Some said it couldn’t be done. But it did happen.

The Aerie yearbook staff completed the first campus-wide lip dub video in December, garnering more than 3,000 views in the first three days it was posted to YouTube. The presence of almost every major campus organization, program and team in a 7-minute music video attracted a mass audience, uniting the school in a campus celebration.

Lip dubs have become a popular video format for high schools across the country. They showcase the people, programs and organizations that make up the school much like a yearbook does, except in video format.

The yearbook staff had previously proposed doing a lip dub video for several years, but everything finally came together this year, said adviser Laura Fleming.

“We had all the elements to make this work. I also got good advice to break everyone into groups and it was the perfect combination,” Fleming said.

Planning such a large and complex video was a major logistical challenge for the yearbook staff, but so is putting out a yearbook, she said.

“I think if its something you can get the students excited about as one goal, I think that in itself achieves a great thing,” Fleming said.

Fleming delegated much of the responsibility to planning, filming and editing the video to yearbook staffers. Senior Yohel Galindo directed the video with assistance from editor-in-chief Alek Peschansky and many staffers.

Galindo, who has been planning the lip dub since his junior year, said his goal for the video was to highlight the good things going on at Akins.

“Our goal was to have the whole school be a part of it and for everyone to have a good time, and show that Akins is a good place,” he said.

Meetings were held after school in which members of various campus organizations planned their respective group’s placement and role in the video. Not every group attended so that it made it difficult for the yearbook to include everyone in the video, said senior Ulises Chavez.

“If we did this again, I think we would be more strict with the groups,” Chavez said. “If people said they weren’t gonna come we would actually force them to come because that puts a big dent in the final product.”

Galindo set up meetings with administrators to have principal Daniel Girard approve the filming of the video, which required class time so that it could be done while everyone was on campus. Girard approved the day before the Thanksgiving holiday as the designated time for the production to happen.

Yearbooks staffers said they were stressed when the time for filming occurred, but we’re relieved when the filming was over. After a practice run, the production started with students dancing, blasting confetti cannons and showing off their school pride.

Galindo described the process of making the video as a “love-hate thing” and thought the event was a success.

“We made Akins history,” Galindo said.