Imagine making a music video with 1,000 people.
Every move is coordinated. The song is fast. Once the camera's on, you're on. And you can't screw up the words.
If that sounds tricky, you're right, according to a group of students at Cobb County's Harrison High School, near Kennesaw. Not only are they planning to shoot a music video Saturday, they're planning to do it lip-dub style.
"A lib dub is basically a huge music video that's done in one take," broadcasting teacher Blake Tippens said. "You can't say ‘Action!' ‘Cut! or ‘Stop!' -- we don't do that. As soon as the music starts, the camera starts."
What started as a project for broadcasting students at the school has now spread throughout the campus. Students from all sorts of campus groups -- from cheerleaders to orchestra members to members of the lacrosse team -- are participating in the project.
And that's just one of the reasons the teenagers are so excited.
It's not your typical music video. Instead, this one will have a message. It's about kids helping kids make it through the rough times, like just being a teenager. It's about school spirit. It's about school solidarity. And it's about having fun.
But it's going to be a little hectic once the "record" button is pushed.
"Everybody has to be on their spot. Everybody has to say their words right," Tippens said. "Otherwise, we stop and do (the whole thing) over."
During final rehearsals Wednesday afternoon, precision was everything. That included one of three teens who will be holding the cameras, often walking backward, down stairs and through the school's hallways.
"You have to keep it really steady," said James Pearson, an 11th grader.
The students plan to use two songs for the video: “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World and “Move Along” by All-American Rejects. The plot of the video includes a sad, depressed student who gets pulled into a school full of friends, quickly changing her outlook. The video will be used to promote a peer-to-peer program called "Sources of Strengths," school counselor Butch Davidson said.
As if singing and dancing for the video weren't enough, part of the song will actually be performed backward. Confused yet?
"I recorded myself forward singing the song, then I reversed that so i could learn how I'd say it backward," junior Luka Antolic-Soban said.
It should all make sense when the final product is done, students said. That will happen Saturday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., when at least 1,000 students head to school for the shoot.
That means the pressure's on for student Jordanne Vincoli, the video's director, and the two producers, Isabel Yanes and Morgann Hext. The three have worked tirelessly for weeks to plan the video, and they'll be the ones guiding the masses. The teens plan to use walkie-talkies to communicate Saturday.
"I have to make sure that every single person is accounted for," Yanes said. "If anything goes wrong, it's my job to fix it."
Before it's even shot, the students say they're anxious to show off their work. While the lip dub videos have been tried by older students at colleges and universities, Tippens knows of only one other high school that was able to pull one off. And he says none has been done in Georgia.
Harrison students have spent hours, including a long Saturday and afternoons after classes, coordinating plans, Tippens said. But it's a project that can bring a community together for a fun goal.
"We'll have something amazing," Tippens said.
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