The Elephant In The Room With Traditional Legacy Videos
This is a friendly critique of the outdated way many legacy videos are currently created
Discovering There was a Problem
I was in a conversation with a friend of mine recently, this friend in his early 70s. We started reflecting on fond memories and events from the past. I brought up his parent’s who had both passed away about 4 years ago. I asked if he had any videos of them sharing their life story. To my delight he said he did. He and his siblings had hired a video production company to come and sit down with them for an afternoon and record a legacy video. So, I asked him how the final video turned out and he said, “I don’t know. I’ve never watched it.”
I was taken aback when he said this. Why had he never watched it? So, I asked him. He explained to me the content of the video didn’t interest him because he was familiar with the topics they covered. I internally slapped myself, “Why would someone who had spent 70 years with someone, care to watch a video where it’s basically two hours of autobiographical facts they know like the back of their hand?”
Now, of course, the viewer is supposed to be future generations of relatives and not the immediate son. However, the larger issues still stands.
Elephant One: Reducing People’s Lives To Autobiographical Facts
Legacy videos typically reduce people’s lives to autobiographical facts. They are full of questions like:
- “What was your father like?”
- “Describe your childhood.”
- “How did you meet your spouse?”
Now, these are not bad questions to be asking. These are good questions a lot of times. But the problem is this, people’s lives cannot be encapsulated by “mere autobiographical facts”. We are emotional, we feel deeply, we persevere, we fall short, we sacrifice, we are distinct from each other, we have uniqueness. Often times the very things that make us relatable and unique as humans are not emphasized. For example, would you have a stronger connection to someone who told you about a time they messed up/did something wrong and what they learned from that experience? Or would you feel closer to someone who talked about their career and what college they went to? You would probably feel more connected to the first individual because we’ve all made mistakes, and we can relate to that in a very human way. It also displays a level of humility for someone to talk about an area that doesn’t paint them in the best light. This gives a deeper sense of who this person is. Now, people are also connected by their backgrounds and interests. So, information regarding where a relative worked or attended college is important.
The point of this paragraph is to say: legacy videos should contain these important autobiographical facts but they should also contain answers to the deeper questions that go below the surface into who this person was. Autobiographical facts are not the problem, it’s legacy videos that only contain autobiographical facts that are the issue.
Elephant Two: The Length of Legacy Videos
Legacy videos have traditionally been these extended interviews that span hours and hours long. This makes it a substantial task for someone to sit down and enjoy the videos and an even bigger task for families to coordinate schedules so they can watch together. We’ve modernized our videos to solve this problem. What we do is put our focus into creating an engaging, inspirational 10-25 minute documentary that masterfully tells the story of your loved one. This way families can all sit down and enjoy the life and legacy of their loved one together. And someone down the line in the family lineage doesn’t have to watch 4 hours’ worth of video to get a sense of who their great, great grandfather was. They can sit down and be inspired by a concise video and have a grasp of who their relative was. But don’t worry if you do want extended interviews because we include these in separate video files in the final video delivery. So it’s not an either-or situation. This approach is based on quality over quantity.
The Result Of The First Two Elephants: Unengaging, Long Legacy Videos
The result of legacy video production companies producing videos that are a) based strictly on generic autobiographical facts and b) video duration that goes for hours and hours is ultimately a recipe for creating long, uninteresting legacy videos.
For a final illustration, think of a movie you love. One of the movies that I thoroughly enjoy is a football-related movie called “Facing the Giants”. It’s a movie about facing giants in your personal life and giants on a football field and how you respond to adversity. I’m drawn in by the story, the challenges faced, and the game of football. So, what’s your favorite movie? Think about what makes that movie so captivating to you personally. Is it a comedy? Is it an adventure movie? Is it a sentimental romantic movie? What emotions does this movie bring out of you? Now transition to a movie that you couldn’t stand. Something you either couldn’t finish or something you thought was so dumb that you regretted watching it. The point here is that we all have movies and videos that we’ve watched and enjoyed more thoroughly than others. Not all videos are created equally. This concept is applied to legacy videos. Some legacy videos are extremely well done and tell the story of the subject beautifully. There are other legacy videos that are boring and hard to watch. The last thing someone wants is a video that makes their loved one’s life boring.
Watch An Example
Here’s a legacy video we did on behalf of a young man named Spencer. Spencer was diagnosed with encephalitis when he was a child. Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain, this delayed Spencer’s mental development significantly. After a decade his encephalitis worsened leaving him in conditions where the family feared he might pass away.
They contacted Midwest Legacy Films to create a video that preserved precious moments from Spencer’s life and his impact on friends, family, and classmates. They also wanted something to show at Spencer’s celebration of life service.
Next Steps
If you’re interested in creating a legacy video, you can give us a call at 612-564-2157 or you can fill out the contact form below and we will reach out to you.
