As the years passed my directorial skills improved with each new assignment - from "live" coverage to film to computer animation. But one area I successfully avoided was directing musical performances. I had no rhythm and couldn’t dance either. One of my regular staff jobs was directing JerseyFile, public affairs and "how to" talk show produced and hosted by Ms. Ruth Alampi, a veteran NBC network producer and on-air talent before coming to NJN in the twilight of her career. And there was no music on this show until our first Christmas season on the air and Ruth had scheduled a choir from the Princeton based Westminster Choir College which had a national reputation. The segment was to be two numbers promoting an upcoming holiday concert. On show production day 20 members and their conductor arrived in formal attire. I was mortified. (Some people can sing, some have a knack for the piano - I could never keep time to music - matter of fact when I was in a couple of college musical productions the director cut my dance numbers and I did the songs "talking" them more than singing them.)
Earlier that show day I asked Sam S. our very talented production manager to direct this segment but he said, "It's your show, it's time you learned how to do music." And so here I was in the director chair trying appropriate shots to the music as the group rehearsed and vocalized. It was terrible. Sam was watching and during a break he came into the control room and gave me a tip. "Change the shot every 4 or 8 bars by reading the music…not watching the monitors.” Until that moment I had never realized how music was organized and that this was the way to shoot music. I proceeded to finish that day with fairly good coverage and had many musical adventures in the future on that holiday shows - Jerseyfile ran for 9 years.
As my musical experience and confidence grew I started to think about producing a "Christmas Special'' with the Westminster Choir. They had been very pleased with the results of their brief statewide appearance on our network. I arranged a meeting with their conductor and the college president met me to "noodle" this idea with them. I visited the choir's beautiful campus situated among the mansions of Princeton Bough and after a brief chat about my idea the President of this world famous institution which had performed at Carnegie Hall said "YES" to my proposal. Now I have always said, "Ideas are a dime a dozen and that’s the easy part. Making them happen is not so easy...not at all." Now I had to produce the show.
The Concert Choir began its rehearsals for their annual Christmas Program, which was one of the region's most popular holiday events, early in the fall. I attended a number of practice sessions taking notes and pretending I knew what I was doing. The plan evolved to tape their "live" final dress rehearsal the day before the performance; which was open to an audience of students. The conductor and I decided early on that it was best not to intrude on the paying customer’s holiday tradition with lights, wires and the very big cameras - which was a major fund raiser for the group. The concert took place in the school's chapel which could have been copied from a New England postcard. It was perfect not only visually but also for the sound recording acoustics. I planned a set up that included 4 stationary cameras and a roving mini-cam. And we hired an audio concert pro from NYC to design the sound recording setup.
After Thanksgiving, when the town was dressed in red and green, I shot a film footage that would be added to several numbers. Princeton, NJ, a great looking college town, was always very picturesquely trimmed for the holidays. One Nassau street restaurant had their annual ice sculpture produced for us early which would keep after our quick shot in their large freezer until the annual town's tree lighting ceremony on the square. On a blustery day, the second Friday in December the NJN remote truck lumbered into position near the chapel at 6:AM. The setup would take about 4 hours. The choir of 25 voices, a hand bell choir, a four person brass ensemble and a pipe organist would arrive at 2:PM and perform a program of 10 carols. First, shots of the day I recorded comments about the program with the famed choir conductor Joseph Flummerfeld and the college with President Dr. Raymond Robinson that I would use in the program. As the tape time drew near I had “shoot day” angst that most directors go through worrying about Murphy’s Law. All was ready and my crew of 20 were standing by to “get this thing in the can”, strike and go home after a long day. Each camera was feeding a separate video recorder. The various shots would be edited together later which made shooting the production somewhat less demanding to direct than actually going live. However, I still had to call the 100's of zooms, pans, and superimposed "artsy" stuff that goes into professional quality musical production.
The moment of truth had arrived as all waited for me to say, “roll tape and cue the choir!” I just sat there staring at the bank of monitors. After a long moment, David G. my excellent production assistant asked, “What’s the matter?” I replied, “Dave I can’t do this…I..." He cut me off – “You can do it Calvin…You must do it…you're good and everybody is ready to help.” With those few words he magically cured my case of stage fright and I began a growing feeling of self-confidence that would last in me for the rest of my career in television. I started to believe I was a director with a big "D".
And so, we did it. We worked hard all afternoon in front of a captive audience of friends of the students. The chorus was to do each number twice giving me two chances at getting the right “takes”. But the maestro, being a maestro, cut some of the numbers many times, not satisfied with a single note or the timing of a phrase. The day got long and the light outside faded. After the ninth song, a hand bell number and a rousing organ solo Conductor Flumerfeld sent word to me that the choir was extremely tired and that they were going to stop leaving out their last important carol. I bolted from the truck! "Maestro I need 10 songs to fill the hour…we don’t have a full show!” He glared and said in his German accent, “We are finished!” And I got very close to him, so his students could not hear me – “If you don’t sing one more song I will air this show with a graphic announcement at the end that the Westminster Choir was ‘too tired’ to perform their last number.” He jumped off his small riser. “You would never!” “Wanna bet?” Then I promised him that they only needed to sing the carol once - after he thought about this for a very long pause he called the choir back and they sang a rousing rendition of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” The show’s closing number was done.
Sometimes in TV, as in life, it takes more than just the right equipment, it takes courage and faith in one’s self and others. And on this night, I completed a musical show which ran for years on Christmas Eve on the nation’s top PBS stations. And I never feared directing music again.
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