With a little lip dubbing and a lot of heart, Rye School District staff — administrators, teachers, coaches, and even construction crewmembers working on the new Science Wing — performed in this year’s senior sendoff video.

With a little lip dubbing and a lot of heart, Rye School District staff — administrators, teachers, coaches, and even construction crewmembers working on the new Science Wing — performed in this year’s senior sendoff video.
Several months ago, History teacher Judd Rothstein approached Hannah Billingsley to direct. “I’d done some film work in Mr. Rothstein’s class last year,” said the RHS senior, who is headed to Yale this fall where she hopes to major in film and music.

The duo had expansion plans for this year’s video. Instead of one song, they used two: “Hall of Fame” by The Script (Hannah’s choice) and “Happy” by Pharrell Williams (Mr. Rothstein’s choice). They also filmed, not just in the high school halls, but at all three elementary schools and the middle school.

For Hannah, the best part of the project was “coaching and working with the teachers. They all were great lip-synchers.”

In all, close to 100 worked on the video, which was filmed over several days.  “Andrew Dapolite (a 2007 RHS grad) did a fine editing job once again,” said Hannah.

The video was met with applause and cheering from its target audience at the Senior Awards Ceremony last Friday.

It didn’t take long for the video to go viral. It’s a hit on YouTube, too (youtube.com/ watch?v=EmIklahn9GE&feature=youtu.be&app).

Congratulations to Mr. Rothstein, Hannah Billingsley, and the cast and crew for a memorable and moving senior swansong.