VIDEO: San Francisco Arts School Students Pay 'Respects' to Aretha Franklin With Music Video
By: Stephi Wild Sep. 10, 2018
The World Music students of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA) have released a video tribute to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul who recently passed away.
The video features the entire department's students and teachers lip-syncing and dancing to Franklin's hit song (by Otis Redding) as they pay ''R-E-S-P-E-C-T.''
The video was the brainchild of Robert A. Wong, a 17-year-old senior, and Monina Sen Cervone, the founder and director of SOTA's World Music department. Wong and Cervone took three days to plan the tricky tracking shot, and captured it all on an iPhone.
Wong, who pops up from behind the bongos in the video, said: ''It was a little stressful, and we had to avoid all the mirrors in the rooms, but everyone was so enthusiastic. It was a lot of fun. We've joked that we'd love Ellen Degeneres to see it and get on her show. That would be so cool.''
SOTA is an acclaimed public performing arts school, and its alumni include Margaret Cho, Fatboi, Lena Hall, Sam Rockwell and Aisha Tyler. For more information about SOTA's World Music department, visit sfsota.org/worldmusic/. For more information about the school, visit sfsota.org.
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