Which is most Popular?

On Thursday, I found out which song out of the three I polled the public on was the most popular on Youtube.

Which Song? - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
I was extremely pleased with the result of this as "Life in Sunshine" was my original choice!

Sunshine & Rainbows
Hana

Gathering more Info

Today, I emailed the man who created the StAC lip dub.

These were the first two questions that Dr Bird asked me about my proposal. I can't wait to get a response. 

Sunshine & Rainbows

Hana

Google Form

Last night, I sent out a Google Form to find out more about what the Selwyn House School thought of our school and what things make it special. I sent the form to:

a) Years 5 - 8 Teachers and Students

b) Support and Specialist Staff

c) Year 1 - 4 Teachers (for them to fill in the form as a class)

The google form I sent to Year 5 - 8 looked like this

The same form was sent to Year 1 - 4 Teachers and Support/Specialist Team except I deleted the last question.

Even in that short amount of time, I have already received thirty responses. The four most popular places have been; The Playground (17), The Atrium (14), The Food Tech Room (13) and Other (13).

I can't wait to get more answers and I will use this information to help me to develop a route that I will most likely use. This will also be useful for my proposal when I create my mock up of the lip dub.

Best places of the school - ✔

Sunshine & Rainbows
Hana

P.S. Feel free to fill out the form if you know anything about Selwyn House.

Working Backwards

Today, I created a plan of what I need to do by working backwards from my main goal this Term and the beginning of next Term, talking to our principal to get funding. Here is what I planned (excuse the messy hand-writing):

I am planning on creating the Google Form for the school tomorrow. When I set it all out like this, it looks quite manageable.

Here's another lip dub. Notice that they don't really showcase the school in any way.

Sunshine & Rainbows

Hana

Happy

Hey!

Today I found out who my mentor is - our Spanish teacher! I've sent her an e-mail asking what mentor meeting times would work best for her (She hasn't given me permission to use her name yet so I'll update this when she does).

I've also been looking at a whole lot more lip dubs. While searching, the song "Happy" by Pharrel Williams came up on the side bar part where there are links to related videos. I had a look and thought "Hey. This is lot like what I'm doing." Our art teacher showed the Happy website to us and I thought that it was really cool. It is a lip dub to "Happy" at different times of the day with different people. Here is a compilation of all of the people in one video.



I thought that this was a really good lip dub because of its great, catchy song and the fact that each person who fronts it is really into the song. I also thought that the website was pretty cool too.

Click here to go to the "24 hours of Happy" website where you can see all the different at different times of the day.

My next step will be to start working out how much the equipment is going to cost. To do this I am going to have to look up some companies that will hire me out the steadicam and the other equipment I need. Then I am going to have to ring them up and get a quote so I can go to our principal with a proposal that includes all the information I need.

Sunshine & Rainbows
Hana

Receiving A Reply

On the 1st of March, I received an e-mail back from my expert. He answered my questions very thoroughly and I put together some of his main points to share with you -

• Approximately it took him a month and two weeks to plan, film and edit the lip dub
• Approximately it cost him $2000 dollars to plan, film and edit the lip dub not including editing equipment and other things that his school already had. He said that that would cost about $2000 dollars more, although he did hire a segway and special sound system and given that Selwyn House is quite small I probably won't be needing a segway!!
• He told me to get in touch with the composer of the song that you chose and check it with them if it is okay to use their song. Also, it's easier to get in touch with a New Zealand artist so try to chose an upbeat, fun, recognisable, Kiwi song.
• The most important step is planning. Everything needs to be thought out before the day because you don't wait to have major problems on the day of filming caused by you forgetting something. 
• When filming, you need to get people engaged and excited so that the school looks good on camera.
• Necessary equipment - A camera (a stedicam is better if you can get hold of one), sound system (for playing the music so that the people who front it, the people who go in front of the camera, can lip-sync in time.)
• Helpful but not necessary equipment if you can't afford it - Lighting (for moving from outside to inside), a helicopter (probably not necessary, but how he did the last shot in the StAC lip dub), Segway (As I said earlier, I probably won't need one)
• IT IS NOT EASY! If you can pull it off, you can be very happy with what you have achieved, but it is by no means a small undertaking.

I was very grateful for his prompt response. Now, I will need to find out more information. My next step will be to find out exactly how much it will cost. I probably won't need lighting, a helicopter or a segway so that takes off some of the $4000 dollars that it might cost. I will also need to find out what editing equipment I will need to use as I have not done this sort of thing before. Then, once I have the costs,  I will need to make a proposal to our principal to see if I might be able to get some funding for the lip dub. 

Sunshine & Rainbows

Hana

Getting A Contact

Today, I drafted an e-mail to the man who planned, filmed and edited the StAC lip dub.

I have decided not to start planning yet as the cost or time may be too much and I will have to either try to get funding from the school or revert to plan b; Filming a showcase of the school, with music behind it, but without the lip dub part.

If you have any ideas, please comment, or even just to tell me what you think.

Sunshine & Rainbows
Hana

More Videos

As part of my homework, I have been researching a lot of school lip dubs and thinking about what I think makes a really good lip dub for showcasing a school. Here's one that I thought was not so great. Notice the quick changes and the song isn't well known.



Based on the information I have gathered, I have compiled a list of what I think makes a good lip dub

HANA'S GUIDE TO A GOOD LIP DUB FOR SHOWCASING YOUR SCHOOL:

1. Choose a song that people will know. If they don't know the song, they won't engage as well.
2. Choose an upbeat song. A slow song won't capture peoples attention and they may immediately switch off.
3. When someone is walking through the school and lip-syncing, don't make a lot of sudden changes of person leading the song. A person should sing at least one phrase before changing. 
4. Make the lip-syncers walk forwards and have the filmers walking backwards. It looks bad on the film if the lip-syncers have to keep looking behind them.
5. Have people around you doing things that are really what you do at your school. If there are too many things then choose the ones that best showcase your school. Cream pies in the face? Not such a good idea.
6. Make sure that the people in the background are actually doing something as opposed to just waving their arms in the air.

I have also found some really good lip dubs. This one, from Cleveland High School, has elements I like but also some that I don't. For example, I like that it is a song that I know but I don't like that the background people aren't really doing anything.



My next step is to contact the person who created and managed the StAC lip dub. I need to find out how long approx. it will take and how much it will cost to create my lip dub. I hope that I won't have to refer to a plan B.

Sunshine & Rainbows
Hana


P.S. Please comment to tell me what you think and if you know anyone or anything that might me able to help me. I love hearing what you have to say.