Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You

This is the music video I directed/edited for the featured single on ‘A Holiday Benefit Vol. 3.’

Behind The Video
My former boss at MTV News (he’s also a musician and inspiring multitasker) Benjamin Wagner contacted me in early November, asking if I would donate my time to direct and edit the music video for ‘A Holiday Benefit Vol. 3.’

I wanted to help but I didn’t have time to shoot anything for free or come up with a concept that he could get someone else to do. We worked out a compromise — the singers would shoot flipcam footage at the studio of THEMSELVES and somehow I would make it look like a music video.

A few weeks later, I received a hard drive in the mail with a lot of unlabeled clips. I faced the fun/stressful challenge of creating something entertaining that made sense. Unfortunately, most of the footage was unusable. I didn’t want to make another video that looked like its predecessor. After some brainstorming, I came up with the idea for a music video that looks like a holiday home movie.

I found a lot of cleared home movie and vintage clips online and interwove that with the flipcam footage from the studio. Thankfully, they had enough shots of the artists singing the lyrics that it worked out.

I think that this video is a cool example of what can be done with zero budget, little time and a collaborative effort to create something that supports a great cause.

All album proceeds benefit 826NYC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills.

You can purchase the album and find out more information about the organization at aholidaybenefit.org.

Artists: Bess Rogers, Casey Shea, Paula Valstein, Chris Cubeta, Emily Easterly, Andy Mac, Martin Rivas, Ruby Rivers, Amber Rubarth, Chris Abad, Bryan Dunn, Benjamin Wagner and Emily Zuzik, plus album art by Emily Raw