Welcome to the NFL offseason. While analysts are busy dissecting free agency moves and teams are preparing for the 2014 NFL Draft, the NFL cheerleaders are hard at work as well -- although their job looks a heck of a lot more fun than ours at the moment.
For the third year in a row, the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders have released a lip dub video to promote the release of their upcoming calendar. This year, while on location for the calendar shoot in Casa de Campo, a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic, the girls filmed a lip dub of a musical mashup of "Fantasy" by Mariah Carey, "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, "Summer" by Calvin Harris and "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys. The full video is above, and I've higlighted a few of my favorite elements below for a little "analysis," similar to what I did last year when both the Dolphins cheerleaders and the New Orleans Saints cheerleaders covered Taylor Swift's "22." And before you ask, yes, I did get paid to do this.
Match cuts
Throughout the video, the creators did an excellent job of sprinkling in various filmic elements to improve the production quality and add more visual interest aside from the cheerleaders themselves. They used a number of match cuts, where they hid an edit on an object to jump between two locations or cheerleaders. See if you can find them all. Or if you're lazy, they're at the 25-second, 56-second, 90-second, and 98-second marks in the video.
*Who is this guy? *
During the video, the girls lip sync the line, "If you want my future, forget my past" from the Spice Girls' "Wannabe," but what's notable about this line is that three of the cheerleaders point their thumbs at an everyday average guy in the background when they say "forget my past," perhaps insinuating that he had dated one (or all three) of them.
In reality, this guy is probably a member of the production crew, or perhaps one lucky patron of the Casa de Campo who they included in the video. Either way, it was a funny little joke to include them gesturing at him in the background. It was clear the cheerleaders had a blast making this video, so it was nice for the crew to include little jokes like this to help the viewers have as much fun watching the video as they all did making it.
Rhythmic editing
Smart editing can really help the flow of a music video, which is why the rhythmic editing at the two-minute, nine-second mark that's in sync with the repeated refrain of "I wanna" by the Spice Girls works so well in this video.
So there you have it. A brief analysis of the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders' latest lip dub video. All told, this was easily my favorite of the Miami Dolphins cheerleaders lip dubs. They seemed to have the most fun in this one, featured the most production value and included humorous jokes to make the viewing even more enjoyable.
While it isn't real football action or analysis, I'm hoping the Dolphins (and other teams) continue this trend in the coming offseasons. It certainly is a great way to help pass the time until football returns in the fall.
-- Alex Gelhar writes features and fantasy pieces for NFL.com. Follow him on Twitter @AlexGelhar for more cheerleader video analysis and the occasional football nugget.
