Closed Set
Soundstage montage. The oh-so-helpful
graphic at the bottom of the screen says "Universal Studios, Orlando Florida".
Joey's standing in front of a door with a big red "closed set" sign on
it. Joey panders with the camera about not letting them in. His shirt has
an oompa-loompa on it. Hehe. Silly Joey. Inside, we see random rehearsal
things going on. These boring, everyday rehearsal things include Lance
using a microphone with a stuffed dog over the end, Joey freaking behind
the musical director, and Chris carrying a parasol while riding a bike.
Weirdos.
We meet Kevin Antunes, *NSYNC's musical
director/keyboard player. He introduces the rest of the band: Troy Antunes
on bass, Ruben Ruir on guitar, Paul Howards on the sax, Dave Cook on keyboards,
and Billy Ashbaugh on drums (for those of you keeping score at home.) Shot
of Joey tinkering around on the drum set. JC says, "Joey doesn't sound
as good as Billy, but uh..." and the camera cuts him off. Damn editors.
Let the man finish a thought! Justin, alone, sits on a stool and says "Mushroom
walks into a bar, the bartender says 'we don't serve your kind here', he
says 'why not? I'm a FUN GUY!'" Justin points off-camera and we hear "buh-dum-ching!"
from the drum set. Hehe. (Yes, I know that that noise is technically called
a "rim shot," but I always hear "rim shot" and think "rim job," so I'll
just say it was a buh-dum-ching for the sake of my sanity. 'Cause that's
a little slashy otherwise. Okay? Okay.) Chris shows us their in-ear-monitors.
"Look, we have colors. Red means right. Blue means... not right." End of
band rehearsal.
JC says that tours are pretty wild.
Joey says they're gonna have seventeen or eighteen trucks and tells us
they rented out a place to do a full dress rehearsal. Oh-so-helpful graphic
says "Lakeland Center, Lakeland Florida" right underneath a shot of the
outside of the Lakeland building, which has a big sign that says "Lakeland
Center" on it. Redundant much? I'm confused! Where are we? Could we be
at the Lakeland building, maybe? Inside the building, time-lapse photography
shows us the assembly of the stage. Graphic says "two weeks before tour
starts".
"I mean... people think 'okay, there's
a few people back there working the lights," JC says, "but there's a whole
slew of people back there going 'Pull the lever! Start the fire!'". He
says LEEV-er instead of LEV-er. He's all British now. It's cute. Joey says
the stage is like a puzzle and the crew has to rehearse, and I quote, "taking
the stage together and putting it apart." Joey, are you okay? Mentally?
Tim Miller says there are 51 people
travelling with them and 150 local people helping them out in each area.
JC talks about what the roadies do. Tim Miller introduces us to Anthony
Giordano, their stage manager. He's scary looking with tattoos and long
red hair and the whole bit. From there, there's a bunch of introductions
of the behind-the-scenes guys.
Chris talks about how *NSYNC has
lots of ideas as far as stage movements. "Things are gonna happen that
you're not even gonna expect," says Lance. In the crews' lunch room, Anthony
Giordano (stage manager who looks like he should be in Metallica) gives
the crew members an overview of the tour, including the comment that "the
guys are fun, they like to have fun, but when it comes to their show they're
all perfectionists." Fade out.
Lance shows up early where the crew
is doing stage assembly type stuff. He gives Anthony a hug and then walks
around checking out the stage. Lance says "WOW this is huge!" and greets
Troy Antunes (the bass player) with that weird guy thing where you sorta
shake hands and then hug with one arm. I will never understand that. Girls
don't do that. "Seeing the stage for the first time, it's amazing. It's
huge. Like... a third bigger than our last tour."
The rest of the guys are at Lakeland
now and JC is riding on a BMX bike. Lance says, "You work so hard, just
rehearsing you kinda forget how fun it's gonna be." I hate when people
use "you" instead of a first-person pronoun. I'll let it slide... but only
because it's Lance. Shot of Justin breakdancing. He's good. He could have
been in that Christina Aguilera video. Back to Lance: "We are gonna have
a BLAST." Shot of Lance with some sort of yellow goo on his face and Justin
running on one of the conveyor belts like it's a treadmill. "I gotta get
a good workout!" Justin says while running and then rolls off-camera.
This next sequence of shots is my favorite
in the video. Chris is lying down on the conveyor belt and Joey nearly
steps on him. Cut to interview shot, where Chris has picked some grass
from the yard and is holding it up to his chin like a beard. Cut to Chris,
stomach-down on the conveyor belt, making swimming motions. JC breakdances.
Chris in interview, trying out different positions in the chair: "Should
I sit like this?" Chris on the conveyor belts again, this time curled into
a little ball. Joey tries to jump over him going the opposite way, but
Chris looks up at the wrong second and gets a Fatone foot right to the
head. Back to the interview, where Chris is still trying to get comfortable
in the chair. "How about like this? How 'bout like this? Ah! I think I
pulled something! Doctor!" Hehe. I can't believe this guy is 29.
JC says "we're gonna try to throw some
crazy energy at the crowd so they can just forget about everything for
two hours." Ninety minutes, JC. Your show was 90 minutes.