Westfield Leader 1/27/11 - Camp Video Rocks the House

Camp Video Rocks the House

When you send your kids to camp, you hope they have fun and make new friends. You hope they’re engaged in the activities. At Camp Yachad, run by the JCC of Central New Jersey, parents don’t have to just hope. They can see for themselves, thanks to a video created by Dan Weiniger of Home Video Studio in Westfield.

Weiniger filmed one of the camp’s signature weekly programs, the Friday afternoon Rockin’ Shabbat. “It’s a celebration of the coming Jewish Sabbath, the Shabbat,” said Mike Goldstein, Camp Yachad co-director. Campers ages 5 to 14 join together in the gymnasium for the week’s culminating camp experience. “Essentially it’s a rock concert,” Goldstein said, with camp’s band, the Shabbatones, leading everyone in a spirit-filled rock concert featuring Jewish camp songs and the blessings to welcome in the sabbath.

During the Rockin’ Shabbat, more than 750 campers, counselors and parents fill the gymnasium for singing and dancing.

“I was blown away by the quality,” Goldstein said of the initial 12 minute video Weiniger created. “It was astounding to me because he not only captured the energy of the Shabbat program, but he was able to pan around the gym, using different camera angles, to capture the enormity of the event. But he also got in and did the close-ups, of smaller groups of counselors interacting with the campers, so we got the big picture as well as the smaller moments.”

Goldstein asked Weiniger for an even shorter, promotional version to put on the camp’s website. “I challenged him to come up with a three minute video. He still captured the essence of the program, which I was grateful for,” Goldstein said.

The comments Goldstein got about the video have all been positive. “It’s a nice promotional tool,” he said.

Goldstein was so happy with the Rockin’ Shabbat video, he’d like Weiniger to come back and film the camp’s end-of-summer show.

You can see the video on the JCC’s Camp Yachad website: http://www.jccnj.org/camp/shabatones.html

Home Video Studio offers a variety of video shooting, copying and editing services. Contact Dan at New Jersey-based Home Video Studio directly at (908) 301-9300 or email dan.w@homevideostudio.com. Visit the website to learn more about Dan’s services at www.homevideostudio.com/dan. To learn more about Camp Yachad, visit http://www.jccnj.org/camp/camphome.aspx.