Wareham High School has one, and so does Fairhaven High School. And now, Old Rochester Regional High School will join the trend and have its very own lip dubbing: energetic, creative, and infused with school spirit and pride.
For the past two weeks, students from all four classes have been meeting in English teacher Merrideth Wickman’s classroom with school nurse Kim Corazzini to plan the massive undertaking. It will be likely a while yet before the high school actually films the lip dubbing — the pre-February vacation filming session has been nixed as Ms. Corazzini would rather take the time to film a high-quality lip dubbing than rush the process in order to have a lame lip dubbing ready for the school’s film festival on Friday, March 2. (This was the original goal.)
“[A lip dubbing] is a performance by a group of individuals lip synching a song as they progress through a certain venue or area,” Ms. Corazzini described the project. The lib dubbing that the students and staff of ORR will create is going to incorporate all areas of the building, as well as all members of the student body.
The different teams, clubs, activities, and any interested students will be featured as the leads throughout the lip dubbing.
“I’d like for any kid who wants to be a part of it to participate and be featured in it,” Ms. Corazzini said. “It’s not just the clubs.”
The interest in creating a high school lip dubbing came from seeing those created by neighboring schools, Ms. Corazzini explained. She admits that she is a fan of flash mobs, and drew a comparison of that particular trend to lip dubbing.
“I’ve enjoyed what they do and how some of them have a sense of good feeling,” Ms. Corazzini said. “I thought maybe it might be a fun thing to do. The ones we have looked at … showcase the school and its community, at the same building a sense of school spirit and school pride.”
The initiative for the lip dubbing largely came from the AFS, which is led by both Ms. Corazzini and Ms. Wickman.
“The AFS is sponsoring the Film Festival,” Ms. Corazzini said of the event. “We thought [the lip dubbing] could be a major draw to it.” As the situation stands right now, the lip dubbing will not be premiered at the Film Festival; instead, it will (potentially) be premiered at its own event.
“I’ve gained commitment to the quality rather than getting it done for the Film Festival,” Ms. Corazzini said. “Maybe we’ll [premiere] it some evening. Part of [doing] it was to have a fundraiser.” Ms. Corazzini also said that the school will see about posting the lip dubbing online once it is finished.
At the second meeting for the lip dubbing, the students who were present selected the song that everyone will be lip synching.
As the research of Ms. Corazzini says, the most important part of a lip dubbing is the song. It needs to be school appropriate, have a quick tempo, and be familiar to many people. It also needs to be fun to listen to – the audience shouldn’t get bored watching the completed lip dubbing.
After listening to a number of songs and discussing different premises for the lip dubbing, the students selected “4 Chords” by Axis of Awesome. The song is a mash-up of nearly 50 different songs from recent pop culture. Each song will be lip synched by a different person, team, or club during the finished lip dubbing. The next tasks for the students involved in the planning process are to divide the lyrics, determine the route of the lip dubbing, and choreograph the different stages. Until these things are accomplished, the filming will have to wait.
By Anne Smith