The $80,000 Family Video: Big Spender

CHICAGO (TheStreet) -- A picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand words. But the video biographies Robert Jordan produces for wealthy clients carry a steeper price tag: $80,000 and up.

Jordan, an Emmy Award-winning reporter and anchorman for WGN Television in Chicago, has offered personal documentaries for the past seven years through his company, Video Family Biographies. Each year, he produces an average of two films.

Robert Jordan, a reporter for a television station in Chicago, makes custom documentaries for wealthy families.

The idea came to Jordan after he offered a favor to a family friend whose mother had passed away. Tapping into his broadcast background, he produced a video tribute to the beloved matriarch. The positive reaction to the finished product led Jordan to wonder whether there was a market for more comprehensive videos.

"I asked some of my fellow trustees for the Shedd Aquarium [in Chicago] if any of them had had a biography done," he recalls. "One person had had a written biography produced, but no one had done anything in video."

As Jordan started pricing professional expertise and equipment needed to meet his high-end vision, he worried that the cost might be out of reach.

"I knew the style I wanted to produce would be expensive, because I wanted to do them documentary style, much like what you would see on A&E [and the Biography Channel]," he says.

In addition to camera personnel, sound engineers and post-production editors, Jordan knew there would be a lot of travel involved to include as many of the people, places and things needed for each documentary. One recent project, for example, took him from Chicago to New York, Florida and Denver.