The making of a music video

Except for the digital video camera and LED photo lights, it was a scene from the 1940s.

Director Justin Sprenkle spent some of last week building a music video for composer Max Hess's "Decanter" at the Valencia Ballroom in York and we were there to watch how it's done.

Dressed in a beautiful long red dress, singer Dana Alexandra lip-synced to a recorded version of the bubbly tune. For the closeups, she was just a foot or so away from Sprenkle's camera.

Sprenkle showed some ingenuity using LED lights on a wire Christmas wreath form to eliminate all shadows and plastic pipe for a smooth track under a moving camera. Between shots, Alexandra clowned around, danced, sang some more, sometimes to the piano accompaniment off Hess's piano. Hess watched proudly as his mother did a quick video of her own.

And these moments-- the out takes--- more often than not, are as descriptive, fun and interesting as the video itself. More photos will be published next week in the YDR. A YDR video of Sprenkle at work will also be available next week.

Above photo was taken at 1/200 second at f2.8 and 1000 ISO at 17mm.