May 30, 2012

To help commemorate the closing of E.C. Drury High School at the end of June, the entire student body produced and created a ‘lip dub video’ to help “celebrate all that is great” about the Milton school, says Principal Donna Taylor.

Teacher Dave Spragge saw a similar video a year ago and told Taylor he wanted to do to something similar to commemorate the school’s closing. Teachers Kathy Cates and Geoff Sheppard also helped organize the shoot, which took place in one day on Tuesday, May 15.

A lip dub is a type of video that combines lip synching and audio dubbing to make a music video. It is made by filming individuals or a group of people lip synching while listening to a song or any recorded audio then dubbing over it in post editing with the original audio of the song.

"Everyone knew where they we supposed to be and we let them decide what they wanted to do," Taylor explains, adding they rented a helicopter to shoot some scenes. "We did three takes of the first part of the shoot, two in the pool and we did have two practice runs on the school field while we were waiting for the helicopter."

Taylor hopes the lip dub video experience shows students can come together and pull off an amazing, school-wide event and have fun as everyone learns.

"It created a sense of community and the students learned how talented some of their teachers were in areas not related to their expertise," she says. "The students were so excited to see the video and so proud of the school when they did see the final product."

Scheduled to open in September, Craig Kielburger Secondary School (1151 Ferguson Dr.) is replacing E.C. Drury High School. The two-storey school will feature barrier-free accessibility for 1,200 students and staff, a triple gym, studio/theatre, food school and technical educational facilities, and an all-weather running track.