lip dub

n.

A video that features one or more people lip-synching to a song, which is later dubbed over the edited footage. Also: lip-dub, lipdub.

—lip dubbing n.

Example Citations:

This city can't get enough of Rob Bliss, the urban artist and visionary who attained worldwide fame for the west Michigan city with a YouTube video that has drawn a staggering 2.8 million views in less than two weeks.

Bliss' lip dub video—in which a parade of Grand Rapids celebrities and residents lip-sync a song in a single, sweeping take—"was awesome," Nancy Jesko, a breathless bank worker, ran up to tell Bliss last week.

—Mark W. Smith, " City lip-syncs its way into fame on Youtube: http://www.thespec.com/news/world/article/544764--city-lip-syncs-its-way-into-fame-on-youtube," Detroit Free Press, June 8, 2011

We're talking about "lip-dubs," a video phenomenon embraced by high schools, colleges, and businesses across the nation. Whether the goal is to raise publicity, inspire fund-raising, generate spirit, or just have fun, the everyone-must-participate requirement has made lip-dubs a favorite for institutional team-building.

—John Timpane, " Everybody dub now: http://articles.philly.com/2011-03-09/news/28672820_1_lip-dubs-head-janitor-elementary-schools," The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 9, 2011

Earliest Citation:

I walked around with a song playing in my headphones, and recorded myself singing. When I got home I opened it in iMovie and added an MP3 of the actual song, and synchronized it with my video. Is there a name for this? If not, I suggest "lip dubbing".

—Jake Lodwick, " Lip dubbing: Endless Dream: http://www.vimeo.com/123498," Vimeo, December 14, 2006

Notes:

Here's an earlier use of the phrase, although with a different meaning:

[Eugene] DeRue knows a good movie when he hears one. His 55-year studio career included acting in early silent pictures and directing films after "talkies" revolutionized the industry in 1927.

But it was the "lip dubbing" technique that DeRue concocted after that period — to add foreign-language voice tracks to MGM films — that revolutionized sound pictures. His process involves the re-recording, or "looping," of sound tracks to eliminate unwanted background noises or actors' garbled dialogue.

—Bob Pool, "Pioneer in movie industry sounds off about today's fare," Los Angeles Times, August 22, 1985

Related Words:

aireoke

guerrilla filmmaking

mashup

movieoke

recreativity

sleeveface

video scratching

Categories:

Film

Music