2021: The William Gomes Level II Recital Program
Now here’s a project that definitely deserves a page all on its own. Throughout the first half of 2021, a dear colleague of mine named William Gomes was in the process of graduating from the University of St. Thomas with a major in music composition, and one of the requirements of that is to present a recital of your work as a way to showcase your progress. Because we were still in the midst of a global pandemic, a traditional full-scale recital could not be held. Instead, the idea was to produce music videos of each composition and stitch it all together into a makeshift virtual music program. That is where I come in. I served as a producer, camera operator, shoot organizer, editor, and art director behind this entire endeavor and its many musical segments (with the exception of one). Safe to say I pretty much helped with everything except write the music itself. It was a months long process starting from December 2020 with the filming of the first music video “Y Dice El Pastorcico” and culminating with the program’s grand premiere in August 2021. Principal photography itself also spanned a nice variety of locations from the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul, all the way to the Basilica of St. Mary in downtown Minneapolis. It was also a project that spanned many months of editing, as well as involved the help and participation of many wonderfully talented crew people, musicians, and singers. I could almost write a book on all the work that went into making this musical program a reality, from the extensive camera work needed for certain videos like “Gloria”, all the way to the intriguing image manipulation tactics used in the making of the special cosmic inspired animated music video featured in “Loops”. It was so far one of the biggest projects I have ever worked on and one that I am certainly proud to put on my portfolio.