews remotely via phone and internet.

What formats do you recommended?

Permanency, durability, and accessibility of oral histories for generations to come are essential to any successful oral history project. Since one cannot go back in time and improve the quality of an original recording, the best-case scenario involves using the highest archival-quality media available today. After extensive research and experience with numerous recording formats, Life History Services recommends the following video, audio, and print options. See what we offer for specifics on the deliverables for audio, video, and print productions.

Audio

Broadcast quality digital audio recordings (44.1kHz, 24 bit, wav & mp3 files), professionally mastered and transferred to audio CDs and hard drive devices for listening and storage.

Video

Broadcast quality, high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) digital video, professional mastered, authored, and transferred to DVDs and hard drive devices for viewing and storage.

Print and digital

Transcription of all interviews in hard copy and digital formats. If requested, development of well-written organized and compelling manuscript from oral history transcripts, organized into full-length, first-person memoirs or shorter, third-person biographies. Professional graphic design to incorporate photos and other archival documents. Print-on-demand book publishing for private and/or public distribution.

Virtual and hard storage archiving

We deliver all interviews and produced materials to you on a project hard drive. Cloud-based storage systems are also recommended and offered via a project website or archive, accessible privately or to the public, per you request.

How much do you edit?

All oral history projects are delivered to you in their entirety, with some basic editing. Light video editing incorporates music, titles and credits. Audio editing may include subject indexing and sound mastering. Transcription of interviews involves light editing for grammar, clarity, and readability. Print manuscripts are developed from interview transcripts and involve several rounds of review with the narrator(s). A list and explanation of all prices and services will be furnished upon request.

MORE QUESTIONS? Please contact us for answers!

You conduct the interviews with insight, being inquisitive enough to make it interesting and yet with the discretion to make the person feel comfortable

Ariel Cojuc

Grandmother, Mexico

Your gentle questioning and sympathetic manner helped me search and express ideas that had never occurred to me, but lay buried in my subconscious.

Joseph

Cantor-Educator, California

You know how to make your interviewee comfortable and your questions come at the right time—they do not interrupt thought, but keep the conversation flowing; moreover, they lead to substantive answers.

Louis Heilbron

Attorney-Educator, California

You have a way of putting your subjects at ease and making them feel as though they and their personal stories are the most important of all the ones you have done.

Marvin Schonberg

Administrator/Writer, California

As the Archivist of Temple Emanu-El, an historic San Francisco congregation founded in 1850, my association with Ms. Hecht began in 2004 when she and I embarked on a project to digitize a series of decade-old oral histories she conducted in the 1990s. I cannot emphasize enough my respect for Ms. Hecht’s professionalism and for the initiative, creativity, and practicality she brought to our project. Furthermore, as I watched each of the interviews she conducted on behalf of Temple Emanu-El, I was especially struck by the sensitivity with which she guided her subjects. It was readily apparent that her preparation for each interview was extensive and that her ability to gain the trust of each subject and engage him or her in a lively, meaningful conversation was impressive. In addition, the supplementary written materials, which accompanied each interview could not have been more expertly produced.

Paula Freedman

Archivist, Edith S. Green Oral History Project of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, CA

My parents felt comfortable with you and shared details that might have been lost forever had you not been such an experienced and professional interviewer.

Edith

Editor, Wisconsin

Being interviewed was a moving experience for me largely because of your sensitivity and capacity to sense the directions into which we should head.

Hildegard

Psychotherapist, California

I was pleased beyond any expectations. Anita has the technique and ability to make the interviewee feel comfortable.

Myer

Attorney, California

Anita Hecht recently presented her life history work in a panel about writing memoirs at our college. Her professionalism and expertise was immediately obvious. She not only understands the societal importance of recording our personal histories but also the integrity and quality with which those stories are told — in terms of presentation, respecting the goals of her clients, and creating a well-crafted narrative. The audience left feeling both enlightened and inspired by her work.

Guy

College Educator, Wisconsin

I thank you very much for the interest you placed in this work, based on your intelligent and skillful questions that did not interrupt the flow of the conversation, but were inserted at the appropriate places.

Rina

Daughter, Mexico