CRESTVIEW — After the success of last year's lipdub, the Crestview High School leadership class was hard-pressed to top the YouTube video, which has surpassed 200,000 views.
The current "Harlem Shake" rage inspired students to produce a 35-second version. In the viral Internet dance videos, a person or two "spontaneously" start dancing to the song "Harlem Shake" by dance music composer Baauer. Fifteen seconds later, the scene cuts to a group of people, many costumed, performing a wild dance.
The first of this meme, or Internet fad, originated last month and resulted in thousands of homemade videos uploaded to YouTube. The videos typically last about 30 seconds.
The Crestview High version concludes with an impromptu pep rally, though on a smaller scale than last year's lipdub.
"We were trying to do something like the lipdub but a little bit different," senior Alex Andrews said.
To produce the video, leadership students under teacher Stephanie Sanders's guidance asked alumnus Ben White, who created the lipdub, to return to his alma mater. White shot the production in two segments on March 7. The first 15 seconds were shot during second period; the balance was produced that afternoon, Alex said.
"We met around the Bulldog at 2:30 and by 2:45 we were out of there," he said. "It was a lot of fun. I think it was a good way to get out word about how much fun Crestview High is without doing the lipdub. And it didn't take near as much prep as the lipdub."
The cast of more than 100 people included students, faculty, and two football coaches who "kept head-butting with their football helmets,” Alex said.
While the production gains popularity in Bulldog Country, surpassing 7,000 YouTube views, the local version of the "Harlem Shake" — and, to Alex's knowledge, the only one produced by a school in the area — has attracted the attention of a more widespread Internet audience.
YouTube artist "The Kid President" put the Crestview High production in the background of one his most recent videos, Alex said.
Find it online
Watch the 2013 Crestview High School Leadership program "Harlem Shake" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuT34AircJE.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Leadership students show CHS spirit with 'Harlem Shake'