Life and Love — Music Video

This music video was a great opportunity for me to sit in the Director’s chair, a role I get to take on every so often. A recording artist I had previously worked with introduced me to Lisa Dondlinger, a Grammy nominated artist and violinist who has worked with names like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, John Legend, Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder. Lisa’s desire was to create a music video for her song “Life and Love” from her Movies and the Masters album, an arrangement of the Elton John classic “Circle of Life.” When I first listened to the song, I could only imagine this shoot happening in one place: Joshua Tree National Park. 

To achieve our ideal aesthetic, we decided to juxtapose flowing wardrobe against the harsh desert landscape. Recording artist Natalie Cadét laid down background vocals for the track and joined Lisa in the video. I cast two dancers to further enhance the flowing aesthetic by adding another element of movement to the piece. Professional Choreographer Stephanie Rose arranged fluid movements to the music and worked with dancers Nikki Kemnetz and Alyssa Sims who performed them beautifully. I also brought on Jillian Ross who designed the dancers’ dresses and sourced the wardrobe for both Lisa and Natalie. 

After scouting the location and working through hurdles to gain a film permit for the National Park location, we were ready to shoot. Knowing I would have to switch off my Producer hat for shoot day, I enlisted the help of my friend and fellow Producer Lisa Noh, whom I had worked with on a feature film earlier that year. She graciously took the reins, and our crew descended upon Joshua Tree. 

Our scout day had been very hot and still, but as we rolled up in our vehicles on shoot day we encountered very gusty winds that made setting up our tents at base camp nearly impossible. We made the quick decision to remove the bench seats from our 15 passenger crew van and used the freed up space as a makeup staging area away from the elements.

Our multi-camera crew captured incredible footage from afternoon to dusk. As daylight faded, DP Seth Haley had the brilliant idea to position Lisa on a rock, backlit with one of our battery powered lights, and captured the stunning closing scene that you see in the music video. I’ll never forget how we all stood around the monitor in awe, because no amount of planning could have foreseen the magic of that moment—a gift that was clearly beyond our doing.