Dawn Patrol
Director/producer
Michele Noble knew she needed a large location with old world charm and
warm acoustics. The warm sound was critical since Journey 4 Artists
records 27 world music songs entirely LIVE. No playback. After weeks,
Noble found an ideal location unfortunately only available from 6pm to
6am; in addition, her film and music recording crew had to load in/out each night/dawn. Each night the
crew loaded everything in, dressed the set, set the microphones, cameras, etc.
and each dawn the crew removed everything leaving no trace of them
having been there. After days of doing this, cast and crew were
dragging. 5 AM loomed. Noble knew she needed to stop filming soon in
order to put the location back together, and the crew could feel
themselves wanting to commence their dawn duties. But Theodore Bikel had
other ideas. He asked Michele if he could do his Russian Cossack's song.
"Are you sure you have another one tonight in you, it's 5AM?" Noble
asked. "Sure, I always have another one in me." Bikel assured her. The crew
shot Noble frustrated looks when she decided to set up the shot. Bikel began the
song, his energy suddenly blasting-- lively, authentic, electrifying the
once almost dormant crew. Instantly, they were involved in Bikel, in
the song, the music, the feeling. Bikel did the song with bold gusto, a
flawless performance in one take. The now invigorated crew erupted in
applause. Noble knew she had perfectly captured Bikel's rare performance --his lightning in a
bottle at dawn.
