14min chapter

JoJo Siwa Now cover image

The Filming of "KARMA"

JoJo Siwa Now

CHAPTER

Behind the Scenes of a Music Video Shoot

This chapter delves into the behind-the-scenes process of filming a music video, from casting decisions to choreography, costume ideas, and innovative storytelling shifts. The protagonist reflects on portraying themselves as the 'bad guy' in the video and making last-minute creative changes to enhance the narrative. The chapter also highlights the challenges and rewards of filming underwater scenes and dancing in water, culminating in the speaker's pride and satisfaction in seeing their creative vision realized.

00:00
Speaker 1
I want you to be in it. Like I see it. I can picture it. I'm ready for it. And she said, okay, I would love that. And so then I, when this, that night happened, and she didn't come to the audition. And so I thought, you know, maybe she, maybe she changed her mind. Maybe she's not, she's not available. Like maybe, she just didn't know. We had that meeting. And then I got in my car and I had a text from Alexis. And she was like, oh my God, I had no idea that you had no audition. Like I didn't get it because of the high requirement. We put girls five, six and taller because I'm five, seven, five, eight, five, nine. I don't really know. And so we put five, six and taller. So that way there wasn't a massive height difference. And Alexis is like a really cute five to, I think. She's really, she's a little itty bitty baby. She's in my little poly pocket. And yeah. So she was like, she was like, I didn't get the audition because of the high requirement. Like there's ever a world like where you do like another audition. Like I would love to come. Even if like it is high, like I still just would love to be there and be in the room. Like please let me know. And I was like, oh my God, we literally just had a meeting. We were talking about you. Like we want you to do it. And I was like, can you come to the studio tomorrow and we can just dance. We can just kind of feel it, see if it works. See if we have chemistry because we had never danced together, but we knew each other. And she came to the studio the next day and it was just, I mean, it was magic. I just, I knew, I knew that she was the right one for it. And then ended up when I was like, if you're available, you got the job. And she was like, I will be there. So then cut to music video rehearsals. And I have this idea. We have this costumes. I knew that I wanted to be some sort of beastie sea creature. And then we have the beast cousin sea creatures coming out of the water. We're in the yacht. All of everything is still stuck to the plant. Right? Then we're in rehearsals and I, God, I wish I could remember the exact moment that this happened, but somewhere along the line of the first day of rehearsals, I was like, wait, I'm saying I was a bad girl. I did some bad things. But I'm seeing somebody else cheat. I was like, no, I am the bad guy. I have to do the bad thing. And so then it was like, okay, well, how are we going to do this bad thing? Right? And then my choreographer, Richie actually came up with doing it in the choreography and kind of getting with another girl. Wow. My girl was literally in my hands and that's when we came up with that iconic dash on the line, dash on the cheat, that dance moment. And then, you know, after that, as when we went into the dance of the chorus and we decided we were like, it's all happening too fast. We need a moment for it to breathe and to see what happened. And so then my videographer, his name is Cameron. He was there and I was like, well, give me a second. I can like freeze the song and like just like chuck it together quick on my phone and then we can have the producer like redo it. So then I did that and I played it and then Cameron, who's a videographer, he was, he's also an incredible music producer. And he was like, do you want me to just like, chuck that together fast, but like better than your awkward freeze frame pause? And I was like, oh my God, please. I was like, I want a heartbeat. I want a breath. And then I wanted to fill back into the news. And he was like, literally, give me 10 minutes. Like, oh, this. And I was like, okay. So Cameron took the music. He gave us that extra 10 seconds and we were like, oh my God, it's perfect. So then that night the director comes into rehearsals and we were like, all right, we have a full new pitch for you. It is me. That's the bad guys. Me doing the cheating. Still doing the fire powers, but now it actually made more sense because it was like, I'm setting this fire because I messed up and I kind of just want to burn the evidence. And then it's like, it kind of follows me to the island. And so I want to burn the evidence again. And then we have the next day rehearsals, all going good, all going well. I'm trying to think if there was anything like that didn't go smoothly, but honestly, everything did. I mean, at this, this point I did a crash course two weeks of like making sure my, my body was in checkmaking sure I was eating properly, making sure that I was stretching. So I wasn't going to get tight. Like I did so much pre-work for this video, but everything in the week like went so smooth. It was so put together. It was so great. And then we are on set day one day one. And so day one, we shot all of the stuff on the yacht. So all of the white and then day two. And we shot all of the beast stuff, all the black. And then we did the nude stuff, the pool stuff. We did all of that also on day one. We did it that night. So day one was like a 17 hour day and then day two was like a 15 hour day. So we're on set and we're doing the first dance. And I told my director after that. That's when I had the conversation with him like, I don't think we need the fire anymore. I was like, cause the dance happened. We don't need me to set this to fire to jump off. I can just like dip out, like see everybody. And then it made sense to have my karma follow me and be with me in the pool scene. And then it made sense for her to follow me to the island. It kind of ended up being that I was the bad guy. And then the girl in red who is played by Alexis, red. She is she is my karma. And she is what's following me. She is the bad thing that I did. Then we're on set. And I was like, you know, I'd be up as if I at the end still made the wrong choice. And I still went with the wrong girl. So then I was like, wait a second. This is all happening on set. I was like, here's the new vision, everybody. I was like, I know we're literally on set, but hear me. And I think this is the winner. They're like, what is it? I was like, the whole thing becomes a flashback. The whole thing becomes a flash forward. And so, you know, you see me with the girls, I make the wrong choice. And then I'm like, do says, but then, you know, after we get to the island, red follows me. And then it's like, we go back in time and then we're back on the boat. And we have this moment again where we're doing that same style of dance. So it's a different part of music. And it's like, we are back now in real time of like what choices she got to make. And I still make the wrong choice. That happened on set. And that's where the story came together. And everyone was like, sold. We love it. It's psycho, but we love it. And I was like, me too. I love it too. So I was like, all right, we got to get ready in the pool with us. We got to, we got to make this all happen. And we were like, okay, great. Nailed it. So we had our first day on set. It was a great day. Win smoothly. We went to the pool after we shouted at the director's pool. It was freezing outside. And my outfit that I was wearing is basically nothing. I mean, I'm essentially in nothing. It's all sheer and so is so cold. But luckily the pool was heated to like 85 degrees. And we were chilling in that department. And then for the pool scene, that actually took a lot of preparation. So the same way that we had rehearsals for the dance part of things, I had rehearsals by myself for the pool of part of things. And I practiced how to backflop into the pool. I brought a GoPro out. I filmed with a camera just at my pool, figuring it out. And I really tried to figure out like what the best way to jump backwards into the pool was. And I realized that the best way to do it and the best shot to get was just by backflopping. And I was like, okay, here we go. We're just going to backflop. Like you'll be fine eventually. And here I am. I'm fine. Then I was like, okay, I want to get a shot where I'm singing underwater. Then I practiced singing underwater. And I realized after I did it and I filmed it and then I watched a bear just at my house a couple of days before the video shoot, I was like, oh, your bubbles, like, you can't see anything. You can't see anything that you're singing. So then I had to figure out how to move my mouth underwater while making it look like I'm singing while knocking that like massive bubble overflow. So then what I figured is I had to empty my lungs, go all the way to the bottom of the pool, sing the words, come back up. And then also while doing that, also holding the beat of the song. So I would listen to the song above the pool, catch the beat, go under, sing for a bit, come back up, make sure I was still on beat. So then when we got to the set of the pool, did all that, but we could only do it in like forward increments because of the emptying my lungs, getting down to the pool by the time I was down there and they gave me the green light to start. And then I had to figure out where I was at in the song. We had to do that bit coming up and down and up and down and up and down. And it was not easy, but it was so worth it. And that is one of the parts of the video that everyone talks about, like the singing underwater, the singing underwater, were you actually underwater? And I was like, no, we literally were underwater. Got it turned out so cool. I'm so happy with how that turned out. Then after that, we came home, we fell asleep and we woke up and we did it all again the next day. Day two, day two started off awfully. I'm not going to lie. My biggest pet peeve is hair and makeup. I hate sitting in the hair and makeup chair. Hair and makeup took five hours on day two. By hour three, I was done. I was over it. I was like, give me, like, let's go. Like I was just not having it anymore. So to be in that chair for five hours was very torturous. And it was just like one thing after another after another. Just like it. What happening? And then the girl, Alexis, who was red, this is kind of a fun story. She was supposed to leave, said she was supposed to wrap it about four o'clock. But that was, so the order of the day was going to be all the dancing on the sand and then all the dancing in the water and then the actual water tank of me coming out of the water. And all that was good to go. But then I realized that the initial schedule didn't have us doing our red and black bee stance in the water. And I was like, oh, we need that. We cannot not have that moment. And Alexis actually had a flight to catch. And she was like, I planned on wrapping up for it. I have a flight at eight. Like I can't, I can't stay. And I was like, where do you have to be? I was like, I will ditch wherever you have to be. Like we must, we must have this moment of us doing the stance in the water. Like we can't not have it. And she was like, okay. She was like, I just have to be somewhere in the morning, another state at like 9 a.m. And I was like, okay, I'll get you there. Like, where do I got to get you? Like, I will figure it out. And she's like Phoenix, Arizona. And I was like, okay, that's like a six hour car drive. I can get you there. Even if we wrapped up three in the morning, I can get you on a car and get you there. We ended up being able to wrap her at like eight o'clock. So we got her car service. They drove her through the night. It was totally fine. But she was like, we really like we can make it work. And I was like, yes, we can make it work. Like if you're fine to make it work like that, I will make it happen. I'll pay for it. Like don't even sweat. She's like, okay, let's freakin do it. And thank God we did because that dance in the water that that few eight counselors. I mean, honestly, probably the most special part of the video dancing in the water like that. It was about a three inch water palette. I guess it's a good way to put it. Big, big square of water. And we got to splash around. We we it was slippery, but like you'll be fine. We'll find it. I did get scared when we Alexis and I were doing our partner work in the water because I of course, you know, being the partner, I didn't want to affect how she does. And I of course want to be I have to be the supporting one when we're doing all that partnering work, I'm doing all the lifting and so having our life essentially in my hands, that was a lot of pressure in the water, but so sick. So worth it. Then we we wrapped up the day we wrapped up the day in the water tank. I got into a tank that was about three feet deep of water. It was a square set crisscross applesauce and I raised myself out, lowered myself down somehow by some miracle, my hair and makeup stayed. So I guess the five hours was worth it, but it was so it was the most stressful five hours literally ever. But it was worth it. And then then we called that to rap and was very strange is any time we've done a music video and we've called that to rap every time I cry every single time. I'm just so happy. I don't want to be done. I don't want to lose the day. I'm so sad. Like there's so many feelings going into it. But for some reason with karma, they called that's rap and I was like, yeah, it is. We freaking did it. Like I felt so accomplished. I felt so satisfied. It was so much work. It was two days of rehearsal, two days of a video shoot and it was done. Like we did it. We got there. My vision came to life. I felt so fulfilled and so overwhelmed with excitement that I had here. There wasn't ever insight, which is interesting. That's very, very rare thing for me. But then I mean, the editing process of karma, we've had 42 different versions. That's dramatic. We've had like 13, 13 or 14 different versions editing it. It's kind of funny. I have all my reaction videos because I was like, when we get the one, like I want it to like I want to have my reaction on camera. And so the first reaction, like initially, I mean, I'm stoked. Like the video is everything I ever wanted it to be. Like it turned out so great. I'm so happy, but like here's all the changes, but I was so happy. But then after that, I mean, for takes two through 12, I'm just like, nah, still didn't get it, still didn't get it, still didn't get it. Then finally, my last, like the last time that I like the first time that I watched the final version of the video, I was like, okay, finally we got it. Like I wasn't stoked at all. I was so proud and so happy. But I was like, finally, it's about time. Like I, I, I wish I had a more exciting reaction because the way that I feel when I watch a video is like, that's my baby coming to life. That is everything I've ever wanted to do. That is every bit of art that I ever wanted to create. And I think one of the things I'm most proud about with Karma and the visual behind it is how much I actually did for it. You know, I, I'm a co-director on it. I produced it. I financed it. I helped with hair and makeup. I did Alexis, the beast. I did her makeup. I did. I helped with the choreography. I helped with the wardrobe. I helped on set. I helped with the lighting. I mean, I helped with the effects. I helped with all of it. Even down to the thumbnail of the music video, the thumbnail, I made myself on Photoshop and, and I put those photos together and I cut them out. And there's a lot of people that could do that job, but it is something that I love doing and I pride myself in doing. And so I think that's one of the things I'm most excited about. One of the things that I'm not going to lie, I'm scared about is, okay, I guess scared so wrong works. I'm scared. I'm interested in, is the world's reaction. You know, when I posted the warning, the world had a reaction.

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