UBC LipDub is just EPIC! Undoubtedly the largest scale university lipdub that has been done so far. Planned for seven months, with about 1000 participants including celebrity appearances like the Toronto-based band Marianas Trench, with 6-8 takes for the single-take sequence, 7-8 takes for the underwater sequence, and about 8-10 takes for the final dance sequence. AND THEY HAD A FREAKING HELICOPTER! (The helicopter time was in fact donated to the team, not bought.)
Just wow. Inspiring a whole university campus to join in like this must’ve been such hard work but kudos to the UBC Vancouver team! (We tried a lipdub at Surrey and, er, three people showed up.)
It was watching the video and trying to figure out how it was done. Although lipdubs are usually single take throughout, this one was obviously split into parts. From the teaser and the credits of the main video, you’ll notice that till 5:39 it was shot using steadicam, then switched to an underwater camera; another cut at 6:49 where I believe the ‘projected’ video was overlayed in post-production, a last ‘not-obvious’ cut at 7:14 with white flash to mask the fact that the big song/dance number wasn’t really at the same location.
The best lipdub ever, I think, however was the 2009 “I Gotta Feeling” lipdub by UQAM Montreal. It’s a single take recording and meticulously planned out; the song doesn’t have particularly deep lyrics, true, and yet they worked a quirky narrative (appropriate acting?) into their lipdub. And they lipdubbed, while many other ones don’t. 😀