When you hear "children’s choir", you probably think of squeaky voices, some slightly off key, with some slightly behind or ahead of the music. Not this children’s choir. VOENA is a professional-quality choir. They sing on key and in time. They play instruments, and they give a fantastic performance every time. They don’t just sing, they become the song.

This video was shot entirely on the south shore of the Carquinez Straight at the site of a former restaurant that burned down years ago. It was a cold, windy day. The kids were shivering in between takes. When I called "Action!" they came to life and sang their hearts out, defiantly into the wind.

Immediately following the video shoot these kids went to a professional recording studio and recorded the audio for this video.

Professional percussionist Richard Sherwood brought his Drumdala up from Southern California and David Gonzales added power accents with his huge Taiko drum.

The bass line was added by Matt Bissonette. You may have seen or heard him play with ELO, David Lee Roth, Ringo Starr, or Elton John.

This video is the result of about 10 different takes shot in 4k and all synced to the professional studio recording later.



In an odd coincidence, this video was shot across the water from the Unstoppable video.

This was the first entirely-outdoor music video I shot. Nature provides a number of challenges for shooting video: weather, daylight, environmental noises, and all the other things that come with a public space.

Many people heard the music from blocks away and came to see the video shoot.

Multiple parts of the location was used and once again, wind was an additional character in the video. Some of the kids mentioned the difficulties created by the strength of the wind. I pointed out that people in Hollywood pay good money to get wind like that.

This piece is a fluffing-up of Lindsay Sterling’s Roundtable Rival. Choir Director Annabelle Marie added words to the piece.

Shot entirely in 4k. The audio was recorded in a professional studio.

This video was recorded entirely on-site at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts.

Again, the wind became part of the video. Under the big dome, the wind seemed to come from every direction and swirl around. In editing, laying moving video over moving video embraces the wind and enhances the implied movement in the performance of the song.

This is the highest level of the VOENA Choir, Creavo. Only open to girls, this sub-group works on special choral pieces, often in languages other than English, and sometimes even in fictional languages created specially for the song.

Kaval Sviri (sometimes spelled "Kafal Sviri") is a traditional Bulgarian Folk song.

This video was recorded during the rehearsal for an a cappella competition. They did not win, but at least they got a beautiful video out of it.



I shot this video outside, then we went inside and shot it again. Both performances were fabulous. I could have used either and created a great video, but I wanted to use both. So, I took parts from each and created a hybrid video of in and out.

I have mentioned the performance these kids give. The little one that starts and ends the video was spot on. I told them all to be happy and full of wonder. I told her to be sad and sightly confused. She absolutely nailed every take. This video is a compromise of telling the story of the song and having a choir singing in place.

There was no wind in this video, but it was bitter cold outside. Since it was night time, a few takes were ruined by cars driving by with headlights on.

This house wins the "Best Christmas Decorations" in our town a lot. We found that it is just as well decorated inside. The interior decorations and the staircase made a great set inside.