One of the coolest things about living in Long Beach is that we are just a hop, skip and a jump away from Hollywood. When I was browsing Absolutepunk.net last week and saw that Warped Tour favorite The Academy Is…was filming a music video in Hollywood on Saturday for its new single “We’ve Got a Big Mess on Our Hands” and needed extras, I decided to give it a shot.
After a few e-mails that asked me to agree to work from morning to evening for free, I found myself on the set of the shoot.
I arrived at a little past 9 a.m. at the King King club on Hollywood Boulevard and checked in. I had to sign an agreement sheet saying I consented to be in the video for free, and then I squished in with the other extras under blue canvas tents to wait for further instructions.
We waited, and then waited and waited some more, and at about 11:30 a.m. the director came out and chose a big group of us to go in. I wasn’t wearing bright “camera-friendly” clothes, nor do I look like somebody you would typically see in a music video, but I did have one thing working to my advantage that morning: I’m a guy.
Of the more than 80 extras who came out that morning, less than 10 were guys. That made me popular with the production people.
I found out that Alan Ferguson was directing the video. Besides doing The Academy Is…’s videos, he has also directed videos for Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes. His videos are witty, fun and full of satire.
We went into the half-venue/half-sound stage and formed a little group around the small stage. I was a little bit taller than everybody else, so I got pulled out of the crowd and they told me to go stand behind the bar and act like a bartender. At first I thought this was really cool because I would stand out, but when I saw the angle the cameras were shooting from, I realized I probably wouldn’t be in the shot.
The band members came out and everybody cheered. For the first shot, we had to pretend like we were at a show and rocking out. But just like on MTV’s “Making the Video,” the band doesn’t really play the song. It just blares out of the speakers and the band members pretend. The amps were hollow.
The premise of the video starts to become apparent when front man William Beckett starts doing rude and lewd things. He knocks his fellow band members’ microphone stands over, rips drumsticks away from the drummer and throws them to the ground and spits water all over the place.
One of the most memorable moments of the shoot was when Ferguson told Beckett to lick one of the extra’s faces. He said that it would be crude, yet funny. Beckett gave him a look like “Do I have to?” but Ferguson was set on the idea. So for the next five takes, Beckett had to kneel down and lick a complete stranger’s face.
The next part of the video shoot dealt with Beckett fist-fighting an impersonator. They cleared out all of the extras for the stage combat training, but because I was behind the bar, I couldn’t get out. I got to watch Beckett and his impersonator learn how to fight.
They called some extras back in, but instead of having us watch the Becketts fight, they had us react to a green screen like they were. I’m not sure how the green screen will be used, but it will be interesting to see.
Next, they called in the Becketts and had them fight. During one of the first shots, Beckett actually punched his double in the face. Beckett stopped and looked stunned.
“Dude, I actually hit you,” Beckett said.
“Dude, I know,” his double responded.
The double’s nose started to bleed and the medic had to be called in. After that short delay, they took a few more takes and we were done for the day.
We shot four scenes that spanned over the last 40 seconds of the song, but we didn’t get done until after 6 p.m.
Afterwards, the guys from the band hung around and took pictures and said thanks to everybody. They seemed really happy with the day’s turnout.
“The problem with all of our videos so far is that they are performance-based, but we haven’t been able to perform for anybody,” bassist Adam Siska told me. “This was nice because it wasn’t just the camera people and us.”
Over in the makeup chair, Beckett’s impersonator smoked a cigarette while putting ice on his still-swollen face.
“I was just walking down the street at like 8 this morning and they stopped me,” he said.
“They cut off a bunch of my hair.”
Not having any acting experience or knowledge of the band, he agreed to be in the video for $300 a day. Anything really can happen in Hollywood.
If you have a day to spare and don’t mind working for free, being in a music video shoot is a lot of fun. Keep your eye out for “We’ve Got a Big Mess on Our Hands” to see my big bartending debut.
