Shortly before Connie Dunlap died in October, she sat in front of a camera focused in a tight close-up and talked about her faith and how it shaped her battle against cancer.
“Our legacy is usually money or property that we pass down to our children and grandchildren,” she says softly but earnestly. “But I think a legacy of faith and our life is much more valuable.”
The Forest Lake, Minn., resident, who was 68, had called the Rev. Alan Naumann and asked him to record a farewell message to be shared with her family after her death. “It was important for her to know that her grandchildren, who were too young to remember her, would one day get to know her,” said Naumann, who also is a videographer.
Memorial videos are the latest twist on the video slide shows of snapshots that are often shown at wakes and funerals. Aging baby boomers, completely comfortable in the medium of video, are using it not only to look back but also to leave a final message for the future.
This new kind of video, sometimes called legacy or end-of-life video, is becoming so popular that some funeral homes are being outfitted with video projection systems, and churches that used to frown on them are embracing them.
Once you’ve seen one of the videos, advocates say, you’ll understand why.
“The emotional impact of these is so powerful,” said Ken Kurita, owner of Videon Productions in Excelsior, Minn., who made a memorial video for his father’s recent funeral. “Which memory would you rather take with you (from a funeral): the lifeless body lying in a casket, or the living, breathing person you loved, complete with all their mannerisms, their smile, their sense of humor?”
Kurita’s father, who died in January at age 83, used his video to recall boyhood anecdotes and even worked in a little humor. “That was my dad,” Kurita said, tearing up slightly as he watched the video in his editing booth. “This is all about life’s treasured moments.”
Naumann is credited with making one of the earliest memorial videos in 1988. In addition to being a minister, he’s the owner of Minneapolis-based Memory Vision. In the late ’80s, he was serving as the chaplain at Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis. He bought a video camera and started experimenting with it. One of those experiments was a video biography, and when he showed part of it at the subject’s funeral, he knew immediately that he was onto something special.
The cost of memorial videos varies tremendously. Prices can start as low as $200 for an electronic photo album to as much as $20,000 for one with exclusive music and interviews with relatives and friends. A typical video of an interview with the subject costs $1,000 to $2,000.
DIY approach
While professional videographers would like you to hire them, many believe so strongly in the medium that they encourage people to create their own memorial video.
“If you can’t afford to hire me, at least get a video camera, put it in front of grandma and grandpa and record them,” says Ken Kurita. “Everyone has a story, and we need to get those stories now.”
— J.S.
