I can tweet Joe McIntyre til my fingers go numb, but I get face-to-face with the man and all I can get out is a meek "I'm RocksicleLover". Ugh. So to get some closure on Tuesday night in Detroit when I said next to nothing on the bus, I want to say everything now.
Joe -
I have loved every hug, every touch, every smile, every word and every moment that you have ever shared with me. I'm incredibly thankful to have this second chance at meeting you and actually interacting with you. This past year, I have been blessed to have so many opportunities to see you and it has made me so happy! One smile or one tweet from you changes my outlook on an entire week! Just the fact that you've taken even a second's notice of this dull girl from Michigan fills my heart with delight! And its not just me! I see you share your love with so many people and see the joy you put on their faces as well. Thank you for all you do.
And I can't thank you enough for following me! It is such a simple thing for you to do, and yet it has meant the world to me. I never in a million years would have thought that Joe McIntyre would CHOOSE to get updates on my mundane life! Wow! I'm truly shocked. I hope to keep you entertained and following for as long as possible. I would hate to ever lose my favorite follower.
I love you. You are one of my favorite people in this world.
- Heather (aka @RocksicleLover)
PS - I had such a cool book for Griffin & Rhys and I FORGOT to give it to you while I was on the bus! It was a cool book about Sparty (the Michigan State University mascot) traveling around Michigan seeing all that this state has to offer. I'm so bummed I didn't give it to you! Hopefully I can give it to you next time I see you. :)
PPS - One day, I have to hear you say the words "Let's get this, Heather." Ok?
PPPS - Are the video peeps ever going to get the cast and crew photo? And is there any way for us to get a DVD copy of the video? It was such an amazing day. We want as many mementos as possible. Hope you enjoy your t-shirt from us! It was @simplyshannon's idea!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Here We Go Again... THE VIDEO!
On Saturday, October 17, 2009, at around 7:30pm, I got on Twitter to check what was going on (something I do far too often). Shortly after I logged in, Joey McIntyre started tweeting about a contest to be in his new video! He had eluded to the contest earlier in the week and had said it would be a good contest for those living near LA. But I didn't care where I lived! I wanted in this video! I watched Twitter intently to find out how we could enter to win. Joe said he would be picking the first 30 people who emailed him to be in his video! He drew out the announcement of the email address. So in that time, I drafted up an email telling him I'd LOVE to win! I also managed to work up quiet a sweat during the wait! I was so nervous! My daughter also tried getting my attention during that time, but I needed to focus! I asked my husband to take care of her since I was "busy". He wasn't too happy about that, but then again, I think he's getting used to this stuff. lol! Everything was all set in my email. All I needed now was the address. Finally, Joe announced to email the Let's Get This Foundation address! I knew it was in my contacts so I hurried up and typed "le" into the "TO" of my email and it popped up. I hit "Send" and began shaking terribly! I went back to Twitter and told everyone my email was sent. I seemed to be one of the first people to report that, so I was hopeful! We HOPED Joe would announce all of the winners right away but were unsure. He did announce that the video was going to be filmed in Burbank, California on Wednesday (in 4 days). I remember responding that that was NO PROBLEM for me! I'd go anywhere, anytime!!! Finally Joe asked if we wanted to hear the first 10 people! OF COURSE! He started posting the full names of the people who had won. I was so nervous, jealous, excited and a little concerned my husband would kill me for sitting at my computer for so long. I refreshed over and over and saw "#9 Elizabeth White". He had said he would only announce 10, so there was only one more. I refreshed and saw "#10 Heather Slawinski". WHAT??? I stood up suddenly and said "OH MY GOD! ITS ME!" My outburst scared my daughter and husband so I had to calm down a little bit. I couldn't believe it! I had to go back and check the screen several times. Did he just say I won? OMG! Really? What? OMG! Seriously? OMG OMG OMG! I was dying! Then, I started to really think about it... I have to fly to California in 4 days? Can I afford that? I realized I had to take time off of work, book a flight, book a hotel and make sure my daughter was going to be taken care of while I was gone. My husband was going to be starting a new job in a town 45 minutes away from our home so he was VERY concerned about me not being around to help drop off and pick up our kid from day care.
I was still so excited. I finally posted something on Twitter about how stunned I was and I called my NKOTBFF Renee. We freaked out together! She knew how amazing this was for me! So glad I could share that with her! She also told me that someone else she followed won and that I should hook up with the other girl.
I went back to Twitter and Joe told us that his producer would be contacting us shortly with details about the video. I decided to wait until I got the email to book anything. I finally got the email from John Davis of Base Productions which asked for our phone number and said someone would be calling us with more details about the shoot on Monday. It also said we should plan on being at the video shoot from 8-6:30pm! A full day with Joe Mac!?!?! WOW! They also told us we could bring cameras for when we weren't on set.
I booked a flight for Tuesday that wasn't cheap, but wasn't too outrageous either. I also talked to Renee's friend @swear_face (aka Lia) and we decided to room together at a hotel in Burbank. Now all we needed was details about what clothes to bring and how we should look.
Monday morning on my way to work, I was blasting "Popsicle" in the car. I ended up screaming three times at the top of my lungs and just about hyperventilated in the car! I was so excited! Later in the day, I got a call from a very nice girl named Teryn who gave me all the details about how to dress and look and what to expect. She told me to plan on being there from 8am-8pm. 12 HOURS!?!?! OMG! 12 HOURS with Joe Mac was gonna be heaven!!! She told me the video would be an underground fight club. She said I should dress "more tough than sexy". She suggested tank tops, combat boots, dog tags, skinny jeans, tight tees, leather. Simple hair and makeup. I asked if I should wear all black, she said no. She also said NO WHITE. Ok... so I have NONE of this stuff! Not only did I have to pay for the trip, but I realized I was going to have to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe! I went shopping on Monday. I was with my daughter so I couldn't try anything on, but I kept calling Renee and asking her opinion on stuff. That was the hardest shopping trip ever! I thought about telling the salesgirls what I was shopping for so they could help, but I was too embarrassed! I was a 34 year old mom shopping at Forever 21 for clothes for a music video? Seriously? I bought a ton of stuff and kept the receipts. My fave purchase was a pair of shoes that were basically high top sneakers similar to All-Stars.
Tuesday I drove to Detroit and got on my flight freaking out. Was I really doing this? I was flying to Burbank, California to be in Joey McIntyre's music video? Seriously? It seemed like a dream! And it had all happened so fast so there was no time for anything to sink in! I was wearing a NKOTB shirt at the airport and the security lady asked me about it. She asked if I went to the concert. I told her I had attended several concerts over the summer and I was now on my way to be in a video with one of them, and I pointed to Joe. She told me that was really cool and asked me how the concerts were. I told her they were great (didn't she realize I would say that since I was flying to California to be in one of their videos???? lol!) On the flight, I realized I couldn't listen to any Joe songs on my iPod! It made me WAY too nervous!
I got to Burbank finally with my huge carry on of luggage. I got my rental car and checked into the hotel which was a little shady but it was so close to the studio! I decided to get all of my last minute stuff at a nearby Target and I talked to Renee on the phone the entire time I was there! So excited! I knew I wanted to get Joe a gift and she suggested I get hair products for his ROCKSICLE (my name on Twitter is RocksicleLover). I found some stuff called "Big Sexy Hair" and Renee told me it was perfect. I bought some MORE clothes just in case and headed back to the hotel. That night, @MSUAmy1 picked me up (she lives in LA) and we went out to dinner. I was in such a daze from being so excited that I know I was kinda weird there, but I'm sure she understands. She also drove me around LA a bit so I could see some sights, but it was dark so I definitely didn't get the whole gist of everything.
I headed back to the hotel and found out a bunch of video girls were in the lobby. We all introduced ourselves and I finally met my roomie! I was so tired out that I made a quick exit and went back to the room to go to bed. We were so excited but I HAD to sleep. I had to look good for Joe! I was gonna spend ALL DAY with him tomorrow!
I woke up at 4am on Wednesday morning. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, Lia surprised me by starting to talk to me. Apparently she couldn't sleep either! LOL! We decided to start getting ready so we could meet our video mates in the lobby at 7am. I laid out all of my clothes and still didn't know what to wear. I decided on a hoodie and black jeans with high tops. I packed the rest of my things in a bag. We were supposed to have a total of 3 outfits and I had plenty to choose from. Lia selected her clothes as well and packed extras. Then we headed downstairs.
We rode to the studio with @cdnfan75 (Michele) and @marliimarl (Marlene) and we
were all so excited! The girls were impressed to see the mountains in the background of Burbank! Everyone had arrived so late they hadn't even seen them the night before! We arrived at the studio, pulling in right behind @wizbiff (Elizabeth), @guingirly (Jenn), @nkotbwxgrl (Tania)............. We took some pics near the cars then headed to the building. When we finally found the entrance at the side of the building, the guys were still setting up the check-in tables. They told us we would be able to come in at 8am. We stood around and tweeted/chatted. Soon, 4 of the 5 members of Varsity Fan Club arrived too. They let us in after signing release forms and getting our pics taken with the forms and #s (I was 007! lol!). We got in and were told to head to the wardrobe room. Lia, Marlene and I were the first. We had to go in and pull out all of the clothes we brought and lay them out. The wardrobe girl (who was only 20 years old!) would review our clothes and suggest what we should try. Then we'd try on the clothes and see if they liked the look. I pulled out my clothes and she pointed at the plaid shirt and asked me to try wearing that. It worked. She didn't want me to wear my leggings that I brought because they didn't want anything too tight. Lia was told to change her shirt too. Marlene had super sexy shirt on. they told her she needed to change but had trouble with her clothes because they were 'too chic'! The girl even said "those are cool, did you get them at Urban Outfitters?" Little did she know Marlene was from the UK! Marlene ended up in all black and was also given Lia's vest to wear. There was a LOT of sharing in the wardrobe department!
We went out to the main waiting area and were offered kraft services which included Starbucks coffee. YUM! There were also bagels, cereal bars, trail mix, crackers, water, pop.... lots of snacks. I was so nervous I couldn't sit down or eat. I just stood around trying to scope out Joe! We didn't know if he was there or not. Drew Ryan Scott of Varsity Fan club was there though. I asked him if he was upset that he was there and Joe was not. He laughed and said "Yeah! Yeah I am!" I introduced myself to him and the rest of the guys. Bobby was missing (he came later). We continued to stand around a while. More extras arrived including winners, actresses and actors. The actors were great looking guys! And you could tell they were dressed like boxers/fighters. NICE arms too! :) There were a few extra girls too who were actresses. We also met the lead actress, named October. She asked us where we were from and was very excited about how we had all gotten there. She said she had
managed a few bands and traveled with them and though our passion was so cool. She was very nice, especially considering she looked so tough! As people continued to arrive, they were taken back to wardrobe. While we waited we chatted and took pictures. Lia and I got a picture with Varsity Fan Club. While we were sitting around, Marlene said she could hear Joe's song. I didn't know how she knew, but then she said that the release forms we signed had the song title "Here We Go Again". She could hear that line being played and I agreed it sounded kinda like Joe's voice. But it was so different! Such an upbeat dance type of song! I was so impressed! I loved what we could hear!
More waiting. Eventually, while we were standing there, Joe made a mini-appearance in the distance by the bathrooms. I as so excited I reached down to grab Lia and ended up grabbing her chest. She said "Why are you grabbing my boob?" Then she saw him. I think he was in a tank top at that point. But he might have had a leather jacket over it too. I was so excited I barely remember!
Soon after that, a guy named Ferris started yelling at us to listen up. The producer, John Davis, started giving a quick run down of logistics and safety. Joe came out during the speech and stood off to the side in the leather jacket. We all started taking pictures, of course. After Ferris and John were done talking, Joe spoke up and thanked everyone for being there. He specifically thanked the "Twitter Girls". He explained there had been a contest and there were 30 or so girls who were there who had won. He made a joke that was something like "I can't believe they are here" from so many places and how he could just hear our hubby's responses to the win in our homes "Sure honey, we need the miles on our card!" But he was still thankful we came. He also said that we may leave the set and say "Oh my God, I am never doing that again. I'm going back to my real job." LOL!
On to the nitty gritty. John explained that we were doing a video set in a fight club. He explained there would be three fights, one with Joe. We were going to be the people in the crowd and would be cheering on the fights. He explained EVERYONE would be in the video at some point. He also said there was gonna be a big fun melee where everyone would fight each other. Joe interrupted and said "Well, not EVERYONE is gonna be int he melee." We figured he meant us.
After the meeting, Joe disappeared and they asked all of the guys to go over to the set. The girls anxiously waited. Ferris started coming over and grabbing girls and taking them to the set (which we couldn't' see at all from where we were). Lia and I were included in the last group that went over to the set. We were told that we would be people walking around the fight club who were done with their betting for the day and weren't watching the fight. We were just doing our own thing. There were couches and chairs that we could sit in or we could walk.
The first scene we filmed was a fight between two big guys. One shirtless with tattoos, the other had a shirt on. Both very intimidating. There was also a referee who was in the ring with them (later found out his name was John Heckleman), and October was up there too. The extras who had been called in earlier were in a circle around the area where the guys were fighting. The VFC boys were in the circle too. The crowd needed to cheer on the fight as if they were invested in the fight and had money on it. Super excited. Since I was in the background, I started by just sitting in a chair chatting with Michele and looking over at the fight once in a while. We did several takes. Ferris would yell "Action" and everyone would start cheering and the fighters would fight. There was no music on or anything. It was just the fight at this point. Not sure what brought my attention to him, bit I looked over and saw that Joe was over to my right side. He was reviewing the file to make sure they had the takes they needed. He was wearing jeans, a tank top and the leather jacket/shirt thing. He also had faded blue boots on.
We did a few takes of the cheering and me just sitting in the back. I also got up and walked back and forth a couple of times. At one point, filming stopped and we were just standing around. I looked to my right and up walks Joe McIntyre! I looked at him and smiled and said hi. He smiled back, said hi and then stopped just past me on my left. Then I noticed he had a guy with a camera and a girl with a note pad with him. They were interviewing him! I heard later it
was E! News. There was also another hand held camera behind me filming more stuff (maybe behind the scenes footage?). Almost as soon as they stopped walking, the interview started. I couldn't really hear the woman, but I could hear Joe. He went through the typical chatter explaining the video and that it was a fight club scene. They talked about how he had gotten in the 'best shape of his life' to do this video and he joked that he was no where near looking as buff as the other guys in the video. I think the girl asked Joe about the state of the union of the New Kids. He said "The state of the union of New Kids on the Block is strong!" He said more was to come and it would be exciting. He made it sound like NKOTB might have something coming out in a year or so. The girl asked about his CD. He said "I don't think this will be my last CD, but it feels like this is THE ONE." He said he "just rocked out" for this CD. I took some pics during the interview on my cell phone. When he finished with the video, he walked over to Elizabeth (wizbiff) and talked to her for a little bit. The handheld camera went with him and videoed him talking to her. When he was done, he went over to Marlene (marliimarl) and chatted with her about her comfy shoes. Also talking about how she came from the UK, I'm sure!
Once he was
done with the interview, I think that was when he came over and had some still shots taken by the professional photographer against the wall nearest me on the right. The shots looked great from what I could tell! The photographer showed Joe one of the photos on his camera and told him it was very "James Dean". The pictures are now out and are of him standing in front of the window w/o the 'cut' on his cheek. I'm standing right next to them in that pic!!!! Standing in the back of the first scene was obviously extremely beneficial at times! LOL!!! That photographer was also there ALL DAY LONG so I would think he's gonna have many more amazing shots later.
Once Joe was done with all of that, we did a scene in which Joe walked through the crowd watching the fight and singing his song. This was going to be our first time officially hearing the song!!!! I was still wandering around in the back, so I wasn't really near the action. From what I hear, that might have been better! The people in the crowd had to IGNORE him! ACK! At least I got to get a glimpse while walking by! The music started playing and it sounded great! Here We Go Again is gonna be a great song and hopefully will be well received by EVERYONE! Its upbeat and catchy! The male extras were whistling the song all night long! We ALL loved it! This song is so much different than anything else Joe has ever done! And its a very successful change! REALLY! While Joe walked through the crowd, he was signing one of the lines. From what I could hear, he wasn't really singing, he was just lipsynching. He would look intensely at the fight and would react to 'big hits' while the people around him just continued to cheer.
With all of my walking around, I ended up on the opposite side a few times where Drew Ryan Scott and David from VFC were. At one point the director yelled CUT, the scene stopped, and David was still yelling "He looks pregnant!" It was VERY funny! Drew explained to me that they were trying to come up with the most off-the-wall comments to yell during the scene. Another time I was sitting down resting between takes and Drew turned around, made a face at me, and asked "Are you comfy?" I said "Yeah" then asked him if he actually did any singing on this track. He turned to the guy next to him and said "Hmm, I don't know... did I?". The guy said "I don't think so" and Drew said he hadn't, but he had helped to write it. He also said the guy next to him had written and produced it. The guy next to him then introduced himself as Brent (@prentpaschke). I complimented them on what a great song it seemed to be and told them I couldn't wait to hear the rest. Brent said the whole album was great and Drew agreed. I told Brent I thought this songcould be really mainstream, especially if they could play the song THEN tell people who it was. Brent said he had given teh song to a guy at a radio station. The guy heard the song, turned to him and said "WHO is this?" Brent answered "Joey" and the guy was surprised but said how great the song was. Again, see how cool everyone on set was???? :)
I went to the other side later and someone announced they were going to be doing a different scene. There was this funny, talkative guy next to Elizabeth who turned around and told me to squeeze into the circle so I didn't have to keep walking around. I did and they then explained the scene they were going to do was when Joe stopped walking when the first fight ended. The referee then asks who is next to fight and Joe nods his head and enters the ring. I was standing next to this talkative guy who was right behind the ref. In the video, you see Elizabeth and him but not me. It was a great spot though! We had to continue cheering the previous fighter, but when the ref sees Joe and says he's next, we get to look RIGHT AT JOE and cheer! How easy is that? YAY! Joe looked so tough. He gets in the ring then takes off his leather jacket and hands it to October. HOT! Then the scene ended. We did a few takes of the scene. Then they called for lunch. Before I went to lunch, I saw Dave Harris (@retrorewind) and Larry (@retrolarry). I said hi and introduced myself and asked if they were going to be coming back from lunch and sticking around for a while. Dave said yes, they were going to be here the rest of the day, so I said I'd talke to them later.
At lunch, I was standing line and this big black guy walks up and smiles and asks me if I'm a boxer. I laughed and said "Heck no, I'm just an extra." Then I asked him if he was a boxer. He said yes. I asked him waht he was going to be doing and he said he didn't know but was just told to be there for shooting. While in line for food, I ended up calling Renee. I told her how crazy this all was and while we were talking, Joe came up and cut in front of Elizabeth (who was on the phone with ktsummer), took some salad, and walked away again. SO CUTE! The big guy next to me just slaughed at me as I got all giddy.
Lunch was ceasar salad, homemade mac & cheese, BBQ chicken, rolls and brownies for dessert. Unfortunately I'm an idiot and when I was by the chicken, I coughed. How embarrassing. I announced I wasn't sick, bu tthat's still gross. UGH. Thank god Joe wasn't there! I liked eating the ceasar asald and at some mac & cheese and the roll, but I just couldn't eat the chicken (and not cuz I coughed on it). I think it was all of the nerves.
Sometime after lunch, I had to run to the bathroom to wash my hands. The black pants that I was wearing were new and had never been washed. The black dye was getting all over my hands and turning them black! When I came back out of the bathroom, Joe was standing just outside the hallway in his tank top finishing up a convo with someone else. The other person walked away and Joe looked over as I stared at him. I sheepishly said "Hi" and he said "Hi" and walked over. He said "What's your name?" and I said "Heather". We might have shook hands at that pointlll then I said "I'm RocksicleLover on Twitter." He looked at me and said "AWWWWWWW!" and held out his arms and gave me a big hug! My mind then went haywire and I said stupid things like "I have a pic that you tweeted me that I want you to sign later." He said "Oh yeah, I'll do that later." There seemed to be some other mumbling and I said thanks and went on my way.
When we returned after lunch, we were told to go to the same spots we were in previously. I was bummed because they HAD said they were going to move us around, but I was hopeful. While I was standing in the back, Dave Harris and Retro Larry were behind us getting ready to take pics and film some of the video shoot. I went over and we had a chat with them for a little bit. Dave ran away and said he'd be back. While he was gone, John/Ferris come over and moved me to the other side of the circle in the second row of the circle. I'm sure I was stuck in the back because of my height, but at least I was officially in the circle now! Excited!
When the scene started, I realized I was right behind Joe so the camera was pointed right in my direction. Also, I WAS CLOSE TO JOE! :) The next scen was HIS fight scene. They didn't start filming right away. They decided to rn through the scene as a practice. Another guy, named Salar, camer through the crowd to fight Joe. Joe again takes off his jacket and his wearing a wife beater, jeans and boots. They start fighting. In the beginning, the fight seems to be fairly even, but then Salar starts winning. He throws Joe to the floor and is holding the tank top as he falls so that it comes off! SHIRTLESS JOE!!! Can anyone say 6-PACK??? But I must admit, he is still pretty skinny! When the shirt came off, the tone of our cheering changed! I think it w
ent from a tough "YEAH, GET HIM!" to a "OH YEAH! LET'S GET THIS!" lol! At least the cheering was encouraged so we could kinda blend in! So, Joe gets up and as he gets up he rubs his hands over his body and smirks. WHAT? EVIL!!! Sexiest thing ever! He continues fighting with Salar, still seeming to be losing. Then I think the director came in and stopped the fight and they decided to go through the fight more closely and focus on details. It took a while. Many of us ended up sitting down and watching. I actually took out my camera and started taking some pictures w/o my flash. They eventually told me to stop, but I got some good photos.
As they continued practicing the scene, Joe would get his shirt pulled off and then would have to put it back on. He started noticing that there was a bubble-type area on his shirt where Salar had pulled on his shirt. And he only had 3 tank tops! He tried all three on at one point trying to determine which one looked best. He turned around and said something like, "This doesn't look sexy, does it?" Umm... Joe? EVERYTHING looks sexy on you! LOL! They basically just pushed the shirt around and it looked ok.
Another fun thing about the fight scenes? Let's just say, when a guy is skinny and has his shirt off and moves around a lot, you tend to see his underwear. :D (and yes, he was wearing underwear. Guess he thought commando wasn't a good idea for the video.) AND, it was AWESOME when we'd be standing around waiting for our next instructions and we'd hear the director say "Joe! Take off your shirt!" I'd then grip on to the guy standing next to me so that I didn't faint. ;)
I was kind of the idiot on the set. There really weren't many Joe girls there, and the ones that were Joe girls weren't standing anywhere near me. So all day, I was making 'inappropriate' comments all over the place about licking him, massaging him, rubbing him, etc and everyone around me thought I was crazy! LOL! The male extras around me were getting a kick out of my reactions. They'd give me a sideways glance whenever I would moan or say "Good Lord" after a particularly nice moment. It didn't help that the guy I stood next to the majority of the time was Joe's personal trainer! He laughed a LOT! I probably should have thanked him more than I did for Joe's GREAT BODY!
So, the day went on. We cheered and Joe and Salar would fight. It was harder work than you'd ever imagine. Yes, Joe was in the room. YES, he was shirtless a LOT. But we had a job. We had to cheer and cheer and cheer. We had to react to hits/kicks as they occurred. If we didn't, we had to do the scene again. It was exhausting. On top of all of the physcial work, it was about 80 degrees outside. INSIDE, it was about 300 degrees. The movement plus the lights plus the fact that they had no ventilation due to the smoke machine equalled an incredibly hot room. I was sweating a lot. I was lucky in comparison to others though. I only had jeans and a tank top with a button up shirt over it. Other people had sweatshirts and hats on! Every now and then, if I could tell there was going to be a break between takes, I would RUN to go get a bottle of water and would bring it in the room and hide it behind one of the couches. Amazingly, there were fleeting moments that I actually wished we'd just finish up the day already. Then I'd see Joe and quickly change my mind. I was fine right where I was! :)
There were times we'd take a break, or Joe would have to review some footage in a different area, and he would walk past me. Whenever he walked by, he would look right at you and smile a HUGE sexy grin and say "hi" in his awesome raspy voice. And sometimes he would wink! AHHH!
At one point, there was a scene that was supposed to be a huge melee. After Joe's fight, he was going to jump up on Ferris in excitement. Ferris would throw him off into someone else and a group brawl would ensue with everyone in the room involved. The trainer went around the room and coached us on how we should fight with each other. I joined up with Regina and Elizabeth for a three-way fight. The first take was crazy and was very funny. After they said cut, the director said "That was pretty good, but there was a LOT of laughing. No laughing!" This was harder than he thought! LOL! We eventually got it down to minimal laughing. Then they told October to stand on a table and yell STOP. At that point, we were supposed to all stop fighting. On the first take, she got up, yelled "STOP" and we all froze and were silent. Joe said "She said STOP not FREEZE!" and the entire room broke into laughter.
Another time all of the extras were put into a semi-circle. Joe explained we were going to sing his lyrics. In the song he said "La La La Love Hey Hey Hey Hate" We were to sing along. He told us to just look at him. Uh..... no problem. As we did it, we all started pumping our fists. He commented that that seemed to work so to just go with it. There was another part where the song says "Hey Hey Hey Yeah Yeah Yeah" and we were to do the same thing. It was fun singing to Joe! :)
As the hours went on, we were all tired. Including Joe. Sometimes to wake himself back up, Joe would make noises, or better yet, moan. During more difficult scenes, he would say "Let's Get This!" in this deep and kinda silly voice. It was HOT! At the very end, Joe was so tired he was yawning on set. But he was a trooper and kept up the energy during filming.
Finally, they called it a day. They thanked the extras and we took a huge cast and crew photo with Joe. Joe told us that he needed to finish up some last scenes and would be over to talk to us soon.
We headed out to the waiting area and started getting ready to see Joe. I ran to the bathroom and changed my stinky shirt and tried to freshen up. Yeah... kinda hard. But I did my best. I went out and put on some makeup and was ready to go. I had my Twitpic for him to sign and my camera was ready. While I was waiting, I also got my pic with Dave Harris who seemed to be waiting around to see Joe like we were! We were talking to some of the extras and all of a sudden heard Joe say "HEY" from behind us! We all turned around and saw him standing there with a piece of pizza in his hand. He hand changed into a black t-shirt and he had a cut on his cheek. I couldn't help but yell "What happened to your cheek?" He responded that it was just make-up and asked the make-up lady to take it off. He then said that we should all stay where we were and he would come around and say hi and take pics with all of us. I had two thank you cards that I had bought - one for Joe and one for Barrett/Griffin. In the one for Griffin, I included some Halloween stickers for him since seriously, what is a 2 year old going to do with a card? I wanted to make sure to give those to him while everyone could see his reaction, so I ran up and gave it to him just after he said he was coming around to each of us. He made a smart ass comment "Except for you" and I handed over the cards and breifly told him what they were. He smelled like pizza! He smiled big at the one for Barrett and Griffin and I ran off.
He made his rounds and FINALLY made it over to me. Honestly, I have forgotten some of this interaction because I was so tired and so excited. I gave him a hug and for some reason FORGOT that I was gonna get a pic with him. He said "Who's gonna take this?" I said "Oh, yeah" and he said "You're killing me here" as I grabbed my camera and handed it off to the first hand offering which was Jen. Joe put his arm around me and we posed and Jen said "Its all zoomed in." Oh crap. I apologized again and told him to sign my pic in the meantime. He signed my pic AND Jen's while I fixed the camera and handed it back to Jen. Luckily, he still smiled when the real pic was taken. He continued on his way saying hi to everyone.
Then someone asked about us hearing the entire song. Throughout all of the shooting, we never heard the song the entire way through and Joe had promised. He said "Hold on" and he ran off. At that moment, I realized I had totally forgotten to give him the BIG SEXY HAIR gift! I grabbed it and went towards where he was. He came back and told us to come with him. I was right there ready! I walked back to the screening room with him and girls were telling me to ask about a group picture. I said "Joe, they want me to ask you for a group picture." He said "But we just took a huge cast and crew photo! You'll get that one." I said "Yeah, but we want one with just us and you." He said "Nah, cuz then people will be upset if they aren't in it" I just said "Ok, ok". We got into the screening room and I went to him and said "I forgot to give this to you earlier. Its a silly gift. 'For the Rocksicle, From RocksicleLover" He kinda laughed and said "Aww, thank you!" and I ran off and found a seat up high.
Joe and John explained they were going to show us the partial video for Here We Go Again, but the whole song would be played. We waited and watched. INCREDIBLY AWESOME shots started showing up on the screen! I was jumping up and down in my seat!
HE WAS SO HOT! The crazy thing was, the MAN WAS IN THE ROOM and I was STILL screaming at the screen! The song was amazing! We were cheering so loudly! Hootin'! Hollerin'! We loved it! And Joe loved our reaction. He stood back and watched and smiled as he tapped the BIG SEXY HAIR nervously against his leg and hand. After it was done, we cheered and asked to see it again. They played it again! It was great! Then someone asked Joe for a group photo again. He eventually caved and we all jumped all over the chairs to get in the photo as John and Joe cringed as we almost ruined the chairs! After the photo was taken, we all started leaving a
nd Joe stood around and gave another round of hugs. He told us the video would be out within 30 days. We told him how much we loved the entire day and the song and we were on our way. As we were leaving, Joe was taping a bit with Dave Harris for RetroRewind.
My only bad experience of this trip happened next. We were starving. It was 10:30 PST (1:30am EST). We headed to Panda Express to get some chinese food. We ate and went back to the hotel. I wanted to charge my phone but I couldn't find my charger anywhere. I went to bed. In the morning as I was laying in bed, I suddenly shot up. SHIT! I left my purse at Panda Express! FUCK! Lia helped me figure out their phone number so I could call when they opened. We both had early flights so we really just had time to pack and head to the airport. I drove us to the airport and when we pulled in, I had another HORRIBLE realization. My engagement/wedding rings were in my purse. I had taken my rings off for a million reasons. We were asked to not wear shiny items; my pants were bleeding black onto everything they touched; I was scared I'd hurt someone with the rings during our fights; our purses were being guraded at the video shoot. All I could do was cry. Lia swore to help me get a hold of Marlene who was staying in LA for a little while so she could go back to Panda Express and get the purse if they had it. I called my hubby and he was not happy. I didn't blame him. In the end, Panda Express never found the purse. I never got my rings back. We will be filing an insurance claim for the $ and have discussed maybe getting me a cheap ring and sending my hubby to Vegas. For all he's put up with, he deserves it!
The video has now come out and I am definitely not a star. But with the help of my Video Mates, I can see myself in a few scenes! Retro Larry is about to release a behind the scenes video of the day and I've already seen clips that I am in! YAY!
Since the video, Joe has started following me and a few other video girls on Twitter. The goal is that he follows all of us! :) He also thanked us a week after the shoot, for the cards and he specifically mentioned the Halloween stickers. Made me happy. Just this past week, Joe had some solo shows in the Midwest. For the Chicago show, there were 4 video mates there together - Shannon, Regina, Jen and me. We had matching shirts and Shannon made Joe one too. She was able to give it to him during the show. It was awesome!
The video was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. I cannot thank Joe enough for allowing fans to be a part of that day! And meeting those other girls was amazing! We shared an amazing experience and I'm so glad THOSE were the girls I got to share it with! They were so awesome! The experience is one that can never be matched! I don't even have the words to describe how amazing it all was. Thank you Joe. Thank you.
I went back to Twitter and Joe told us that his producer would be contacting us shortly with details about the video. I decided to wait until I got the email to book anything. I finally got the email from John Davis of Base Productions which asked for our phone number and said someone would be calling us with more details about the shoot on Monday. It also said we should plan on being at the video shoot from 8-6:30pm! A full day with Joe Mac!?!?! WOW! They also told us we could bring cameras for when we weren't on set.
I booked a flight for Tuesday that wasn't cheap, but wasn't too outrageous either. I also talked to Renee's friend @swear_face (aka Lia) and we decided to room together at a hotel in Burbank. Now all we needed was details about what clothes to bring and how we should look.
Monday morning on my way to work, I was blasting "Popsicle" in the car. I ended up screaming three times at the top of my lungs and just about hyperventilated in the car! I was so excited! Later in the day, I got a call from a very nice girl named Teryn who gave me all the details about how to dress and look and what to expect. She told me to plan on being there from 8am-8pm. 12 HOURS!?!?! OMG! 12 HOURS with Joe Mac was gonna be heaven!!! She told me the video would be an underground fight club. She said I should dress "more tough than sexy". She suggested tank tops, combat boots, dog tags, skinny jeans, tight tees, leather. Simple hair and makeup. I asked if I should wear all black, she said no. She also said NO WHITE. Ok... so I have NONE of this stuff! Not only did I have to pay for the trip, but I realized I was going to have to go shopping for a whole new wardrobe! I went shopping on Monday. I was with my daughter so I couldn't try anything on, but I kept calling Renee and asking her opinion on stuff. That was the hardest shopping trip ever! I thought about telling the salesgirls what I was shopping for so they could help, but I was too embarrassed! I was a 34 year old mom shopping at Forever 21 for clothes for a music video? Seriously? I bought a ton of stuff and kept the receipts. My fave purchase was a pair of shoes that were basically high top sneakers similar to All-Stars.
Tuesday I drove to Detroit and got on my flight freaking out. Was I really doing this? I was flying to Burbank, California to be in Joey McIntyre's music video? Seriously? It seemed like a dream! And it had all happened so fast so there was no time for anything to sink in! I was wearing a NKOTB shirt at the airport and the security lady asked me about it. She asked if I went to the concert. I told her I had attended several concerts over the summer and I was now on my way to be in a video with one of them, and I pointed to Joe. She told me that was really cool and asked me how the concerts were. I told her they were great (didn't she realize I would say that since I was flying to California to be in one of their videos???? lol!) On the flight, I realized I couldn't listen to any Joe songs on my iPod! It made me WAY too nervous!
I got to Burbank finally with my huge carry on of luggage. I got my rental car and checked into the hotel which was a little shady but it was so close to the studio! I decided to get all of my last minute stuff at a nearby Target and I talked to Renee on the phone the entire time I was there! So excited! I knew I wanted to get Joe a gift and she suggested I get hair products for his ROCKSICLE (my name on Twitter is RocksicleLover). I found some stuff called "Big Sexy Hair" and Renee told me it was perfect. I bought some MORE clothes just in case and headed back to the hotel. That night, @MSUAmy1 picked me up (she lives in LA) and we went out to dinner. I was in such a daze from being so excited that I know I was kinda weird there, but I'm sure she understands. She also drove me around LA a bit so I could see some sights, but it was dark so I definitely didn't get the whole gist of everything.
I headed back to the hotel and found out a bunch of video girls were in the lobby. We all introduced ourselves and I finally met my roomie! I was so tired out that I made a quick exit and went back to the room to go to bed. We were so excited but I HAD to sleep. I had to look good for Joe! I was gonna spend ALL DAY with him tomorrow!
I woke up at 4am on Wednesday morning. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, Lia surprised me by starting to talk to me. Apparently she couldn't sleep either! LOL! We decided to start getting ready so we could meet our video mates in the lobby at 7am. I laid out all of my clothes and still didn't know what to wear. I decided on a hoodie and black jeans with high tops. I packed the rest of my things in a bag. We were supposed to have a total of 3 outfits and I had plenty to choose from. Lia selected her clothes as well and packed extras. Then we headed downstairs.
We rode to the studio with @cdnfan75 (Michele) and @marliimarl (Marlene) and we
were all so excited! The girls were impressed to see the mountains in the background of Burbank! Everyone had arrived so late they hadn't even seen them the night before! We arrived at the studio, pulling in right behind @wizbiff (Elizabeth), @guingirly (Jenn), @nkotbwxgrl (Tania)............. We took some pics near the cars then headed to the building. When we finally found the entrance at the side of the building, the guys were still setting up the check-in tables. They told us we would be able to come in at 8am. We stood around and tweeted/chatted. Soon, 4 of the 5 members of Varsity Fan Club arrived too. They let us in after signing release forms and getting our pics taken with the forms and #s (I was 007! lol!). We got in and were told to head to the wardrobe room. Lia, Marlene and I were the first. We had to go in and pull out all of the clothes we brought and lay them out. The wardrobe girl (who was only 20 years old!) would review our clothes and suggest what we should try. Then we'd try on the clothes and see if they liked the look. I pulled out my clothes and she pointed at the plaid shirt and asked me to try wearing that. It worked. She didn't want me to wear my leggings that I brought because they didn't want anything too tight. Lia was told to change her shirt too. Marlene had super sexy shirt on. they told her she needed to change but had trouble with her clothes because they were 'too chic'! The girl even said "those are cool, did you get them at Urban Outfitters?" Little did she know Marlene was from the UK! Marlene ended up in all black and was also given Lia's vest to wear. There was a LOT of sharing in the wardrobe department!We went out to the main waiting area and were offered kraft services which included Starbucks coffee. YUM! There were also bagels, cereal bars, trail mix, crackers, water, pop.... lots of snacks. I was so nervous I couldn't sit down or eat. I just stood around trying to scope out Joe! We didn't know if he was there or not. Drew Ryan Scott of Varsity Fan club was there though. I asked him if he was upset that he was there and Joe was not. He laughed and said "Yeah! Yeah I am!" I introduced myself to him and the rest of the guys. Bobby was missing (he came later). We continued to stand around a while. More extras arrived including winners, actresses and actors. The actors were great looking guys! And you could tell they were dressed like boxers/fighters. NICE arms too! :) There were a few extra girls too who were actresses. We also met the lead actress, named October. She asked us where we were from and was very excited about how we had all gotten there. She said she had
managed a few bands and traveled with them and though our passion was so cool. She was very nice, especially considering she looked so tough! As people continued to arrive, they were taken back to wardrobe. While we waited we chatted and took pictures. Lia and I got a picture with Varsity Fan Club. While we were sitting around, Marlene said she could hear Joe's song. I didn't know how she knew, but then she said that the release forms we signed had the song title "Here We Go Again". She could hear that line being played and I agreed it sounded kinda like Joe's voice. But it was so different! Such an upbeat dance type of song! I was so impressed! I loved what we could hear!More waiting. Eventually, while we were standing there, Joe made a mini-appearance in the distance by the bathrooms. I as so excited I reached down to grab Lia and ended up grabbing her chest. She said "Why are you grabbing my boob?" Then she saw him. I think he was in a tank top at that point. But he might have had a leather jacket over it too. I was so excited I barely remember!
Soon after that, a guy named Ferris started yelling at us to listen up. The producer, John Davis, started giving a quick run down of logistics and safety. Joe came out during the speech and stood off to the side in the leather jacket. We all started taking pictures, of course. After Ferris and John were done talking, Joe spoke up and thanked everyone for being there. He specifically thanked the "Twitter Girls". He explained there had been a contest and there were 30 or so girls who were there who had won. He made a joke that was something like "I can't believe they are here" from so many places and how he could just hear our hubby's responses to the win in our homes "Sure honey, we need the miles on our card!" But he was still thankful we came. He also said that we may leave the set and say "Oh my God, I am never doing that again. I'm going back to my real job." LOL!
On to the nitty gritty. John explained that we were doing a video set in a fight club. He explained there would be three fights, one with Joe. We were going to be the people in the crowd and would be cheering on the fights. He explained EVERYONE would be in the video at some point. He also said there was gonna be a big fun melee where everyone would fight each other. Joe interrupted and said "Well, not EVERYONE is gonna be int he melee." We figured he meant us.
After the meeting, Joe disappeared and they asked all of the guys to go over to the set. The girls anxiously waited. Ferris started coming over and grabbing girls and taking them to the set (which we couldn't' see at all from where we were). Lia and I were included in the last group that went over to the set. We were told that we would be people walking around the fight club who were done with their betting for the day and weren't watching the fight. We were just doing our own thing. There were couches and chairs that we could sit in or we could walk.
The first scene we filmed was a fight between two big guys. One shirtless with tattoos, the other had a shirt on. Both very intimidating. There was also a referee who was in the ring with them (later found out his name was John Heckleman), and October was up there too. The extras who had been called in earlier were in a circle around the area where the guys were fighting. The VFC boys were in the circle too. The crowd needed to cheer on the fight as if they were invested in the fight and had money on it. Super excited. Since I was in the background, I started by just sitting in a chair chatting with Michele and looking over at the fight once in a while. We did several takes. Ferris would yell "Action" and everyone would start cheering and the fighters would fight. There was no music on or anything. It was just the fight at this point. Not sure what brought my attention to him, bit I looked over and saw that Joe was over to my right side. He was reviewing the file to make sure they had the takes they needed. He was wearing jeans, a tank top and the leather jacket/shirt thing. He also had faded blue boots on.
We did a few takes of the cheering and me just sitting in the back. I also got up and walked back and forth a couple of times. At one point, filming stopped and we were just standing around. I looked to my right and up walks Joe McIntyre! I looked at him and smiled and said hi. He smiled back, said hi and then stopped just past me on my left. Then I noticed he had a guy with a camera and a girl with a note pad with him. They were interviewing him! I heard later it
was E! News. There was also another hand held camera behind me filming more stuff (maybe behind the scenes footage?). Almost as soon as they stopped walking, the interview started. I couldn't really hear the woman, but I could hear Joe. He went through the typical chatter explaining the video and that it was a fight club scene. They talked about how he had gotten in the 'best shape of his life' to do this video and he joked that he was no where near looking as buff as the other guys in the video. I think the girl asked Joe about the state of the union of the New Kids. He said "The state of the union of New Kids on the Block is strong!" He said more was to come and it would be exciting. He made it sound like NKOTB might have something coming out in a year or so. The girl asked about his CD. He said "I don't think this will be my last CD, but it feels like this is THE ONE." He said he "just rocked out" for this CD. I took some pics during the interview on my cell phone. When he finished with the video, he walked over to Elizabeth (wizbiff) and talked to her for a little bit. The handheld camera went with him and videoed him talking to her. When he was done, he went over to Marlene (marliimarl) and chatted with her about her comfy shoes. Also talking about how she came from the UK, I'm sure!Once he was
done with the interview, I think that was when he came over and had some still shots taken by the professional photographer against the wall nearest me on the right. The shots looked great from what I could tell! The photographer showed Joe one of the photos on his camera and told him it was very "James Dean". The pictures are now out and are of him standing in front of the window w/o the 'cut' on his cheek. I'm standing right next to them in that pic!!!! Standing in the back of the first scene was obviously extremely beneficial at times! LOL!!! That photographer was also there ALL DAY LONG so I would think he's gonna have many more amazing shots later.Once Joe was done with all of that, we did a scene in which Joe walked through the crowd watching the fight and singing his song. This was going to be our first time officially hearing the song!!!! I was still wandering around in the back, so I wasn't really near the action. From what I hear, that might have been better! The people in the crowd had to IGNORE him! ACK! At least I got to get a glimpse while walking by! The music started playing and it sounded great! Here We Go Again is gonna be a great song and hopefully will be well received by EVERYONE! Its upbeat and catchy! The male extras were whistling the song all night long! We ALL loved it! This song is so much different than anything else Joe has ever done! And its a very successful change! REALLY! While Joe walked through the crowd, he was signing one of the lines. From what I could hear, he wasn't really singing, he was just lipsynching. He would look intensely at the fight and would react to 'big hits' while the people around him just continued to cheer.
With all of my walking around, I ended up on the opposite side a few times where Drew Ryan Scott and David from VFC were. At one point the director yelled CUT, the scene stopped, and David was still yelling "He looks pregnant!" It was VERY funny! Drew explained to me that they were trying to come up with the most off-the-wall comments to yell during the scene. Another time I was sitting down resting between takes and Drew turned around, made a face at me, and asked "Are you comfy?" I said "Yeah" then asked him if he actually did any singing on this track. He turned to the guy next to him and said "Hmm, I don't know... did I?". The guy said "I don't think so" and Drew said he hadn't, but he had helped to write it. He also said the guy next to him had written and produced it. The guy next to him then introduced himself as Brent (@prentpaschke). I complimented them on what a great song it seemed to be and told them I couldn't wait to hear the rest. Brent said the whole album was great and Drew agreed. I told Brent I thought this songcould be really mainstream, especially if they could play the song THEN tell people who it was. Brent said he had given teh song to a guy at a radio station. The guy heard the song, turned to him and said "WHO is this?" Brent answered "Joey" and the guy was surprised but said how great the song was. Again, see how cool everyone on set was???? :)
I went to the other side later and someone announced they were going to be doing a different scene. There was this funny, talkative guy next to Elizabeth who turned around and told me to squeeze into the circle so I didn't have to keep walking around. I did and they then explained the scene they were going to do was when Joe stopped walking when the first fight ended. The referee then asks who is next to fight and Joe nods his head and enters the ring. I was standing next to this talkative guy who was right behind the ref. In the video, you see Elizabeth and him but not me. It was a great spot though! We had to continue cheering the previous fighter, but when the ref sees Joe and says he's next, we get to look RIGHT AT JOE and cheer! How easy is that? YAY! Joe looked so tough. He gets in the ring then takes off his leather jacket and hands it to October. HOT! Then the scene ended. We did a few takes of the scene. Then they called for lunch. Before I went to lunch, I saw Dave Harris (@retrorewind) and Larry (@retrolarry). I said hi and introduced myself and asked if they were going to be coming back from lunch and sticking around for a while. Dave said yes, they were going to be here the rest of the day, so I said I'd talke to them later.
At lunch, I was standing line and this big black guy walks up and smiles and asks me if I'm a boxer. I laughed and said "Heck no, I'm just an extra." Then I asked him if he was a boxer. He said yes. I asked him waht he was going to be doing and he said he didn't know but was just told to be there for shooting. While in line for food, I ended up calling Renee. I told her how crazy this all was and while we were talking, Joe came up and cut in front of Elizabeth (who was on the phone with ktsummer), took some salad, and walked away again. SO CUTE! The big guy next to me just slaughed at me as I got all giddy.
Lunch was ceasar salad, homemade mac & cheese, BBQ chicken, rolls and brownies for dessert. Unfortunately I'm an idiot and when I was by the chicken, I coughed. How embarrassing. I announced I wasn't sick, bu tthat's still gross. UGH. Thank god Joe wasn't there! I liked eating the ceasar asald and at some mac & cheese and the roll, but I just couldn't eat the chicken (and not cuz I coughed on it). I think it was all of the nerves.
Sometime after lunch, I had to run to the bathroom to wash my hands. The black pants that I was wearing were new and had never been washed. The black dye was getting all over my hands and turning them black! When I came back out of the bathroom, Joe was standing just outside the hallway in his tank top finishing up a convo with someone else. The other person walked away and Joe looked over as I stared at him. I sheepishly said "Hi" and he said "Hi" and walked over. He said "What's your name?" and I said "Heather". We might have shook hands at that pointlll then I said "I'm RocksicleLover on Twitter." He looked at me and said "AWWWWWWW!" and held out his arms and gave me a big hug! My mind then went haywire and I said stupid things like "I have a pic that you tweeted me that I want you to sign later." He said "Oh yeah, I'll do that later." There seemed to be some other mumbling and I said thanks and went on my way.
When we returned after lunch, we were told to go to the same spots we were in previously. I was bummed because they HAD said they were going to move us around, but I was hopeful. While I was standing in the back, Dave Harris and Retro Larry were behind us getting ready to take pics and film some of the video shoot. I went over and we had a chat with them for a little bit. Dave ran away and said he'd be back. While he was gone, John/Ferris come over and moved me to the other side of the circle in the second row of the circle. I'm sure I was stuck in the back because of my height, but at least I was officially in the circle now! Excited!
When the scene started, I realized I was right behind Joe so the camera was pointed right in my direction. Also, I WAS CLOSE TO JOE! :) The next scen was HIS fight scene. They didn't start filming right away. They decided to rn through the scene as a practice. Another guy, named Salar, camer through the crowd to fight Joe. Joe again takes off his jacket and his wearing a wife beater, jeans and boots. They start fighting. In the beginning, the fight seems to be fairly even, but then Salar starts winning. He throws Joe to the floor and is holding the tank top as he falls so that it comes off! SHIRTLESS JOE!!! Can anyone say 6-PACK??? But I must admit, he is still pretty skinny! When the shirt came off, the tone of our cheering changed! I think it w
ent from a tough "YEAH, GET HIM!" to a "OH YEAH! LET'S GET THIS!" lol! At least the cheering was encouraged so we could kinda blend in! So, Joe gets up and as he gets up he rubs his hands over his body and smirks. WHAT? EVIL!!! Sexiest thing ever! He continues fighting with Salar, still seeming to be losing. Then I think the director came in and stopped the fight and they decided to go through the fight more closely and focus on details. It took a while. Many of us ended up sitting down and watching. I actually took out my camera and started taking some pictures w/o my flash. They eventually told me to stop, but I got some good photos.As they continued practicing the scene, Joe would get his shirt pulled off and then would have to put it back on. He started noticing that there was a bubble-type area on his shirt where Salar had pulled on his shirt. And he only had 3 tank tops! He tried all three on at one point trying to determine which one looked best. He turned around and said something like, "This doesn't look sexy, does it?" Umm... Joe? EVERYTHING looks sexy on you! LOL! They basically just pushed the shirt around and it looked ok.
Another fun thing about the fight scenes? Let's just say, when a guy is skinny and has his shirt off and moves around a lot, you tend to see his underwear. :D (and yes, he was wearing underwear. Guess he thought commando wasn't a good idea for the video.) AND, it was AWESOME when we'd be standing around waiting for our next instructions and we'd hear the director say "Joe! Take off your shirt!" I'd then grip on to the guy standing next to me so that I didn't faint. ;)
I was kind of the idiot on the set. There really weren't many Joe girls there, and the ones that were Joe girls weren't standing anywhere near me. So all day, I was making 'inappropriate' comments all over the place about licking him, massaging him, rubbing him, etc and everyone around me thought I was crazy! LOL! The male extras around me were getting a kick out of my reactions. They'd give me a sideways glance whenever I would moan or say "Good Lord" after a particularly nice moment. It didn't help that the guy I stood next to the majority of the time was Joe's personal trainer! He laughed a LOT! I probably should have thanked him more than I did for Joe's GREAT BODY!
So, the day went on. We cheered and Joe and Salar would fight. It was harder work than you'd ever imagine. Yes, Joe was in the room. YES, he was shirtless a LOT. But we had a job. We had to cheer and cheer and cheer. We had to react to hits/kicks as they occurred. If we didn't, we had to do the scene again. It was exhausting. On top of all of the physcial work, it was about 80 degrees outside. INSIDE, it was about 300 degrees. The movement plus the lights plus the fact that they had no ventilation due to the smoke machine equalled an incredibly hot room. I was sweating a lot. I was lucky in comparison to others though. I only had jeans and a tank top with a button up shirt over it. Other people had sweatshirts and hats on! Every now and then, if I could tell there was going to be a break between takes, I would RUN to go get a bottle of water and would bring it in the room and hide it behind one of the couches. Amazingly, there were fleeting moments that I actually wished we'd just finish up the day already. Then I'd see Joe and quickly change my mind. I was fine right where I was! :)
There were times we'd take a break, or Joe would have to review some footage in a different area, and he would walk past me. Whenever he walked by, he would look right at you and smile a HUGE sexy grin and say "hi" in his awesome raspy voice. And sometimes he would wink! AHHH!
At one point, there was a scene that was supposed to be a huge melee. After Joe's fight, he was going to jump up on Ferris in excitement. Ferris would throw him off into someone else and a group brawl would ensue with everyone in the room involved. The trainer went around the room and coached us on how we should fight with each other. I joined up with Regina and Elizabeth for a three-way fight. The first take was crazy and was very funny. After they said cut, the director said "That was pretty good, but there was a LOT of laughing. No laughing!" This was harder than he thought! LOL! We eventually got it down to minimal laughing. Then they told October to stand on a table and yell STOP. At that point, we were supposed to all stop fighting. On the first take, she got up, yelled "STOP" and we all froze and were silent. Joe said "She said STOP not FREEZE!" and the entire room broke into laughter.
Another time all of the extras were put into a semi-circle. Joe explained we were going to sing his lyrics. In the song he said "La La La Love Hey Hey Hey Hate" We were to sing along. He told us to just look at him. Uh..... no problem. As we did it, we all started pumping our fists. He commented that that seemed to work so to just go with it. There was another part where the song says "Hey Hey Hey Yeah Yeah Yeah" and we were to do the same thing. It was fun singing to Joe! :)
As the hours went on, we were all tired. Including Joe. Sometimes to wake himself back up, Joe would make noises, or better yet, moan. During more difficult scenes, he would say "Let's Get This!" in this deep and kinda silly voice. It was HOT! At the very end, Joe was so tired he was yawning on set. But he was a trooper and kept up the energy during filming.
Finally, they called it a day. They thanked the extras and we took a huge cast and crew photo with Joe. Joe told us that he needed to finish up some last scenes and would be over to talk to us soon.
We headed out to the waiting area and started getting ready to see Joe. I ran to the bathroom and changed my stinky shirt and tried to freshen up. Yeah... kinda hard. But I did my best. I went out and put on some makeup and was ready to go. I had my Twitpic for him to sign and my camera was ready. While I was waiting, I also got my pic with Dave Harris who seemed to be waiting around to see Joe like we were! We were talking to some of the extras and all of a sudden heard Joe say "HEY" from behind us! We all turned around and saw him standing there with a piece of pizza in his hand. He hand changed into a black t-shirt and he had a cut on his cheek. I couldn't help but yell "What happened to your cheek?" He responded that it was just make-up and asked the make-up lady to take it off. He then said that we should all stay where we were and he would come around and say hi and take pics with all of us. I had two thank you cards that I had bought - one for Joe and one for Barrett/Griffin. In the one for Griffin, I included some Halloween stickers for him since seriously, what is a 2 year old going to do with a card? I wanted to make sure to give those to him while everyone could see his reaction, so I ran up and gave it to him just after he said he was coming around to each of us. He made a smart ass comment "Except for you" and I handed over the cards and breifly told him what they were. He smelled like pizza! He smiled big at the one for Barrett and Griffin and I ran off.
He made his rounds and FINALLY made it over to me. Honestly, I have forgotten some of this interaction because I was so tired and so excited. I gave him a hug and for some reason FORGOT that I was gonna get a pic with him. He said "Who's gonna take this?" I said "Oh, yeah" and he said "You're killing me here" as I grabbed my camera and handed it off to the first hand offering which was Jen. Joe put his arm around me and we posed and Jen said "Its all zoomed in." Oh crap. I apologized again and told him to sign my pic in the meantime. He signed my pic AND Jen's while I fixed the camera and handed it back to Jen. Luckily, he still smiled when the real pic was taken. He continued on his way saying hi to everyone.
Then someone asked about us hearing the entire song. Throughout all of the shooting, we never heard the song the entire way through and Joe had promised. He said "Hold on" and he ran off. At that moment, I realized I had totally forgotten to give him the BIG SEXY HAIR gift! I grabbed it and went towards where he was. He came back and told us to come with him. I was right there ready! I walked back to the screening room with him and girls were telling me to ask about a group picture. I said "Joe, they want me to ask you for a group picture." He said "But we just took a huge cast and crew photo! You'll get that one." I said "Yeah, but we want one with just us and you." He said "Nah, cuz then people will be upset if they aren't in it" I just said "Ok, ok". We got into the screening room and I went to him and said "I forgot to give this to you earlier. Its a silly gift. 'For the Rocksicle, From RocksicleLover" He kinda laughed and said "Aww, thank you!" and I ran off and found a seat up high.
Joe and John explained they were going to show us the partial video for Here We Go Again, but the whole song would be played. We waited and watched. INCREDIBLY AWESOME shots started showing up on the screen! I was jumping up and down in my seat!
HE WAS SO HOT! The crazy thing was, the MAN WAS IN THE ROOM and I was STILL screaming at the screen! The song was amazing! We were cheering so loudly! Hootin'! Hollerin'! We loved it! And Joe loved our reaction. He stood back and watched and smiled as he tapped the BIG SEXY HAIR nervously against his leg and hand. After it was done, we cheered and asked to see it again. They played it again! It was great! Then someone asked Joe for a group photo again. He eventually caved and we all jumped all over the chairs to get in the photo as John and Joe cringed as we almost ruined the chairs! After the photo was taken, we all started leaving a
nd Joe stood around and gave another round of hugs. He told us the video would be out within 30 days. We told him how much we loved the entire day and the song and we were on our way. As we were leaving, Joe was taping a bit with Dave Harris for RetroRewind.My only bad experience of this trip happened next. We were starving. It was 10:30 PST (1:30am EST). We headed to Panda Express to get some chinese food. We ate and went back to the hotel. I wanted to charge my phone but I couldn't find my charger anywhere. I went to bed. In the morning as I was laying in bed, I suddenly shot up. SHIT! I left my purse at Panda Express! FUCK! Lia helped me figure out their phone number so I could call when they opened. We both had early flights so we really just had time to pack and head to the airport. I drove us to the airport and when we pulled in, I had another HORRIBLE realization. My engagement/wedding rings were in my purse. I had taken my rings off for a million reasons. We were asked to not wear shiny items; my pants were bleeding black onto everything they touched; I was scared I'd hurt someone with the rings during our fights; our purses were being guraded at the video shoot. All I could do was cry. Lia swore to help me get a hold of Marlene who was staying in LA for a little while so she could go back to Panda Express and get the purse if they had it. I called my hubby and he was not happy. I didn't blame him. In the end, Panda Express never found the purse. I never got my rings back. We will be filing an insurance claim for the $ and have discussed maybe getting me a cheap ring and sending my hubby to Vegas. For all he's put up with, he deserves it!
The video has now come out and I am definitely not a star. But with the help of my Video Mates, I can see myself in a few scenes! Retro Larry is about to release a behind the scenes video of the day and I've already seen clips that I am in! YAY!
Since the video, Joe has started following me and a few other video girls on Twitter. The goal is that he follows all of us! :) He also thanked us a week after the shoot, for the cards and he specifically mentioned the Halloween stickers. Made me happy. Just this past week, Joe had some solo shows in the Midwest. For the Chicago show, there were 4 video mates there together - Shannon, Regina, Jen and me. We had matching shirts and Shannon made Joe one too. She was able to give it to him during the show. It was awesome!
The video was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. I cannot thank Joe enough for allowing fans to be a part of that day! And meeting those other girls was amazing! We shared an amazing experience and I'm so glad THOSE were the girls I got to share it with! They were so awesome! The experience is one that can never be matched! I don't even have the words to describe how amazing it all was. Thank you Joe. Thank you.
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