Project Legacy · Lincoln & Greater Nebraska
Record your veteran's story
while the window is still open.
Cinema-camera story films for Nebraska veterans of every era — service history, the things they only started telling late, and messages meant to outlast them. Private by default. Archived for a written ten-year minimum. Based in Lincoln, filming statewide.
or call (402) 610-4480
The window is real, and it does not announce itself
Most veterans did not come home and talk. They came home and worked — farms, railroads, classrooms, small businesses. Then, somewhere in their seventies or eighties, some of them started telling the stories. The names of the men in the photo. What the cold was actually like. Why they never ordered a certain meal again.
Families hear these stories start and think: we should record this. Then a season passes, and another. That is the honest reason this page exists. Nebraska's WWII and Korea-era veterans are in their nineties. Vietnam veterans are entering their eighties. The window to record them well is open right now, and it does not announce when it is closing.
A phone clip at a holiday table is better than nothing, but it gets lost in a camera roll. A veteran's story deserves a cinema camera, a proper microphone, and an hour where someone finally asks the questions nobody thinks to ask until they can't.
What we record: service history, plain words, and the things they only started telling late
A veteran story session is an unhurried, well-prepared conversation on camera. We film wherever the veteran is most at ease — their living room, a family home, a care facility, or our downtown Lincoln studio — on Sony cinema cameras with professional audio, so their voice is kept the way it actually sounds.
We do the homework first: where they enlisted, the branch and the era, what the family already knows and what it still wonders about. Then we cover the whole arc — leaving Nebraska, training, the people they served beside, the work itself as far as they want to go, the homecoming, and what all of it turned into afterward. We always leave room for direct messages: words meant for a spouse, for grandchildren, for people not yet born.
If your family has a folded flag, medals, a uniform, unit photographs, or letters home, we film them as careful close-ups and weave them through the story. Honors and traditions are handled the way they should be: with respect, and on the family's terms.
Filmed to an archival standard — ready for the Veterans History Project, if you choose
The Library of Congress runs the Veterans History Project, a national effort to collect first-person accounts from American veterans. It is a good program, and this service is built to sit comfortably alongside it: we are independent of any government or volunteer effort, but we film to an archival standard, so a family that wants to submit their veteran's account to a national collection has professional footage worth submitting.
Here is what you actually receive, and it is the part most production companies get wrong. On day one you get full copies of everything — the finished film and the complete master footage — on a physical drive and in private cloud storage. Nothing is held back, metered, or licensed back to you.
The masters are also held in the NVAR archive on redundant storage under a written ten-year minimum, retrievable by you or the people you designate. Drives fail and basements flood; a second, professionally kept copy is part of the promise, not an upsell.
Private by default, and the veteran holds the reins
Some service stories are hard to tell, and some were never meant for everyone. So the default is simple: every recording is private. Your veteran's film is never portfolio material, never a social clip, never a sample we show other clients. It is released only to the people the client names in writing — and to no one else.
The veteran also controls the conversation itself. We do not push past what someone is willing to say on the record. Plenty of powerful films are built from training stories, friendships, letters home, and homecomings, without a single sentence about combat. If a veteran wants to go further, we listen carefully and let them lead.
We serve families of every background and tradition, and we bring no assumptions about faith or ceremony into the room. One plain caveat: we are filmmakers, not attorneys. If you want a recording to play a role in estate or end-of-life planning, we will gladly coordinate with your advisor — the film is ours to make well; the legal questions are theirs.
Formats, pricing, and where we travel
Most veteran films take one of two shapes. A video letter, from $750, is a single filmed session: the veteran, on a cinema camera, saying what they want the family to keep — service memories, hard-won advice, direct messages to the people they love. A full legacy film, from $2,500, is an interview documentary: a prepared, longer session, edited into a finished film and delivered with every minute of master footage.
We are based at 1200 N St in Lincoln and film across Omaha and greater Nebraska. For veterans who cannot travel, we bring the studio to them — lights, cinema camera, and professional audio set up around a comfortable chair, at a pace that respects their energy.
Some families reach us late, sometimes days before a service. If that is where you are, our broader Project Legacy work covers memorial coverage and fast-turn tribute edits, and we will point you to the right option honestly. But if your veteran is here and able to talk, the best time to film is simply soon.
What clients say
“Nvar Studios exceeded my expectations. Nvar did an excellent job with our private family and spring photo session. From start to finish, the experience was professional, organized, and stress-free, and everything was completed on time.”
Luis Villamonte · Google Review · Family Session
Common Questions
Frequently Asked
How is this different from the Veterans History Project?
What if my veteran doesn't like talking about their service?
How much does a veteran story video cost in Nebraska?
Can you film at a care facility or veterans home?
Who can see the film afterward?
Start The Conversation
When you're ready, it starts with a quiet conversation
No pitch, no pressure. Tell us about your veteran — their era, their health, what the family hopes to keep — and we'll tell you honestly what we'd film, what it costs, and how soon it should happen. If now isn't the time, you'll still leave with better questions to ask around the kitchen table.
Book a Quiet Conversationor call (402) 610-4480