Legacy Video Stories Featured in Hometown Newspaper
Reprint from The Melrose Weekly News
Keep your history alive with Legacy Video Stories
By GAIL LOWE
MELROSE— Learning about your ancestry has become a burgeoning business and little wonder. Who among us would not want to know from whom they inherited their talent for art or who passed down the propensity for being a gifted violinist? With the advent of ancestry.com and other online sites, people are finding it easier to learn about those who came before them.
Now we have former Melrose resident Jim Cosco, who has been a professional video producer for 30 years and owns a production company called Tippingpoint Labs based in Waltham. Cosco began his career working in local news and has spent the last 20 years telling brand stories for companies like Harvard University, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Putnam Investments and Phillips Lifeline.
But earlier this year, Cosco scanned the horizon and set his sights on something new, the senior population. Knowing that elderly people have stored in their memories fascinating pieces of the past that need to be recorded so future generations will not wonder about what went before, he expanded his business to include Legacy Video Stories.
A ”legacy video,” said Cosco, “is a video about a person’s family history, life and personal outlook. It starts by sitting down with him or her and holding a thorough interview.” He refers to what he does as “interviews of a lifetime.”
At the beginning of the company’s launch, Jim Cosco intended to interview his father, Vin Cosco. When the elder Cosco turned age 75, Jim Cosco told his father he wanted to bring all his fancy video equipment to his house and interview him about his life.
“My father was in sales and was a great storyteller so he immediately agreed and thought it was a great idea,” said Cosco. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, life got in the way and the video was never made. “Last year, my father passed away at the age of 83 and I never got a chance to interview him,” said Cosco. “It’s a huge regret in my life.”
Still, Jim Cosco was intent on capturing his family’s history on tape. Following his father’s death, he immediately sat down and interviewed his mother and documented family stories through her lens.
“When I saw how powerful that interview was, I started Legacy Video Stories to help other people tell their stories so they wouldn’t make the same mistake that I did,” he commented. “Really, Legacy Video Stories was founded in honor of my dad. It’s his legacy.”
Cosco’s early beginnings in Melrose included a love for television and film. He couldn’t get enough of seeing movies and would go to a theater any chance he could get. But his love for film did not begin and end with watching movies. “When I was a junior at Melrose High School, a friend and I started the Film and Video Club in order to have access to and learn how to use the editing equipment the school bought for the faculty,” he said.
Around the same time, he became fascinated with live television and breaking news so following high school graduation he enrolled in the journalism program at Boston University. He later worked in television news and eventually made a feature length documentary film. He also started pitching reality shows to production companies and agents in Hollywood, but when this didn’t pan out he decided to launch a company to make videos and tells stories for brands.
Cosco now works mostly on an independent basis except for larger projects when he must rely on freelance crews of camera operators, make-up artists, graphic designers, audio engineers and video editors. Asked what a typical day is like for him, Cosco said that it can be anything from going on location to hold a legacy interview to being in the studio editing something he has already shot. If he is not working on a video, he is at networking events and meeting people to tell them about why they should be sharing their personal stories, whether through video or using something as simple as pen and paper. “I’m a huge proponent of making sure you document your life and telling your story in any format that works for you,” he said.
This summer, he has traveled throughout New England to record videos including visits to Providence, R.I., Cape Cod and New Hampshire. “But I’ll travel anywhere in the country if the project is big enough and the subject wants to make a documentary film about their life,” he said.
Cosco believes that without making a concerted effort, a person’s story and history will disappear within one or two generations. “You really must try to document it, whether it’s through video or writing it down in order for people to learn and pass it down. I wouldn’t know much about my own grandparents or my great-grandparents if I didn’t make a point to ask my parents about them,” he noted.
Cosco thinks that people today are too busy living their day-to-day lives to have these conversations. “Many families today don’t eat dinner together and just talk,” he said. “The world is fast-paced and we’re losing that family connection. If we don’t make a real effort to document these stories, they will be gone forever. It’s never too early to start thinking about how you want to leave your legacy and tell your story,” Cosco continued. “You don’t have to be in your 80s or 90s to do this. In fact, a lot of times it’s better to do it when you’re younger and vibrant and healthy, so your family members remember the person you want them to remember, while you are full of life and vigor. Just start thinking about it early because usually it takes a while for someone to realize it’s a worthwhile thing to do.”
Cosco commented that though it is different for everyone, adult children are prone to thinking about their family’s legacy after their first parent passes away. “Once they experience that first major loss, they realize how important it is to make sure their family history is preserved before it’s too late,” he noted.
For seniors, he said, there are lots of trigger moments. “It could be when they downsize to a smaller home or move into a senior living community or God forbid it could happen if they’re diagnosed with a terminal illness. Or when they start to plan their financial estates. Estate planning is one way to leave your financial legacy, but how will you leave your personal legacy? “These videos can also be a great tool for families who are estranged from each other,” he said. “They can act as a conduit for communication and forgiveness.”
Another big moment comes if someone takes the initiative to preplan their own funeral. With that in mind, Cosco has partnered with Robinson Funeral Home and Gateley Funeral Home both in Melrose to offer his service as a resource to their families who are prearranging their own funerals. “It is a natural extension to that process and something that will give great comfort to their families once they are gone,” he said.
For more information, visit legacyvideostories.com.
