Frequently Asked Questions

A screenplay for a full-length book usually takes a few hours; shorter books are quicker. The starting looks and voices take about an hour. Each part's cast usually takes a few minutes to about 15, and your film's page shows a progress bar and roughly when it will be ready. Once you approve the cast, the part takes about an hour or two to make, and we email you when each step is ready, so you can close the page.

Your screenplay as a PDF and a Final Draft (.fdx) file, each finished part as an HD (1080p) MP4 video, and the whole film once its parts are approved. You can also download a shorter theatrical release, your film arranged as a two-part film, series or web series, and short vertical clips, if you choose to make them.

Yes, even after your voices are approved. On your film's page, the narrator card lets you describe the voice you would like, or record or upload a short sample of your own voice. It takes a minute or two, and every part cast from then on uses the new voice. Your own voice can be used for one role in each film.

Yes, where a picture calls for one. When each part is first made, small hand-drawn moving touches such as steam from a cup, smoke from a pipe, falling snow or someone snoozing are added only where they clearly fit, sized to what they come from, and never comic ones in a sad or serious moment. Most pictures have none. You can move or remove any of them, or add your own, in the part editor.

Yes. In the part editor, click a spoken line and choose how it sounds: telephone, radio or TV, walkie-talkie, megaphone, school PA, auditorium, big echo, small room, far away or through a wall. When your screenplay already says a line is heard on the phone or over an intercom, that sound is added for you, and you can change it or turn it off. Your choice is kept whenever the part is rebuilt.

Yes. When each part is first made, a few sound effects are added only where something clearly makes a sound, such as a door slamming or a phone ringing. In the part editor you can also choose a picture, describe any sound in plain words ("an old rotary phone rings twice"), and it is made in a few seconds. You can move, re-make, make louder or quieter, or remove any sound, and it stays with its picture.

Yes. On your film's page, the Lettering card lets you pick a font, from marker or handwritten to typewriter or classic book, and a colour for your title card, part titles and chapter titles. Parts made from then on use it. To update a part already made, open it in the editor and make the final video again.

Yes. The narrator card on your film's page has a speaking-speed slider with a Listen button, so you can hear the pace before saving it. Every part made from then on uses it, and you can tick a finished part that is not yet approved to have its narration re-recorded at the new speed.

Yes. Your film opens with its title, and each part opens with the title of its chapter. When one part covers several chapters, each chapter's title appears as that chapter begins, rather than all of them at the start. They use the lettering you chose, and you can see them on the Titles row of the part editor.

Yes. Words your screenplay puts on screen, such as a place or a date, appear on the Words row of the part editor, where you can retype them, drag them to a new moment, make them stay up longer or shorter, or remove them. The + beside Words adds new ones, and the + beside Titles adds a title card with your own words. They are shown in your film's lettering and appear when you rebuild the part.

Yes. When your free one-minute sample is ready, your film's page shows a private link you can copy and send to family, friends or anyone you would like to show it to. Anyone with the link can watch that minute, but nothing else in your project can be seen, and the page is not listed on search engines.

Yes. After watching your free minute, "Make it yours" lets you pick a voice from our library, or record yourself reading a short passage from your book and hear the copy of your voice before you use it. You can also choose the lettering. Nothing changes until you press "Recreate my minute", which you can do once, and your choices carry over to your whole film.

Yes. Your full film stays as the director's cut, and you can also make a shorter theatrical release by unticking whole scenes to leave out, or by setting a target length and letting us suggest a cut you can adjust. It is made afresh from your approved parts at no extra charge, and we email you when it is ready to download.

Yes. Under "How to release it" on your film page, we suggest the format that suits your story: one feature film, a film in two parts, a limited series, a web series or a short film. You can change the number of episodes, where they divide and every title, and we make the files from your approved parts, with a title page for each episode, at no extra charge. Each web series episode ends with your book's cover, title and author, where readers can get it, and the next episode.

Yes. "Get it seen" on your film page asks what matters most to you, such as the most viewers, a producer, selling your book or family and friends, and writes a plan for your film: who is likely to care and where to find them, when to release what, a press release and ready-to-post texts. It also suggests short vertical clips of your best moments, with captions, for YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Reels. Nobody can promise views or a producer, but this gives your film its best real chance.

No. Enter your email and we send you a secure link that signs you in, so there is no password to remember. Your films stay private to your account, and you can find them any time under My films.

A book, usually a memoir or family story, as a Word document, PDF, EPUB or plain text, from 1,500 to 110,000 words (for a longer book, write to hello@memoirmovies.com for a quote). If you already have a screenplay, upload that instead (Final Draft, Fountain, PDF, Word or text) and we use it exactly as written. Uploading is free, and you see how long your film will run and its price straight away.

Yes. In your MemoirMaker dashboard choose “Make it a film” beside the memoir. It arrives here signed in and ready for its screenplay, with no second upload or password.

It follows your book. Every word is kept, so a short memoir or family story becomes a film of about 90 minutes or less, and a full-length memoir becomes a long film, often several hours, which suits a limited series or web-series episodes. We suggest the release format that fits its length, and you can also make a shorter theatrical cut yourself by choosing scenes to leave out. As a guide, 20,000 words runs about 2½ hours and 70,000 words about 8½ hours.

You upload your book free and pay once to start. Your screenplay is written from your book, in your own words, and you read it, ask for changes and approve it. Starting looks and voices for everyone are then made for you. After that, the film is made one part at a time, usually one part per chapter, in three steps: 1) the part's cast: everyone in it, at their age in that part and dressed for it, with their voices, and the places, which you can change and then approve; 2) we make the part; 3) you watch it, change it in the part editor if you like, and approve it, which unlocks the next part. The approved parts join into your finished film.

No. The narration is your own sentences, copied word for word. Every sentence of your book is kept and none is reworded, and dialogue you wrote is used exactly. The only new words describe what we see on screen. If you upload your own screenplay, we lay it out and never reword it.

Yes. The screenplay, drawings, voices and music are made with AI, and you direct it: you approve the screenplay, the cast sheet, the voices and every part before the next one is made.

Each person is drawn once at every age they appear, as a starting look. Every part then gets its own cast, made from those looks: the same person, dressed for that part. Anything that has not changed is simply reused and marked “Same as Part N”. A change you make in one part (glasses, say) carries forward to the parts after it, but never back to earlier parts.

Yes. Upload a photo of the real person and the character is redrawn from it in your film's style, and you can change any drawing in plain words on each part's cast. A drawing is a simplification, so expect a recognisable resemblance rather than an exact likeness.

Each character gets a distinct voice suited to their age, and children get children's voices. The same person at the same age keeps the same voice from part to part. On each part's cast page, Change voice lets you narrow the choices by age, gender, accent or words like "warm" or "raspy", hear each voice read that person's own line, and pick one. You can also record your own voice for one role, such as the narrator; it must be your own voice.

Yes. Each part opens in a simple editor with a timeline, and the + beside each row adds a picture, title card, on-screen words, spoken line, music, moving effect or sound where the playhead is. You can move, copy, delete and crop pictures, ask for a change to any picture in plain words, move or remove effects, music and sounds, or describe new ones. Click any spoken line to change its words, how it is read or how it sounds and re-record it on the spot, or delete it (a line from your book stays in your screenplay; only that part of the film drops it), then save and rebuild the part. New pictures are included up to about six per minute of film; everything else does not count toward that.

Fix what you can in the part editor, or tell us what should be different and we remake the part once with your notes, included in the price. Approving a part unlocks the next one.

One payment, set by the length of your book, with no subscription. A film of about 90 minutes (a book of up to 12,000 words, or a screenplay you have edited to about 90 minutes) is $799. Books are then priced in steps of 10,000 words: up to 20,000 words $1,149, 30,000 $1,499, 40,000 $1,899, 50,000 $2,249, 60,000 $2,649, 70,000 $2,999, 80,000 $3,399, 90,000 $3,749, 100,000 $4,149 and 110,000 $4,499. Longer books are quoted individually. It covers the screenplay written from your book, the cast sheet, the voices, every part and the finished film. A screenplay you bring is priced by its running time. Uploading is free, and you see your price before you pay.

Yes: upload your book, then ask for your free one-minute sample on your film's page. We skip the foreword and other front matter, find the first chapter of your story, and choose about a minute in it that should film best, made the way we make every film and emailed to you in about 20 minutes. You can open it in the editor to try changes and send Higgins one message about it. There is one free sample per account and per internet connection every 30 days, made from a book (a screenplay you upload goes straight into the studio), and you can always order your film without one.

You pay once, after you upload and see your book or screenplay recognised. If you uploaded a book, you can watch a free one-minute sample of it first. The film is still made one part at a time with your approval, and you can stop after any part and keep everything made so far.

Yes. Your project is visible only to you when signed in. Your book and photos are used only to make your film and are never published or shared.

Uploading is free, so you see your book or screenplay recognised before paying anything. Once production has started, the payment is not refundable. If something went wrong on our side, write to hello@memoirmovies.com and we will put it right.

You choose one of three hand-drawn styles when you start. Light-hearted is a hand-drawn cartoon with wobbly marker lines, grey pencil backgrounds, the people in colour, big round eyes that glance at whoever is talking, and moving mouths. Serious is a quiet black-and-grey ink drawing with only the people in colour, small eyes that blink, slow camera moves, dissolves between pictures and gentler music. Mid-century is a flat, colourful cartoon with the look of 1950s and 1960s TV and classroom films, with the rooms in muted colour; the start page shows an example of each.

Light-hearted suits funny, warm and nostalgic memoirs. Serious suits grief, illness, war, hardship and other stories that need a quieter tone. Mid-century suits nostalgic, funny and warm stories, especially ones set in the 1950s and 1960s. You can change your mind until your cast starts being drawn; after that, every drawing is made in the chosen style.