A worldwide pandemic isn’t enough to stop the Minneapolis Commodores from delivering the gift of music through their annual barbershop holiday show. With comical poetry, footage from the archives, and a multi-screen music video, Yule Be Home For Christmas was a virtual masterclass in turning limitations into inspiration.
In a normal year, the Commodores would gather en masse to sing classic Christmas tunes for an audience, but 2020 was no normal year. In such a situation, you could decide to just cancel the event until the pandemic clears, or you could be like Jayme Casperson, Director of the Minneapolis Commodores, who saw the lockdown as an opportunity to create something new.
The Plan
The Commodores wanted their presentation to be more than just a collection of songs. They wanted a variety show vibe, with a host that would introduce each group in a fun way. They wanted to share old footage of their chorus performing holiday music, and they wanted to make something brand new. I met with the creative team and we worked out the song order. It was determined that I would be (1) assembling the old footage into one program, (2) editing one brand new music video, and (3) adding a little “flare” throughout.
The Host / Narrator
Blake Wanger, choral member and host for the program, is a longtime personal friend, so it was an honor to be able to consult with him on the in-between content. He wrote a brilliant script as a parody to A Visit from St. Nicholas (a.k.a. “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”), but we couldn’t get together to film it, so we had to record via Zoom. And due to clashing schedules, we only had about an hour or two to get it done.
It’s funny asking someone to move their computer while you’re inside their computer. “Can you turn it a little bit to the left? I’m sorry, the other way. Too far. Just a little bit more. Can you angle it down?” It’s a process, but we managed to find an angle that kept him in the frame, while also presenting his Christmas-themed LEGO sets and his fireplace. We managed to get him lit well enough with whatever lights he had around his house, and we even hid a microphone just out of the frame, so the audio wouldn’t be Zoom-levels of atrocious.
(Okay, so the “microphone” was just an iPhone, but sometimes you just have to use whatever is available.)
To spice it up, I created a custom transition featuring a fancy frame with some holly bushes and a Yule Be Home for Christmas banner. It fades in with a still frame of the next performance, then zooms to full-screen for the reveal. The effect reverses at the end of each performance to re-reveal Blake, just in time for his next reading.
Warm and Fuzzy
The multi-screen music video for “Warm and Fuzzy” provided a new challenge for me: 35 singers/angles, but not everyone filmed themselves with the same settings. This is a typical hurdle for most self-filmed multi-screen music videos, but this one was especially different. You can see that while most people filmed horizontally (a.k.a. “landscape”), some used vertical videos, some had the camera following them while they moved about the room, and some were using old technology that made the video very small and low-res.
What do we say about this? Limits inspire creativity!
The multi-screen moments aren’t built as evenly sized rectangular or square grids. I managed to arrange the odd number of performers into a unique grid that “hides” the inconsistencies of each person’s homemade footage. I kept the small videos small and the large ones large. I varied the shapes and positions to keep it interesting. Did it work?
A Little “Flare”
Edit a quick music video, combine some other videos, and call it a day, right? Wrong! Throughout the program, I sprinkled in a few little details that bring it all together: A cute intro with animated snowflakes, a Christmas Tree, and the program title; some audio jingles in the host’s intro and outro; and if you listen close, you can hear a crackling fireplace whenever Blake is on screen. Unseen changes include un-stretching footage that had been stretched, so the performers look normal, color correction throughout, and custom rolling credits at the end.
Before 
After
Could the show have worked well without these tiny little details? Sure! After all, the Minneapolis Commodores do live performances every year to great effect! But do these little pieces of flare enhance the experience? I sure hope so! What do you think?
Check out the full program here, and make sure to follow the Minneapolis Commodores for more barbershop music.