Have you ever had a catchy song stuck in your head? Part of you embraces it, and part of you really, really wants it to go away. Yet, when you get in the car and hear it again, you turn up the volume and give in to its upbeat tempo, admitting you love it after all. This must be how the Rye High School faculty feels about its senior class: waving goodbye, while turning up the volume.
By Annabel Monaghan
Have you ever had a catchy song stuck in your head? Part of you embraces it, and part of you really, really wants it to go away. Yet, when you get in the car and hear it again, you turn up the volume and give in to its upbeat tempo, admitting you love it after all. This must be how the Rye High School faculty feels about its senior class: waving goodbye, while turning up the volume.
On the Tuesday before Memorial Day, a little after the last bell, the Rye High faculty met in secret to film a music video set to the catchy popular song, “Call Me Maybe”. They danced (and I mean danced!) through the halls of the school, cell phones in hand, imploring the seniors to call them, maybe.
The video, a tribute to the graduating senior class, was the brainchild of Rye High senior Sawyer Turcotte. Like many strokes of creative genius, the idea just “came to him.” He envisioned it as one continuous shot of teachers lip-syncing the song through the halls of the school.
What he may not have envisioned was its instant popularity. Turcotte and the faculty kept the video a secret and sprang it on seniors at the Spring Awards Assembly. With the entire high school in attendance, they aired the video as the last part of the year-end assembly. He reported, “Everyone went nuts during the video, cheering for their teachers, laughing. At the end, the video got a standing ovation… it was incredible.”
Immediately afterwards, students began posting the YouTube video on Facebook. As of last weekend, there have been 9,125 views of the video on YouTube. Not bad for an 18-year-old kid, a camera, and some really enthusiastic teachers.
While Turcotte is credited as Director of the video, the Producer is history teacher Judd Rothstein. “Mr. Rothstein approached my friends and me last year about filming some digital shorts throughout this year, but they didn’t really come together because everyone had crazy schedules with college and AP’s for us, and a new baby for him,” recalled Turcotte. By the end of senior year, however, they had a little more time. Mr. Rothstein sent out a group email to the entire faculty, inviting everyone. “As the teachers started realizing what we were doing, more and more decided to get in on the fun,” said Turcotte.
The video was filmed in three takes, each in one continuous shot. Catherine Hedge, actress and Rye High senior, helped out by carrying speakers with the song blaring so the teachers could sing along. Amazingly, the whole filming process took less than 45 minutes.
The best part of the whole experience for Turcotte was watching the senior class come together. “Seeing kids that I’m friends with, and kids I’m not really friends with, post the video all over Facebook, made me feel so proud,” said Turcotte, who’s headed to Tulane University in the fall and hopes to get into the entertainment industry one day.
Hey Sawyer! After you hit it big in Hollywood, call us, maybe?
