When Canadian-born Richard Dunn shot his impromptu “All By Myself” music video on an iPhone in an empty Las Vegas airport, he thought it’d make for a goofy clip to show his wife and parents.
Instead, it’s become a viral video sensation, with nearly 9.7 million views on Vimeo as of Thursday morning, just four days after he uploaded it on Sunday.
“It’s just been crazy, we’re getting all kinds of texts and phone calls,” Dunn told CTV’s Canada AM on Thursday in a Skype interview from Georgia.
“Mark my words, you won’t remember me in three days.”
Dunn said he often shoots 30-second videos to get a laugh out of his family and friends, but his lip sync to Celine Dion’s “All By Myself” ballooned to five minutes long and took off once he posted it to social media. Dunn shot the video all in one night while waiting for a flight, and is now enjoying its success as his most popular ever.
“I think that’s the thing about viral videos. You need that little bit of luck to go with it,” he said.
As amusing as Dunn’s lip sync is, it’s equally entertaining to see how much free rein he has in the airport. He gets behind a Delta Airlines terminal and sings into a handset, sits on the help desk counter, serenades perfume ads, and even dumps a bottle of water on himself while leaning back on a bench. Dunn also makes liberal use of the escalator and moving sidewalk to produce some slick moving shots – all with the camera on his iPhone.
In terms of production value, Dunn’s video actually outstrips Dion’s 1996 original, which mostly films the Quebecois chanteuse close up with a soft camera focus.
Dunn, who was born in Moncton, N.B. and who currently resides in Canton, GA, said his production quality is no accident. “I’ve been a video hack for 10 or 12 years,” he said.
Dunn used an iPhone taped to a ruler for most of his shots, but started to get more creative with his props as the night went on, he said. First, he used his luggage as a camera stand. Then, he found a wheelchair in the terminal and taped his phone to it to produce some moving shots.
Dunn spent three hours shooting and four hours editing to produce the five-minute video, he said.
Despite his song choice, Dunn said he wasn’t entirely alone in the airport. He had slot machine attendants and some less-than-thrilled cleaning staff around to witness his antics.
“Bless their little hearts, what they must see overnight in a Vegas airport, they wanted nothing to do with me,” Dunn said.
