“Chanukah: Rock of Ages” is a meta parody: a parody of Chanukah parody songs and the Jewish holiday parody songs in general that have become so common in the last few years.

After Rosh Hashana Rock Anthem got 1.5 million views on youtube, Aish.com said they wanted to do a sequel for Chanukah that told the story of Chanukah through a medley of 8 popular songs.  I told them, better than 8 modern songs, would be to do 8 songs from the last 8 decades, as if showing the evolution of Chanukah parody songs over the last 80 year (one decade for each night of Chanukah).  I just felt like the holiday parody song/video is so overdone at this point that to do one “seriously” would be cheap.  Instead, I felt this “parody of parodies” would be a more interesting take, while still allowing Street Art Production to give us some great images of guys in kippas and tzitzit dancing.  Because there wasn’t much rock music before the 50s we skipped the decades idea and just went for 8 songs over the history of rock.

I had just come off a big music video shoot (as yet un-released), a thrilling experience that I wanted to recreate for C:RoA.  Luckily, aish.com, aishconnections.com, and Kosher Delight (notice the menus and aprons in the second scene) were very supportive and we were able to pull this together despite a significant budget.

Step number one, call Renana Levine, line producer extraordinaire, and get her psyched.  Step 2, call Eli Kaplan-Wildmann, set and costume designer extraordinaire, and get him excited.  Step 3, call Miriam Ani, assistant director extraordinaire, and get her really excited.  Step 4, start using Skype because all these calls are getting expensive.

We brought back the same gang from RHRA: Lenny Solomon of Schlock Rock wrote the lyrics, Mitch Clyman of Muso Productions Ltd. did the music production, and Chanan Elias and Mitch on vocals.  Unlike RHRA which was relatively simple and repetitious, C:RoA has 8 completely different songs with different instruments, vocal styles, and effects.  Luckily, Mitch and Chanan can play almost every instrument known to man and also aren’t too bad at carrying a tune.

Once we’d picked the 8 songs and written the lyrics my team went into action.  Renana, Eli, Miriam and I met to go over the songs and look at examples of music videos from each decade.  We then discussed the visual style of each video we’d do and gave rough ideas for sets and costumes.  Eli then did sketches of each set while Miriam and I worked on a basic description of what the dancers and singer should be doing in each scene, then sharing that with Dvir Rozen, lead choreographer at Street Art Production.

Dvir and co-choreographer Ephy Epshtein worked with the dancers and then Renana, Miriam, director of photography Jonathan Amerikaner, and I went to a rehearsal in Tel Aviv at 10:30 pm… 10:30 pm!  We made a few adjustments for camera and sets, introduced a bit of conflict between the dancers in their scenes, and thought about how to integrate the singer as much as possible.  (Home by 2 am!  Yay!)  We really should have filmed all the scenes, but here is the only video we have from that night.

A week and a half later after countless hours of costume and prop shopping, set design and construction (most of those countless hours were Eli Kaplan-Wildmann’s), we found ourselves at our tech rehearsal.  The idea was to setup every scene’s lights, set, and props, and record it all in detail with a careful lighting and set plan.  That way, the next day we could shoot 8 different scenes, with 8 different lighting and set designs, all in 1 day.  Here are some pics of our tech rehearsal (Eli Kaplan-Wildmann prepping our Madagascar parody scene, Miriam Ani and Shantal Reich making chairs for Twist and Shout parody, Jonathan Amerikaner checking out the Hammer parody set, and a wide shot of the studio):

Day 2: Shoot Day.  Wake up at 5:13 am.  Pick up cameraman Brian Spector at 6:35 am.  Pick up cameraman Josh Gold at 6:45.  Arrive on set before 7:30 am call time.  Already Eli and Renana are in full swing.  We’d left our first scene setup from the day before so we wouldn’t have to start setting up a scene first thing in the morning.  None-the-less, our costumes only arrived the morning of the shoot so there was still a lot of work for Eli and his two costume assistants.  Sorting through garbage bags full of costumes to prepare us for the over 80 costume changes that would occur over the day.

After coffee and whatnot the dancers did a quick rehearsal of the first scene and then went in to hair, makeup, and costumes.  First shot at 8:50 am and, like clockwork we shooting a new scene every hour.  We expected set and lighting changes to take 30 minutes but due to our work the day before we made most changes in 8-15 minutes.  That gave us 15-20 minutes of rehearsal and then 30 minutes to shoot the 6-8 takes we did for each scene.

Making-Of video shot by Josh Gold and edited by Miriam Ani and myself!

One critical element later pointed out to me was that we were so efficient because everyone did everything.  As soon a scene was done we had the lighting team all working, the set construction team form the studio, Renana, Eli, Miriam, myself, and PAs all descending on the set to switch it over.  What I mean is, no one was above any grade of work.  Instead, everyone was committed to the project, and the only question was “What can I do?”  It made all the difference getting to work with such committed and excited people.

Actor and singer Chanan Elias was incredible to work with.  His boundless energy is clearly visible in the final product.  I’ll admit, I like working with actors who need little direction or, if they need any, they only need to hear it once.  Chanan is my dream actor.

The Street Art Production dancers were, again, great to work with and we had a lot of fun with them.  Energy, excitement, humor, and a lot of break dancing in between scenes.

Eli Kaplan-Wildmann’s fantastic design, as well as impeccable organization made all the difference in this production.  It was not easy, given our budget limitations, to build 8 separate sets.  Eli pulled it off with style.

Renana Levine’s meticulous line producing was simply magical.  Renana has produced all of my large scale productions dating back to the Nefesh B’Nefesh flash mob (though in that case I was shooting HER large scale production).  She is a master of organization, communication, and… actualization.

Our cameramen were all right on their game: Ben Katz, Josh Gold (steadicam), Brian Spector, Aviv Vana (crane), Yirmiyahu Vann.  What an incredible group of talented visionaries.  The best part about working with this group of cameramen is that we’re all friends too.  Again, due to budget limitations, they were all there because they wanted to learn and they believed in the project.  You can’t help but respect a group of men who are already so talented and accomplished and yet feel there is always more to learn.

It was a real honor to get to work with director of photography Jonathan Amerikaner.  His control over the lighting was a critical component to making this production work on schedule and still give us the fantastic visuals we were hoping for (not to mention an on-set presence that is a true pleasure to be around).  His input on sets, lighting, performance, and, of course, cameras was unlike anything I have experienced before.  He had to work with 5 cameramen, all using slightly different cameras, in a relatively small space and under incredible time pressure.  Rrrrrrrrrespect!

PA’s Tsippora Ani, Miri Kaiser, and Shantal Reich gave 100% over the entire day (7:30 am to 8:30 pm) from sweeping to costume design to helping with food and taking out the trash.  Again, I can honestly say this production would not have worked as well as it did without the tremendous effort of these three.

The real treat for me was having assistant director Miriam Ani on board.  As a director it was an incredible experience to not only have a go-to person to help me remember things I had to bring, organize my gear, and find a cameraman who had wandered off set, but also a true artist in her own right who could help me actualize my vision, and, when my vision failed, introduce her own exciting ideas.

Lastly I’d like to thank Aish.com and Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith for the unbelievable support for this insane project.  Sets, lights, studio, massive crew, dancers, costumes, all resulting in an ever swelling budget.  I’m eternally grateful for having such a wonderful organization pushing me to do my best and helping me to create wonderful media for the Jewish people.