"Dance Macabre" Video by James Adams  - Painting by Karen Klimpert - Music by Camille Saint-Saëns

This video was originally shared by Casablanca colleague James Adams on the Cassie Tips List, he produced this video using his Casablanca editor/s.  What following below is his explanation how the video was created:

"The orchestra is the Manchester Symphony (of Indiana), the conductor is Suzanne Gindin.  It was shot using
three Canon cameras, and edited on the S4000P Casablanca.  If you are interested, you can go on the web, find Manchester Symphony, and read the program notes I write regularly for that group.  If you are wondering about
that short clip, it was because Suzanne is applying for a university teaching job, and they want submissions ONLY by YouTube!  They wanted HER rather than the soloist.  The whole piece is almost half an hour long.

I used about 25 original paintings by Karen Klimpert, a former student of mine.  Also, another 40 or so 'cels.'

First, Karen became very familiar with the music (Danse Macabre, by Saint-Saëns).  We discussed which scenes we needed to have full-sized paintings of.  Then I videoed small parts of them, so there seemed to be many more paintings than 25.  We then determined how many cels to superimpose over the paintings to add the skeletons, cat, and cockerel.  

I forget the maximum number that we used over any particular painting, but it was important to know before videoing, because even when no cel is required, it is necessary to use an empty one.  Suppose we never had more than three at one time.  In that case, we always had to have three, even when the painting was used with no overlay.  That is because the picture looks different when seen through a cel, and even more different when seen through three.  So that there wouldn't be a shift of tone when we DID need an overlay, there always had to be the same number of cels on the paintings.

    I timed the music, made a black scene that long, and laid it onto the storyboard.  Then I added the clips from the paintings one at a time as "inserts" and trimmed and positioned them on the SB.  It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.  Nothing was from a "book" as Bobbie had suspected.     I have done several music videos, sometimes with paintings, and other times with real scenes..."The Moldau," for example.   
Thanks for watching
Jim Adams