“Own the cheese.”
These were the words that director of choirs Andrew Wallace told Fermata Nowhere as it was preparing to film a parody for the Monday Night Football pre-game show, which aired on Dec. 15.
“I think that the girls at first thought it was really cheesy and hokey, and I totally agree with them,” said Wallace. “But one thing I had to explain to the girls was that it’s supposed to be funny, and you just need to go with it. …It’s a parody, it’s supposed to be fun.”
According to Larry Snyder, executive sports producer for ABC, the pre-game show was viewed in four to five million locations in the Midwest. Snyder, who has a daughter in Fermata, set up this opportunity.
According to Snyder, when his oldest daughter was in high school, he suggested to have her choir, Chorale, sing a parody to “The 12 Days of Christmas.” The parody aired prior to a Chicago Bears football game, and this year he wanted to offer Fermata a similar opportunity.
Snyder wrote the words of the parody by changing the lyrics of “I’ll be Home for Christmas” to “I’ll be Home for the Playoffs.” He said he encountered a problem when writing this parody.
“I wrote it down on my iPhone in my notes, and I came up with a version that I liked,” said Snyder. “I was trying to do a ‘select all’ and copy everything, and I selected everything and I deleted [it] by accident. Then I said, ‘Oh what did I write? I forgot.’ So I had to rewrite [the lyrics] again, but [they] came back to me.”
When Snyder first approached his daughter Katie Snyder about giving Fermata this opportunity, he said her initial reaction was, “I don’t know if we have time.”
Wallace said the singers had to learn the parody quickly because they were “under some tight time constraints.”
“There’s a lot happening in the last two weeks of school [before winter break], so I think everyone’s brains [were] all over the place,” said Wallace. “To add in another [performance was] kind of crazy, but the girls really did a nice job of stepping up and just being like, ‘We’re gonna do it. It’s going to be fun.’”
Fermata received a copy of the lyrics two days prior to the recording of the parody. Due to the limited time frame, the members of Fermata only had one rehearsal before recording the parody.
“It [was] stressful,” said senior Ramsay Wehr. “When you just learn something you want to be able to sit on it, sleep on it [and] practice it in your free time. But we had to turn it around on a dime.”
Snyder and Wallace said they had planned on filming the parody on the spiral staircase in the main lobby immediately after school. However, Wallace said it was too noisy and busy to film there, and eventually decided to perform in the CPA.
Katie said this change in plan worked well because the play “Don’t Drink the Water” was being performed that weekend. The set was green with a red couch and a chandelier, so it looked like a house decorated for Christmas.
According to Wehr, Fermata did five takes during the recording process. She said the cameraman had different angles for each take, and the entire recording process only took about twenty minutes.
Snyder said the parody was filmed at different angles because ABC edited the footage using special effects. Because of this editing process, Wallace said Fermata was unable to see the clip until it aired.
Wallace said he was pleased with the singing and was very happy when he saw the parody air on the Monday Night Football pre-game show.
“I feel really proud because we were put under a time crunch and a stress that we weren’t really expecting because it was a surprise to us, but…[the girls] stepped up, learned their music and put out a great performance that they can be proud of,” said Wallace. “I think GBN can be proud of [it also]. And I think that’s really incredible. It’s not everyday you just turn on the TV and you see someone, or kids you know. That’s a great experience.”