A job that James Jackson II thought would be a one-off has led to a lucrative line of work—one that combines life, death, and digital media.
A St. Louis native, Jackson had fallen into videography through his work booking bands. Few seemed to have good quality photos, so he bought a camera in a pawn shop and started taking them himself. That led to gigs recording band performances. In 2016, Jackson set up Gator MediaSTL to handle that work, and soon got booked to tape weddings and other events, too.
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Then he got a call from a local funeral director. A family member of the deceased was in prison and unable to attend the memorial service in person, but the prison would apparently accept a DVD. The funeral home hired Jackson to record the service.
That probably would have been the end of Jackson’s funeral videography if not for COVID-19. In March 2020, that same funeral director reached out to ask if Jackson could livestream a different service. A travel ban meant people couldn’t easily travel for memorial services, and funeral homes were subject to strict attendance limits. Could Jackson livestream the funeral, the director asked, for people unable to attend in person?
Jackson could. And that job ended up changing his life. By pure coincidence, a TV news reporter stopped by on the day of the funeral to interview the director about the pandemic’s new normal, and got a few comments from Jackson about the live-streamed service. From there, Jackson says, his phone started ringing, with funeral homes and grieving families alike looking to book his services. He estimates his company has now livestreamed 2,000 funerals.
The pandemic’s abatement hasn’t lessened the demand. Eric Cunningham, director of Reliable Funeral Home in Central West End, says he always lets clients know streaming is an option—and often, they say yes. He estimates that he’s worked with Jackson and Gator MediaSTL on more than 50 funerals, many of them post-pandemic. “It gives people from out of town an option, or an elderly person that can’t come, it gives them opportunity to watch,” he says.
Jackson has become the go-to guy for many local funeral homes, not just Cunningham’s. “I found a sweet spot, because the funeral homes and families we have created relationships with continue to call us,” he says. For some homes, he’s installed camera systems so they can do their own streaming—and troubleshoots if they run into tech problems.
In some ways, he says, the innovation wrought by the pandemic was long overdue. Many bigger funeral homes had already begun offering offered a video component before then, he says. But, “Black funeral homes didn’t really focus on it until the need arose.”
And Jackson has been able to capitalize on demand even beyond that community by offering options that go well beyond what many funeral homes provide. In addition to streaming live, he’ll put together an edited version almost like a wedding video if families are interested. He’s also relatively unique in offering to film graveside. “Our primary customer is the Black funeral home,” he says. “However, anytime they need graveside, we are going to get the call, whether they’re white, Black, green, yellow. Nobody has the technology to come outside with cameras but us.” Prices can run from $650 for a single-camera live stream to $4,000 for an edited package with multiple cameras.
For Jackson, it’s all been a learning experience. At the beginning of the pandemic, he acknowledges, “I was not the master broadcast livestream technician. I just saw opportunity and I started learning.”
Now he finds himself thinking about the mechanism of streaming inside churches and funeral homes, even when he’s off the clock. Many people watched the papal conclave eager to see who the next pope would be. Jackson watched for the camera angles. “I tell you who is on top of filming, is the Vatican,” he enthuses.
Jackson has since landed a job heading up video production for a church in Collinsville. But for Gator MediaSTL, what was once a pandemic side hustle has become a steady line of work that keeps both Jackson and a handful of independent contractors busy. Jackson likes that his company no longer has to piece together weddings and band performances and other events.
“We became known for funerals, and it became much simpler,” he says.
