Three students with an idea. Four months of planning. An eight-hour shoot. Five attempts at one single take. Oh, and one inescapable pop song.
These numbers alone don鈥檛 add up to something 鈥済oing viral鈥 online. No, there鈥檚 likely something else behind the rapid success of the AV俱乐部 Student Union鈥檚 new 鈥渓ip dub.鈥 Released on Friday, and featuring dozens of Dal students, the song-and-dance spin on Katy Perry鈥檚 summer hit California Gurls (rebranded Dalifornia Gurls, of course) has almost 9,000 views on YouTube as of Tuesday morning and is quickly becoming a Facebook and Twitter sensation. It was even featured on CTV News this week.
The swift response and glowingly positive feedback is a bit overwhelming to the video鈥檚 organizers.
鈥淚鈥檓 blown away,鈥 says Sarah Bouchard, political science and religious studies major. 鈥淚 did not expect it.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 only been a few days, but the number of viewers...it鈥檚 been ridiculous,鈥 adds Logan Astle, who just completed his physics and chemistry degree and is starting engineering in the fall.
If you鈥檙e unfamiliar with the term 鈥渓ip dubs,鈥 don鈥檛 feel too out-of-touch: they鈥檙e a rather recent phenomenon, one driven largely by university students. They鈥檙e performance videos that combine 鈥渓ip syncing鈥 (mouthing the words to a song) with 鈥渁udio dubbing鈥 (replacing the audio of the video with the original song file) and usually involve large groups of people singing along to pop songs in a hyper-stylized, theatrical fashion 鈥 often in one take.
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| Dalifornia Girls, we're unforgettable ... |
The most famous lip dub 鈥 鈥 caught the eye of several members of the DSU鈥檚 orientation week committee last year, but it was simply too late to think about planning one of their own. They returned to the idea this year, though, and it was greeted with great enthusiasm by the DSU executive and the rest of the committee.
鈥淚 think, for me at least, I just thought that if I were a first-year student coming to Dal, that would be one of the best things to get me excited for my orientation week,鈥 says Gillian Fung, who just finished her BSc and is working on an electrical engineering degree. 鈥淚t just looks like everyone in the video is having so much fun and it looks like they love where they are. And we wanted to capture that for our first-year students.鈥
Moving pieces
The trio began brainstorming ideas for the lip dub back in April. They watched every other university lip dub video at least twice, taking notes on what they liked and didn鈥檛 like, and realizing very quickly that they鈥檇 need some professional camera equipment to pull off something that matched their vision. The also started a lengthy list of possible props, costumes and 鈥 of course 鈥 songs.
Deciding on a soundtrack for the video wasn鈥檛 easy. Right up until a final 鈥渄ecision day鈥 in early July, the group was torn between songs by Katy Perry and Joel Plaskett.
鈥淲e had set out clear goals of what we wanted in a song, what we wanted it to portray: something upbeat and happy, simple lyrics, and something that was popular,鈥 says Ms. Fung. 鈥淲e needed something that might not be everyone鈥檚 favourite song, but something everyone had heard 鈥 especially the first-years. Part of us really wanted Joel Plaskett, but we were like, 鈥楾his video isn鈥檛 for us.鈥欌
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| East coast represent / Now put your hands up... |
Having decided on Perry鈥檚 hit, the team began storyboarding dozens of sight gag for the video, mapped out on floor plans put together by Ms. Fung. They met nearly every day (they鈥檙e all working on campus this summer) and would send excited e-mails among themselves anytime one of them came up with a great idea. In the final days before the August 8 shoot, they began taking their own handheld cameras around the SUB, testing shots and reworking the timing of the various segments.
鈥淲e made a lot of changes,鈥 says Ms. Fung. 鈥淲e had so many ideas, but we didn鈥檛 know how long it would take to walk around the building and what was reasonable.鈥
Take five
They also didn鈥檛 know how many people would show up. Though they鈥檇 scaled back their plans 鈥 an overly ambitious first draft of the routine, affectionately called the 鈥渨hat the heck?!鈥 version by Mr. Astle, called for 240 participants 鈥 the organizers simply didn鈥檛 know how many responses they鈥檇 get to their open call for students to take part.
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| Daisy Dukes / Bikinis on top ... |
But arrive they did: over 40 of them, enough to make the video work provided that the students didn鈥檛 mind taking on several roles and spending their entire Sunday in the SUB, much of that time just waiting and preparing for the one-take shot attempts.
鈥淓veryone was so great on the day of,鈥 says Ms. Bouchard. 鈥淲e had given everyone their role, and then we tracked them down an hour later and gave them even more roles! But everyone wanted to make it work and to work together as a team. They were like, 鈥楴o, we can do this!鈥 Take the conveyer belt of students, for example [at the 3:43 mark] 鈥 we weren鈥檛 going to do that, and everyone was saying, 鈥楴o, it will be so much fun, we鈥檒l make it work!鈥
It wasn鈥檛 easy getting the best take. A few of times, things went awry. The bit in the elevator was off-time. The balloons didn鈥檛 quite fall on cue. And the AV俱乐部 Tiger, played fearlessly by Mr. Astle, may have accidentally tackled the girl on the stairs [1:15] on one take when his feet gave out from under him. But with a professional steadicam operator filming the routine, things came together towards the end of the day. They got the take they were looking for on the fifth attempt.
鈥淚f [everyone] was tired, they didn鈥檛 show it,鈥 says Mr. Astle. 鈥淓ven after the hours they鈥檇 been waiting for us to do the walkthrough and get going, as soon as we started the song the first time, as soon as that music started playing in the SUB, everyone just got hyped up: cheering, yelling directions out at each other. It was ridiculous how much energy poured out.鈥
Something worth sharing
As soon as the video went online Friday afternoon, that energy went digital.
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| Dalifornia ... |
鈥淚 left to go home last week, so I was in Maine,鈥 says Ms. Bouchard. 鈥淭he day it was released, I had a million text messages, Facebook and e-mails asking, 鈥楬ave you seen it?鈥...All my friends in Maine watched it and they were like, 鈥極h, that鈥檚 so cool, I can鈥檛 believe you guys did that.鈥 It was great to get their fresh perspective on it...people who didn鈥檛 know anyone in the video, or anything about Halifax or AV俱乐部.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 neat to read all the YouTube comments,鈥 says Ms. Fung. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had comments from people who鈥檝e graduated and say, 鈥極h, I wish I still went to Dal, I wish they had this when we were going there, this is so cool.鈥 But we鈥檝e also had exactly what we were looking for, which is first-year students coming here saying, 鈥業鈥檓 so glad that I chose Dal,鈥 or 鈥楴ow I鈥檓 really excited for my orientation week, I can鈥檛 wait to get there.鈥欌
DSU President Chris Saulnier is pleased as punch. 鈥淭his is such a great way to get people excited,鈥 he told Dal News 鈥 just before he was off to join the orientation committee around the television to watch the CTV News clip.
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| You all could be / Dalifornia girls ... |
So back to the big question: why so popular so quickly? What is it about this self-consciously silly little video that鈥檚 connecting with people? Might it be the shameless enthusiasm on display? The presence of a Dal spirit that, perhaps, all too often hides in the corners of campus rather than out in the open?
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a big school that sometimes the school spirit is hard to direct and it gets lost,鈥 says Ms. Fung. 鈥淚 think and hope, for at least the people that go to Dal, that they鈥檙e sharing this video being like, 鈥楾his is my school, I鈥檓 so proud that I go here because this is a look at the fun we have at our school.鈥欌
鈥淚t鈥檚 so full of energy, and that鈥檚 what we were really trying to take from the Montreal one,鈥 says Ms. Bouchard.
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| East Coast rocks yeah! |
鈥淎nd that鈥檚 something we always strive for, especially during orientation week 鈥 to make sure that students are energized in a positive way,鈥 adds Mr. Astle, who adds that he knows several orientation week leaders who are taking the enthusiasm of the video to heart. 鈥淭his is a really good head start for us.鈥
So the next question, then: is the DSU going to be a one-hit wonder, or is there a follow-up video in the works? The committee is planning some smaller video projects for orientation week, but they鈥檙e waiting until the fall to consider a second lip dub.
鈥淲e have a lot of good ideas that didn鈥檛 get used that I鈥檇 like to see put to use,鈥 says Ms. Fung.
鈥淲e did this during the summer when there are a very limited number of students around and able to give us a full day for this sort of thing,鈥 says Ms. Bouchard. 鈥淚t would be fun to try and do one during the school year when we鈥檇 have 16,000 students to draw from.鈥
鈥淩eally, I鈥檇 just like to give everyone else the opportunity to take part in something like this,鈥 adds Ms. Fung.鈥滻t really was as much fun as it looks.鈥
Did you see it?
Even if you鈥檝e watched Dal-ifornia Gurls several times over, you might not have caught everything. Here鈥檚 a few cool details shared by the production team:
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