Stand up and shout! U of T prepares to best UBC with a tri-campus lip dub

If you haven't heard about the Lip Dub phenomenon yet, it's time to start paying attention. And by that I mean, watch the video above and be prepared to spend 15 minutes of your life on YouTube discovering other amazing Lip Dubs. (In the interest of full disclosure, nearly all of my favourite things revolve around singing, dancing, and wearing ridiculous outfits, so naturally, I'm a huge fan.) Still confused? Here are the basics: a lip dub is basically a music video, and folks who are not the original singer lip sync along, and the track is re-dubbed over the video in post-editing. (So basically it's like Ashlee Simpson's career.) The idea went viral when universities picked up on the trend, and started making lip dub's of epic proportions, including aerial lifts, celebrity cameos, and pyrotechnics. (L'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) was the first university to make a lip dub video that went viral in 2009.) There's something inherently awesome about Lip Dubs. They're energetic, they're happy, and they're young. There's also something incredibly amazing about the organization of a lip dub. Because of the seamless take as the camera tours different areas of the university, there's also this amazing unity to the lip dubs. They're an expression of school pride and spirit. And of course, the University of Toronto doesn't want to be left out. The current Facebook event boasts 5,447 attendees so far, and filming is scheduled for September of this year. Which means that the current organizers only have a summer to get ready to out-do all of the amazing videos that have come before us. (One of the best lip dubs on the internet, in my opinion!) The team driving U of T's lip dub (Aaron Liu, Harrison Kim, Valentina Dang, Harry Chen, Alex Zhou, Jennie Chen, Sandra Zhou, Matt Panday, and Alice Mao), had a general meeting on June 11, and are currently in the process of finalizing a song choice. Their initial idea was to use a mash-up of a well-known song and something written by a University of Toronto student, but they're waiting until after their creative meetings to announce the decision. (As for me, I think it should be a mash-up of Love Today by Mika, Last Night by The Strokes and Find Your Love by Drake on the STRICT condition that we somehow talk him into participating.) The planners are now shopping around for sponsorships for the event, and are hoping to do a screening of the final product in Yonge and Dundas square. All proceeds from sponsorships will be donated to Sick Kids. (If you're already sold, you can skip the rest of this post and email UT.lipdub@gmail.com to join the planning team!) Right now, the planning team is focusing on getting as many different folks from the university connected as possible. As this is a huge project, they're interested in getting as many people on board as possible! And so, in an effort to simplify matters, I'm going to outline the things that need to be in the lip dub that will only be there if TALENTED PEOPLE LIKE YOU get involved. (Currently, the team is specifically looking for a UTSC outreach exec!) 1. Ballerinas on pointe 2. Gorilla Suits 3. Massive choreographed dance routines 4. People doing flips off of things 5. Pyrotechnics 6. Enthusiastic students who can pretend to sing and dance 7. Massive crowds! If you can help out with providing any of these things, you should be a part of history and get involved with the lip dub. Seriously, what could be more fun than dressing up like an idiot and dancing around frantically???? (Don't answer that.)