From movies and television to books and video games...and anything in between...if it can be watched, read, played or listened to, it could very well be covered here.
(For background on the LipDub, check out the first entry in this countdown)
Type #1: The "Uber" LipDub
This combines several of the previously-mentioned elements into a huge, well-shot, well-edited, well-choreographed spectacle, often combining several songs. The perfect example of this, in my mind, is one of the first LipDub videos I ever saw, which involves Emerson College's tribute to many of the songs of Lady Gaga. Part recruitment video, part music video, all awesome...it incorporates every imaginable student group and clique from Emerson:
(For background on the LipDub, check out the first entry in this countdown)
Type #2: The "All Hands on Deck/World Record" LipDub
Then there's the LipDub where the creators try to cram as many people from the community into the video as possible. This, inevitably, will turn into some sort of effort to set a record of some kind. And with that I give you the city of Grand Rapids, MI and their LipDub to Don McLean's "American Pie," in which a greater part of the populace and city infrastructure are tied up to bring you a LipDub.
This is really an evolution of Type #5 (The "College Music Video" LipDub), so merits its own entry. Many of the elements are the same, but it often prefaced by an introduction to the school of some sort, and makes a much greater to be massive/all-inclusive of as many student organizations as possible in the creation of the LipDub. Sometimes linked to this is some sort of charitable tie-in, for number of views, likes, shares, etc.
Below is a great example of this type of LipDub, as well as being one of my favorites, across the board. Here, the students from the University of British Columbia do a mash-up of Pink's "Raise Your Glass" and Marianas Trench's "Celebrity Status" (Note: The actual LipDub doesn't start until about a minute into the video, with the upfront being a take-off on the Old Spice commercials).
The video not only serves as a marketing piece, in essence, to build interest in the school for prospects, but UBC also partnered with the Make-a-Wish Foundation to donate money to the charity for every sponsored hit that the video received on YouTube. Overall, this video is high energy, everyone is having a blast, and if any video makes you want to rush out make your own LipDub, this might be the one:
On a related note, I hadn't heard of Marianas Trench before, but instantly fell in love with the song used in this LipDub. In fact, the band makes a cameo in the video, with the band pretty much introducing/setting up the song.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have a...tendency...to watch some pretty strange movies. Some "not that great" movies. Often at the expense of quality films. Have I seen Forrest Gump? No...but I've seen the entire Saw franchise. My eyes have never fallen upon The Godfather, but I've seen Hudson Hawk several times. And so on.
But lately, my bad movie choices have had purpose and direction. No more aimless watching of schlock. Instead...I've got the "How Did This Get Made?" podcast guiding my every move. In this great bi-weekly show, comedians Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas (along with a special guest) rip apart some of the worst and most out there movies around, from bombs like Catwoman (which I just watched over the weekend) and All About Steve to out-there and over-the-top flicks such as Suckerpunch and Fast Five.
Quick side note: What's a podcast, you ask? Think of it as free internet talk shows, across a variety of topics. NPR, for example, releases many of their radio shows as podcasts, available for free download, while there are a TON of others that exist solely as podcasts (i.e. they aren't pre-existing radio shows). They come in audio and video varities, cover a vast array of topics, and iTunes has a section specific to podcast downloads (although many can also be acquired on their own websites..."How Did This Get Made?" is available both on iTunes and the Earwolf website linked above and below). Some podcasts issue new episodes once a month; some are released daily.
So, "How Did This Get Made?" is a celebration of the bad, the extreme and the poorly planned...and it's damn funny. And one of the best episodes I've listened to is Episode 9, in which the group (along with guest Adam Scott) covers the latest installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast Five.
This "review" is unique in that the crew doesn't consider Fast Five to be a bad film, per se, but one that is just so ridiculous and out there, with so much going on that you can pretty much just sit there slack-jawed at the end. But all that having been said, the entire crew really enjoyed it (other ones, such as the aforementioned Catwoman, do not scrape by unscathed).
So, if you're a fan of bad movies, of Mystery Science Theater 3000, or just having a good laugh at the shadier side of cinema, take a look at the back episodes of "How Did This Get Made?" and enjoy.
(For background on the LipDub, check out the previous entry)
Type #4: The "Non-College Music Video" LipDub
Very similar to the previous kind of LipDub, except (strangely) much rarer. It seems that colleges and high schools corner the market on LipDubs, so it is rare (and sometimes wonderful) when a non-educational institution throws their hat into the ring. Such is the case with the Clark Retirement Community's LipDub of Michael Buble's "Feeling Good."
Anyone passingly familiar with video games has probably heard of the Assassin's Creed series, but unless you've actually sat down to play the game you may not be aware of the premise and how the storyline spans centuries of time. And since I finally beat the game (well, as close as I'm going to get...more on that later), I figured I'd bang out my first Random Pop Thoughts video game review.
In the first Assassin's Creed, Desmond Miles, a mild-mannered bartender, is abducted by Abstergo Industries and held against his will. While in their clutches, he agrees to be connected to a strange machine called the Animus, a central plot device to the Assassin's Creed series. You see, Abstergo (and others) have discovered that DNA carries not only genetic material from your ancestors, but is also encoded, to some extent with their memories. What the Animus allows users to do is tap into these genetic memories and, in essence, live out the lives of their ancestors (with some limitations).
And thus the Assassin's Creed series plays out, partly in the past and partly in the present. The overall story revolves around Desmond discovering his connection to a long line of Assassins and their ongoing fight through the ages against the Templars in a battle for a strange artifact, "the Piece of Eden," which both factions are hoping to locate in the present day through clues from the past. All done in an extremely visually stunning manner.
So, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood...where to begin. The first Assassin's Creed had Desmond visiting his ancestor Altair ibn-La'Ahad, a Syrian Assassin who lived during the Third Crusade (in the late 12th Century). In Assassin's Creed 2, Desmond "inhabits" a more recent ancestor, Ezio Auditore (living in Italy during the late 15th/early 16th century). And it's in Brotherhood (which I think of as Assassin's Creed 2.1) that we continue Ezio's adventures...this time in Rome.
And there's a lot to do in Rome. A LOT. It's a damn big city. Roman Forum? Check it out. Colosseum? Feel free to climb all over it. Aqueducts? Rebuild 'em and run along 'em. Lots to see...and lots to do. I mean, there's simply a ton of things that play out in this game to keep the gamer busy:
The main storyline, which pits you against the Borgia family (who holds all the power in Rome)
Releasing Rome from Borgia control, by destroying all their towers in the different parts of the city/countryside
Rebuilding the financial infrastructure of Rome, by locating and renovating shut down tailors, banks, blacksmiths, art merchants, medicinal stands and art merchants throughout the city, not to mention key historical landmarks
Completing assignments for your teams of thieves and courtesans
Recruiting and managing a team of Assassins, including assigning them to assassination contracts and improving their skills
Finding the ten hidden "Subject 16" locations and solving a fiendish series of puzzles at each one
Finding and completing the six hidden lairs of the cult of Romulus
Collecting treasure chests, flags and hidden feathers scattered throughout the land
Reliving prior memories of Ezio's romantic involvement with Amerigo Vespucci's daughter (no, seriously)
Reading about the extensive history of many of the locations and people Desmond encounters, through informational pop-ups that become available as they are discovered in the game
An engaging present day storyline/action sequences
Add to that the fact that each quest along the way comes with not only conditions for successful completion (e.g. avoid detection), but an additional guideline that must be met to achieve "full synchronization" with the memories of the past (e.g. complete the level without losing any health or in a particular amount of time).
And...AND...almost forgot...there is a multiplayer function that takes things to a whole new level. Whereas games such as Modern Warfare and Gears of War have players going at each other guns a-blazin', Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood takes a much stealthier approach. Here, you are placed on a map as one of about 12 different character avatars (e.g. jester, executioner, noble). Your mission is to track down your target (only knowing what their avatar type is and the direction/distance they are from you), while avoiding becoming a victim yourself. Yes...someone is hunting you. The trick is to move slowly, blend in with all the other non-player controlled avatars, etc. Pretty innovative, and definitely nerve-wracking. This video captures the essence rather well:
So, yeah...there's a lot to do. And I'm sure I left some things out.
For the most part, I beat the game. I completed the main storyline (with ALMOST 100% synchronization), fully rebuilt Rome and all its shops, found all the hidden cult lairs and Subject 16 puzzles (Subject 16 was the test subject prior to Desmond who...didn't quite make it). So while I didn't beat everything at 100%, and there a ton of hidden chests and flags I still could recover...I tackled the bulk of the game successfully. And enjoyed it.
Next up is Assassin's Creed: Revelations (or Assassin's Creed 2.2). But I need to take a break and change things up, game-wise, before I dive into that...don't want to go into Assassin's Creed overload.
At it's simplest form, a LipDub is a cousin to lip-synching. But rather than a single person or handful of people mouthing the words to a song, you usually have dozens and dozens of people involved in bringing it to life. Rarely is a single person featured throughout; instead the singing is handed off from person to person, usually with a constantly moving camera, to feature as many different people (in both the foreground and background) as possible.
Why do I care? I wish I knew. But there's just something...fun... about the LipDub. From the usually upbeat song selection, to the different ways that the performers think to try to include everyone, to the mass cheering at the end of (almost) every Lipdub, to the six or seven people that somehow seem more memorable than the others in any given video. Plus, the fact there are often several different styles of LipDub.
Which is what I'll be covering this week...an attempted taxonomy of LipDub styles. And while this doesn't fall squarely in the center of the topic of "pop culture," it's definitely within the borders.
Type #5: The "College Music Video" LipDub
So here is what I think of as the LipDub at it's simplest or most common form: a large group of college students recreating a song...nothing more, nothing less. A common variation on this is the "High School Music Video." In both, you'll see the students, the occasional faculty member, and get a tour of the campus. And usually bathrooms.
Submitted for inclusion here are two examples, perhaps at two extremes of the spectrum:
A basic, straightforward LipDub from Calvin College (go West Michigan!), dubbing Rocket Summer's song "So Much Love"
A more dramatic, acting-intensive (long set-up) LipDub from the University of Montreal, dubbing Offspring's "Pretty Fly" (here you also have the sub-variant of the "Foreign LipDub," wherein a non-English speaking school LipDubs to an American song)
