An Unforgettable Calgary 2012 Experience

When I was a kid, I saw the movie “Grease” – and was so enthralled that I spent the next 5 years or so wearing out its vinyl soundtrack,  dancing along, and dreaming of one day being in high school where I could dance and sing in rapturous teen joy with what would surely be a perfect high school experience.

Well, it turned out that Grease didn’t present the most realistic picture of high school!  Who knew?  So, I never got to experience that mind-blowing utter joy and camaraderie with the world. That is, until today!

Olympic Plaza, September 29, 2012.   The Calgary 2012 committee pulls off an utter spectacle of Calgary spirit when it enlists thousands of Calgarians to volunteer in what is known as a “lip dub” – a live lip-synced event, performed to the hilt with every talent imaginable– to the designated Calgary 2012 theme song,  “Sweet City Woman” by the Stampeders.

The event is barely two hours in history as of this writing,  but I had to document my version of it as quickly as possible because I’m sure it was the fruition of that childhood dream I never thought possible.

It was a cool but clear Saturday morning, and I was told to meet around 9:30am in a main-floor room of the City’s municipal building, which was actually the city’s daycare facility, surrendered for the day!  In this now “war room”, Calgary 2012 director Mark Bellamy explained to his crew captains that after months and months of logistical planning, the entire performance itself was going to basically be improvised, and after some inspirational words, rallied with the room with a “Let’s see what we can do!”

So, beyond handing out props to various groups (I think there were 9 different volunteer performing stations, each with its own set of props)…the group captains were to take their volunteers, pick their props, go to their locations, and then make something up!   When I heard this –  I thought, what?   That sounds completely crazy!  What’s more, the whole thing was supposed to be accomplished in FOUR TAKES!  What, FOUR TAKES for how many thousand volunteers to get it right?  With no edits?! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!

Nonetheless, producing the video wasn’t my problem, I thought.   As a local musician, I’d been asked to bring my banjo, and from there I had no idea what I was going to be doing.  Skeptical but curious, I went along, thankful they’d set out some free breakfast food for the core crew and without any idea of how the end product would turn out.

The song “Sweet City Woman” begins with the unfettered strumming of a simple banjo,  and tells the story of a presumably rural boy taking the train into the city to meet the girl he loves.

I was asked to perform in the opening shot – strumming by banjo in sync with the one heard in the song.  My task: to land that first strum on the last sixteenth note of the fourth beat of the 8th count to start the song! There were two other banjoists on either side of me (George, whose last name I didn’t get, and local celebrity-producer-actor Dave Kelly, who was a riot to work with).  After the first couple of strums, the three of us were told to walk from the steps of the Municipal Building to lead the camera to the next row of performers….and keep walking down toward the plaza.

After a couple of rehearsal attempts, on with the show….

The pre-song click track started, 5,6,7,8….I locked onto the twang of the strumming banjo in front of the camera, a mere 6 inches from my right hand. The camera then zoomed out, and off we strutted.  A huge surge of energy on the steps of the Municipal Building swelled as the crowd rushed up behind me, and then around me, and then whooosh! A tap dancer pirouetted down the stairs, cheering erupted everywhere,  dancers leaped past, hands waved in the air, singing and cheering lifted into the sky, acrobats flipped past, and colours streaked by from colourful costumes, sparkling hats, bright feather boas, and hand-painted dresses.    Wow!!

The merriment was a crazy, unbridled, improvised revelry — and there was such blur of action around me, I had no idea really what was being captured on camera.

Sure enough, FOUR TAKES, and they had it.    Stunning.

What’s more, without editing it AT ALL, they played the final take on the big screen right in Olympic Plaza, for the entire throng to view and celebrate. In fact, they had it up there within about 10 minutes of the last take being completed…with the director, Mark Bellamy saying “Let’s show you what you did!!  Let’s hear how you like it!”   Of course, the cheering was deafening!

Seeing the video was mind blowing.   Simply one camera!   The cameraman, Shaun Henning, begins by zooming on foot through the crowd, mounts the front of ATV (whose driver must have been a stunt-driver!), and then whooshes through the action with such speed, you’d think he’d be running people over — but somehow, there goes the camera through as cartwheeling people leap around past him, around him, and over him where he ultimately gets amazing shots that begin with the close-up banjo, move to the tap-dancing teen, past a striking drag queen, through tiny chuck wagons…and well…he ends up on a crane over the crowd at the plaza, and all without making the viewer nauseated.   Amazing.

The only thing I could compare it to is the feeling I had watching the 1978 movie “Grease” – where the entire high school is singing and dancing out in the field, leaping around the camera…except this time, I wasn’t on the sidelines, wishing I could be a part of that.  I was there.  Right on.

Calgary 2012, you just proved that this city is full of the coolest, hippest, funnest people in Canada.   Congratulations on such a spectacular achievement.   And thank you for allowing me, as Tourism Calgary says, to “be part of the energy”  Yeah!

Pictures coming soon…

Jacquie