PECI premieres Proud to Be A Panther Lip Dub – watch the video here

Cassidy Allison

More than 700 students and staff made their movie debut today as Prince Edward Collegiate Institute presented the world premiere of its Proud to be a Panther Lip Dub.
The immediate audience included Prince Edward County’s Grade 8 students who will be moving on to high school in September. The Lip Dub was simultaneously released on numerous Facebook accounts, Twitter and YouTube pages as well as on countylive.ca and sent to various media outlets.
A what?
A lip dub is a type of video that combines lip synching and audio dubbing to make a music video.
PECI’s first effort was produced, directed and filmed by co-president Cassidy Allison to “portray the excitement and energy that a Panther student feels every day”.
Filmed in various locations throughout the school, viewers follow the camera as it enters the newly renovated front foyer, then showcases students and staff throughout the school showing areas such as the weight room, state-of-the-art science labs, fully-equipped technology rooms, music room and the library.
Proud to be a Panther – The Lip Dub was filmed in one continuous shot on the morning of Dec. 21st, 2011. Every single student, teacher, custodian, secretary, and EA showed his or her Panther Pride by dancing, singing, acting and flipping to the beat.
“A Lip Dub is made by filming individuals or a group of people lip synching while listening to a song then dubbing over it in post editing with the original audio of the song,” Cassidy explains. “It is usually filmed in one long tracking shot. Lip Dub has become very popular across video sharing platforms such as Vimeo and Youtube and are being produced by universities, colleges, and high schools worldwide.”
A PECI version became Cassidy’s goal after watching a Lip Dub produced by UBC in British Columbia, which led to watching about 50 others from all over the world on universitylipdub.com
“I decided I wanted to bring that idea to PECI to be used as a promotional video, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I brought the idea to Mr. Rob Garden (teacher). We talked briefly about it, decided to wait until second semester, then got the go ahead to film the video before Christmas break, which was five weeks away. I’m sure the look on my face was pure panic, as many of the videos I watched took on average 3-4 months to plan. Somehow we managed to pull it off.”
“PECI’s Lip Dub is significant because of the number of students involved. There were close to 700 people in this lip dub which is more that most high schools use. Many videos that we watched only included a few classes,” Cassidy added. “This was a great achievement for us as a school. Everyone got really involved and I think everyone had fun while doing it. I think it brought the school together. I hope it added a burst of spirit to the school.
When we had our first screening at the PECI talent show everyone gave us a standing ovation and that was so cool. Everyone was so supportive of the project, staff and students alike.”
“Prince Edward Collegiate Institute emphasizes challenging academic programming, a full complement of musical, dramatic and creative arts and a wide range of top-notch athletics and extracurricular activities for all students,” Garden said. “PECI is a provincially recognized Specialist High Skills Major school. PECI enhances the regular complement of academic courses with the Venture University Enrichment program and dual credit programming with Loyalist and St. Lawrence College. Continuing 50+ years of tradition, Prince Edward Collegiate Institute continues to serve students living in Prince Edward County to ensure their success in the world.