By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
For most parents, children’s videos seem mind-numbing at best. But for Ron Wolf of Mercer Island, they’re a source of inspiration.
“I was watching my son watch a kids’ video, thinking about the way it was made and I thought, ‘I could do that,’” said Wolf, a long-time amateur video editing enthusiast.
Armed with the knowledge of the kind of videos his own kids liked, Wolf set out to create the first DVD designed specifically for Jewish youngsters. The result was Oy Baby, a 30-minute-long video that pairs familiar Hebrew songs with footage of young kids engaging in Jewish activities like giving tzedakah and celebrating Shabbat, as well as dancing puppets and brightly colored animation.
“We thought it would be great to take music we heard growing up at summer camp and youth group and share it with a new generation in a new way,” Wolf said.
The first Oy Baby video was released in 2003. Wolf followed it up with Oy Baby 2 in 2005 and then, last month, announced the arrival of a third video, titled That Baby DVD.
Wolf said his own kids, David, 5, and Sadie, 3, are big fans of both the Oy Baby DVDs and That Baby DVD. Of course, Wolf admits that they may be a bit biased, considering that both kids star in all three videos.
Along with his own son and daughter, Wolf used the children of several other local families as actors for the videos.
“After the first Oy Baby came out, we had lots of friends asking if their kids could be in the next ones, so we had no shortage of talent,” Wolf said.
Sandra Levin of Mercer Island, a long-time friend of the Wolfs, was more than happy to volunteer her eldest daughter, Taleah, 6, for the first Oy Baby video.
“Rob just makes things so much fun for the kids while he’s filming,” Levin said.
Taleah has since been joined in her budding film career by her sister, Kayla, 3. Together, the Levin kids performed in both the Oy Baby 2 and That Baby DVD.
“All three videos are just phenomenal,” Levin said. “We all like the music so much and the girls love the animated scenes, so I think they would still want to watch them, even if they weren’t in the videos themselves.”
The bulk of the photography for each video was done on Mercer Island, and local viewers will no doubt recognize views of Lake Washington from Luther Burbank Park and several Mercer Island playgrounds.
That Baby DVD is a collection of music videos accompanied by classic rock songs. Although it is not a Jewish-themed video, Wolf said that the That Baby DVD doesn’t mark a change in the direction of his company and that he may very well return to making videos specifically for Jewish audiences in the future.
“We wanted to try something that would reach a bigger market,” Wolf said. “There was this whole other universe of music we wanted to explore — English songs that are favorites of ours that we wanted to share with our kids as well.”
Music on That Baby DVD includes acoustic covers of classic rock songs like “Pony Boy,” by Bruce Springstein, “St. Judy’s Comet” by Paul Simon, and “Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell, all performed in a manner Wolf describes as “soothing and low key.”
All the songs on That Baby DVD were performed by friends of the Wolfs, including Portland singer/songwriter Stephanie Schneiderman, who did most of the music for the Oy Baby DVDs as well.
“Stephanie was always that girl at B’nai B’rith camp who was sitting by the fire, playing her guitar. So she was a natural choice for us,” Wolf said.
Wolf distributes the videos with the help of his wife, Lisi. A freelance photographer and stay-at-home mom, Lisi has taken on much of the responsibility for getting her husband’s products into stores.
“She also keeps the kids occupied while I edit,” Wolf said, “which is huge.”
Wolf recently quit his job at Microsoft to focus on promoting the three DVDs and accompanying CDs full-time.
“Right now we’re focusing on building retail relationships, although I like to think that there will be another video in the works sometime soon,” he said.
Locally, Oy Baby can be purchased at Tree of Life Judaica & Books. That Baby DVD is available at Hush Baby in Redmond and at Kid’s Club at University Village in Seattle. Both DVDs and CDs are also available online at www.oybaby.com.