WELLINGTON COUNTY – The new music video for Rosa Ingenious’ song La La Land has countless ties to Wellington County.
The festive film, about childhood fantasies including Peter Pan and Santa Claus, is directed by Guelph/Eramosa resident
David Antoniuk and stars his son Stephen, who plays an imaginative little boy.
It features music and acting from the Guelph Youth Singers junior choir, led by artistic director and Rockwood resident Marion Samuel-Stevens.
Filming locations include the Mustang Drive-In in Guelph/Eramosa, Elliot Tree Farm near Hillsburgh, and a backyard swimming pool bordering the Rockwood Conservation Area.
The set features over a hundred hay bales grown in Guelph/Eramosa and later donated to Rockwood-area dairy farmer Tim May, better known as “Farmer Tim.”
Rosa Ingenious is a four-piece band based out of Toronto and formed around 2017.
Its lead singer and songwriter Stephen Smart met Antoniuk at a Christmas party last year and mentioned wanting to make a music video.
Antoniuk, a television director, said he was happy to take on the project.
Smart said he wanted a children’s choir to feature in the song, and Antoniuk connected him with family friend Samuel-Stevens and the Guelph Youth Singers.
Samuel-Stevens said the choir’s involvement in the music video and recording the vocal track with a professional sound engineer was a great opportunity and new experience for most kids in the choir.
Guelph/Eramosa resident and Harris Mill PS student Stephen Antoniuk starred in the video.
The video and song feature 20 kids ranging in age from six to 12, all wearing fleece onesies, including Rockwood resident Leonie Davies, who plays a fairy.
Smart said he was impressed by how much energy and joy the junior choir brought to the set.
“The kids were so happy and hyper playing with the snow,” he told the Advertiser.
And Antoniuk was impressed by Samuel-Stevens’ ability to motivate and wrangle all those kids.
“I think they just had a lot of fun,” Samuel-Stevens said.
For Stephen Antoniuk, the nine-year-old who plays the main character in the video, this was his first acting experience.
But he’s used to being in front of the camera, his dad said, as his mom Vanessa Ireson is a photographer.
David Antoniuk has worked with many child actors, and said the key is not giving them too much direction.
Just tell them where to be, he said, and then “capture the natural childlike beauty they have,” he said.
The La La Land music video was released on Dec. 16 and can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=wfnZ7IAZuDo.
Antoniuk said he would love to do more directing in Wellington County, “whether rom-com stye films or feature films,” noting he would like to explore the area’s beauty with long-form content.
And Smart said he would love to perform a live show in Wellington County, along with the Guelph Youth Singers’ junior choir.
Guelph/Eramosa resident David Antoniuk directed the La La Land music video, and his friend and business partner Chuck Scott played Santa. “Santa is a role he was born to play,” Antoniuk said. “He has the look.”
