The Making of the Hallelujah Chorus (Video)

SIDE BY SIDE

Connections went behind the scenes with Robin Wiper and Adam Billingham to find how the viral (more than 400k views) Hallelujah Chorus was produced.

How did the idea for the video come about?

Robin: The Hallelujah Chorus is such a big part of the College Church tradition on Easter Sunday, and the worship team was trying to figure out a way to bring it into the at-home worship service.

The wheels began to turn as Robin recalled a video she watched several years ago.

Robin: It was from a town in Alaska called Quinhagak. It is still on YouTube, so you can see that it wasn’t an original idea. Because that video is so much fun to watch, I began to think . . . a lot of families I know were home anyway, perhaps I could drive around town and shoot video of people in their yards or in their windows, holding up signs with the lyrics on them. Pastor Erik and Ruth Gregornik gave me the go ahead. Actually, I didn’t have the idea until the week before Easter, so there was a bit of a time crunch. Adam: Once Robin had the vision, she called me and started asking how we could accomplish something like this. To be honest, I was skeptical at first that we would be able to pull it off, but Robin had the drive, and she made it happen.

Adam has done some impressive video work for the church in the past, so Robin asked him to teach her how to dub the music onto the videos and put it together.

Robin: Thankfully, Adam pulled me out of the hole I was digging for myself and offered to edit footage. Then he gave me excellent guidance about how to shoot and organize the project. Then he created this wonderfully fun and uplifting journey through the Hallelujah Chorus, right down to the timing of the 4x4 screen on the last Hallelujah! Adam: It was Robin who made all the signs with all the lyrics split into lines, and then she assigned different families a couple lines each. She sent out a mass email and texts with instructions of what she was looking for.

A lot of the fun was seeing members of our church family on Easter morning. (We were impressed with all their Easter finery, by the way.) How did you choose the families and pull that off?

Robin: It had to come together so quickly that I literally started texting families I know pretty well and had been speaking with recently, knowing or hoping for their availability. Adam: A lot of families with kids participated, and that was actually helpful because for some parts there were a lot of signs to hold up! But it was great to see the diversity of young and old participating together, too.

How long did production take, and what was involved?

Robin: Production took four days, because that’s all we had. I divided up the lyrics (there aren’t that many) between the families. Most of the families shot their own footage—that’s where all the creative and fun presentations came from; all I provided was a piece of paper with the lyrics in large letters on them. We all sent the footage to Adam. To avoid copyright issues, AV manager, Joseph Abdelmelek pulled up a recording of Easter 2012 and the College Church choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus. The final 4x4 screen is made up of shots I mostly took driving from house to house the morning of Good Friday. Adam: What Robin said. Shout out to Tim Hollinger for helping us navigate copyright issues and Joseph Abdelmelek for finding the College Church "Hallelujah" recording to use. I received footage from Robin and the families, bit by bit, so it was a process of getting the footage and finding its place in the music as clips came in. It was like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle.

What surprised you about the production?

Robin: The amazing weather that the Lord granted us that week. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, though, and thanks to the shelter-in-place order, we were able to have mostly entire families. Adam: I was surprised at how creative and funny people got with the lyrics. I found myself laughing at my computer when a new clip came from someone.

What were some challenges that you had to overcome?

Robin: Time and organization, but the families did most of the work. Adam: I had some technical challenges with the footage, because everybody shot with different cameras. Without getting too technical, I ended up having to transcode all of the clips into another format so I could edit smoothly with them. We also had to find a way to make the ending feel more grandiose, because the music is so climactic. I tried a 3x3 grid that Robin liked but we had even more footage that we wanted to fit in. So, we ended up doing a 4x4 grid of a bunch of videos at the end and had just enough footage!

Emails have come to church from Maine to California. Did either of you anticipate it going viral?

Robin: Not at all. It was meant to bring our congregation joy and sense of community. I am thrilled that it is reaching so many people! Adam: Nope. I have gotten more emails and feedback about this video than anything I've worked on before. Glad people enjoyed it and were encouraged by it. This is my first "interview" about a video I've worked on, so after it runs in Connections, I'm hoping it'll show up in Variety or The Hollywood Reporter.