Lauryn Cooney 00:00
Hi everyone and welcome to our Resource Spotlight with Memories Live. I am Lauryn Cooney and I am a COLONTOWN member and stage IV patient. And I’m here today with Kerry Glass. She is the creator behind Memories Live. Before we dive in, Kerry’s going to give us a short overview of what their organization does.

Kerry Glass 00:23
Memories Live uses the power of film to work with you in creating a legacy movie. These legacy movies are made at no cost as we are supported by grants and a fundraiser. So Memories Live gives you the opportunity to share your story, share your advice, and share yourself with your family.

Lauryn Cooney 00:45
Perfect. This is such a great topic and I’m really excited that Kerry’s with us today to go through it. So I’ll let Kerry, if she wants to do a little bit further in-depth of the process and what they do, I’ll let her take over.

Kerry Glass 00:59
Great. So I created Memories live, 15 years ago when I learned of a woman in the neighboring community who had lung cancer. She was 39, she passed away. She had two kids under the age of five, and it really struck me as a young mother.

That these kids would never know the sound of their mom’s voice. Never know advice from their perspective. And I thought to myself, what if I could take my skills as an art therapist and my skills as a movie maker and put them together and create, a nonprofit? So if we rewind my past, as I said, I have a master’s in art therapy.

Before that in college I dabbled in movie making, back when there were VHS tapes and big recording, and editing studios, . and I always knew I wanted to be an art therapist. I went to work at a nursing home for five and a half years, ran the art department there, ran a lot of groups and I ran a lot of individual sessions.

And the in the individual sessions, all these individuals wanted to do was talk and share their lives and share their stories. And I said, “this is so beautiful. This needs to be written down”. So we made some beautiful books that people dictated their life, their stories, their advice, and, we gave these as gifts to their families.

So I moved out of Manhattan at that time to the suburbs and said to myself, I want to wait till my younger one is finished with, going into kindergarten and let me then go back to working at the nursing home and, fulfilling, my mission of what I wanna do was work with people and enhance their lives.

And then I learned about that mother and I said, you know what? Let me take a pause and I want to help people to create legacy movies. So I said, I wanna take my skills as an art therapist and an empath and my skills as a movie maker and put them together. And the first year I filmed 12 people.

The second year I filmed 18 people. And to date, I film about 35 to 45 people a year. The first nine years I only filmed in the New York, New Jersey area where I can get into my car and drive, within an hour and a half, two hour radius to get to people. All those years, people reached out to me all over the country.

I live in Utah, I live in California. I live in Pennsylvania. Can you film me? And I said, I don’t have the budget. Number one and number two, I have so many people that reschedule on me the day of that it becomes a challenge that I can’t get on a plane or a train and go to film you. And then you may have to reschedule.

Now people are rescheduling because they’re not well, they have a bad night’s sleep, the bad reaction to medication, whatever it might be. So it’s not just because for any other, terrible reason. So, I said nine years in, I said, everyone nowadays has a camera on their phone or on their computer, their laptop, their desktop, whatever it might be.

Let me figure out a way to do this virtually. So it’s kind of done just like, we’re talking and having a conversation today. We pick a date, we pick a time. I send out a tip sheet on how to film yourself. I have my clients send me a practice clip before we film, so we go back and forth until it’s perfect.

Like Lauryn right now would say you’re too close. We don’t,

Lauryn Cooney 04:45
I know I’m very close. I’m very close.

Kerry Glass 04:47
Move back a little bit. Right. For me, I would say maybe like fill the screen in more, we go back and forth until it’s perfect, so the audio is great and the visual is great. So prior to, us meeting and setting up the the appointment, I will send out a sheet that has all the questions and conversation topics. I encourage people to take out topics that are not relevant to them, to add topics that I may have forgotten that are important to them. So most people say, Kerry your questions are great.

Let’s go through as many as we can. Some people say, Kerry, your questions are great. I’m gonna use a little bit of yours, and I’ve created a little bit of mine. And then some people say, Kerry, your questions are great, but I’m not using any of them. They got my mind going and I’ve created my own dialogue.

There’s no wrong way to do this. There’s no right way to do this. We are all unique and individuals have our own stories, have our own paths, have our own sets of advice, and that’s how the movie comes out. Unique to you, there’s no messing this up. You know your story best and whatever you’re gonna share.

That day with me in that moment of time is going to be the gift that you are creating for your family. So how it works is it’s a one time occurrence.

We talk for about an hour. I try not to film for more than an hour because it becomes too long for my clients. And number two, the families have told me that it’s too long.

So the average film is about 45, 55, 60 minutes. Depends on the first one time, a couple of times I filmed, people and it was only like 15, 20 minutes and that was them. Short. Sweet. Yeah. And point. So, we’ll set up a date. We’ll set up a time. We’ll go through all the practices. We’ll get on the phone together.

They’ll put me on speaker phone or on FaceTime, and then they’re filming themselves with another device so that you need a phone, okay, that you can put on speaker phone, whether it’s a landline or a cell phone. And then you need something that has a video camera to film yourself, whether it be a phone, a laptop, a desktop, or even a camcorder if you have one.

Well, my job is to support the person while they are filming. If they get emotional or upset, I’m there for them in the best way that I can be. I am also taking notes while you’re talking so I make sure when you send all the footage to me that I get all the footage ’cause we’re stopping and starting a lot, number one, to take a break. Number two, because you can’t send me 45 or 60 minutes on edit, nonstop ’cause the file becomes too big. So we send small little files, and that works beautifully. I’m reminding the person to hit record and making sure that their device didn’t go back to taking a photograph.

And I’m making sure that they’re seeing the numbers go along while the record is going. I’m mostly on mute, but I pop in and out so there’s no background noise on my end. So, I’m gonna pop in. I’m gonna say, you’re spending too much time on this topic. Let’s wrap it up and move to the next one, because we got only 60 minutes to record. Or, I pop in when necessary. Otherwise, I’m muted. and again, we stop every eight to 10 minutes. Number one, to take a break, to take a breath, to take a sip of water, to look at your notes, to make sure you said everything you wanted to say.

And then also number two, to get the footage to me. So at the conclusion of the hour, we may have 8, 10, 12, 15 clips that you’re gonna have to then send to me. If you have Apple products, it’s great. Just put it in a shared file and share it with me. If you don’t have Apple products, it’s okay.

We can put it in a Google Drive or some other kind of drive. I send you all these instructions as to how it works and I will tell you a hundred percent of people who I film, whether it’s in person or virtually, tell me I’m dreading doing this. I was so nervous. I wanted to do it. I didn’t know how to film myself.

I didn’t know what to talk about. I just sat down a million times and I couldn’t do it. And the fact that I have everything prepared, I’m there to support them through the process, works beautifully. They also tell me they were dreading doing it with me and filming with me and so nervous that they weren’t going to be able to do it correctly.

I say, please just give this two minutes. After two minutes, you’re gonna be immersed in the process and you’re gonna be great. And at the conclusion of the filming my last question is how was this, how did it feel? Prior to, you said you were so nervous. How was the process? A hundred percent of people say, I don’t know why I wasted all my energy worrying, and why I put myself through that. This was such an amazing process. It was so cathartic. Knowing that I’m creating this gift for my family, it was such an amazing process. So, this process of Memories Live is twofold. It’s number one, a beautiful process for the ill person who is creating this for their family.

And number two, it’s so wonderful that the families have their loved one’s image, their loved one’s voice, their loved one’s advice and stories. Now I encourage my clients to be as creative as they want to be. I’ve had musicians sing songs take out their instrument and sing songs or just sing with their voice.

I’ve had moms and dads sing lullabies, read bedtime stories, read poetry, go through rituals that they usually do with their kids and film themself. So I encourage people to be as creative as they want, or just to do the regular movie as they want to. Also at the conclusion of the live footage that we create, there’s an option to share photographs as well.

So if you wanna share photographs with me, I ask for no more than 50. Also if you want, some video footage, if you want. Not like hours and hours of footage, but like little footage, you and your family if you want to include that too. And then I create a slideshow set to, some favorite music of yours as well.

That is not compulsory. That’s like a little add-on. Sometimes it’s a little stressful to go through the photographs and, and it stresses people out and it’s too overwhelming. So we choose not to do that.

And other times, people want to do it and they send me the photos as well. So, there’s no cost for what I do.

I’m a nonprofit. As I said before, I’m supported by a fundraiser once a year, grants that come and go and, that allows me to continue to do this at no cost. The turnaround time for the movies is I usually try to edit and have it completed within two weeks. If somebody needs it sooner, I will work diligently get it done sooner. But then if people want photographs, that usually makes the process a little bit longer. Sometimes it takes people a little bit longer to get the photographs to me. Sometimes people are really great and get them to me right away. So, yeah. Any, questions on your end, Lauryn?

Lauryn Cooney 12:06
Perfect. I guess I’m wondering what’s the lead time that you need for making an appointment, like for starting the process? Because I know some people are feeling great and we don’t have to do it right away, but maybe if there’s a patient that, things started to change in their treatment or process or, health wise, how long, like, how long of a wait time?

Kerry Glass 12:32
I tell people as soon as possible to do this. I can film people the week that they reach out to me. As long as I have availability. I have some people who book out a week or two or a month.

But I’ve filmed people, a year before they’ve passed on and I film people the week that they’ve passed on. Obviously the further out the weller you are, right. It just makes a different kind of movie than, as your, the disease progresses. Right. But, it’s just whenever, someone is in the right mind frame to, to wanna do this as well.

Lauryn Cooney 13:09
Okay, perfect. This is such a beautiful gift and I think that the fact that you’re coaching is so helpful. I don’t think, I don’t, I think, like you said, people stress about it. I don’t think people realize probably how, how impactful that is to have you there as a coach, as somebody to maybe ask a question to kind of get it started, to make them feel comfortable.

And I can see how that is so beneficial than just trying to do it on your own, sitting in front of the computer. So I think that this is such a beautiful, gift that you’re giving people and I’m so glad that you were here today to, go over your, process and your whole organization with us.

Kerry Glass 13:54
Great. Yeah. So on my website, there’s, a movie on my homepage. It’s about four or five minutes long and it’s just. Samples of my clients talking about their experience with Memories Live, why they did this, and a few little clip clips from their movies just to show the quality of my work, and to hear some of clients as well.

On another page called Kind Words. There’s quick little, one minute or less vignettes of strictly why, I think there’s four or five clients there strictly why they, they did this and what the benefit was and why they feel like it’s so important. So if anyone’s kind of nervous about it and wants to hear firsthand from someone other than me, definitely visit my website and see, the sample of my work and hear what people have had to say about their experience with it.

Lauryn Cooney 14:44
Perfect. And on the website, is there a form to fill out, or how do they contact you?

Kerry Glass 14:49
Yep. This is a contact us page, with my email address, my phone Number. You can either call me or email me and, I will reach out to you the same day, if not the next day.

Lauryn Cooney 15:00
Oh wow. Perfect. Okay, great. Thank you so much, Kerry. I’m so thankful that you gave your time today and I know that this is gonna be a great resource for our community.

Kerry Glass 15:09
Yeah, great. Looking forward to working with you.