On Thursday April 7, 2022, LM filmed its third ever Lip Dub to the song “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake. Student Council committee head Avery Bickell ’23 said the huge rise in spirit at LM inspired the idea for a Lip Dub this year—Student Council thought it would bring the school together. The video was filmed throughout the first and second floors of LM, with clubs and sports spread out and assigned into sixteen different zones. Students held posters to identify each club or sport. In each zone, there were ‘dubbers’ (lip-syncers) and zone leaders who helped things run smoothly. According to Student Council president Leo Solga ’22, the money raised from the Lip Dub “is going to the Sean Hughes Children’s Trust. People will certainly be able to donate through a GoFundMe link on the Aces Nation [@aces.nation] insta and YouTube,” said Solga. He described promoting it to all the district’s teachers and parents over email, as well as the decision to show the video over the announcements to the whole student body at once. He hoped doing so would bring positive attention .
The Lip Dub was filmed three times. First was just a practice run, and the next two were be used as the final product. Reflecting on the process, participant Eliza Castello ’24 said “The first run through was confusing because no one knew where to go/what to do. By the third take, it got organized. People threw balloons and cheered, which made it lots of fun.”
The Lip Dub took lots of time and energy to plan. Bickell, who was part of the process, said how “there were so many people involved with the planning… To start, Señor Capkin is the best club sponsor we could ask for, he was at LM before and after school making sure everything was in line. Next would be our student council cabinet, Leo, Alana, Rissa, Sam and Eli- who took so much time to communicate with all of the dubbers/zone leaders to make sure that things would move smoothly.” Bickell
explained how the student council committee heads played an important role in the Lip Dub, by working as zone leaders and showing their LM spirit.
Bickell explained how helpful all of the activity leaders were in creating posters, decorating, and learning the lyrics of the song. Additionally, choosing a song for this year’s Lip Dub took awhile. A form was sent to all of LM from the student council, asking for song suggestions. “Can’t Stop the Feeling” was finally chosen as the main song. Bickell said, “My favorite part however is the song we’ll play during the credits, ‘This is me.’ It was one of Hughes favorite songs that he would play during graduation. We wanted to honor him by playing that song in the video.”
To finish the video, students gathered in the Kobe Gymnasium where star basketball player Demetrius Lilley ’22 dunked. Ace the Bulldog was in the gym as well as two cheerleaders who did back handsprings. Bickell said that when choosing the dubbers the student council sought out “officers and captains of LMs clubs and sports teams.” This, Bickell said “would be the best way to show how spirited each organization at LM is!”
Elias Dutwin ’24 was the videographer for the project. His “camera expertise was much-needed and played a huge role in how the lip dub came out,” said Bickell. To assist in the filming, Dutwin brought his “high-tech” camera gear from home.
LM’s student council worked hard planning theevent and even provided dubbers with t-shirts saying “Lip Dub” and Hughes’ catchphrase—“Character Counts”—to wear in the video. Much of LM enjoyed making the Lip Dub and hope that people will donate to the Sean Hughes Children’s Trust because of it.
