Karl's Corner - 08/21/2008

08/21/08 Troubleshooting Troublemaker: No Trouble

...The Troublemaker video was shot today, and its sure to be one for the history books. Or at least the Guinness Book! Rather than go over the rather nutty details, the results of which you are soon to be watching anyway, lettuce just say that a TON of dedicated weezer fans came down to help out and they were awesome sports, working hard all day in a hot parking lot.

The video producers had expressed worry about the sheer number of fans being involved, expecting difficulty keeping things organized and people being cooperative. Of course we here in Weezerland know by now to expect greatness from weezer fans and we assured the production team not to worry. And sure enough, the fans were punctual, focused and hardworking, and everything ran like clockwork!

The band was really impressed with the dedication and hard work the fans showed. The word from the band included such direct quotes as "Thank god we have such great fans" and "Our fans are working harder on this video than we are!"

There was just one major mishap during the shoot, and yours truly was caught up in the mess! What happened was we had what we thought was an insider tip on how to access the roof of the Forum. Sensing a great opportunity to get some aerial footage of the video shoot far below, we followed the secret instructions and traversed the nearly empty corridors of the Forum till we got to the upper stands. Which is where the plan fell apart. A key door that was not supposed to be locked was locked, and worse, we had been spotted by none other than Janet Jackson's security and production team. It seems Janet and co. were rehearsing for their upcoming show down on the floor of the arena, and we werent quite stealthy enough to slip by their line of defenses! Worse yet, two of us had really nice video cameras on us, and so naturally we were taken for people trying to spy on Janet behind the scenes!

Things were not looking good. We explained (with a trumped up air of officialness) we were with the video shoot outside and were merely looking for a way to film from the roof, which only resulted in questions ranging from "what video shoot outside?" to "film what from the roof?" It was then that Dan the Man(ager) (who had gotten us into the mess) played his ace: he knew Janet's tour manager! We explained that he knew we were here and everything was cool. Of course it didnt help when the man finally came up to see what was going on, he said with a smile "Oh hi Dan... What are you doing here?" (insert forlorn 3 note trombone sound here...)

Well, after a bit more confusion everything was more or less kosher after that, and they even offered to escort us to the roof, but we unfortunately then learned that there was a rule about needing safety harnesses that we did not have access to. So the plan was finally kiboshed, after all.

Meanwhile down on the parking lot, the band was running thru the main "rocking out" scene, one of the last scenes to be shot in a very long and surreal day. By 7:30 PM, the sun was fading and the director yelled out "Thats a Wrap!"

THANK YOU a million times over to the great fans who were awesome all day. There wouldnt have been a video without you! Stay tuned for the video and some special supplemental treats coming your way!

...Weezer tribute band alert (reminder)
Multiple bands!
Weezer tribute / Benefit For Mountain People's Co-Op & Market
AUG. 27 * 9PM * $5 * 18 and up @ 123 PLEASANT ST., MORGANTOWN, WV
featuring: It's Birds, The Demon Beat, Purepleaser, Russian Tombstones, The Friendship Room, and Sarkeezer, "all paying tribute to one of the greatest bands in history".