LipDub: 120 Students, No Edits
With the Jackson 5 for a soundtrack, one awesome take
Students sing along with a mashup of the Jackson 5’s “ABC” and “I Want You Back” in BU’s first LipDub video.
Parisian Georgia Poivre was determined to leave a legacy at Boston University. So one month before graduating, amidst finals and research papers, the film student took on an enormous project — the first ever BU LipDub.
For the uninitiated, LipDub combines lip-synching and audio dubbing to create a music video. Filmed in a single take, a video features hundreds of students who dance, wear outlandish costumes, and carry props to illustrate song lyrics. The trend swept through European colleges earlier this year.
“I always wanted to do a big BU production,” says Poivre (COM’10), “something that represented all aspects of student life.” She pitched the idea to members of the Greek community (fraternities and sororities), as well as the cheerleading, snowboarding, and crew teams, all of whom enthusiastically agreed to help. Other students learned about the project through the BU LipDub Facebook group.
With help from Sam Minkoff (ENG’10), president of the Programming Council, and Kevin Lee (ENG’10), vice president of programming for the Interfraternity Council, Poivre spent the next month and a half choreographing and rehearsing. The finished product, filmed December 11 at the George Sherman Union, is one of the first of its kind in the United States. It features about 120 students dancing to a mashup of the Jackson 5’s “ABC” and “I Want You Back,” as well as an appearance by Kenn Elmore, dean of students.
“Finding music for a LipDub is a challenge,” Poivre says. “It can’t be too fast or too slow. We settled on the Jackson 5 because everyone knows their songs and the ‘ABC, one-two-three’ lyrics tie into school.”
Poivre hopes LipDub will become a BU tradition. “It would be great if next year someone makes one that’s even bigger and better than the one we made,” she says. “Even though people didn’t know one another, they still sang and danced together. I think that really says something about the spirit of BU.”
Read The Quad’s coverage of the BU LipDub event here.
Vicky Waltz can be reached at vwaltz@bu.edu.
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