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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Damien Edgar

Belfast school thrilled with response to music video

A West Belfast school teacher has said he is thrilled with the response to a music video starring pupils and teachers.

Paul Laverty is the Head of Drama at St Mary's CBGS in West Belfast and oversaw the project since December of last year.

The video features sweeping shots through the school and is jam packed with pop-culture references and features an original song.

Read more: On camera: Meteor 'streaking green tail' filmed over the skies of Northern Ireland

"Hang On To Tomorrow" was written by local poet Francis O'Hare and is the backtrack to the talent on screen.

"We deliberately chose to do things that are difficult to do for the video," said Paul Laverty.

"There's a guy who throws a disc into a Nintendo Wii console and it took about probably 80 attempts to get it in, as it's literally a disc going into a slot that's just the right size for a DVD.

"We've animation in it, there's references to The Beatles, The Queen's Gambit and different things like that to just add another level of interest to it for people."

Paul told Belfast Live that it had fostered a real sense of school spirit, as pupils and teachers worked together on the video.

"The pupils were obviously excited about being on screen and getting a bit of publicity and that," he added.

"The actual song is an original song, it's written by a local poet called Francis O'Hare and it was sang by one of our teachers Clare Wright.

"Genuinely, I've had nothing but very, very positive reviews and people have been very excited about it.

"I wasn't expecting that level of interest in it and it has picked up pace, we're very pleased with the response."

He said the idea was to counteract some of the more grim elements of news that have dominated headlines in the past year or so.

"The challenge with this thing was to try and do something positive at a time when things are pretty bleak with all that's going on in the world.

"It's hard to that without being twee but it's meant to be a fun, happy video and it's just about doing something that at least attempts to be positive.

"I'm particularly pleased that a lot of people who have no connection to the school at all have liked it, which was what we were trying to do, to make it for the school but also for anyone who wanted to watch really."

The video got its debut at the school's recent open night and it might not be the end of the road for the endeavour.

"There's been so much interest in the song itself as well, so we're looking at possibly recording a shorter version and putting it on Spotify and maybe doing another video for that," Paul said.

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