After some extremely positive responses from the “For the Autumn Sky” and “Ready the Way,” multi-screen music video, the Church of St. Michael came back to Kalal Productions for their 2020 Virtual Christmas program — this time with THREE songs!
“Angels We Have Heard on High”
First up, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” featuring 47 singers, and 5 instrumentalists (including yours truly on the drums). Just like before, we had each singer and musician record their own parts into their own devices, most of them using a mobile phone or tablet. We provided a piano track so they were all singing in the same key and in the same tempo, then they filmed themselves singing along to the mix, and it was my job to bring it all together.
Unique to this video is the bright background: a full-screen clip of music director Angie O’Brien playing piano (a close-up on her hands), but almost transparent on top of a snowy backdrop. Just a few days before this project was due, Minnesota got hit with a snowstorm, so I took my camera outside, pointed it into the sky, and recorded the flakes coming down. Naturally, snowflakes look kind of dirty, and blizzard skies are very gray, so I used color correction to make it a bright white sky with blue flakes. Paired with the piano playing, it creates an interesting backdrop for the multi-screen singers.
My personal favorite part: ending on the musicians, aligned in the grid as a cross. I’m not a religious person myself, but I take delight in symbolism and putting that “extra frosting” on top of each project.
“Night of Silence / Silent Night”
Technically speaking, “Night of Silence,” and “Silent Night” are two separate songs, but St. Michael Catholic Church has been performing them as one piece for several years. This one had 49 singers and 6 instrumentalists (and some of the instrumentalists filmed 2 or 3 angles!), so you can imagine the difficulty getting everyone on screen at the same time. Add in the fact that it is nearly a 6-minute song with very few solos, and it makes for an interesting set of hurdles.
Aside from managing all the calendars and gathering all the files, the hardest part is typically just figuring out who to show on screen at what time and for how long. Interestingly, the biggest hurdle in this one was…the drums!
Angie requested a light snare played jazz-style with brushes. I’ve been getting by with an electric kit and some [expensive] samples for a long time, but none of the samples had the brush style I was looking for. So much to my neighbors’ dismay, I moved a few pieces of my kit into my tiny little condo’s bedroom, and recorded a real life brushed snare drum for the whole song. How does it sound?
Both videos are available on the St. Michael Catholic Church YouTube Channel, and you are likely to hear them if you decide to attend in-person mass anytime Christmas rolls around. And, of course, you can always check back here for the next St. Michael and Kalal Productions collaboration, because there will be more!