On Nov. 20, during advisory, Redwood will film its second ever lip dub. A lip dub is a music video that includes lip synching and audio dubbing to produce a complete music video. The whole production will be directed by junior Lily Derecktor and filmed by senior Jack Green, both of whom are members of Redwood TV. The motivations for the lip dub are to unify the school and show the school’s pride and support for one another, according to Derecktor.
Redwood’s first lip dub three years ago was produced by graduates Taylor Lee and Katie Olrick and filmed by graduates Jack Bushell, Lucas Wong and Alex Herez. The 2014 lip dub is currently on YouTube and has over 120,500 views. Leadership and social studies teacher Dave Plescia supervised the production of the first lip dub while this year Leadership, Link Crew and Redwood TV are all contributing to the making of the upcoming lip dub, according to Plescia.
According to Derecktor, there is a lot of planning that goes into making making a lip dub. The steps that go into making it successful include knowing the correct timing of the song, planning the route the camera will take, organization of the different groups involved in the lip dub, rehearsal of where the groups will be and organizing with the custodial crew, administration, Leadership and Link Crew.
In 2014, there were a lot of schools creating lip dubs that were going viral on YouTube, according to Plescia. During the production of the first lip dub, there were essentially two students in the leadership class that took it over, doing everything from song selection to camera planning.
“At that time, we didn’t have advisory and SMART period so we actually had to vote as a staff to change the bell schedule for the day,” Plescia said.
Plescia said that Redwood TV’s intention for the lip dub is exactly the same as Leadership’s: to bring the school together, have fun and show off the school. It’s also a way for students to showcase the various groups they’re a part of on campus.
“In a way, it’s kind of advertising for our school because it shows the different clubs, classes, sports, activities,” Plescia said.
Because Derecktor is in Leadership, Link Crew and Redwood TV, Peter Parish chose her to be the director of the lip dub. Parish teaches the Digital Communications course, which produces Redwood TV.
Derecktor said she wants this year’s lip dub to be more organized than the original.
“The last ones, pretty much all the ones that have been done, were really, really chaotic. The camera was just going through the chaos, which is cool and fun and high energy, but I think what we want to achieve is sections and really differentiated clubs,” Derecktor said.
According to Parish it took a while to choose a song and try to please as many people as possible.
“There’s never going to be a song that everyone’s going to jump on board and and love it. So it’s just trying to get that maximum threshold of enough people that are jazzed about the song and then it’s what grouping of students do we want to offer it to,” Parish said.
One of the most important aspects of the lip dub is the music, according to Derecktor. The song selection survey has ended, but it had an option of ten songs to vote for. The song “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton is the song that has been chosen. The lip dub is going to be done in two takes during advisory on Nov. 20th.
According to Parish, for a couple of years now Redwood TV has wanted to have a lip dub but it hasn’t been until this year that all the details got sorted out.
“Redwood TV wanted to do a lip dub last year, but they didn’t get it together enough to really organize an entire production involving the whole school,” Parish said.
According to Parish, directing is one of those things where you have to have a vision, but it is also necessary to delegate work to other people on large projects.
During the last lip dub, Parish says that it was so fast and charged that they really got a glimpse of everyone, and this year he hopes to get snapshots of many different groups and individuals within those groups.
“The lip dub is going to get everyone together and really get a view on who we are and who everybody is. I want to capture the individuals and their groups just a little more by getting clearer snap shots of who we are,” Parish said.
The 2017-18 school year started with a car break in on Sep. 13, a bomb threat on Sep. 19. Since then, there have been three potential shooting threats. On top of all this, there have been fires around Northern California that have affected the air quality.
Because Redwood has had such a rough year so far, Parish believes Redwood needs something to celebrate and to bring us together to have fun and be inspired, that being the lip dub.
