Showtime: 900 students featured in video

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Bailey Ailing, in tuxedo, is surrounded by his fellow East Middle School broadcast journalism students. Courtesy photo/Jody Mackey

April 22, 2011

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Wed Apr 18, 2012, 11:28 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — A Traverse City East Middle School music video has nearly 1,300 views on the SchoolTube website and is headed for SVN-TV next.

The video was created by the school's broadcast journalism classes and features more than 900 students, faculty and staff dancing, lip-syncing and cheering to pop and hip-hop songs.

The 7-minute video is part of a LipDub contest sponsored by School Video News, an online magazine for TV and video production classes. Lip dubs are do-it-yourself music videos shot in one take and later dubbed with original tracks.

"It's not something I could do with every broadcast class but I have some serious hams this year," said journalism teacher Jody Mackey. "I thought it would be perfect for them."

Mackey said the 25 broadcast students spent two months planning and practicing for the video shoot, which took place March 18 during resource hour, a study group period at the end of the day. Contest rules call for the video to "showcase the school with spirit and pride" by including the entire student body in a "unique way," she said. Each resource class created its own identity for the video, including costumes, props and choreography.

"The amount of work the broadcast journalism class put into it was just short of incredible," said school principal Cathy Meyer-Looze. "I can't even tell you the number of skills that took place in terms of organizing and choreographing and problem-solving and even problem-finding to anticipate everything that could go wrong. They had different stations for each class to be."

As broadcast students danced and lip-synced their way through the school, from the choir room and the library to the hallways and the cafeteria, physical education students twirled hula-hoops, science and Spanish students gyrated in lab coats and sombreros, and 'nerdy' students spun with books.

In the gym, students did back-flips while others on bleachers did the wave. Tech ed teacher Ed Diment got in on the act by donning a blond wig and boogieing in the woodworking room.

"We had to pump the music through the school, which was a whole other challenge," said Mackey, who borrowed additional speakers and strung 200 feet of wire for the project. "The noise from the school was so loud that the music actually couldn't be heard sometimes."

Eighth-grade broadcast student Bailey Ailing opens the video lying atop the choir room's piano in a tuxedo borrowed from the Old Town Playhouse. He's backed by the choir, choreographed by choir teacher Michelle Zebell.

"It was really nerve-wracking," said Ailing. "I knew if I made a fool out of myself the whole school, all my peers, my little sister, would be watching. So if I did something wrong everybody was going to see it."

Amy Dunscombe's special education class sat atop big blue recycling bins, holding signs touting recycling and Traverse City. The class is responsible for recycling for the school.

"The kids were really excited about being in this," Dunscombe said. "We had to watch it about 10 times. They're singing the songs to this day."

Mackey said the video's continuous nature was the biggest challenge.

"You can't stop the tape once you start and you can't edit," she said. "The only thing you can do is add the title to the front and credits at the end."

"It was definitely an adrenaline rush," said cameraman Zach Glezman, an eighth-grade broadcast student who used a rolling tripod to shoot the video. "You've got to make sure the pace is right and keep up with it. We practiced a lot -- about 30 dry runs."

The video was one of 42 entries in three grade categories from schools as far away as Australia and Taiwan, said School Video News publisher John Churchman. The entries will be judged by SVN's editorial board on criteria including music, enthusiasm and energy, production value, lip-syncing and originality.

"It should make you want to get up and dance," Churchman said. "It should feel like you're at a party."

Churchman said the East Middle School video will be featured in the SVN's May issue and shown on SVN-TV. As for the broadcast students' chances of winning the contest, "they're a strong contender," he said, "especially in their age group."