Behind the Scenes from Swear It Again
Taken from the diary of Nigel Dick, director of Westlife's U.S. Swear It Again video...
3/3/00 : WESTLIFE “Swear It Again” Day One
Videos are weird. I’m shooting a video for a band who I’ve met for maybe
an hour the day before yesterday, and I can’t remember their names. I’ve
had to write them down on a piece of paper along with their pictures,
stick it to the front of my video cart, and hope no-one notices while I
surreptitiously glance at the picture before barking out an order. Back
in Britain this would be sacrilegious as Westlife have had 4 Number One
hits in a row - must remember to get autographs for the godchildren.
The label wants something very ‘down to earth’ - no fancy sets - so
we’re shooting in a carwash in the valley owned by a friendly chap
called Homer who takes great pride in his business. Everything is
painted bright yellow and black, very graphic. Just the place to shoot
the American dream: cute girls, chrome plated cars and young guys in
T-shirts.
The crew keeps referring to the band as Englishmen which is very un-cool
as two of them come from Dublin and three from Sligo i.e. they’re all
Irish. Calling them English is like asking someone from Calgary what it
feels like to be Texan. You may not have been reading the papers for the
last 200 years but the Irish and the British are 2 very different
cultures and nations and rather a lot of bullets and rhetoric have been
spent trying to sort this out.
When we reach the last set-up of the day the guys sing in 5 part harmony
- a glorious sound. They finish off with the Backstreet Boys “I Want It
That Way”!
3/4/00 : WESTLIFE “Swear It Again” Day Two
The weather is playing tricks with us again and there’s a big storm
coming in so at call time we have to re-arrange the schedule and shoot
the afternoon stuff first so we don’t get drenched. This makes us all
look like idiots in front of the band who have to swap out of the
outfits they’ve just changed into.
Today is another one of those races against time. The band got up at 5am
this morning to be on set at 6am. We need to get them out of here by 6pm
so they can make a 730 flight out of LAX for London. From London they
will fly to Dublin and race to a gig they have scheduled tomorrow night.
When they step onstage they will have not been to bed for 30
hours...thank god bands make good money and get to hang out with hot
girls, they certainly earn it.
I’m looking at reels over lunch and see a commercial set in a car wash
with all sorts of cool angles on water coming out of hoses and foam
smearing everywhere. I want to rip up my shot-list and start again but
have to remind myself that I’m selling five great faces and not a
Japanese motor car!
The band is wrapped in time and when I get home the storm hits -
torrential rain and the mother of all thunderstorms. I’m safe by the
fire with a bowl of pasta but I bet those guys are stuck at LAX waiting
for the storm to clear so they can race East to make that gig.
Thanks to Rachel for this article!