It all started with a trip to the emergency room.

Soldier and singer/songwriter Hayim Ani (eZra) was washing dishes one evening and sliced through the fourth finger on his right hand, severing nerve and tendon.

Knowing he would be on medical leave from the army for several months before and after surgery, Hayim realized he needed a project.

Recording his first scratch of “Subtle Notes” with one hand on the guitar, Hayim took the song into the studio where engineer and musician extraordinaire Mitch Clyman of Muso Productions Ltd. enthusiastically laid down the track.

Sister and fellow artist Miriam Ani flew in from the states to keep Hayim company and, with friend and Shoot East filmmaker Micah Smith, it seemed only right to take another song to the next level: music video.

The siblings developed the story of the music video: following a single male character confronting similar patterns and challenges in past and present, while a young musician also follows “the subtle notes that lead [him] on.”

Hayim and Micah had collaborated on many past projects, and wanted to challenge their artistry by filming the music video in a sweeping single take, speeding up and slowing down at particular moments to heighten the emotional tension.

Below is Micah’s speed test fight here! If only Micah and Miriam Smith could have been the actors in the final video!

The team designed a circular set of six stages: three locations in the past and present of the male lead character separated by three performance spaces for the singer. The camera would rotate from the set’s epicenter, following the characters through time and space, reversing directions as the song reached its crisis point.

See Hayim’s first drawing of the set:

The only question now was where to shoot. The project’s scope had outgrown the Smith living room, the set of the last music video collaboration. With timing that smacked of divine intervention, Micah received an email from an emerging studio, Pie Productions of Kiryat Sefer, Israel, garnering for future projects. Perfect.

To put the rest of the team together:  NYU trained designer Eli Kaplan-Wildmann came on board and seamlessly designed and dressed the complicated set which had been built and lit earlier in the week by the Pie Production team. Shoot East line producer, Renana Levine, abundantly gave of her time and competently resolved all the organizational details for the shoot from meals to transportation to budgeting concerns.

Early in the week of the shoot, Hayim and Miriam trekked to Kiryat Sefer to fine-tune the actions of the characters in the studio space.

On Wednesday, the creative team and essential crew completed readying the set and practiced the complicated timing for the journey the camera and actors would make around the set. Hayim, along with actor Ilan Jaffe who played the male lead, rehearsed their mad dashes and costumes changes from scene to scene. With sometimes only a few seconds between locations, this proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of the shoot!

The day of the shoot a vibrant cast of volunteer actors and extras/ crew members rounded out the team of over 30 people that ultimately brought this music video to life. Scene directors Tehilla Zeff and Raphael Margules along with Miriam rehearsed the actors while Micah reviewed the camera’s moves with talented steadicam operator Josh Gold.

We took over 20 takes, and only Josh’s arm finally giving out after 7 hours of shooting reminded us we had to stop!

Here’s the final video:

And the Behind the Scenes:

Buy the song and eZra’s EP on iTunes here: http://goo.gl/RkQ0g

“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.

This video couldn’t have been more fun to create with 5 talented dancers and an amazing parkourist running wild in the streets of the old city of Jerusalem.  We shot for a full day in 6 spots around the old city (including inside the yeshiva) with 4 cameramen.  Aviv Vana on the crane, Josh Gold on the steadicam, Yirmiyahu Vann on the slider/dolly, Brian Friedman going handheld, with Hayim Ani assistant directing and choreography by Street Art Productions.

We don’t have a ton of great behind the scene’s footage, but here’s some more of what we shot that shows a bit of behind the scenes and a bit more of the great dancing.

Here’s the link to send to your friends:
www.aish.com/h/iid/Israel_Wave_Your_Flag.html

The first step was formulating the team, beginning with getting Renana Levine as the producer and production coordinator. Renana is the one who originally brought me the idea of a lip dub, but it took us almost a year to find a client willing to take on the project. Then came Hayim Ani, who was a co-choreographer and production assistant.

Next was choosing a song. When I told Hayim we needed a great song, he immediately played me K’naan’s Wave Your Flag. It was perfect.

Our team first met on Ben Yehuda to scout the location and get a basic idea of how we would proceed down the street. Do we go into stores? Do we go around the block? Etc.

Then Hayim created a detailed map of Ben Yehuda for us to use to map out our choreography. Right click on the thumbnails below and open in a new tab to see the map.

Then we went to Ben Yehuda on a surprisingly rainy Friday morning to start testing out some of our ideas and try to figure out how many people we would need and where they would be placed. This mostly involved me running around Ben Yehuda, singing out loud, and pointing a camera at nothing, as people stared at me. Here’s a clip:

Next up was our first rehearsal. The plan was to bring 10 “team leaders” to our rehearsal to try out the timing and choreography section by section. This rehearsal allowed us to see where our problem spots were and what was going to work better. Here’s a “making of” video shot (and mostly narrated) by Hayim.

Here’s how it looked edited together:

After this rehearsal we adjusted our choreography and then trained each team leader in a section of the movie so that the morning of the shoot they could then teach their performers the section. This way we didn’t have to teach 100 people a complex performance piece in an hour, but instead all we had to do was have our team leaders take a few minutes to teach their section to only 10 people and we would be ready to start running through it. It basically worked that way, except when 1500 people ran through Ben Yehuda street as part of a marathon. No one gave us any trouble and we were able to do several rehearsals and then three or four takes!

Below is footage shot by cameraman extraordinaire Josh Gold (he’s seen in the lip dub holding a soccer ball that he then throws to another guy who catches it and falls backwards into a crowd). You’ll get a sense of how we pulled it off, carefully choreographing camera movement to allow performers to run down one side of the street while the camera pointed toward the other side. You’ll also see how Hayim, holding the speakers, has to dance around me and the performers to keep out of frame while making sure they can hear the song.

Thanks to our team leaders: Laura Ben David, Natan Goldstein, Rachel Kaufman, Tsippi Rothstein, Jon Singer, Rachel Smith, Atara Solow, Michael Porcelain, Elle Yahalom, Yael Valier, and Tehilla Zeff.

A special thanks to producer and co-choreographer Renana Levine, who is not only a marketing genius but is an incredible on the ground producer/production manager. This production simply could not have happened without her. Thank you, Renana!

I hope you enjoyed the lip dub and sent it out to all your friends!

This piece was written by Aish.com and I worked to design and animate it with the talented Hillel Smith.

Some pages are simply video screen grabs using ScreenFlow while others were screen captured as a still, then reworked in photoshop by Hillel, and then I animated in Final Cut Pro. On the photoshopped stills that needed typing, I screen captured my typing in a text document and then pasted the typing in over the still image. I animated a mouse cursor as a separate layer on those as well.

We expected this to be popular, but over 2 million hits surpassed our wildest dreams!

We shot the piece in about 5 hours one night last week. With over 70 shots listed we were really moving fast, but still had a little time for ad-libbing and fun. In order to save time and not have to reset the lights for each camera angle, I setup the lights basically like I did in my first 16mm color-sync film production in college: china bulbs over the table. We used two, hanging just out of the frame above the table.

The movie was written by comedians Yisrael Campbell and Mo Kamioner with input by myself and Aryeh Ben David

Bernie, the seder leader, is played by Chanan Elias
Joey, the brother, is played by comedian Benji Lovitt
Joey’s wife is played by the very talented actress Nikki Simon
Bernie’s wife is played by Judith Pieprz
Robbie, their son, is played by Sraya Goldstein of the world famous Goldstein Family
Moonshine, the kabbalah girl, is played by Avital Macales
Fred, the chametz guy, is brought to life by Bruce Shaffer
Max, the sleeping guy is played by Mo Kamioner (who also did the dog’s voice)

Camerawork was done by Aviv Vana
Sound by Jon Singer (who production managed Whisper in the Trees)

A big thanks to Aryeh Ben David, the man behind this project and ayeka.org.il.

Hayim has been plugging me with ideas for music videos for a while now but with my work schedule it was hard to find a concept we could easily pull off and we could prep without too much time. Finally, Hayim had the idea for a music video for his recently recorded Whisper of the Trees where we would slow the song down in shooting and then speed it up in editing to match the original music. It seemed like it could work and look cool so we ran this test with background action provided by my boys, pregnant wife, sister-in-law, dog Tiger, and myself.

The initial test was at 30% of the original speed and we felt it wasn’t slow enough. We slowed it down to 20% which left the song at about 20 minutes in length and then Hayim wrote the script, which you can download here. Then our friends Jon Singer and Avi Fox came over and ran a test with Hayim. We didn’t play the music but just called out the scenes according to a stopwatch. We wanted to see if the math was correct and the scenes were coming in and going out at the right times relative to the song. Here’s that test:

We grabbed everyone we could (which isn’t easy when you live out in the boonies) and at 7 pm started rehearsing. Everyone had to be given their jobs for each scene, we had to practice each scene, and then work out the kinks in our system. Our first take was interrupted by the guy delivering dinner (doh!). Then we got one take off but there were some issues with timing. During a quick dinner we reworked the timing on a few sections to give more time to complex actions and clean up some stuff. We got one more take off finishing at close to 12 am and then had to call it a night. We felt like we didn’t get it and would need to reshoot. While the gang cleaned up I imported the footage and timed it to the song. At 1 AM the die-hards crowded around and we watched it and couldn’t believe how good it looked.

Here’s a short clip from the shoot to give you a sense of how we did it. Basically, Hayim and Stephanie are doing their best to lip sync in super slow motion while Jon, Avi, and I are calling out directions to people based on the script and our synched stop watches.

Here’s a piece of that clip without production audio so you can hear how the song sounds in slow motion.

To post, or not to post… that was the question. I think we could change some things and make it even better if we went at it again. The problem was that we had only 2 days to do a reshoot before Hayim went into the army (and had his head shaved). In the end, we felt the video was strong and our tweaks would be either minor or major, the former not being worth a reshoot and the latter being too big to prep in 2 days.

You can see photos from the production here on facebook.

I’d like to thank Hayim for pushing me to do this project. It was immensely satisfying and a lot of fun. Thanks to Jon and Avi who put a lot of time into our rehearsals and preparations. Thanks to our female lead, Stephanie Guedalia who put a tremendous amount of preparation into both her lip synching and her character. Thanks to our cast/crew (listed below) for all their hard work and commitment. And thanks to my wife who not only allowed our house to be taken apart, not only let all these people invade our home until after 2 AM while 3 kids slept upstairs, but who helped stage direct and run lights and lighting cues, all while having given birth less than a week prior and while holding a 6-day-old in her arms the whole time!

Credits
Song
Music and Lyrics by Hayim Ani
Piano by Ayelet Lobel
Female Vocals by Avishag Vashdi
Recorded and Mixed by Mitch Clyman at Muso Productions Ltd.

Video
Concept and Design by Hayim Ani
Directed by Micah Smith
Produced by Shoot East
Production Managers – Avi Fox and Jon Singer

Costume and Makeup – Dina Eagle
Stage Crew – Yair Beasley, Avi Fox, Jon Singer and Bentzi Zeff
Female Lead – Stephanie Guedalia
Child – Shalev Zeff
Band – Eitan Fox and Shkedia Zeff
Dinner Couple – Micah Smith and Talya Demsky

Gaffer – Miriam Smith
Camera Equipment Provided by Eli Veffer

Special Thanks:
Rebbeca Kowalsky
Joel and Donna Zeff
Steve and Miriam Fox
Miriam Ani

Copyright Hayim Ani 2011

I’m honored to have been able to work with the talented animator and filmmaker Eli Veffer on this project.

Here’s the 90-second preview I just finished:

You can see the full film online in the first week it is out, starting February 8th, or go to a premiere event, or purchase a DVD.