Director
Chris Marrs Piliero wrote a column to Britney.com, the singer's
official website, which revealed several interesting facts about the
music videos for I Wanna Go and Criminal.
So I've been staring at my computer screen for a few minutes now
wondering exactly how to start this thing. Fearing that I could continue
to stare at the screen all night, I decided to just begin writing
what's floating around in my head and hope it leads to somewhere. I've
done a handful of on-camera interviews about the "Criminal" video,
and while I have no qualms with the actual act of interviews, the
process is definitely awkward. You've got a bright light blinding you,
while the camera lens stares at you... as if judging you. I try to be
relaxed during them, but hot damn do I hate watching them back. I am
never content with my answers. They are either too rushed or monstrously
wordy. Point being, I was really stoked when Britney.com
hit me up to be a guest blogger, because it's going to give me the
opportunity to actually say what I want to say and be concise (with the
occasional off-topic rambling). Ok, so here we go...
Well, let's start with an introduction and a thank you, shall we… I'm
Chris Marrs Piliero. I directed Britney Spears's music video for
"Criminal." Grammar Fun Fact: Yes, you add the "s" after the
apostrophe for singular words that end in an "s." I double checked. Yup.
I know. I get it confused all of the time, too. OK, then… The
reaction to the video has been amazing, so I'd like to send out a
"high-five" to all of you who watched it and enjoyed it. We had oodles
of fun making it. I'd like to also send out a big "high-five" to the
members of the British Parliament who were gracious enough to give our
video a bunch of controversial buzz and publicity over such a trivial
aspect of a fictitious story being told in a music video. Quite swell of
y’all. Quick Side Note: While it may not be nearly as frequent as in
the United States, there are plenty of gun-related crimes in London,
despite their strict laws on gun possession. Why? Well you see,
criminals like to break the law. It's this nifty attribute they tend to
have. Even British ones. Another Quick Side Note: I think it's
absolutely absurd and ridiculously stupid that musicians are held up to a
different standard when it comes to influence over fans in comparison
to other celebrities like actors, filmmakers or authors. A musician can
portray whatever they wish to in their music videos just like a TV or
movie star can do so. It's visual storytelling.
After working with Brit Brit on the "I Wanna Go" video, I definitely knew that I didn't just want to work with her again, but that I had
to. There was an instant click between us on set — we vibed really well
off of each other. It was one of the smoothest shoots I'd ever done
(now adding "Criminal" to that list), and it was for one of the biggest
pop stars in the world. That's not something one would normally expect,
but it's 100% true. I'll be the first to admit that after hearing all
the various interviews I've conducted about my experience working with
Brit, it would seem that my lips have become permanently attached to her
ass from kissing it so much. I know, I know… But it's not my fault
everyone wants to constantly ask me about her and what it's like working
with her. And it's not my fault that she's a super rad chick, and I
love working with her. From now on if someone asks, I'll just tell them
to visit Britney.com for my answer, cool?
I would say one of the things I love most about working with Britney is
that in both of these videos, she's indulged in my desire to make her
Badassney (that's one of the many rad nicknames that fans gave her after
the "I Wanna Go" video). Being a fan of Britney throughout the years, I
always yearned to see that sardonic badass side of her in her videos.
While she's a natural at being sexy and seductive, I wanted to get more
spunk out of her. I wanted to see a snarky Britney, to see her be
offensively witty, appealingly defiant. I knew she had it in her. And
she delivered it. There's a lot to be proud of when it comes to both
videos I've directed with the Britster, but I gotta say that one of my
proudest moments is the homage to Half Baked with both Guillermo Diaz AND Britney ranting, "F-ck you!" to the press with finesse. So rad.
OK, so… leading up to "I Wanna Go," I had done a string of music videos
leaning more on the comedic side, so I was waiting for the right
opportunity to come around where I could follow it up with a video that
would tell a cool, dramatic story. That’s when I got the call for
"Criminal." Awesome. I was stoked. Unlike with "I Wanna Go," Britney had
a basic blueprint for how she wanted the "Criminal" storyline to go. I
played around with the story-arc a bit and actually attempted to make it
more violent than what we ended up with (the members of the British
Parliament might have had a stroke after viewing what I originally
intended).
Alas, Britney was set on the storyline starting with the high-society
soiree that leads to her falling in love with the mysterious man who
saves her from her a-hole boyfriend, admiring not just him, but his
criminal lifestyle. I wanted to take her story and make it a wee bit
more badass, give it some balls. Get some more Badassney in there again,
ya know? Adding some snarky moments in the beginning was really
important to me. Having her tell off the girl that her boyfriend
character flirts with was a must, and I wasn't going to just let Jason
come in there and save the day without Brit Brit giving a nice swift
kick-kick to the dude to complete the beat down.
Then there was a matter of the ending. That part was still up in the
air. We needed a good one. Something exhilarating. My original approach
told a rather different story, so now that that was out, I needed
something cool to bring this piece to a climactic finish. Several movies
have scenes where the characters escape, and you can't help but ask
yourself, "How in the heck did they manage to get away?!" Well, I wanted
to take that to the next level. While this is a crime drama, I
approached the concept like a fairytale. Fate has brought our two
criminally inclined lovers together, and their love will conquer
anything that comes in their way. I wanted their final kiss to be this
magical moment of beautiful chaos, a breath-taking visual. Their lips
touch, their bodies embrace, bullets fly and destiny takes control. They
are together. Nothing else matters. The tension outside. The
destruction inside. The bullets zipping by their bodies. The passionate
kiss between Britney and Jason. It's a perfect moment. I love it.
Definitely my favorite part of the video.
FYI (that means For Your Information, FYI) — in the video, they rob the
grocery mart, and then some time goes by. There is a news report
highlighting the fact that they went on a crime spree (we let you use
your imagination… hooray for creative brain usage time!), then they rob a
bank and steal the car. That sequence of events seemed to get lost on a
select few, so I just wanted to clear that up. Apologies for any
confusion this may have caused some of ya. I hope you didn't lose too
much sleep over it. If you're reading this and thinking to yourself,
"Yeah, I know that's what happened. Duh, Chris…" Well, then
congratulations! You just won yourself 20 Internet points. Use them
wisely.
Not sure if you noticed, but there are a couple of rather intimate
moments between Britney and Jason in the video. Britney and I spoke on
the phone early on about where we wanted to go with these scenes, and to
my surprise, we were pretty much on the same page. I remember being on
the phone preparing to ease my way into how steamy I wanted to make it,
thinking I was gonna have to pull some hypnotic verbal trick over the
phone to convince her to be into it, and to my surprise, she was down
with it. We both wanted to turn things up a notch… but with class. The
goal was to make some really sensual and passionate moments that were
still beautiful and tasteful. And hot damn, that's exactly what we did. I
particularly love the shot of her hands pressed up against the glass of
the shower as her head turns… such a rad shot. There is such a pure
chemistry captured between Britney and Jason during those intimate
moments. The passion is authentic, and that's what makes it so amazingly
daunting.
Before I go on, I just gotta say — Britney looks gorgeous in this video.
I mean, seriously, how hot is she in this sucker? She's pretty damn
smokin'... In "I Wanna Go," I wanted to give viewers a super hot, fun
Britney where she’s carefree, kicking ass and just plain having a good
time. It was all about smiles and smirks for that one. But with
"Criminal," I needed an alluring and beautiful performance from Brit,
and I think it's pretty obvious that she brought it. One of the things I
love most about Britney are her facial expressions. The way she moves
her lips… the way her tongue accentuates "L” words… and those eyes.
Those eyes! She just looks into the lens and your mouth drops while
your heart has to pause for a moment to take a deep breath.
Whenever I'm prepping to work with an artist, I always make a point to
watch all of their previous videos to get better acquainted with them.
When doing so for Brit, one of the things that stood out to me was how
much more provocative we make her out to be in our minds when watching
her simply from the way she looks at us through the screen. Go back and
watch everything she's done.
She's managed to be super sexy and captivating without being overtly
provocative. She just has this natural seductive charm that makes
everything she does that much more enticing. It's her eyes, I'm telling
ya. She's like a sultry Jedi with those suckers. I'm rambling, aren't I?
Yup, I am. Crap. OK, moving on… I was stoked on set while we were
shooting her hallway performance and super stoked while I was editing
the footage. Couldn't help but think to myself: Heck yeah... It's
Britney… Bitch. Side Note: If Brit ever does a rap song, she should start it off by exclaiming, "It's Brit Brit, Mother F-cker!" Just a thought…
Alright, now I have a Britney.com
exclusive for ya — it was actually my abs super-imposed onto Jason's
stomach to make him look so buff. Yup, all me. Sorry, Jason. The truth
had to come out sooner or later. OK, that's a lie. The dude is ripped.
By now it's no secret that I wasn't exactly stoked on the idea of Jason
being in the video (though I kept it to myself). He'd never acted
before. Why would I have been stoked on that? I wanted to use an actor
for the part. That being said, once Britney and I discussed the sex
scenes, I knew that there was no other option. She wouldn't have been
able to be comfortable being that intimate with some random guy, while
Jason just chilled on the sidelines. Once I came to terms with this in
my head, it was a matter of going at the video with a positive and
confident mindset. I was going to make sure Jason was awesome in the
video. Lucky for me, Jason arrived on set with his game face on and the
dude killed it. Eager for direction, he was a really good listener and
delivered. While this isn't some extravagantly demanding role, you
believe him. I was really impressed… and relieved… phew.
The tattoos on his body are fake. Britney wanted him to have some tats,
and I've always been a fan of how badass George Clooney looks in From Dusk Till Dawn,
so we went with a thick tribal design for his back. I'm not sure if it
was Brit or Jason who came up with the "Freedom" tat on his neck, but
the "RIP Goose" is a reference to Jason's good friend who sadly died
weeks before the video. So while it would have been cool if it turned
out Jason was just a really, really, really big fan of Top Gun, it's actually really cool that it has such a deeper significance.
We filmed "Criminal" in London over two days (with a few extra hours on a
third day for city shots). Really awesome city. It was my first time
out there and my first time working with the crew. I didn't have a
single one of my usual guys from the States on the shoot, but hot damn
did they do a fantastic job. The Director of Photography was a gentleman
by the name of Will Bex. The dude is bloody brilliant. We shot in
London because Britney was getting ready to kick off her European tour.
While we weren't filming all over the place, the little doses of London
throughout really add a nice touch to the video. I'm so glad we had the
opportunity to film out there; it just would have been a completely
different vibe if we shot out in the States. The cobblestone streets,
the texture and architecture of the brick buildings… these little
details mean so much to the final overall feel of the video.
There are a few Easter eggs hidden throughout the video. The newspaper
that talks about Jason being a suspect for recent bank robberies
features three photos at the top — those photos belong to Will Bex, me,
and Art Director Sam Tidman. In the grocery mart, there are Marrs
Attacks soup cans on the shelf next to the vanilla candles — Marrs Attacks is my company name and my Twitter ID (@marrsattacks).
Yup yup. Fun stuff. And I'm sure you're aware of this, but Britney is a
big fan of vanilla candles. I knew this was something that was pretty
much common knowledge amongst the fans, so I thought it would be fun to
have Britney grab one and toss it into their shopping basket that they
eventually run off with. In addition to that, I decided to reference the
vanilla candles again at the end of the credits to poke fun at the
typical disclaimers at the end of movies. A lot of these things I just
toss in at the last second and hope Britney goes for it. Kinda like the Crossroads 2: Cross Harder
marquee sign in the "I Wanna Go" video. I wanted to put something fun
on there for the fans and just crossed my fingers that it'd be cool with
her and whalaa…
So yeah, hmmm… I think I've run out of things to say. So I guess it's
time to say goodbye. Thanks for reading. You're pretty swell in my book.
Have yourself a rad day. I hope it's filled with several life-changing
viewings of "I Wanna Go" and "Criminal." I leave you with this very
important message: No matter how tempting it may be, don't eat
cardboard. It's not good for you.
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