Jackie Celona, along with her family and friends, filmed a lip sync video for Carly Rae Jepsen’s single, “Call Me Maybe,” in late March and posted the finished product to YouTube.
A few months later, the video had climbed to more than 1.17 million hits and was included in the backdrop to Jepsen’s July 22 performance on the Teen Choice Awards.
While Jepsen won the awards for Choice Summer Song and Breakout Artist, Celona’s video production was one of the finalists chosen through a contest submission to air on the awards show.
She didn’t know before the show if her video had made the cut.
Her whole family got together, “waiting and hoping.”
“It was so crazy,” she said, when the clip appeared behind Jepsen.
The Mt. Laurel resident is a rising sophomore at Ithaca College in New York where she is studying film production.
She hopes that the national airtime will help in her future career endeavors.
Making music videos has always been enjoyable to Celona and her younger siblings.
“We just used to do it for fun,” she said.
Her YouTube channel, JrcPr0ductions, had more than 24,000 subscribers and nearly 7 million total video views as of July 30. The channel has existed since Dec. 2009.
In her famed video, local landmarks such as the hill at Laurel Acres Park come into view. She also produced scenes in neighborhoods around the township.
The choice to film in the park was “kinda random,” she said, and was ultimately chosen to provide open space for the dance routine that was designed by her sister, Jessica.
Lip-syncing came natural for the group, having performed similar videos in the past, such as Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” which has nearly a million views, and Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” with more than 2.4 million hits.
Film production is her future, Celona said, and a part of her that she hopes will last for the rest of her life.
“We are so proud of her!” Celona’s aunt, Terri, wrote in an email to The Sun.
The contest’s submission process was fairly straightforward, Celona explained.
First, she submitted a link to an email for the Teen Choice Awards. The judges watched them and sifted through submissions to choose finalists.
She then received an email that her video was a finalist.
While she did not know if her video would be seen, she still filled out release forms in anticipation.
During the award show, she said, it was said that there was an overload of submissions, though no specific number was mentioned.
“They must have played like seven to 10 different homemade videos,” she said, explaining that the clips flashed between the videos.
Her personal twitter account, @jackiecelona, expressed her real-time reactions.
“FREAKING OUT. #TeenChoiceAwards call me maybe music video finalist. Shown live all over the world. #famous #lovinglife,” she wrote the night of the show.
Soon, her twitter exploded with congratulations from her followers.
“yes…. my call me maybe music video was on the Teen Choice Awards 2012 🙂 #trending #famous,” she tweeted.
She later admitted, “couldnt sleep even if i tried..”
The day after the awards show, she wrote that she “woke up so confused.”
Canadian performer Carly Rae Jepsen, who has spent several weeks at the №1 spot on the Hot 100, rose to fame with her catchy “Call Me Maybe” single earlier this year.
The song was recently lip synced by the USA Olympic swimming team.
Jepsen recently released a video with Owl City for their song “Good Time.”
Visit her website at carlyraemusic.com and view the winners from the Teen Choice Awards at teenchoiceawards.com.
View Jackie Celona’s video productions at http://www.youtube.com/user/jrcpr0ductions and check out her Facebook page atwww.facebook.com/JrcPr0ductions.
