On Wednesday, January 30, Stamford High School students and faculty joined together to film Stamford High’s first majorly successful lip dub since 2015.

“It was a day that everyone could celebrate, have a good time, and kind of kick back and relax, and that’s super important,” explained Stamford High Principal Raymond Manka.

The organization of the Lib Dub was no simple task; from choosing the songs to establishing a “route” for the lip dubbers to follow, the planning of the Lip Dub was complex, time-consuming, and one that required intense thought and consideration. Reaching out to clubs and sports teams was another crucial part of planning, contributing greatly to the immense amount of groundwork that went into this video.

Senior Jacob Herz, who organized the lip dub, explained, “There weren’t too many difficulties all together, but some of the bigger problems were transporting students from class to their spots and figuring out how to include every club that was in the lip dub.” He continued to provide insight into the intense planning, adding, “The most crucial thing was to make sure everyone was in place and that we were using as much room as possible to get everyone in it.”

The hard work of Herz and Round Table Advisor Jon Ringel seems to have paid off. According to Manka, the Lip dub at SHS was an opportunity to increase school spirit as well as unity; it highlighted the importance of teamwork, and helped to portray the cohesion of the SHS community, from custodial staff, to students, to teachers, and all the way up through administration.

“I got a lot of feedback on email from people throughout the district who had seen it and said, ‘Hey, great job,’” explained Manka. “We need to take that same type of energy that we exhibited in that day of performance, and really try and make sure that we can carry that forward from day to day.”

Since the publication of the lip dub, there has been a subtle but present sense of competition between Stamford High School students and those from Westhill. Three months before the release of the SHS lip dub, Westhill had filmed, produced, and uploaded one of their own. To “fuel the fire” between the notorious city rivalry, meme account pages have been made by Stamford High students to ridicule Westhill’s video, and vice versa. Although to date nothing of great offense has been posted to either of these accounts, they are known and talked about amongst  the students of Stamford.

Regardless of the small bumps in the road, Ringel said he was proud that they were able to film the lip dub in one continuous shot, and in a mere two takes, each taking approximately 15 minutes (7 minutes of getting everything in place and nearly 8 minutes of recording). “Everything was accounted for in advance. I had no concerns,” said Manka. “It was very thoughtful planning; it was inclusive of everything from building permits to doing it at a time in a day so that we don’t lose instruction time. I thought it was very strategically placed,” explains Manka.

Thanks to the efforts of everyone at Stamford High School, the SHS Black Knights were able to overwhelm the hallways with orange and black to show their love and relentless spirit for Stamford High. “They did a spectacular job. Superb,” stated Manka.