On the day of filming, none of those people worked out

It’s always a good idea to keep an open mind, because things often work out in unexpected ways, says singer Ari Goldwag, who has created numerous videos along with his releases.

“While working on my video for the Shabbos song ‘Me’ein,’ where I miss the last bus and I’m trying to get home in time for Shabbos, we had planned different modes of transportation to get me there. My favorite was the roller blades. But we also thought about me getting picked up by someone driving a motorcycle, and we had a few people lined up who might be willing to do it. On the day of filming, none of those people worked out.

“Then I noticed that my neighbor’s son was running horse rides in the park nearby with a white horse, and I asked him if we could use the horse for a few minutes of filming. It felt like Hashem was guiding us to a great, funny scene (and people think I’m riding a white donkey). I got home in time for Shabbos — or really, I finished the video just in time, as the sun was setting.

“When I filmed the video for ‘Chanukah Light,’ we went to Times Square to film the final scene with empty Perrier bottles and candles,” Ari continues. (The popular video has over 1.5 million views.) “The only problem was that when I stood next to them, the camera made it look like they were higher than me. We knew about that before, and had brought a crate with us for me to stand on. But we had unfortunately left it in the car when we began filming, and the car was nowhere near Times Square. One of the crew went searching in the nearby alleyways and found exactly the crate we needed, and the video finished with me smiling next to the candles — at the right height.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, issue 907)