Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jim Hobart. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jim , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

When you live far away from your family, you want to make the most of the time you get with them. If you’re lucky, you can plan a trip now and then to see them. About two decades ago, I made one of these trips to visit family in England, and I brought a borrowed video camera to record the countryside. Being a nerd for all things photo and video related, I didn’t think much about the camera sitting in my bag while I chatted with my aunt in her centuries-old home in southwest England.

But when my aunt started talking about her experiences during the infamous air raids of World War II, it occurred to me to put the camera to better use. I captured her stories, along with candid footage of her being herself: making lunch, hanging laundry, and just being the person I loved but rarely got to be around. While footage of an elder relative discussing her life and making tea might seem mundane to someone outside of my family, it was captivating to me. Filming my aunt felt right; I immediately recognized the footage’s significance. The following week I continued the documentation, and filmed my grandmother in the same way.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they lose someone they love – it’s the most unifying truth of the human experience. The cruel reality of nature is what makes the moments, memories, and keepsakes of our loved ones so precious.

I was back in the UK within two years, attending the funerals of both my aunt and grandmother. As it happens, I now had the only meaningful recordings of either of them, aside from a couple of old audio cassettes and a couple of photo albums’ worth of snapshots. Despite their quite low quality, these videos had suddenly became a bridge to the past, a connection that my family could treasure and reflect upon forever, and something that we can show future generations to connect them to their ancestors.

This experience ignited within me a desire to capture the essence of my parents on film, just like I had with my aunt and grandmother. But something held me back – the task felt too monumental. I started to understand the weighty implications. Recognizing what the recordings meant to my family after the passing of my aunt and grandma, the thought of creating similar recordings of my parents felt like accepting their mortality, even planning for it. This task demanded an extraordinary amount of emotional effort. Facing the gravity of being vulnerable with my father, and asking the same vulnerability of him, felt overwhelming.

I still yearned for these recordings, not just for myself, but for my entire family. I told myself I’d get around to it, that I’d muster the courage. But life’s demands often disrupt our well-intentioned plans, and I found myself too busy to schedule them. Then, one Thanksgiving I got a call from my mother that I had not anticipated receiving. A sudden seizure had let to my father’s hospitalization and a period of declining well-being. He was never the same again and lived only a few months longer, succumbing to aggressive brain cancer in the early spring of the following year. The sudden decline and passing of my father reinforced the missed opportunity to capture his story, and underscored the unpredictability of life.

I felt deep regret at missing the opportunity to capture his life story. I questioned why it felt so difficult when I had the chance. Finally, I realized: interviewing one’s own parents carries inherent difficulty, because those relationships are the most personal and complex.

Emotional ties to our loved ones can feel too heavy to explore head-on. People are often more candid and open with impartial interviewers than they might be with family members. Aren’t there things you share with a bartender, a hairdresser, or an acquaintance that you would never share with a parent, an aunt, or a grandmother?

From this realization, the concept of the Legacy Life Project was born. It emerged as a tribute to my father, Nick Hobart, and as a way to help others avoid the heartache of missed opportunities.

Legacy Life Project would utilize my professional expertise as a videographer, my professional filming equipment, and my team of skilled editors, to offer people a turnkey solution: beautifully crafted interviews complete with candid footage of their loved ones, done without any need for emotional strain on the part of the family. The result is a keepsake heirloom that offers people the chance to share their stories and provides families with an enduring essence of their loved ones for generations to come.

Legacy Life Project was born out of a profound realization that the best time to capture your loved ones is now, and a belief that as we age, documenting our stories and wisdom should become an integral milestone in our lives. I imagine something like a personal library for each family, where every member is honored when they reach a certain age, and I think about how amazing it is that we have reached a point, technologically, where this is possible.

Through technology, we’ve reached a place where we can see images and videos of nearly anything in the world. If you wish to see the English countryside, you can simply “Google it” and see stunning landscapes in all seasons, from all angles, through a variety of sources including professional photographers and local residents. But while the world has gotten smaller through tech, we still cannot Google “grandma” or “dad” and see videos of the people who create our world. There is no technology besides our own recordings that allow us to experience someone again once they are gone. It’s up to us to capture those moments, and it’s up to us to store them in a way that is accessible to us, and to our families, for years to come.

It is absolutely a worthwhile endeavor, and I speak from personal experience. What could be more precious than capturing and preserving the voices and stories of the people who shape our family? And I have seen, over and over, that people are moved when they see the end result of a project for their family member, and their testimonials speak for themselves.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been behind a camera since at least middle school. There is something very empowering about freezing a moment in time, and capturing the world from my unique perspective. But I also enjoy the technical mastery involved, and the fact that I am always learning, always improving, especially as technology evolves each year. This fascination has shaped my life’s journey completely.

By the time I graduated High School, it was more than just a hobby. My first job was as a photojournalist for a local newspaper, spending half the time shooting and the other half in the darkroom developing and printing photos on a deadline. This was great training for what was to come later in life.

In 2006, I founded Macbeth Studio in the heart of downtown Orlando. My initial focus was photography, and I was able to create a thriving business and build a reputation for professional headshots, architecture, products and lifestyle photography.

Technology never ceases to evolve, and thankfully, neither did I. With the advancements in camera equipment and my progressing expertise, I transformed Macbeth Studio into a hub for more than just photographs; it became a place where stories came to life — on video.

Videography became my new canvas for creativity. Digital cameras continued to improve, and new features and capabilities were added with each new model. But beyond just getting to try out new tools, it was the challenge of translating emotions, messages, and experiences into moving images that pushed me further than ever before.

Aviation, motorcycles, soccer, snowboarding, scuba diving – these are the passions that fuel my soul. But amidst all of this, there is a constant presence that brightens my world even further: my wife, Beth Hobart. Beth is a distinguished realtor in Central Florida, and she is not only my partner in life but my unwavering support as I continue to embark on various endeavors that might have sent another woman running for the hills. With her support, I’ve been able to follow an endless stream of passions that have brought me from professional headshot photography, to the artistry of underwater portraits and, ultimately, to crafting full blown video biographies through Legacy Life Project.

Creating story-driven video content became my forte. Connecting with people, understanding their unique narratives, and weaving them into powerful videos filled me with a sense of purpose. I wasn’t just capturing moments; I was capturing the essence of lives, businesses, nonprofits, and anyone with something to say.
My work has taken me on a journey across landscapes and communities. From across the country, I have embraced the challenge of meeting my clients’ visions with every project. But this work has also granted me the chance to support my community, and I’ve had the privilege of drawing attention to noble causes and meeting incredible people, which has amounted to the most rewarding aspect of my career.

Bringing stories to light, shining a spotlight on remarkable people, and contributing to meaningful initiatives became a driving force behind the overall mission of Macbeth Studio, and over time, we added Legacy Life Project into the mix as a way to focus solely on crafting story-driven video biographies.

Through Legacy Life Project, we capture stories worth telling, be they for families, non-profits, businesses, or other organizations. Our expert team empowers us to craft personalized video projects for whatever a client has in mind. Yet, our hearts remain fixed on one underlying goal: capturing the stories of everyday folks in a keepsake heirloom, to be treasured by their loved ones for generations. These are the projects at the heart of our mission.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The ultimate driving force behind new clients discovering Legacy Life Project has been word-of-mouth.

Once people experience our unique video projects, they’re advocates for our services and our team. Inevitably, they chat us up to their circle. Most of our clients have come to us in this fashion, and it makes us so proud that the people we have served love the project that much.

While we do our best to spread the word through advertising, it’s the heartfelt recommendations and personal stories that truly inspire people to connect with us, which underlines a basic truth: storytelling is the most powerful source of communication.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

So many people think that they aren’t remarkable enough for a project like this, or that their stories don’t hold any value. Trust me when I tell you that is just not true.

Think of someone you know personally, who is special to you. Are they special to you because of their career accomplishments, their feats of heroism, or their athletic abilities? Probably not. It is more likely that they have simply made you feel loved, made you feel accepted, and given you their time and affection.

When someone passes away, it’s remarkable the things we remember about them and the things that end up meaning the most to us: it could be something as simple as the sound of their laugh or the way they made a special recipe, or even the way they made a room feel when they entered it. You don’t have to be an astronaut or a movie star to be important to someone, and if you are important to even one person then the stories that shape your life could mean everything to that person.

What would it be like to possess a video interview with your grandparents, or great grandparents? Every person I have asked this to says that it is something they would cherish. Now we have the opportunity to give that to ourselves and to our children.

Ultimately the mission driving Legacy Life Project is wrapped up in the belief that every single person is a library of stories worth preserving. The objective is clear: to ensure that these stories are not consigned to oblivion.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.legacylifeproject.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legacylifeproject/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/legacylifeproject
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/legacy-life-project/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@LegacyLifeProject

Image Credits
Photo by Legacy Life Project