When casting for the Benny Goodman video for his band Saint Motel, director and front-man A/J Jackson needed to find a talented, charismatic 6-year-old with the dance moves of a young Michael Jackson. We've never tried this, but it sounds hard. We talked to A/J about how he found Baby Boogaloo (the videos star), and how to base a music video on the Jackson 5 without getting sued.
Doug: The lead actor in this video, Baby Boogaloo, has a bit of a viral following. Hes got several videos with over hundreds of thousands of views, and he was even on Ellen. How did you come across him?
A/J: Oh man, that was quite the process. We scoured the internet to find a dancer that could do this. I contacted pretty much every dance studio I could find in LA and pretty much everyone was stumped. That was the biggest journey of the video, trying to find Miles, who is Baby Boogaloo.
Doug: What did you do to try to contact him? Just search though Facebook and website contact pages to try to reach him?
A/J: Yeah, I don't normally search for 6-year-old boys, but it was a pretty epic manhunt.
Doug: After that did you get in touch with his dad or something or did he have official management?
A/J: He does have official management. I think my first attempt was a dead end, I got in touch with someone who didn't actually work with him but for some reason was listed on their website. But eventually I got in touch with his official management.
This is about as cool as photos get on this blog.
Doug: I would think that's the exact call they're hoping to get, right? Someone calling to try to put him in a music video seems right up their in their direction he's trying to go.
A/J: There is a lot of pressure for a kid like that to always hear, "You're going to be the next whatever." Obviously he's really talented and I wish nothing but for the best for him, but I'm not trying to put any added pressure on him. He'll do what he likes and the universe will figure it out.
Doug: And as far as the moves in the video, who choreographed that stuff?
A/J: We had a choreographer named Kenan Peters, who is a choreographer that I ran into a while ago and we've wanted to do something together for a long time. He put it all together and Miles learned it really quickly, which is pretty impressive. But, that was all Kenan.
Choreographer Kenan Peters and Baby Boogaloo making magic.
Doug: At one point in the video you shut the lights off, and Miles turns into an awesome dancing light-man. How did you guys achieve this effect? Was it CG or something more practical?
A/J: It was more practical. It's actually something I pulled from another video treatment. There are these really awesome glow suits that we shot with at a different location later in the day. The visual effect took a while to figure out. I knew I wanted there to be retro visual effects that felt psychedelic. They were LED glow suits that went all the way around the body.
Doug: And it's actually Miles in the suit?
A/J: Oh yeah, I think that was the most fun he had in the entire shoot. We could not stop him from dancing at that point.
Doug: Really? He was just going for it at that point?
A/J: Yeah, he loves dancing. There is no parent forcing him to dance, he just does it. And being a kid he loved the glow suit.
Doug: Whenever there is a child with a talent who's out there like that you always wonder if there is some parent behind the scenes forcing them into it. But, even in his own stuff he seems to naturally enjoy what he's doing.
Lots of on-set stuff going on here.
A/J: Yeah, it doesn't feel very stage-mom-ish or forced. There is no fear in the back of those eyes that he's going to get punished for not doing a good job or for loosing the beauty pageant.
Doug: As far as the plot elements in the video, there are references to Benny Goodman and also to the Jackson 5, were you trying to make sure people picked up on some of those elements or were you trying to create a story line that is able to stand on its own?
A/J: I was advised to leave it loosely based on, because I heard the Jacksons are very suey. I didn't want anything too on the nose with Benny Goodman, I didn't want to like cut together footage of Benny Goodman. It just wasn't the way to go with the song. The concept that we based the song around, the idea of having to persist when no one else will believe in you and then you can strike like Benny Goodman, just seemed to fit with so many people. I'm not sure why my mind wondered to the Jackson 5, but somehow it did.
Doug: I like the word you used, "suey." Hopefully just saying that won't get you in trouble.
A/J: Yeah, we can consult our legal departments. But, as far as the Jacksons go, I think they've seen it at this point and everythings ok.
Doug: Who do you mean by they, the Jacksons as an entity?
A/J: Yeah, as an entity. The touring Jacksons. My friend does some teching for their tour. Plus, in the end, it's a positive video.
