A Killer Christmas Special....
Sometimes,
things have to marinate for awhile. It was more than 2 years ago that I
first suggested a holiday special to Cassandra. Then several months ago
while we were going over ideas for the upcoming season of her YouTube
channel Cassandra McShepard Television, she brought it up. "Maybe this is the
year we do the Christmas special." That was all the encouragement I needed.
My
initial concept was to pair her with a little jazz combo for the
musical sequences. Maybe we would film them at a local nightclub. Then
my dear friend Scott Luedtke had a genius idea. His husband Brian
directs The Ozaukee Chorus. Maybe Cassandra could be a special guest in
their annual Christmas concert at the Cedarburg Performing Arts
Center...and perhaps we could film their performances for inclusion in
the special! Brilliant.
I
knew that this needed to be a 3 camera shoot, and the prospect of
trying to film during a live performance combined with a mid-December
deadline, seemed daunting. Brian suggested that we could film in early
December if we did it on a rehearsal evening at St. Joseph's in
Grafton...another great idea! Killer Bee Cherrie Hanson and Andy "Rogue Lens' Conkle jumped on
board the train, and I had qualified bodies to deftly man cameras 2 and
3.
David Todd came to the rescue with the amazing Jason Ruck of RuckMedia, who supplied professional cameras and finally at last-
professional editing equipment! Jason and I spent 10 hours in the
editing room at his office. There wasn't anything I wanted, anything I
suggested- that Jason couldn't do. Frame by frame.... "How about camera 2 here, dissolving
into camera 3? Sorry, I like the camera 1 angle better here, can we do
it over?" Every time his answer was "No problem." Call me a dork, but
one of my favorite parts of the finished product is the way the end
credits turned out! In all honesty, I'm as proud of this special as I am
anything else I've ever collaborated on...if not most proud.
So without further adieu (tomorrow's Christmas Eve!), I present...
BEHIND THE SCENES!
The talented Rick Swearingen of Mortensen Photography took some amazing pictures during the filming of the musical sequences at St Joseph's. Here's a 1 minute montage set against The Ozaukee Chorus singing "Caroling, Caroling". What an awesome group of individuals to work with- enjoy!
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