Macy’s “Be True to Your School” Video Contest
9/1/14 - 10/3/14
40 hrs
Creativity (38 hrs); Action (2 hrs)
INITIATIVE PROJECT
Outcome 1 was reached because my skill at filmmaking was needed to create a video that would enter into Macy’s video contest. I learned more about my skill and how to get better at it in the process. Outcome 2 came about because I had never made a video that basically my entire school would be a part of. I discovered the contest and initiated the idea of participating in it to the Principal’s Council, plus the video required extreme amounts of planning, logistics, and cooperation of all involved, so it also helped me achieve Outcome 3 & 4. Outcome 5 was reached because once the Principal’s Council, our administrators, and the IB Theater class were on board, it was up to me to stay committed to the project and produce a great video, for they were counting on me to. As part of the logistics of the video, I had to consider that some students had signed “No Photo” requests at the beginning of the year, so I had to make sure none of those students were to be seen in the video, allowing me to reach Outcome 7. The video had to be one continuous take, so I learned how to run backwards for 9 minutes straight while holding a camera, achieving Outcome 8 in the process!
The Katy Perry Roar video contest my junior year was nothing compared to the video contest I would tackle my senior year. Macy’s announced they were holding a contest called the “Be True to Your School” Lip Dub Contest. Its aim was to have schools across the country show their spirit by creating a continuous lip dub video to a modernized version of the classic Beach Boys hit, ‘Be True to Your School.’ The video could be up to ten minutes long, must include students and faculty of the school, and had to use the version of the song Macy’s provided. I learned from the Roar video that spirit is amplified in numbers, so this time I would have to involve the whole school in order to have any chance at winning. I made this my initiative project because I knew the winning school would receive a large sum of money, which we desperately needed, so I wanted to help the school out while having fun doing it. I couldn’t do it alone like I did with the Roar video, of course, so I sought out the members of the Principal’s Council, a club I was now president of, asking them to help me think of ways we would show off the school and our spirit while filming a continuous lip dub video. Though the council had bright students in it, they weren’t great at coming up with creative ideas for the project. So, I turned to the most creative people in the school, the IB Theater class. Their teacher, Mrs. Laura White, became a huge component to the success of this video, as she took my basic concept of a treasure hunt and ran with it in her class. They made it a daily activity to plan the filming of this video. I would come by every other day to meet with them and discuss what they had developed as far as a plan. Eventually we decided that the video would indeed be a scavenger hunt of sorts, where those lip syncing in the video would pass off a treasure map as they ran through the halls looking for the treasure. We decided on the students and faculty who would act as the lip-syncers, and finalized our ideas. Once we had the plan, we had to figure out how we were going to execute it. One of our assistant principals, Mr. Roger Wood, was they key figure in helping set aside a day where we would focus solely on doing this video. Students in different clubs would drape the hallways, the cheerleaders and marching band and sports teams would be outside, and the football field would be a nexus as the location of the treasure. The treasure was the student body, the diversity, the talent, the sprit, the community. It came together much better than I ever thought it would, because it was hard to imagine that over 2000 high school students would cooperate like they did.
After multiple stop-n-go's and retakes spanning a two hour period, the video ended up being nine and a half minutes long, during all of which I ran backwards, contributing to the Action portion of the hours that made up this activity. Its length may have been its downfall, for we did not win the contest, but the video was even more remarkable than the Roar video had been the previous year. This video showed our school being one community of friends. Hopefully those students and faculty who had the privilege of being in it will never forget the experience. I know I won’t, for the hard work, the tripping and falling while filming, the audio snafus, and the help we received from students for decorating the school and making it shine were everything I could ask for. This video truly changed my life, and I hope others’.
You can see the original, quite lengthy video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxzwWn0ul_U
However, I created a trimmed-down version that is much more bearable in terms of duration, and it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2F-08FKLQ8
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