Nine minutes of Lady Gaga might not be your cup of tea.
And — unless you’re a certain age — you probably have no idea what a lipdub is. (It’s a music video that combines lip synching and audio dubbing. Duh.)
But you should still check out Emerson College’s Lady Gaga Lipdub. It could be the best in the entire who-even-knew-it-existed genre?
You won’t be alone. It’s already been viewed over 850,000 times. That’s right up there with the little kid who acted high after visiting the dentist.
Staples graduate Ariana Sigel — a member of the high school Media Lab‘s Wall of Fame — had a hand in the now-gone-viral dance video (and a bit role — you can see her at the 1:36 mark, with a camera).
She had plenty of help. Scores of students worked on production. Hundreds of others — sorority girls, athletes, quidditch players, gay activists — danced, jumped and gyrated through the streets of Boston, on campus, and at random other sites in that well-choreographed, uber-enthusiastic, “Fame”-style way.
A scene from the Emerson College lipdub.
Emerson is known for its communication department, and this lipdub shows how skillful Ariana and her classmates are. It was shot over 2 weeks, in many different locations — with the usual endless production problems — but the editing is so seamless it looks like one long, perfect, 9-minute take.
(It even fooled an ABC newscaster, who shook his head in wonderment at “one take — pretty impressive!”)
The idea was to use the video to advertise the Evvy Awards — a college-wide show in which student work is judged by industry professionals. It’s the largest student award show in the country.
It created a buzz, alright — and much more.
“Imagine what their school musicals are like 🙂 ” someone commented on YouTube.
“I am SO applying here!” someone else said.
And this from Emerson Class of 2013 dad: “Makes the tuition payments worth it.”
Industry professionals loved it too.
Even those who don’t love Lady Gaga.
(Click here to view Emerson College’s Lady Gaga Lipdub.)
I am the proud parent of an Emerson student, Max Fox. He won the Evvy last year for best solo performer for his stand-up comedy. The Emerson comedy team came in 2nd at the Aspen Comedy Awards which is a national event. The school is brimming with incredibly talented kids and this video
is the perfect example of that.
FUN … and really good!
This video has impressed Ariana’s high school media teachers as well and may well point to a new way of promoting high schools and colleges. Viral video… you bet. This video was passed through the entire Staples Guidance Department in one day and will be likely be shown to any Staples student who expresses interest in Emerson.
Dan, wouldn’t you love to see a Staples High School lipdub?
Good one 🙂
Ralph Waldo would have been proud.
Thanks so much for the post!
I am the main role/perspective student in this video and I am from the Danbury area!! It was such a fun production and I’m glad to see my fellow Fairfield County-er’s enjoy the video.
There are a ton of staples-emerson grads … hopefully staples will push this unique but under the radar school a little more now 🙂