One thing, when I say "director," I'm not really sure what I mean because it seemed like there were two directors. One guy seemed to be in charge of the cameras and only partly in charge of directing the band and us, and one guy seemed more in charge of directing us and working with the other guy. So I don't know if there were two, or one had another role like producer or if he was like a vice-director or whatever you call them, so I'm just putting that out there.
So I left for LA around 8:45am. I have driven for about 6 or 7 hours before but not alone in the car so it was a tiny bit scary at first but I got over it quickly and just listened to my ipod the whole time and was there before I knew it. I had a hard time finding the place but I eventually just got out of the car and found a guy out front who told me to go downstairs. This was pretty much right at 11am. I went downstairs into this really dark bar/club place. I could hear a director and the song Blackout playing over and over but it was on the other side of the club so I couldn't see. I signed a waiver and waited with about 30 other people, guys and girls all around 18-20somethings. The director came over and told us they were gonna be about another 30-40 minutes. An hour later he said another 20. Kyle came over and talked to some people and then David came over. He said hi and shook my hand and I don't know if he realized it or not but he didn't let go for an awkward amount of time haha. So then he asked how we were and complained about how freaking hot it was in there.
They brought in tons of pizza for the guys, their band and the crew and then brought us some but I can't eat pizza because of the cheese! It was the kind where you can't really pick it off either so I just had a water bottle woohoo. I didn't eat all day until I got home but I was too excited to notice anyway. FINALLY after almost THREE HOURS they ushered everyone over to this little stage. They guys were supposed to pretend to perform the song and the director told us to just go insane with energy, jumping around, dancing, hands in the air, singing along etc. So we did one take of the full song, rested for a couple minutes while they changed the lighting and moved the cameras and then did it again. And again. And again. I think we did it about 5 or 6 times and we were all panting, pouring sweat, hot as hell but doing just like the director told us. Kyle asked if we were all ok if we needed anything and we said water so he personally jumped off the stage, found some water bottles and passed them out. He handed me mine first and I wanted to keep it but then I passed it around cuz there weren't enough for everyone.
When we were finished with that, they told us all to go wait for another scene. So we did and I noticed that the director was picking out a few pretty girls to do the next scene. And when I say pretty girls, I don't mean that the other girls weren't pretty, I mean girls who were in shape, and wearing nice dresses and looked around 21 and had a sort of girl-in-music-video look to them. There were quite a few pretty girls that didn't get picked. They had the guys sitting on the big couch thing and the girls all around them with drinks in their hands and stuff. The first take, everyone was really stiff and awkward and they rearranged a few things and then I heard the director say, "do we need a couple more girls?" As soon as he turned around I said, "me, I'll do it!" and raised my hand and jumped forward. He waved me over and I waited next to him while they arranged more stuff. He was talking about moving this one girl to the end because she looked so young and he said something about needing someone who looked a little older and I said, "I'm 28," and he was like, "really? Ok get in there," and sat me down. Then he moved me to a bench at an angle to the guys and told me to sit there and had another girl on another bench at the other side.. I was so nervous because I went from standing in the background in the dark to being in front of a lot of bright lights and cameras and people watching and knowing I was going to be filmed in a few minutes. Then they got the guy who plays the keytar in the band, his name is Josh, to sit next to me and told him that he was supposed to be my boyfriend in the scene. So we started filming and they told us to have fun and get crazy, pretending to drink and dance around. They told the girl sitting next to David to kiss him! And then they told him to look more receptive and not pull away, and he kind of mumbled something about how his girlfriend wasn't gonna like this but they did anyway. They told Josh to put his arm around me and we were just kind of dancing around in our seats and singing and stuff. Then we filmed a few more times and girls were pouring a bottle of whiskey down Kyle's throat and it got all over him and them and Josh had me grab the bottle and give it to him and pour him shots. The director told us to get more crazy so the guys drank more and danced around and he had the girls touching them and Josh stuck his hands in my hair and started messing it up all weird and then poured the bottle down his throat upside down and there was alcohol everywhere and it really was crazy. I realized that my eyes were closed a lot of the time because the lights and the strobe were so bright so I made an effort to find the camera and give it a sexy look which probably ended up looking really stupid like most of my sexy looks. I was closer to Kyle so he sang a little in my direction which was cute. Over all this was my favorite scene because it was so fun and in between takes we got to talk to the guys. Josh told them I was 28 which he knew from us talking and Kyle, David and every girl sitting there all had the same wide-eyed disbelieving stare, it was actually really funny. I said, "yeah nobody believes me," and Kyle high fived me cuz I was older than him but only by 2 years. Yay for being old I guess.
I could FEEEEELLL the girls who didn't get picked just killing me with their eyeballs. Ah! I felt bad for them (the guys too) because they were all just standing around watching us have fun. Then the director had us girls (and Josh who now reeked like whiskey and was singing a song that consisted of my name and a nonsense word that rhymes with Jessica) all stand up and get in a circle. And since our circle wasn't very circly he made us hold hands. We pretended to play red rover and then Kyle came up behind us smmmmashed and was telling us stories and the director was like, "Kyle, I don't know if you realize this but YOU ARE IN THE BAND. Get over here in front." Then everyone else got in on this and made a big smoosh pit around them and basically smashed the hell out of each other while the song played and we jumped around and crashed into each other and sweated all over each other and it was gross. My foot got jumped on more than once and all I was wearing on my feet were the ballet flats I had stuffed in my boots in case I needed to change into them and I did cuz I couldn't jump in the high heeled boots I wore to begin with so yeah it hurt and it's all bruised and a little swollen now seeeee??
Anyway, the next scene was the guys and the band all in front of the bar. The rest of us were supposed to be behind them talking to each other like we were really hanging out at a bar and that was the most awkward part, pretending to talk to each other. The drummer turned around and talked to me for a little bit. They had some funny scenes like the DJ passed out on the bar, the bartender pouring David a shot and him trying to grab the bottle away and they were fighting over it. Josh jumped on the bar and started dancing and then fell back into the crowd! Luckily we caught him and everyone was screaming and trying to hold him up and then the director was like, "ok cut, put him down." Ha.
After this the director picked out two girls and told them to stay and the rest of us could leave. He told the guys to be back in 10 minutes and David spent it all outside talking to us and taking pictures. I left after that and booked it home where the first thing I did was jump in the shower and wash off all the sweat and alcohol off me.
So overall I had the best time, it was interesting to learn what goes on in filming a music video, I got to hang out with my favorite band all day and talk to them and plus I get to see the finished product when the video comes out and actually see myself in it. I was in a lot of scenes, but to be realistic, they need to fit an entire two days of filming into about 3 minutes (Josh was telling me about what they filmed the day before and David said it was going to be really effing weird). So I know I'll be in there a bit, just not sure how much and I'm actually super excited to see it but also scared because what if I am in there and making a weird face or something? I'm sure any bad shots will be edited out but you never know what you'll catch in the background.
So if you want to see it, it's not out yet but the song is Blackout, the band is Breathe Carolina and I'm wearing purple feather earrings, a black top, pink and black skirt and a big black flower ring on my finger. I'm kind of nervous!
PS: I was worried that Kenneth might be upset about some of the stuff in the video and he was just like "well did you make out with anybody?" and I said no and he said then it's ok and he's not upset at all. He was actually more jealous that he didn't get to go and hang out with them too and is interested to see the video.
So that's it for this really long post, Happy Fourth of July if you are American or happy regular day to everyone else!
