How we work

This is how a film portrait is made, from the order to the film. The steps are the same for Kort, Verhaal and Film.

For Verhaal and Film, one of us talks with you, looks at everything you send, chooses the images and their order, and edits the film. Kort is made without a call, from the photos you send, so that it can be ready quickly. Before you see any film, Kort included, one of us checks it from beginning to end. Nothing reaches you that one of us has not looked at.

We are a small studio in Leiden. Our backgrounds are in theatre, dramaturgy and film, and in AI research.

We use AI, artificial intelligence, as a tool: to restore and enlarge old photos and videos, to make photos move and to make new images. So most of the images in the film are made with AI, from your real photos, from what you tell us and from archive material. If you ask us to, we also use it to recreate a voice. Here is exactly what we do.

Restoring. Removing scratches, stains and rips from old photos and videotapes, and bringing back faded colours.

Enlarging. Making small or blurry photos larger, so they can be seen clearly on a big screen. In the process, AI fills in details that could not be seen in the photo, in faces too. One of us checks every photo to make sure the people in it still look like themselves.

Gentle movement. Making a real photo move: the camera coming closer, light shifting, wind in the trees. The people in the photo can move too, for example look up or smile. What someone does comes from the photo itself or from the story you tell us about it. One of us checks that the people in it still look like themselves. The film also says which photos we have set in motion.

Making new images. We make new scenes: the street where someone grew up, a kitchen from that time, the wedding day, often with the person themselves in them. We make them from what is really there: your photos, what you tell us, and archive material such as public photo collections and old Polygoon newsreels from Dutch cinemas. If the person is in them, we make those images only from real photos of them, and the same goes for anyone else in your story. One of us checks every image to see that the people in it still look like themselves. Images like these show how it may have looked, not exactly how it was.

Recreating a voice. If you have recordings of someone’s voice, such as voice messages or a video, we can recreate that voice with AI if you would like us to. That way you can hear a letter in the voice of the person who wrote it. How well this works depends on the recordings. If the voice does not really sound like the person, we tell you and don’t use it.

A narrating voice. In Verhaal and Film, a calm Dutch voice can read the narration. That voice is made with AI. It is the studio’s own voice, not a recreated voice of anyone in your story. Would you rather have a voice from the family, or only text on screen? That’s possible too.

At the start of the film it says ‘Made or edited with AI’, in every version. If a voice has been made or recreated with AI, it says so there too. The end credits say which images were made or edited with AI, including the photos we have set in motion. The EU AI Act asks for this, and we also do it where it isn’t required.

What we keep. The photos, videos, letters and other writing, sound recordings and music you send us, your name and contact details, and our notes from the conversation. These are copies: you keep your originals. We return any printed photos or tapes you give us.

Where. What you send us is stored in the European Union. For part of the work we use AI services, and some of them operate outside the European Union. Our privacy statement names them.

How long. We delete the photos, videos and anything else you sent us, and our notes from the conversation, 30 days after you receive the film. You can download the film itself for 90 days. After that we delete our copy too.

Please keep the film somewhere safe: after those 90 days we no longer have it, and the link stops working. If you would like us to keep the film for you for longer, just ask. If you give us written consent to show the film, we keep only the film itself for that purpose.

We keep emails between us for 12 months after we were last in touch. We keep the invoice for seven years, because tax law requires it.

Who sees it. The people who work on your film, and the service providers we need for it, for instance to store the files and to make images and voices. We don’t sell your information and we don’t pass it on for advertising.

If you come to us through a funeral director. We put in writing with that funeral director what we may and may not do with families’ information, as the GDPR (in Dutch, the AVG) requires.

You can read more in our privacy statement. Questions about your data? Email privacy@abeel.studio.

We only make a film portrait if the family wants one. If you are not sure everyone is happy with it, give us a call. If we make a film about someone who is still alive, we only do so with their own consent.

Please only send us things we are allowed to use. Photos from the family album are usually no problem. It can be different with photos taken by a professional photographer, and with music. Playing a song at a funeral service is not the same as using it in a film you put online. We’ll tell you beforehand what is possible.

Photos and videos often show other people too: family, friends, neighbours. We use those images in your film and nowhere else. We don’t make new images of anyone who is still alive unless they agree to it.