Our 45-Second Video, 20 Years in the Making

by ParentCo. February 24, 2015

The movie Boyhood has earned huge buzz and won numerous awards. Shot over 12 years, it’s a coming of age story about one boy growing up from age 12 to 18 in a broken home. It's a seamless depiction of the authentic journey of a single character, played by a single actor, growing from boyhood to manhood.

It’s a beautifully executed film. It's also a technical accomplishment, representing a tremendous commitment of time, focus and energy. A lucky few of us have parents that were dedicated to documenting our childhoods with such care. John Dolan is one of those parents. He's an extremely talented photographer who captured the growth of his children over 20 years via photography and Super 8 footage. After seeing the exceptional archive John created for his daughter, we realized that it was a stunning example of what we want all parents to achieve for their children with Notabli. In fact, we loved his work so much we commissioned the actual footage of his daughter and hired talented video produce Joe Tomcho to create our first professional video.

A Beautiful Reminder

On the surface, this is a simple product video with a story and emotional hook. But it's also asking parents to imagine having their child's story preserved in a single private archive. John's experience with his kids is somewhat unique. As a professional, he had the tools to document their lives. But even now, as smartphones have made it easy for parents to snap thousands photos of their kids, it's rare for parents to have a single, organized, private archive of these moments in one place. We’re taking more photos and videos of our kids than any generation in history. But how are we actually preserving and organizing these memories for our children? Like the producers of Boyhood, John had a commitment to documenting his children’s experiences over two decades. He knew he wanted to create a record of their lives to pass down to them. I believe that many of us will regret that we scattered our memories all over the internet on social media accounts and other sites. We're capturing sights, sounds and scenes that our children will wonder about and love to return to. But where are we keeping them? Where will you turn when they ask "Can you show me what my room looked like when I was 3? "What did my first bike look like?" "What did Grandpa’s voice sound like?" Assembling the video for Notabli was a reminder of why we're building it in the first place. Thank you John Dolan and family for these beautiful images and inspiration.


ParentCo.

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