Neither lip dub nor flash mob has come into common use yet. At least not in the senior set I hang around with. Flash mob has been added to the latest online Merriam-Webster dictionary, but lib dub has not yet been deemed worthy of inclusion.
Rob Bliss is the award-winning producer of a lib dub that featured more than 5,000 people dancing and singing
American Pie in the streets of Grand Rapids. Participants in this, the longest and largest video lip dub yet, included the mayor, local celebrities, high school bands, a wedding party, kayakers, fireworks, dancers, even a helicopter take-off. If you’re interested in the Grand Rapids Lib Dub, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI .
Bliss came to the Detroit Institute of Arts last week to film a portion of a new Pure Michigan advertisement in the DIA’s Rivera Court.
I told a couple of friends I was going to the museum to be part of this filming. Their reaction was, “Huh?”and “What’s a lip dub?”
A lip dub is a video that combines lip synching and audio dubbing. It’s usually a large group of people mouthing the words to previously recorded music, but it's filmed in one continuous take with different groups of people entering and leaving.
I got the same “Huh?” when I asked if anybody knew what a flash mob was. A flash mob gathers (seemingly by chance – but No Way!) in a public place to perform a short, entertaining activity. The purpose, usually, is to merely surprise and delight passers-by.
Many readers of this blog have seen the You Tube video of more than 200 people dancing in Antwerp’s spacious Central Station. The loudspeaker begins by playing the first notes of Do Re Mi from the musical, The Sound of Music. The flash mob starts with one lone person, then two more join, then a line of dancers, then more and more until the center of the station is filled with performers dancing in unison.To see it, go to http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=767LG7NX
Some readers of this blog may have viewed the pillow fight flash mob in Toronto, filmed in 2005, or the Hallelujah chorus performed for unsuspecting diners in a Macy’s food court a few years ago.
Bliss is directing an upcoming Pure Michigan commercial and was midway through a week-long blitz to film portions of the video at 50 different Michigan locations. The DIA’s Rivera Court was one of them.
About 100 people -- volunteers, staff members and friends of the DIA -- showed up in DIA-themed get-ups and Detroit sports team T-shirts as well as shirts proclaiming all kinds of good things about Detroit and Michigan.
We spent 20 minutes practicing our lines, which were pretty simple: “Woah oh oh oh. Then Bliss and his crew filmed us. We’ll have a “starring role” of several seconds in the upcoming Pure Michigan promotion.
I’ll let you all know when it’s available. Bliss said it will be shown on Michigan’s official tourism Web site, PureMichigan.com and maybe other places, too. Readers of this blog in North Carolina, Florida, California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Paris and beyond – look for it. I’m wearing a bright blue DIA T-shirt standing next to the tall gray-haired man (that’s Skip) in the back row (of course) waving my hands back and forth, singing our portion of the song: “Woah oh oh oh” and proclaiming love for Michigan and the Detroit Institute of
Arts.
To see how Bliss and his crew traveled around the state,
go to http://www.michigan.org/blog and scroll down to The Most Ambitious Pure Michigan Road Trip Ever.
If you have time and you’re interested, here’s another cool video of people all over the world, dancing:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120710.html