12 Archives & people
Living Archive
The short answer
Living Archive brings old photographs back: Mockumentary repairs damage, adds color, and animates the photo into a short moving scene. Single photos become living portraits; a box of photos and a few stories become a narrated family-history, memorial or brand-anniversary film. Your original scans are kept untouched.
- For
- Families, memorials, and brands marking an anniversary.
- Turnaround
- A single photo in 3–5 business days; a narrated film in 2–4 weeks
- Price
- Quoted to your brief within one business day
- Proof
- 1 film on this page
Mulberry Street, 1900 · Living Archive
Read the case →How it works
- 01You send scans or phone photos of the originals, and the stories behind them.
- 02We restore and colorize, and tell you which colors are documented and which are our interpretation.
- 03We animate each photo into a short scene with subtle, believable motion.
- 04For a film, we write the narration with you and cut it with music.
What you get
- Restoration of tears, fading, dust and scratches
- Colorization, with interpreted colors noted as such
- Each photo animated into a short moving scene
- Optional narrated film for a family history, memorial or anniversary
- Your original scans returned untouched
Turnaround
A single photo in 3–5 business days; a narrated film in 2–4 weeks
Consent
We need written consent from every person who is shown or voiced. We never recreate a real person without it, and AI-generated work is labeled as such.
Questions
About living archive
Can you animate an old family photo?
Yes. We restore it, optionally colorize it, and bring it to life as a short scene with subtle motion: a breath, a glance, a smile, the wind. We keep the motion gentle so the person stays recognizably themselves.
Is the colorization accurate?
Colorization is an interpretation. Where you know a color, such as a uniform or a dress, we match it; everything else is our best judgment, and we tell you which is which.
Do you need consent for photos of people who have died?
For a private family or memorial film, the family’s consent is enough. For anything public, such as a brand anniversary film, we ask for consent from living people shown and the estate where it applies.
Do I need to send the original photos?
No. A good scan or a sharp, evenly lit phone photo works. Keep the originals safe; we never need them in the mail.
Get a quote
Tell us about it.
A real reply from the director within one business day. No call needed to get a number.
hello@mockumentary.io