Depiction of angels, avos, imahos, etc in frum entertainment

dancingqueen

Tue, Aug 07 2018, 4:54 pm

bigsis144 wrote:

As a dancer, choreographer, fan of musicals and occasional filmmaker, I will say that there are some music videos that are truly works of art.

But it’s a different medium than a purely audio song, and the two are not interchangeable. Just like a ballet is not the same as a symphony.

Sometimes a piece of music really can be elevated by the right visual accompaniment, and there are some songs I only really fell in love with after I had images to give me a deeper emotional connection.

For a really personal and perhaps silly example, I much prefer the Lavonafilm/Bais Purim 2018 video to the official Mordechai Shapiro video for “Machar”. The joy and “never give up!!” feeling rolling off a video made by a bunch of bochurim doing parkour through the streets of Neve Yaakov is now irreversibly entwined with this song in my head, and I am far richer for it! The shofar blast and people running in Benny Friedman’s “Ivri Anochi” video made me spontaneously burst into tears with thoughts of Jewish unity and kibbutz galuyos.

A good music video is basically a short film - it can tell a story, or be more abstract and atmospheric. There are film directors who specialize in this particular genre, and their works can be lush or spare, over-the-top or stripped to bare emotions.

But I admit there are so many more mediocre music videos out there. Especially in today’s music biz, a music video will do much better on social media than audio alone, so singers will feel obligated to just put something, anything on YouTube to get them some precious eyeballs which will hopefully lead to people checking out the rest of their music.

Just cuz they can sing doesn’t make them visionary filmmakers, and they don’t have budgets to really accomplish anything too interesting either. (Hence the sub genre of frum music videos that function as covert commercials for their sponsors - be they toy stores, grocery stores (they have over 5 million views on this one!! Don't think that would have happened without a fun video...), wineries, etc.)

Ha yes there was some egregious product placement, I wonder if they got permission from Quaker Oats though.

amother

Linen

Tue, Aug 07 2018, 5:28 pm

[quote="bigsis144"]

For a really personal and perhaps silly example, I much prefer the Lavonafilm/Bais Purim 2018 video to the official Mordechai Shapiro video for “Machar”. The joy and “never give up!!” feeling rolling off a video made by a bunch of bochurim doing parkour through the streets of Neve Yaakov is now irreversibly entwined with this song in my head, and I am far richer for it!”

Also love that video!! Full disclosure- my husband made it...but so happy to see others appreciate it!

bigsis144

Tue, Aug 07 2018, 5:49 pm

amother wrote:

bigsis144 wrote:

For a really personal and perhaps silly example, I much prefer the Lavonafilm/Bais Purim 2018 video to the official Mordechai Shapiro video for “Machar”. The joy and “never give up!!” feeling rolling off a video made by a bunch of bochurim doing parkour through the streets of Neve Yaakov is now irreversibly entwined with this song in my head, and I am far richer for it!”

Also love that video!! Full disclosure- my husband made it...but so happy to see others appreciate it!

OMG please pm me so I can further gush about how much I love his work, all the way back to the Lecha video! Seriously, I am so so impressed with the cinematography and editing and GAH! I’m so happy that I can let you know how much it means to me!!

(Also my brother-in-law was at Bais for a while so you would probably know my sister 😁)

cbsp

Tue, Aug 07 2018, 7:51 pm

amother wrote:

Also love that video!! Full disclosure- my husband made it...but so happy to see others appreciate it!

Wow, I recently discovered his version of Machar and it completely nails the real meaning of the song (for me).

(cute kids!)

Ditto Ivri.

And there's just sheer genius in the "today's the day" Goldwag video...

Thank you!

Back to the topic at hand, we do wear a kittel on Yom Kippur (and our minhag is the women wear white) in part to symbolize that we're pure like the malachim. So the singer wearing the kittel to me was fine. As far as the other costumes go - was it Rabbi Russell who talks about vividly describing to your kids how doing a mitzvah creates good malachim and an aveirah the reverse? We live in a visual age, this is what the kids can relate to. Love that they've built the Bais Hamikdash at the end.

Plus anything with Meir Kay's signature sometimes veers towards the wacky...

I'm definitely not a fan of using sifrei Torah, etc, as props (despite my enthusiasm for the "Machar" video mentioned above). Having said that, at least no one was performing cartwheels down a shul aisle...

And for those who think Chassidim don't watch these videos, I'm kinda surprised by that premise... I'm wondering if it's based on conjecture or actual knowledge of a community...

NovelConcept

Tue, Aug 07 2018, 8:01 pm

cbsp, I didn't say that chasidim don't watch these videos, I said it is not an accepted part of a normative chasidishe upbringing. Schools and chedarim do not allow these sorts of things. Most chasidishe families do not either. Do some see? Sure. It doesn't mean it is considered acceptable.

As for the white outfits being symbolic of malachim, it is only symbolic because the Xtian concept of white/good, black/bad, angel w/halo devil/with pitchfork that one automatically relates it to any form of symbolism in regards to malachim.