I think its really cheesy. Grand Rapids does have a ton to offer like art prize and laugh fest but this video really sucks. For the dollar amount is supposedly cost it wasnt well planned.
Obviously not an overpriced Hollywood production, but how much money are you talking about here?
they said 30 grand.
The whole point of the video was to show newsweek that GR isn't a "dying American city." This was organized by a guy named Rob Bliss who is not a major film maker. Along with that, the people in it are residents of the city of Grand Rapids showing their support and love for their city. How isn't it well planned if a 9 minute video is shot continously without edits...??? So if you want to call it cheesy fine, but keep in mind it wasn't meant to be the next blockbuster hit. It is a youtube video to show support for a city so many are proud to call their home.
I live in grand rapids, I don't think thats going to bring busloads of people in.
Rob Bliss is kind of a tool and will do anything to bring attention to himself. The best thing about this lip dub was his totaly lame press conference being punked by a local Grand Rapids radio station a few months ago.
(skip to about 5 min for press conference interruption)
I think the video was pretty cool and the fact that the whole city got involved is great...and its a great song to...so broaden the mind a little bit
Well, then you'll enjoy the LipDub planned to film at UM next fall. Still in the planning stages, so it might not happen, but it is indeed being planned.
It takes guts to shoot a clip in one continuous take for sure.
Is this a typical day in grand rapids?
If pricey, not worth it, if in one continuous loop...wow.
If done to promote and celebrate a city....odd choice of song.
Edit: Very cool experience for all participating, particularly the kids. Something I'm sure they'll remember forever and share with kids/grandkids.
Wish we'd have seen a brawl between marching band and football team when the 'players tried to take the field but the marching band refused to yield'...and a little whiskey would've been nice to see. Good old boys, too.
I can see why Tate likes to hang out there.
I see what you did there.
Do any black dudes live in Grand Rapids? If so, the smooth sounds of Don Mclean must not have pulled them from their houses.
lol wut? Some people's children...
Of black folk live in Grand Rapids.
Right at the beginning there is a huge guy right in the middle waving his arms like mad.
The video and realize why there is no black people.
You rang?
The last time I was in Grand Rapids, they were putting up a statue of Rosa Parks, commemorating her as a "notable Grand Rapidian" or something like that. Maybe I'm missing something, but didn't she spend her whole life outside of the South in Detroit?
who lives in Grand Rapids. But obviously they didn't send us the memo!, lol
Let me be the first to say "That video sucked ass"
It reminds me of why I left Grand Rapids in the first place. Every single person in that video looks the same.
1) Anyone who thinks this "wasn't well planned" has never tried to make any kind of film. I've been lucky enough to earn a living in Los Angeles the last eight years or so as a writer and producer of scripted television. I just shot a pilot for CBS this past April (didn't get picked up... grumblegrumblegrumble). I'm not saying this to brag (notice I'm not actually giving you my, ahem, "credits"), but rather to give some context for my opinion. And my opinion is this: Nice f'ing work, Grand Rapids.
Shooting a nine-and-a-half minute, one take film that involves a cast of hundreds of non-professional actors and the closure of multiple streets, timed fireworks, etc requires a ridiculous amount of planning. Whether you like the finished product or not, to say that this was "not well planned" only displays your ignorance and cynicism.
2) "The Day The Music Died" is on my Top 5 list of most hated songs of all time. That said, I completely understand why they chose it - because there aren't too many nine-and-a-half minute songs that pretty much everyone knows by heart (whether they want to or not).
3) I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY REVEALED THE HELICOPTER BEFORE THE FINAL SHOT. What a tragic, tragic mistake. Would have been a lot better to just back the camera in it and then play the rising shot as a surprise.
I didn't really see much that wasn't too difficult. sure planning where the camera goes and who comes in where would take practice. a lot of lip dubs are harder songs and maybe shorter but usually have more people popping in and out. most of the time there wasnt even a person dubbing the lyrics.
the helicopter shot was a mistake...they could have used it to show more of grandrapids and I agree they shouldn't have gave it away.
You didn't really see much that wasn't too difficult? (Which techincally means you did see a lot that wasvery difficult, but we'll save the explanation of double-negatives for a later day.) Really?
You close down six or seven block sections of a downtown all the time, do you? That's easy? You talk other people into giving you $30,000 for your non-profit creative endeavor three times before lunch every day? That just a walk in the park, is it?
Did you notice there how many parked cars were not in the shots? Where were the cars that normally line the streets? It's easy for you to pick up a car with your bare hands and move it seven blocks away, is it? That must be nice. Furthermore, where did all those people who appeared in the video park their cars? Miles away? And yet they showed up on time, in the correct spot at the correct time? You don't think someone set aside free parking for, say, about 500 people, drawn from different groups (random people, college students, a choir, a football team, a marching band, cheerleaders, a gymnastics team) and gave them all directions and made sure each and every one of them was exactly where they were supposed to be? Or do you think there's a group of tiny girls who do backflips all day long on one very specific part of downtown Grand Rapids and the organizers could just, you know, count on them being there. "Oh, you know those gymnastics girls. They'll be there. They're backflipping all day down by Monroe. Just like the sparkler people across the river."
How many layers of bureacracy do you think it takes to get approval for (portions of) a high school marching band and a football team (and a cheer team, and a choir, all from different school districts) to appear in this video? (There better not be any offensive lyrics in the song - which is another reason why "The Day The Music Died," God awful song that it is, is a good choice for something like this.) How are you going to get them there? You're just going to bank on the fact that ten different groups of teenagers will be exactly where you want them to be on time and ready do exactly what you want them to? Seriously? If you bring them in via ten different buses or vans, someone has to pay the bus/van company. If you use district school buses/vans, you'd better have insurance in case they crash on the way there. Try calling up your nearest school district and asking them if they'll lend you a marching band, a football team, enough buses and enough drivers for a video you want to shoot. See what they say. (If you're feeling lucky, tell them the video involves fireworks. They'll love that.)
And that's for just one, forty-five second section of a 9 and a half minute video. And yet... you didn't see anything that took much planning.
Again, making a video like this is not my life's dream. I wouldn't waste my time on it. But obviously a great many people spent a very considerable amount of their time doing this. To just dismiss it as "not very well planned" is... well, like I said, ignorant and cynical.
Very insightful commentary. I'm not sure why it's downvoted. Maybe not banal and plebeian enough. Try to be more like ESPN next time, maybe?
Excellent video. It's so hard to get that all in one shot, and I believe that they used the fifth take.
Yeah, for the most part, I love Grand Rapids and west MI is a pretty awesome place. Every time I travel, i always feel good to get back home. I really think there's alot to offer here, with GR being unique in its size, relative to its proximity to beautiful freshwater beaches, wide open fields and deep woods and forests. Its a big enough town to be able to find almost anything you'd want*, yet small enough that you don't have to go far to get out of town. That said, this video made me a little embarassed. Really, really cheez-dorky. I appreciate Rob Bliss and all the effort he puts in to promote GR, and he's actually drawn some good national press for some of his stuff, but all of his projects have a real, "Oh gosh, what now, Bliss???" feel to them. Big ideas, not-so-great implementation.
*Except for seafood. We have Red Lobster (meh), Charley's Crab ($$$) and Leo's ($$$). Strange thing to bitch about, I know, but my wife and I just got done complaining about not having a decent place for crab and settled on Qdoba instead.
What an embarrassing video. Should have been better produced.
I almost didn't even watch it because of some of the negative comments above, but I have no clue how someone could say that didn't take planning or skill. That was incredible for one single loop.
On a second note is it a requirement for every single person in GR to own a guitar, unbelieveble.
I can't believe all the flaming going on...
That was an amazingly planned video on a large scale done in one take. As mentioned, the only thing that would have made it better was not revealing the helicoptor.
As a former film student this was pretty damn good. Very hard to pull off. Any haters should really go get bent(people still say that?)
As said before the only real error was the Helicopter shot. Outside of that great work. Go Grand Rapids.
it would be said "HATERZ should get BENT!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!1 loooool!!!!"
but let's be honest. If Ann Arbor shut down the downtown area for a day to do something like that more people would be pissed than happy. Traffic is bad enough. To spend 30k on this seems like a waste to me. If I were a GR parent I would be wondering how many books that could buy. Good video, but again, I question the use of resource allocation.
$30k in expenses to make a video which is going viral is a pretty good investment to me.
You would take $30k out of your own pocket to produce that video?!?
The video has 300,000 hits on youtube, and I would be shocked if more than 10% of those are from outside of the Grand Rapids area.
it had 300 hits yesterday afternoon, thats pretty good for a 24 hour time period.
300 hits does not constitute a "viral video" in my book
it had 300 hits yesterday afternoon, thats pretty good for a 24 hour time period.
I'm familiar with the kid's work, as I live about 1/2 mile from where the helicopter launched.
I would give the video about 7 out of 10.
Rob Bliss = total prima donna. I hope he makes a huge stunt out of it when he comes out of the closet.
They're not really playing the song. This is a farce!
While I respect the preparation and organization required to pull of these kinds of things ... Flash mobs and what-not ... I just don't see the appeal. I always get the impression from these people -- when interacting with them -- that they're in some sort of cult. It's as if they're proud of being automatons.
What I'm trying to say is: This is creepy fad. Really creepy.
That's a cult experience in the same vein as a flash mob. It works on the same part of your brain that enjoys choreographed dance moves.
I'm in 100% agreeance with you. The concept of a flash mob is so foreign and queer to me, that I'm really not even capable of seeing how it appeals to anyone.
I'm fairly certain that "Cool" and "LipDub" are two mutually exclusive concepts.