The hardest part of going viral wasn’t learning the words to “Cups (When I’m Gone).” It wasn’t making an unlikely collaboration between a cappella group Otto Tunes and YouTubers Grace Doty and Kara Della Valle. It wasn’t convincing Doty to trek down from Eastchester, N.Y., or Della Valle from Canada.

It was getting the cup-flipping choreography down pat, which Syracuse University a cappella group Otto Tunes member Cormac Dennehy said was no easy feat. But what would a “Cups” video be without, well, cups?

“My girlfriend pounded it into my head the day before because she had done it at camp,” said the sophomore student in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries. “We did it a few times right before shooting the video.”

The video, which hit more than 70,000 views in just four days after it was uploaded to the social media site Saturday evening, was the brainchild of Matt Musacchio, a senior public relations major. Musacchio organized the video — bringing Della Valle, who he’s been managing since August, and Doty to SU to collaborate with Otto Tunes, an all-male group — as a part of his senior capstone project.

Musacchio settled on a cover of “Cups (When I’m Gone)” from jukebox musical “Pitch Perfect.” He thought the song fit the perfect formula of popularity and potential for virality.

The cover was posted on YouTube’s myISH channel, and though the channel boasts more than 180, 000 subscribers, Musacchio said he didn’t think it would take off as quickly as it did.

“It was like lightning in a bottle with the right song and the right performers,” he said.

Doty, who runs in the same circle of YouTube singers as Della Valle, said she learned the song in about five minutes, but it took at least 20 to memorize the choreography. Musacchio sent her a tutorial to help teach her the routine.

“I’ll usually learn a song in like five minutes before I film,” Doty said with a laugh. “We bonded by teaching some of the guys how to do it like two minutes before.”

Dennehy said it took between 15-30 takes of the two-minute song to collect all of the footage for the video. He also said it was the first time an Otto Tunes video has blown up online.

“Nothing we’ve done before got that popular that quickly,” Dennehy said. “It was really exciting.”

Though Della Valle and Doty only met the men of Otto Tunes a few hours before performing, Doty said shooting the video didn’t feel like singing with a bunch of strangers.

“It felt like doing it with friends,” Doty said. “I had never sung with an a cappella group before, and they were really talented.”

For Dennehy, shooting the video felt like a typical Otto Tunes performance — just with a few females taking lead on the vocals. The group’s music director arranged Anna Kendrick’s version of the song for the group — a pretty easy task, since the song is highlighted in a comedy flick about a cappella singers.

With some friendly joking and plenty of cup-flipping practice, Dennehy said the video shoot was as much fun as it was work.

Said Dennehy: “They’re both great girls. We gave Kara a hard time for being from Canada, but it was really fun getting to know them.”

Published on April 17, 2013 at 12:10 am

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman