A personal documentary from The Open Journal costs from £2,250 for a Core Portrait, from £3,500 for an Extended Chronicle, and from £5,000 for a Signature Opus. Across the UK, published prices for personal documentaries and life story films run from under £1,500 to £15,000 or more. Every commission is quoted individually after a discovery call, which costs nothing. Payment in instalments over 3 or 6 months is available across all three tiers.
Our prices at a glance
| Tier | Starting price | Filming | Subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Portrait | from £2,250 | One filming day | One subject |
| Extended Chronicle | from £3,500 | Two filming days, multiple locations | One subject, sometimes more voices from people who knew them well |
| Signature Opus | from £5,000 | Full family coverage | Multiple subjects |
Most projects take 8 to 16 weeks from first conversation to delivery.
What personal documentaries cost across the UK
Published prices across the UK tend to fall into four broad bands. These are typical market ranges, not quotes, and what sits inside each band varies from one filmmaker to the next.
| Typical price | What it usually buys |
|---|---|
| Under £1,500 | A short, interview-led film. Often one camera and a few hours of filming. |
| £1,500 to £3,500 | A professionally shot portrait of 10 to 30 minutes. |
| £4,000 to £7,500 | Multi-day filming, director-led, with archive material such as photographs and home films woven in. |
| £7,500 to £15,000+ | Feature-length films, or films with several subjects. |
The lower bands are not a lesser choice. A single, well-recorded interview is worth having. Even an hour of someone’s voice, recorded properly, is something a family keeps.
The Open Journal sits across the middle of this range. Core Portrait and Extended Chronicle begin in the second band; Signature Opus begins in the third. What moves our work up from the entry band is the length of the edit and the person directing it. Every commission comes with a 60-minute shaped edit, not a short highlight film, and the full archive of everything recorded. Pri directs every film personally, and brings what he learned studying psychology to the interview itself. That is where the time goes.
What you get at each tier
Every commission includes the same core deliverables. The tiers differ in scope, not in care.
| Core Portrait | Extended Chronicle | Signature Opus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | £2,250 | £3,500 | £5,000 |
| Filming | One day | Two days, multiple locations | Full family coverage |
| Subjects | One | One, with more voices where the story needs them | Multiple |
| Archive footage integrated | — | Yes | Where the story needs it |
| Full-length archive of everything recorded | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 60-minute shaped edit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2 to 4 thematic clips | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Private family landing page | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hard drive in a presentation case | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bespoke presentation | — | — | Yes |
| Instalments over 3 or 6 months | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The private landing page is where family can watch and share from anywhere in the world. The hard drive is the physical copy. It is not a file sent over WeTransfer. It is something to hold.
Core Portrait is a single through-line — one person, one day, one story told well. Extended Chronicle brings in more time, more places, and the archive: old photographs, home films, letters. Signature Opus is the longest form. It is what you commission when the story is genuinely complex, or when the whole family belongs in it. There is more on what that kind of film becomes in what is a legacy film.
What affects the cost
Three things move the price.
Duration is the most significant. Longer films take longer to edit, and the edit is where the real work happens. It is not the filming that takes time; it is the weeks spent finding the shape of a life inside hours of recorded material.
Complexity adds to it. One subject, one location, one set of themes is the baseline. Multiple subjects, travel outside London, or archival work (old photographs, home films, letters) all add to the scope.
Travel is discussed separately. The studio is based in North London and takes commissions across the UK. Travel within London is included. Anything further is factored in and quoted clearly before any agreement is reached.
Why it isn’t priced like a day rate
This is the thing most people get wrong when they start looking into this. A videographer hired by the day will give you a number based on their time on location. That is not what a commission with The Open Journal is.
Pri is a director, not a technician. The shoot is one part of the work. Before it, there is time spent getting to know the subject properly, understanding what the real story is (which is often not the obvious one), and building enough trust that something true can happen on camera. After it, there are weeks of editing. Most of the thinking happens in the edit.
The price reflects the full scope of that work, from first conversation to final delivery. Honestly, the hours involved would make a day rate look strange.
Questions to ask any filmmaker before you commission
Whoever you choose, these are worth asking before you pay anything.
- Who directs the film? The person who conducts the interview shapes what gets said. Find out whether it is the person you spoke to, or someone else on the day.
- What exactly is delivered? The length of the finished film, whether you receive the full unedited recording, how many shorter clips, and in what form it arrives.
- Who owns the footage? Ask whether the family keeps the full archive, and whether the filmmaker can use any of it without permission.
- How long does it take? From first conversation to delivery. Ours is usually 8 to 16 weeks.
- What happens if the subject is unwell, or shy? Ask how the day is paced, whether filming can move, and how they help someone who doesn’t like being on camera. We have written about what happens when a parent is camera shy.
A good filmmaker will answer all five plainly.
Splitting the cost
Group commissions are fully supported. Siblings splitting the cost of a film about a parent is one of the most common ways commissions come together. The studio handles the agreement and delivery as a single project; how the cost is divided between the people commissioning it is entirely up to them.
A film is often the answer for the parent who says they don’t need anything. There is more on that in gifts for elderly parents who have everything.
How to find out the exact figure
Every project is quoted individually because no two commissions are the same. The starting prices above are genuine starting points, not bait-and-switch minimums.
To get an accurate figure, register interest on the site. Pri will be in touch to arrange a discovery call — about 30 minutes, and it costs nothing. It is also just a good conversation. Most people find it useful even if they are not yet sure.
Questions
How much is a Core Portrait exactly?
Core Portrait commissions start from £2,250. The final figure depends on scope, which is worked out during the discovery call. There are no hidden fees; everything is quoted before anything is agreed.
How much does a personal documentary cost in the UK in general?
Published UK prices fall into four broad bands. Under £1,500 for short, interview-led films. £1,500 to £3,500 for a professionally shot 10 to 30 minute portrait. £4,000 to £7,500 for multi-day, director-led films with archive material. £7,500 to £15,000 or more for feature-length or multi-subject work. These are typical ranges, not quotes.
What makes a personal documentary cheaper or more expensive?
Mostly time. The number of filming days, the number of people interviewed, travel, archive work such as photographs and home films, and above all the length and care of the edit. A single interview cut into a short film costs less than a multi-day portrait shaped over several weeks.
Can I pay in instalments?
Yes. All three tiers can be paid in instalments over 3 or 6 months. The structure is agreed at the point of commission.
What if I want to commission a film as a gift?
Many commissions are gifts. There is a full piece on how to give a personal documentary as a gift — including how to keep it secret and how far ahead to plan.
Does the price include filming outside London?
Travel within London is included. Anything further afield is discussed at the discovery call and quoted separately, clearly, before any commitment is made.
How is this different from hiring a videographer?
A videographer charges for their time on location. What you are commissioning here is a director-led portrait film; the shoot is one part of a months-long process that includes pre-production, a structured discovery conversation, filming, and a full editorial edit. The cost reflects that whole arc of work, not just the day with a camera.