Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Case Study No. 0422: Staff of the R.B. House Undergraduate Library

UNC Chapel Hill UL Flash Mob Rave
4:37
*** MOST RECENT UNC LIBRARY RAVE VIDEO***
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=pE0-BFEermc

On Dec. 9th, 2008 in order to break up the stresses of fall semester exam week, UNC students flash raved their Undergraduate Library. Without warning to those that were unaware, hundreds of students packed the library lobby and brought it hardcore for over 8 minutes.



12-12-08 1:00am EST. 109,838 Views.
Over 100k views in under 48 hours!


12-16-08 10:25pm EST. 200,508 Views.


3-26-09 5:42pm EST. 300,341 Views.


Video filmed and edited by: Walker Sigmon
Tags: rave bluelite dance flash mob flash rave UNC UNC Chapel Hill Carolina Library
Added: 3 years ago
From: cackalacky789
Views: 567,868

[scene opens with footage of the nearly empty undergraduate library at UNC Chapel Hill, as Darude's "Sandstorm" plays over the video]
["On December 9th, 2008 in order to break up the stresses of exam week, hundreds of UNC students descended on the Undergraduate Library in a flashmob rave" appears on screen]
[cut to the front hallway of the library (as a young female librarian sits and casually reads a book at the front desk)]
["11:00 PM" appears on screen, as the library is still empty, then cut to an overhead shot the same hallway filled with students jumping and screaming and waving glow sticks as the librarian looks at the scene in exasperation (another female librarian is standing alongside her and covering her ears)]
[the camera zooms in on a female student crowd-surfing]
[cut to another female librarian standing behind the front desk, as the camera zooms in on her with hands on her hips, shaking her head (and with just a hint of a smile on her face)]
[cut to another overhead shot of the hallway, as more students begin crowd-surfing]
[the scene fades to black, then cut to slow-motion footage of the flash mob going strong]
[cut to some students climbing on top of the help desk (as one librarian tries to move some books before they get trampled) and dancing]
[cut to a closeup shot of a library security guard standing behind the help desk, as he can only smile and walk away]
[cut to footage of students on the upper level watching the flash mob and taking pictures]
[cut to another shot of the flash mob, as some students passing around a garbage can (making it "crowd-surf")]
[cut to more footage of the students laughing and dancing]
["Can't end it without a little school spirit ... " appears on screen, then cut to the students (loudly) singing the school fight song while stomping their feet and clapping their hands]

---

From newsobserver.com:

The brains behind UNC's Flash Dance Party

File this under "Those Crazy College Kids."

Just before midnight Tuesday, a dance party broke out at the undergraduate library at UNC Chapel Hill. You may have seen the video. It's gotten quite a lot of buzz this week.
I spoke with Bobby Nieland, one of the masterminds of this crazy event. Here's what he had to say:

News & Observer: So where did this idea come from?

Bobby Nieland: On Halloween a similar event occurred. A group of guys got a Facebook thing together. They had everyone just freeze what they were doing in the Pit here at UNC right at noon. Everyone just froze, wherever they were. There''s this website called "Improve Everywhere" that was the inspiration for it. Everyone did that on Halloween. So our Bell Tower here on campus tolls 12 times at noon, so everyone froze for that and then continued on doing what they were doing.

N&O: So you take idea, and then push it forward for the dance party?

BN: Yes, in the Undergraduate Library, or the UL, we like to call it, every year since 1970, on the day before finals start a group of streakers run through the library. That was a big inspiration for us. That happened Thursday last week. So me and my two buddies were sitting in the UL last Tuesday (the week prior) and quite spontaneously decided to see if we could organize a flash dance in the Undergraduate Library.

So we decided the easiest way to reach a bunch of people is Facebook these days. So I created a Facebook event. All three of us became administrators of the event and invited everyone we knew at UNC. In the first 48 hours we have right around 400 people confirmed to come to the event.
In total, we reached 2600 people.

N&O: So that's how many took part?

BN: A ballpark guess that a lot of people have given us is that about 700 people were there. The place was packed.

N&O: So how much specific planning was done for it?

BN: Well, the description for the event was about a page long, the directions to everybody. In essence it was just this: At 11:55 p.m. on Tuesday we wanted everyone, wherever they were at the library to stop what they're doing. We'd start the music at 11:55. They'd just stop what they're doing. They know about this but they'd pretend they didn't know. And then we'd have a flash dance. We'd all just dance in the lobby. One of our other friends is a DJ. He mixed a track together for us that's about 13 minutes long. It's six songs spliced together.

N&O: So this was a 13-minute event?

BN: Well, it went about 9 minutes and then we pulled the plug. We didn't want it to get out of hand. That was more crowd-surfing that I've ever seen at an event.

N&O: Is the library usually that busy that night during finals?

BN: No, it is not. The whole idea of the event to look natural was ruined a little because at about 11:15, groups of four and five students started coming in and the noise level kept increasing. By 11:45 people were just streaming in. We told people to go into side rooms and stay clear of the lobby.

N&O: What did you use for a sound system? It seemed quite loud on the video.

BN: We brought in, earlier that day, a 120-watt amp.

N&O: Did you hide it?

BN: We just walked through the front doors, went over to the computers and put it down on the floor and sat started studying and nobody came over.

N&O: Why a dance?

BN: There's just something about having fun and being loud in a library. There's just something about that. Obviously it's sort of taboo.

N&O: You feel like an outlaw a little bit?

BN: Sure. We were very nervous and very excited. There was adrenaline.

N&O: So does this go high up on your resume?

BN: Yeah, this is one of the most random things I've ever done.

N&O: Is there some satisfaction in pulling this off?

BN: It's definitely empowering. It's amazing to know how many people you can reach via Facebook. It's just been the talk of campus for the past couple of days. Me and my two other buddies have gotten so many congratulations and pats on the back. There's so much video of it.

N&O: So what's your next stunt?

BN: We had a blast organizing this one. There's always the end of the year. We'll see. We've gotten a lot of comments that this should be a tradition.

No comments:

Post a Comment