JACKSON TWP — Wrangling 3,000 secondary students is no mean feat, but a Seneca Valley teacher and a senior pulled it off last week.

Dan McKosky, a video production teacher and SVTV cosponsor at the district’s secondary campus, and senior Iliana James led the effort to create a “lip dub,” or extended performance combining lip syncing and audio dubbing.

After many practice runs, the camera operator in a lip dub walks down the middle of a school’s hallways to film students cheering, dancing or performing wacky gimmicks on either side of the hall.

At Seneca, the camera operator, who was James in the final rendition, also traversed the secondary campus’ exterior and even NexTier Stadium.

The end result can be found on the district’s “Seneca Valley SVTV” YouTube page.

McKosky and James said two songs were used for the Seneca lip dub, “I Ain’t Worried” by OneRepublic and “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield.

The songs played as the camera swept among the students, who were filmed in nine stations throughout the campus.

All of the students then ran to NexTier Stadium behind the intermediate school for the lib dub’s big finale.

“We practiced three times and had a full run-through yesterday,” McKoskey said last Friday.

The final product was filmed by James that day.

“It was one take,” James said. “It wasn’t edited.”

McKosky said the final run-through was a little rough, as all the students didn’t make it to the stadium in time.

He said administrators and the high school band director stepped in to encourage students to run from their assigned stations to the stadium as quickly as possible after their segments were filmed.

“We really needed to impress upon people that you have to get there quickly,” McKosky said.

He and James planned to film the entire sequence three times Friday, but things went so smoothly during the first two attempts they eliminated the third filming.

“I think we’re actually using the first one,” McKosky said.

James said directing 3,000-plus students and teachers was the most difficult part of the project.

Examples of scenes during the lip dub were the chess club playing chess, members of the golf teams hitting marshmallows, the fencing team squaring off, and tons of confetti and glitter being shot at the camera.

McKosky said the art department made 4- to 5-foot-long paint brushes and many signs festooned with the lib dub’s theme “We Are SV!” and included a pottery wheel in their section.

A special substitute teacher at the Seneca secondary campus, Sharon Gallas, even made a cameo as a dancer in the lip dub.

McKosky said he worked with administrators since the summer on what they were and weren’t permitted to do.

“They had to OK all of our plans, so it wasn’t a major disruption to classwork,” he said.

Administrators turned down a request for someone to appear on the roof of one of the schools, as well as a teacher twirling fire batons.

“When I brought it up with administrators, they said ‘There is a no-open-flame policy here,’” McKosky said.

He said administrators supported the project and gave their blessing to most of his requests.

“I’m extremely grateful for the creative flexibility they give me to do things like this,” McKosky said.

James also was thankful for the enthusiasm shown for the project by school officials.

“I’m just super grateful the administrators let me do this,” she said. “After the first meeting, I was not expecting them to be on board right away. I’m super happy.”

Anthony Cardosi, a Seneca Valley senior and member of the varsity golf team, was one of the students who whacked a marshmallow with one of his irons.

He rehearsed on Oct. 24 with Section 3 between the senior and intermediate schools.

“It’s really cool,” Anthony said of the lip dub project. “It’s good for the school, and it’s going to be a good experience for all of us.”

Catherine Shea, a senior, was the director of Section 3.

“OK, we’re coming through! Be quiet!” Catherine shouted into her megaphone as the students milled about in their section.

She said hockey, football, tennis, lacrosse, fencing and golf players, as well as students holding signs and waving colorful swimming pool noodles, were in her section.

Alexis Metz, a sophomore, said her job was to cheer with her seventh-period class when the camera went past.

“I think it’s a cool experience,” she said. “It shows a lot of school spirit.”

Her classmate, Aubrey Winsheimer, said the project was fun.

“It’s nice to celebrate our school,” Aubrey said.

She said after the rehearsals and final run-through, she had a lot of confidence in the final outcome.

“We put a lot of practice into it,” Aubrey said.

Gavin Skarbek, a senior, participated as part of the track and field team. He ran along with the camera for part of the lib dub.

“It raises school spirit,” he said.

Zoe Craft, also a senior, lifted her lacrosse stick as the camera whizzed past in her section.

“We are all very excited,” she said of the project. “It brings us all together as one and lifts our excitement for the school year.”