Set up for the finale shot of the Suffern Middle School Lip Dub to Heroes (We Could Be), produced Monday by the school’s Kindness Crusaders club.

With the clock ticking down to early dismissal days, Suffern Middle School students had time to produce a school-wide Lib Dub on Monday.

The brainchild of the Kindness Crusaders, a Suffern Middle School anti-bullying club dedicated to spreading kindness and student community, the lip dub is a take on the global phenom where a group lip synchs to a popular song.

Awesome #rcsdmountiepride and #Suffern camaraderie @ today’s LipDub! Thank you @KindCrusaders and @SMSprincipal pic.twitter.com/kPlbsdBc2H

— Mounties ESL (@Mounties_ESL) June 22, 2015

The Crusaders chose Heroes (We Could Be), itself a a remix by Swedish DJ Alesso and singer Tove Lov of David Bowie’s anthemic song Heroes. The students’ mashup of pop cultural trends and use of technology is telling and also a sort of meta-story — tech savvy middle school students pull off a morning video production with a cast of hundreds, using a tune released online via SoundCloud by a new global pop star DJ in a music world ruled by EDM.

The updated Heroes mix speaks directly to the latest generation and loses the irony of Bowie’s late 1970s Berlin-in-the-dark-shadow of the Berlin Wall song — when West Berlin kids would make out by the wall as a form of protest, under the watchful eyes of East Berlin armed guards. Bet you didn’t know that the Heroes mix topped out the dance charts in the US and UK in 2014 and sold a million copies (downloads)?

Suffern Middle School’s Kindness Crusaders, a club that promotes little acts of kindness and community to change hearts and minds.

The SMS Kindness Crusaders project was an effort to sow seeds of community in the hearts of fellow students and included a whole production presentation. SMS students were encouraged to wear clothes and show equipment from their particular sport or activity during specific shot, including band, orchestra, theater, and any number of sports.

The shoot moves through the school, showing various student groups and ends up outside in the SMS bleachers with a sustained cheer.

The whole shoot took two hours, an impressive feat that had Suffern Middle School Principal Brian Fox shaking his head — in wonder at his students and proud of their initiative and know-how.

Fox said he expects the Kindness Crusaders to finish the video by graduation at the end of the week.

SMS English teacher Nicole Tarife got the green light from Fox to start the Crusaders last year and the group has met lunchtime during the school year to brainstorm all the different ways small acts of kindness can connect into a single chain of kindness.

The production group behind the video shoot includes Ariana Bryant as
student director, Kim Meier as assistant to SD, Video Editor Darwin Guo, Videographer Tom Coombs, and choreographers Sarah Dobkin and Gianna Torma, with art direction from Carlos Mendez, and Sarah Dobkin’s additional touches as decorating supervisor.