Bedford – When people take stock of their lives and make the time to ask themselves what they are leaving behind for the next generation, David Waldman hopes they will call him.

Waldman, a multi-media developer from Bedford, makes video biographies for families who want to preserve their history. His new business is called, “Treasured Memories.”

“I contact people, I go to their homes, I set up the camera, and I interview them about their lives,” said Waldman. “When a lot of people reach a certain age, they or their children want to do this so future generations will know what they were like.”

Waldman knows this from experience with his own family. Videography is a skill that Waldman says he picked up while learning to be a multi-media developer for textbook companies.

He had just started when his mother asked him if he would make a video for his 90-year-old grandmother. “I didn’t have very much at the time,” he said. “No lights, no microphones; just the camera.”

Later that same year, Waldman’s father was diagnosed with cancer.

“I had questions ready for the interview, but he never even needed any prompting,” said Waldman. “He just knew what he wanted to say.”

Now, Waldman has all kinds of equipment. A video camera, a digital camera, microphones, editing software; he is a one-man film crew.

Waldman says that editing a narrative told by another person is difficult enough, but once he has to add a second narrative told by their spouse, and another told by their children, things become tricky.

Life stories

On top of that, Waldman also adds background music that his clients can hand pick, and also films their old photograph collections so that they will fit seamlessly into the structure of the biography.

“The videos take about 10 hours to produce,” he said. “Counting the time I need to get the kind of music they want, to edit, and film the photographs. Old photos work the best. I just take digital pictures of them and film them later so that people won’t have to give me any of their actual photos.”

A single-person video is priced at $750, while a two-person video costs nearly $1,250, according to Waldman, who said that editing two people’s interviews so they lace neatly together was more labor intensive.

On Waldman’s web site, www.treasuredmemoriesvid.com, there is sample of a video biography he made for his godparents.

Soft jazz music plays in the background and old, faded photographs appear on the screen. Waldman’s godmother sits relaxed on a couch and speaks about her Russian immigrant parents and her husband of 62 years who used to pull her hair in kindergarten.

“I asked my godmother the first question and she never stopped talking,” said Waldman, who sees senior citizens as his target market and plans to approach local chapters of the AARP as well as various assisted living communities.

Next generation

Hoping to start a buzz by word of mouth, Waldman also has been offering the service to his friends and neighbors. “It is important that we pass things on to the next generation,” said state Rep. Ken Hawkins, who is a friend and client of Waldman’s.

“Will they know that my father was in Okinawa in World War II? This isn’t something they are going to learn in school.”

Hawkins says he has three grandchildren, two who are 6 months old and one who is 18 months old. He says that he would like to send them a message with his life story.

“I was kicked out of high school four times in four years,” he said. “But I wound up as an assistant controller for a $250 million corporation. I never even had an accounting class. I want them to know that if they work hard and have a positive attitude, they can accomplish anything.”

Hawkins says that his motivation is likely to be the motivation of many: the desire to leave something behind for those who come after him.

“This next generation needs more of this,” he said. “It is important for a family to know where it came from.”