Let’s Just Make A Community Video

On Sunday January 9th in Downtown Statesville, NC I had the privilege of organizing, choreographing, and filming a video with the help of many others. I want to thank the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce President David Bradley for voicing his interest in creating a video very similar to the Today Show’s viral video using the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling”. The original concept for the video was to focus on the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce with key spotlights of the video being Chamber employees, groups and members. However after several discussions the video transformed into a community wide project. Which meant shutting down streets, moving vehicles off the roads, and dissecting the song into sections that could be managed.

The streets were shut down for 3 hours on Sunday Jan 9th

The song was split into 7 sections and the 7 sections were managed, organized and choreographed by their section leaders. Section 1 was David Bradley president of the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce and his main focus was the beginning of the song moving from the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce to City Hall where section 2 and the section leader Nancy Davis took charge. Nancy Davis starts her section off with a handoff of paperwork from David Bradley to Mayor Costi Kutteh. He then lip-sings the words of the song and takes you on a tour of City Hall along with other people from the community. Once you open the front doors of City Hall you are welcomed with open arms into section 3 with its leaders Bailey Wiberg (daughter of Susie Wiberg), Cameron Bradley, and Brooke Bradley(both daughters of David Bradley). Section 3 focuses on the youth of Statesville’s community and gives you a taste of the young talent we have before us.

Section 2 led by Baily Wiberg, Cameron Bradley and Brooke Bradley

Section 4 leads you to the doors of 220 Cafe, a new restaurant in downtown Statesville. Here section leader Susie Wiberg of Iredell-Statesville Schools illustrates the storefronts in the city and has some amazing tumblers from Tilley’s Dance Academy and Tilley’s Too Gymnastics showing off their skills. Flipping straight into Section 5, which was my section (Ashley High of Bell & Howard Chevrolet Cadillac and High Profile Marketing Solutions).  Section 5 starts at the old court-house downtown with a soldier from Fort Dobbs! Fort Dobbs is such an important piece of Statesville and it had to be showcased! Our soldier sends you on a journey through the streets with more tumblers, a juggler, a dancer and fire straight from a hot air balloon! There’s a lot going on in section 5 so make sure you pay attention or you might miss something!

Greg from Fort Dobbs with section 5 leader Ashley High

Section 6 led by Cathy Morris of the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce takes you charging across the square into Groucho’s Deli where you dance through the doors and see all the patrons including Groucho himself!  Groucho leads you out the side door and into the square  for section 7 led by Denise Tilley Levan where you see the fabulous dancers from Tilley’s Dance Academy surrounded by all the people involved in making the video!

Tilleys Dance Academy in Section 7

Behind the scenes was a wonderful pairing of Billy “Buck” Blevins and Jill Gibson of Binder Chiropractic I had so much fun working with everyone on the project and hope you all enjoy the video as well when we show it at the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting on January 25th. After the Annual meeting the video will be shared on youtube, facebook and the Greater Statesville Chamber of Commerce’s website for everyone to see!

That's a wrap! Thanks everyone!