Grand Rapids LipDub video suffers diversity deficit, recreates 1950's feel

City promotional event raises more questions than it answers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI

• 410701 views between May 26, 2011 and May 28, 2011

"The Grand Rapids LipDub Video was filmed Sunday May 22nd, with 5,000 people, and involved a major shutdown of downtown Grand Rapids, which was filled with marching bands, parades, weddings, motorcades, bridges on fire, and helicopter take offs. It is the largest and longest LipDub video, to date.

Yeah, almost 10 minutes to get through the song. And you won't find 5000 people in the video. No where close.

The things I was most curious about, which is the most comprehensive list of questions yet raised about this Grand Rapids lip sync production:

• How did they do the camera work, I was more interested to see what was transporting the camera man than what he was filming
• Easy to pull this off in a ghost town where the streets are mostly empty already
• Take a look at the making-of videos. The streets are practically empty then too.
• The video cost only $40,000 raised from private sponsors. That's almost $100 a head for the people who actually made it into the video.
• How many people on Ron Bliss staff worked on this, and how did their salaries compare to the average Grand Rapids salary of $3K a month?
• How much did the city pay those firemen and policeman to sit around and drive slowly, waste gas, and wave?
• Were the people in the video mainly people who have no jobs and can just spend the whole day frolicing for this self-promoter and his camera man?
• Or were these just well to do people, who didn't have to negotiate a day off from their Jack-In-The-Box job to appear in the video?
• Ever wonder about the people who actually needed to go downtown to get something done, and instead had to detour way out of their way because of this production?
• How many ambulances needed to be on standby along the route?
• Did everyone in the video sign a release? That's possibly the surest count of characters in the cast.
• How many politicians appeared in the video? How were the politicians chosen? Did their opponents get equal time?
• How much did Ron Bliss have to pay for city government for permits for this stunt? Or did they give him a free pass?
• Or did Ron Bliss get a city agency to use tax payer dollars to help fund this adventure as some kind of pro-business or pro-tourism thing?
• How come there wasn't a gay couple featured getting married at the city hall?
• How come no white guys with black girlfriends were featured in the video?
• How come no black guys got a lipsync part?
• Why are there no black people in suits, or in the marching band, or otherwise acting as positive role models?
• Why is the first time more than one black person is shown in a group, the group is having a pillow fight?
• Where are the Muslims in burkas or haji clothes?
• Did you see any Buddhist monks? Or even Orthodox or Catholic monks? Or nuns?
• Did you know a local cinema was charging $5 a person to watch the 5 screenings video? With proceeds to support Ron Bliss?

To save you some time, here is a script list of major characters in order of appearance, and notes about the people around them:

• White guy
  • 1 black guy in background, about 5 dozen white people, lots of fat people too
• white old guy with bandjoe
• asian guy
• another white guy
• yet another white guy, in a black shirt and no guitar
• white fire fighter guy
• bunch of cops and fire trucks (how much did their salary cost the city for this production)
  • all white people on the balcony waving white flags
  • Parade float full of white people
  • Pillow fight appeared to have three or four black people (why is the first signficant group of black people shown fighting with each other)
• Two guys with guitar in front of office
  • was the fat white guy making gang hand symbols?
• Well dressed white guy with waving girl
• Couples at city hall - sorry, just one couple with best men and best ladies, all white
• Green pickup truck with white couple on cue, where's the pink carnation mentioned in the song?
  • Do they always let green pickup trucks drive around on the sidewalks in city parks?
• Crowd on stage, several dozen all white
  • after the stage, off to the left, looks like a family of 3 blacks, hidden in the shadows
• Another lipsyncing jogging white guy
  • coming up behind him, 1 black person running from 4 white people
• another white guy with a guitar, maybe Hawaiian or Eskimo, or something
• another white guy in suit and tie trying to look like George Clooney
  • four waving white people
  • a white guy with dry ice smoke
• another white guy with a guitar and suit
  • 14 white people with guitars
• Three news trucks with a white guy and a black gal on top of one of them
• 8 women in black dresses, and 2 guys in suits, maybe a classical music troop
  • four black guys off to the left not featured in the central action, none in suits, two in wife-beater t-shirts
• another white guy jogging, wearing blue t-shirt featuring a white guy on it
• some footballers, and finally, a black girl in pink skirt in main part of action
  • all 12 of the 13 footballers look white, one black footballer to the far left
• cheerleaders in blue
  • 4 black, and 18 white
• white girl with a white dog in the lead
• another white guy with a guitar
  • 43 marching band members, all white
• 6 white people in multi-colored kayaks
• white couple sitting in back of white car driven by white guys
  • 12 or 13 spectators on bridge, 1 of them black, the rest white
• another car full of 4 white people, breaking the law by not wearing seat belts
  • and two more white spectators on other side of the bridge
• people shooting nerf guns or ping pong balls
  • out of first group of 10, 20% of them are black
  • 18 more, all white
  • another 18 white people on the other side of the street
• 22 dancing people
  • One black guy with a white girl
• another white guy with a guitar sitting on a pole
  • group sitting next to him, 8 whites and one black child
  • and one dog
  • See the message on his t-shirt "Get out of Town" (with MetroPCS) - Is this a subliminal message designed to empty the city further?
• another white guy with a guitar
• 50 pyromaniacs making smoke in the park
  • None seemed to be black

I only counted about 500 people in the video.

• Where are the 5000?
• Maybe 9 out of 10 of the people in Grand Rapids who were raptured the other day also disappeared from the video?
• Oh wait, this was filmed the day after Armageddon day, May 21, 2011. Maybe 5000 were scheduled to appear, but 90% of them were raptured and missed the actual production day?

Some summary statistics:

• Video was at least 96% white people (probably 98%)
• Only one black person had a lypsync roll
• Only two black children in the whole video, none of high school age
• Not a single black seen with a musical instrument
• Didn't see anyone in a wheel chair
• No one was wearing burkas
• No Muslims wearing white Haji clothes
• No Indians wearing sarees
• Didn't seem to be too many mexicans
• No cats, or pet reptiles or lizards
• No hot air balloons

Plenty of "making of" videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdRrbuFo0cI&feature=related - the city looks empty even on rehearsal day.

Doing a little research on what others had to say, I apparently am not the only person to notice these things.

In the youtube comments

• Some people arguing back and forth over whether they miss Grand Rapids or not
• tystratocaster noticed "I count 10 black people"
• Do any black dudes live in Grand Rapids? If so, the smooth sounds of Don Mclean must not have pulled them from their houses.

Some other people had questions too....

• From Grand Rapids Institute For Information Democracy - Rob Bliss's Lip Dub Sparks Some Questions Huh? Information is democracy, people are democracy...
  • Bliss is promoting Grand Rapids as "a growing, fun place to live."
  • "Boy, does it ever look fun. The streets are so clean you could eat off of them."
  • "Although the lip dub promotes Grand Rapids, how well does it represent the people of Grand Rapids?"

  • Who's underrepresented here? Nearly 25 percent of Grand Rapids residents live below the poverty line. The average income in the city is just over $37,000. There are more women than men living in Grand Rapids-for every 100 women, 92.5 men. Racial make-up of the city is 57 percent White, 18.9 percent Black, 13 percent Latino/a, and 1.62 percent Asian-American.

  • How else could the money to make the "American Pie" lip dub have gone to benefit Grand Rapids?
    • although this article only makes estimates on $25,000 filming cost, the youtube site says $40K was gathered.

    • According to Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank, the organization is able to buy 33 pounds of food for every dollar donated. That means that the fund to make the Grand Rapids Lip Dub could have bought a staggering 825,000 pounds of food for the food-insufficient families in Grand Rapids.

    • the cost of this video could have gone toward launching 500 new home or community gardens in the city.
    • The average cost for a wellness class through the City of Grand Rapids-which teach exercise techniques, offer health information and screenings, and provide courses in organic gardening, is $35. So 714 Grand Rapids adults could have benefited from health advice for the same cost as the lip dub video.
    • Dissent: Does simply pointing out that events cost money and then listing what else you could do with that money pass as relevant reporting/journalism these days?
  • Who knew this song was so freaking long?
  • I had read that Rob Bliss made 5 takes of this, and didn't realize that it meant 5 full takes. That makes the planning even more impressive; I can't imagine filming this 5 times in a row.
  • Goofs
    • Watch for the Forest Hills marching band drummer whose drum rolls away from him in this, which is apparently the fifth of the 5 takes.

• susan permalink May 28, 2011 9:32 pm this lip dub does NOT show the true downtown grand rapids. it shows fancy prominent buildings that the richer ppl of grand rapids own, so that others will see those buildings and invest in them. if u wanna REAL idea of what downtown grand rapids is like, come see division avenue where the homeless shelters and the soup kitchen is. feature everyone, not just the ppl who r rich enough to have brand name expensive clothes. Or go to veterans park and see the ppl who actually live here in downtown grand rapids. the ones that don't work here for a few hours and then go home. this lib dub did a hugely great disservice to the ppl of grand rapids. and yeah, the streets were clean. what director in his right mind would let there be dirty streets in a video aimed to make ppl think that grand rapids is a clean and well kept city that tourists should visit? you wanna make a video of downtown grand rapids? fine, i'm all for it. but show the TRUE grand rapids. the one that ppl like me and others who live downtown see everyday.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6G6tr5s-Js&feature=youtu.be
  • Rob Bliss announcement and interview
  • "Producer Joe was once again there as a member of media to give his input."
• Someone claiming to be Rob Bliss taking comments on the video here
  • Wheres the crazy black lady that stands on street corners downtown shouting random things nobody can understand at cars? Represent Grand Rapids!
• My Last Name Is Mildly Inappropriate
• Comment by Dominic: Mayor Heartwell looked like an idiot in the video. The guy is such a tool and an embarrassment to the city. They should have filmed him standing with a group of panhandlers on the street corner, or in front of the abortion clinic on East Fulton. He would have fit in much better in those surroundings. link
• About the couple in front of city hall... Really it's a new art museum:

  • GRAND RAPIDS – Two years ago this summer, Zach and Meghan Raven were the very first couple to be married at the new Grand Rapids Art Museum. This morning, the couple from Walker were on the steps of the museum, in their wedding clothes, to participate in Grand Rapids' Lip Dub video. “Not many get to wear their wedding dress again,” Raven laughed. “And it still fits.” source

• Could the cinema advertising that there were thousands of people in the video in order to get people to show up for a $5 screening be guilty of false advertising because of a number of claims that don't appear to be supported by the actual movie:

  Crowds of thousands, choirs, parades, motorcades, local celebrities, weddings, football teams, marching bands, dancers, bridges set on fire, helicopter take offs, so many exciting moments packed into this one video. The Grand Rapids LipDub Video Premiere Come join us on the evening of Wednesday, May 25, for the exclusive regional premiere of the Grand Rapids LipDub! LipDub Showcase Screenings will be held at 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00pm. $5.00 tickets can be purchased on the night of the event in the lobby at Celebration! Cinema North. Proceeds go to support Rob Bliss Events. Please note: This event was postponed by one week. May 25th is the updated date for the video premiere. About the LipDub: Event Summary: On May 15th, downtown Grand Rapids will be shut down so that an unbelievable, euphoric, timeless promotional video for all of Grand Rapids can be captured. In the style of a LipDub (a type of video that combines lip syncing and audio dubbing to make a music video, filmed all in one single take), the most celebratory scenes will be captured with a populous bursting with life. Crowds of thousands, choirs, parades, motorcades, local celebrities, weddings, football teams, marching bands, dancers, bridges set on fire, helicopter take offs, so many exciting moments packed into this one video. Our goal: in the face of criticism that our city is "dying" by Newsweek and other naysayers, we will show the world a city that is thriving like it never has before. Video Details: The video will be nearly nine minutes long, done to the song American Pie by Don Mclean. Filmed all in one single take through the streets of Grand Rapids, so many tiny moments will fill this event that the audience will be stunned that we were able to capture it all in one take. We will work to make this video as inclusive as possible, from showing off the grand architecture of the GRAM, to the exciting ideas of the GR White Water Society Kayakers. Teamed up with professional video company Creo Productions, and professionally directed and assisted by the Compass Film Academy, this project is in good hands. With practice every Sunday for the month of April, we will be well rehearsed and ready the day of filming. This event will have a million dollar insurance policy and work in close coordination with the City of Grand Rapids to insure a safe and successful event. The city of Grand Rapids has also made, at this time, a verbal commitment to be a co-sponsor of the event. Event Summary: This event creates a precious moment in time that will still be as powerful to watch in 20 years at it will be today. With your help, we can show the world what only we locals have experienced, an up and coming city just waiting to be noticed. With potentially over a million people watching us, with your help, we can make magic real and change their minds about a special town called Grand Rapids. Produced By: Rob Bliss Events source

  • No bridge actually got set on fire, you can see some fireballs in the background of the bridge shot
  • Weddings? looked like just one, and according to this story it wasn't even a real wedding, it was just a second anniversary. And it wasn't gay, black, or even inter-racial.
  • City is a cosponsor of the event... Just what does that mean?