Published Thursday, 10 November 2011
Last week, I was part of a UTV Crew which was hired by MTV to film backstage in the dressing rooms for three comedy sketches with Selena Gomez for inclusion in the two-hour live MTV EMA programme.
We arrived backstage at the Odyssey location to film in the "Stars" dressing rooms.The dressing rooms were erected in a two-tier marquee and dressed up in different themes to suit their intended inhabitants.
A walk down the corridor to Selena Gomez's dressing room took us past names like LMFAO, Katy Perry, Queen and just opposite us was Justin Bieber.
Selena Gomez performed flawlessly during the filming of the sketches - no interruption only to bounce a line or two off two American script writers.
A quick look around the room before recording saw a makeup stylist, hair stylist, two writers, a producer, assistant producer, five others with no name tags and a "Big Guy" at the door!
Specialist lighting was used to work to a brief overseen by the comedy producer.
We shot Selena running a sketch with a mosquito in the room, firstly trying to swat it with a hair brush and mirror then finally opting for a guitar which she smashed - this belonging to Coldplay's Chris Martin, who made a cameo appearance.
This was followed by a further sketch with Selena trying on various types of headgear with an actor playing her stylist advisor, all shot from various angles with relighting on a tight schedule.
On our second day, we filmed Selena's alter-ego as-live with a cityscape at night behind so she could been seen interviewing herself during the programme.
Filming was interrupted briefly when she was shivering - on cue a very young looking Justin Bieber appeared from the wings to lift the temperature.
Finally, we filmed the Hoff for his part mimicking Selena in another dressing room to be dropped in, in the edit. Who says the camera never lies!!
This was the most impressive backstage event I have ever experienced! I have never seen anything on this scale of numbers of crew all involved - there was no standing around!