Navy Students Film Their Own Hysterical Version Of Hip Song ‘Uptown Funk’

Nov 01, 2022 by apost team

It is common practice for midshipman 1st Class Rylan Tuohy and his classmates from the United States Naval Academy to work together for a common goal. The Naval Academy attendees from Annapolis, Maryland, understand that teamwork leads to success. One of their most notable endeavors, however, strayed just a little farther from their usual responsibilities.

In 2015, Tuohy gathered an ambitious cast and crew of 60 Navy midshipmen to film their own version of the popular hit “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars.

The savvy midshipmen managed to convince local authorities to close off cobblestoned Maryland Avenue in the state's capital on a beautiful fall day so they could film. However, they only had four hours to do so. Not only that, they used only Tuohy's Canon 5D digital camera and another midshipman's drone to film it. Tuohy told Navy Times the entire performance was produced by his peers.

“It’s all midshipman-run,” Tuohy, then 22, said, adding, “Every single person in front of and behind the camera was a midshipman, and our budget was a whopping $0.”

Tuohy added he had always had a passion for filming and was of two minds before signing up for the Navy.

“For me, it was actually a decision: Do I want to pursue film or do I want to attend the Naval Academy?" he said. Luckily for this talented man, he was able to do both. “I think a lot of people have a perspective of the military as a little bit more strict,” he told the outlet. “For me, I just went ahead and accepted that if I had to put video on hold for four years, I'd be willing to do that.”

Midshipman Tuohy and friends rewrote the lyrics to “Uptown Funk” to turn the song into a personal version called “Naptown Funk,” referring to the nickname for Annapolis. Once Tuohy received the green light from the city to film, he and his friends picked Midshipman 2nd Class Liam Gregory to be their star.

The crew only had four hours to film as they needed to attend a Navy football game that afternoon, events all midshipmen are required to attend.

In the thoroughly polished music video, uniformed men and women happily strolled through the Annapolis street, performing the song to a choreographed dance. They also filmed in a salon to echo the style of the original “Uptown Funk” video.

At the video’s climax, the team was joined on the street by a brass section and drummer as the singer called out a challenge to other Naval teams in San Diego, Norfolk and Chicago. The start and the finish of the high-quality video filmed by Tuohy showed off the beauty of the city of Annapolis with aerial shots of the area.

Naptown Funk gave the team a chance to have some fun, boast about themselves and their city, and to show off some serious artistic skills. The effort may have been the first for some of the participants, but for Rylan Tuohy, Naptown Funk was only his latest production. The talented midshipman has produced other spirit spots, as the videos are called, and collaborated on several humorous videos produced for the annual Army-Navy game.

Naptown Funk has the same energy and fun as the song it parodied, with the added benefit of showing off the unique talents of Annapolis' Naval students. The ingenuity, teamwork, and spirit show how much these people can accomplish when they work together.

apost.com

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