The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
Last week, fans were treated to the premiere of Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" video. The sleek, dark look at celebrity life was a new aesthetic for the star, who hooked up with Jonas Åkerlund on the clip.
While her dance scenes were choreographed by Brian Friedman, it was noted Hollywood martial-arts expert Steven Ho who helped Britney work out the moves to battle herself in the video.
"I've been very fortunate to have worked on a wide range of high-profile projects, and the video's producer, Hagai Shaham, thought my style would be a good fit with Jonas and Britney. I was brought in to train Britney, choreograph the fight and set up wires for the levitation shots," he told MTV News about joining the project.
"I've always wanted to work with Jonas," he continued. "I knew that a stylized fight would translate well with his trademark visuals, so I was thrilled about doing this project. Jonas wanted a superhuman fight with elements of brutality — that's right up my alley of how I approach an action scene, so we were definitely all on the same page throughout the process."
Not only were Åkerlund and Ho onboard for some mortal combat, but the star herself warmed up to the idea of battling a clone. "Britney was really excited throughout the whole process. It was a grueling shoot of dance and stunts, but her passion for the video and professionalism never wavered," he explained. "There were some pretty tough insert shots where we needed Britney to actually get hit in the face by 'herself.' We did several consecutive takes of this, and she had a lot of fun with it and was a great sport.
"Britney was very enthusiastic about learning how to fight; she's an athlete," he added. "I got that Jonas' concept was partially about the duality of self — we all deal with that, so who wouldn't have fun fighting their alter egos?"
The key, it seems, was making Ho's fight moves work with Friedman's dance routine. "It was really great working with Brian; he's an absolute professional. He was diligent about our fight style being cohesive with the dancing, and that's why it worked so well," Ho recalled. "Our rehearsals were on the same stage, so it was very helpful to have Brian's feedback from a dancer's point of view."
It seems that one of the most memorable moves in the fight, Spears' quickstep during the smack-down, was all her own.
"Britney was fantastic about incorporating what we had practiced in rehearsal, and as a consummate performer, she was able to take ownership by adding her own flavor to the fight. There's a quick cut in the video that features Britney taking a series of small shuffle steps in her heels. This is something she came up with herself that I thought added a nice break of 'cuteness' in the fight," he said. "Jonas drowned out the music here to highlight the tapping sounds, and it's really one of my favorite beats of the video."
Aside from the two Britneys, the other main characters in the fight were her sky-high heels and flowing gowns. "The wardrobe was one of the stars of the fight," he explained. "At first I was concerned about how to approach the long trains. There were discussions with Jonas and [stylist] B. [Åkerlund] and [fashion assistant Renelou Padora] about possibly shortening the train for safety issues. After I showed my wife [designer Nina Petronzio] the pictures of the dresses, she literally said, 'I will kill you if you cut those trains down.' We ended up incorporating the trains as 'weapons.' We treated them as if they were sharp blades, giving Britney reason to jump and evade around them."
The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
On Thursday night, Britney Spears launched a new phase in her storied career as a music video superstar. She premiered the sleek, dark video for "Hold It Against Me." The Jonas Åklerlund-directed clip will certainly have fans talking for quite some time about its metaphorical images about the trials and tribulations of pop superstardom, funky fashions and an over-the-top fight scene against herself.
With lyrics about flirting with a cute guy in a club, the song's video could have been just a straightforward narrative, but instead Spears and Åkerlund gave an insider look at celebrity, abstractly hinting at a tale about a pop star who fell from space in a fiery red comment, to find fame here on Earth. Midway through the video, our pop star character becomes overwhelmed by the pressures of fame and, emitting neon paint from her hands, she breaks down. The scene of an exhausted Spears, lying face down, her huge white gown covered in paint, might be one of the most beautiful and artistic in this entire piece.
Perhaps hooking up with the "Telephone" director prompted Spears to delve into this newer territory. As her manager Larry Rudolph explained to MTV News on premiere night, the collaboration between the pair was years in the making. "Jonas is someone we've always wanted to work with," Rudolph explained. "She's always wanted to work with him. You know, Jonas did 'Ray of Light' for Madonna, and that's when she became a fan of his."
New York, NY – Britney Spears’ highly anticipated seventh studio album Femme Fatale is confirmed to be released on March 29th.
The “Hold It Against Me” video directed by Jonas Åkerlund will premiere on VEVO and will air simultaneously in its entirety on MTV right before a new episode of the network’s top-rated Jersey Shore and on MTV.com at 9:56 PM EST on February 17th. Special teasers for the “Hold It Against Me” (← click to view) video have been airing on Britney.com, and will continue to air up to the premiere.
The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
Just because Britney Spears is working with "Telephone" director Jonas Åkerlund and his stylist wife B. Åkerlund for the "Hold It Against Me" video does not mean that the clip will mirror Lady Gaga and Beyoncé's extravaganza. Spears' choreographer, Brian Friedman, said the video is all Britney.
"The styling for this video is beyond what Britney has done before," he teased. "B. Åkerlund did the styling for it, and I can say that it is not 'Britney does Gaga.' That is not what's happening with this. Gaga has her own niche, and although B. has worked with Gaga before, she's not giving Britney anything that Gaga would wear. I love seeing Britney try out new things. It's just an extension of what Britney already is."
With potential Gaga comparisons debunked, Friedman talked about having fun with Spears on set and helping her regain that joie de vivre that fans have come to know and love when she's out on the dance floor.
"One of the places that we always tend to improve with Britney is on her beauty shots, when it's just Britney alone dancing," he said. "And one of the little tricks that I like to do is stand right off camera and scream words at her to try and get motivation from her and coach her through the little scenario that she's in, so we did that in this video. And I know there was a picture posted of a bunch of microphones around her face, and that's one of the scenes in particular where I was screaming at her on the side — in a good way."
So, what does he scream at her? "Tiger! I scream tiger," he dished. "When we first started working and I had her back in the studio, I was referring to how she danced when we were working together in the past, when we were doing 'Slave,' 'Toxic,' like some of those things. She used to have a prowl about her and an attack that to me was like a tiger, so I kept telling her, 'I want to see the tiger back,' " he revealed. "I scream the word 'tiger,' so 'tiger' seems to work. It makes her laugh, so it works."
The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
Jonas Åkerlund certainly has the resume to pull off an epic clip for Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me." Having already directed spectacles like Lady Gaga's "Telephone," Madonna's "Ray of Light" and Pink's "Sober," Åkerlund is known for creating sexy, controversial and sleek pop videos. So, working with Spears was a natural fit, said her choreographer, Brian Friedman.
"[When] Jonas and I got on the phone for the first time, I was actually jumping on a plane somewhere, so the conversation was very brief, but I am a huge Jonas Åkerlund fan," Friedman dished to MTV News. "Anything that he does is magical. His eye for art is insane, so I was excited to work with someone who loves art so much and it's not just a job, it's not technical; it really is a string aesthetic to what he does."
When Friedman and Åkerlund finally did get the chance to hash it out, the conversation was about how to ensure the video would be focused on what Spears is known for: her tight and sexy dance moves.
"So with that said, I had a meeting with him at his house. We went through the video from top to bottom, and I gave him as much input from the dance side, 'cause it's a dance video, as I could to try to help bring his story to life," he recalled. "And the collaboration was incredible."
Friedman said Åkerlund completely understood his and Spears' ideas on the project, and the results, he said, are no less than stellar.
"I really feel like bringing two artists together in a way like that — where the director really loves the dance and understands the art of the dance and doesn't try to cover it up and water it down — is the best way to go," he said. "He was genius for me with dance."
Earlier this week we learned of a few new deets about Britney Spears‘s new music video for her single Hold It Against Me … but today, I have some new information that, to my knowledge, has not been reported anywhere else. According to a trusted source with direct knowledge from the Hold It Against Me music video set, Britney will be doing something very cool in her video … something she’s never done before. So, I’m told that in the video for Hold It Against Me, Britney will be shooting paint from her hands (fingers) onto video screens. The director, Jonas Åkerlund, wanted to paint Britney‘s face for the scene but she was adamantly against having paint put on her face (I’m told she suffered a minor meltdown on set as a result). A body double stand in was used for the paint scenes that Britney was not comfortable doing. Now, we won’t really know if any of this is true until the video comes out and we see (or don’t see) Britney shooting paint from her hands … but I think this bit of info is deffo worth sharing since it’s totally new information.
We still don’t know when the video will be released but now I’m dying to know if my source is right … I’d love to see how this potential paint scene turns out.
The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
Sure, details are limited on what the Jonas Åkerlund-directed video for Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" is going to look like, but when Brit's choreographer, Brian Friedman, sat down with MTV News, he teased some scintillating details about the video.
"I didn't necessarily have pressure with this — it was more excitement," he said of working with the pop diva again. "I haven't been with Britney in five years on a project, so it was excitement to be back with her. It was excitement to get her dancing really hard again 'cause she's had a couple of years where she's been dancing different styles of dance and it hasn't been me.
"It's not necessarily that she hasn't been dancing, it hasn't been what I get from her, and what I seem to get from her is this tigress quality," he continued. "And she prowls. She really dominates when she does my choreography, and that's what I wanted to get back. Excited yes, scared no."
Shot over two days last weekend, the video shows Spears in a look she tweeted from the set. The preview pic, a lo-res photo, shows Spears from the shoulders up, standing with her back to the camera and her face turned toward it. The singer is in a red outfit, surrounded by a wreath of microphones.
While Friedman danced around any specific details about the clip, he did share that the video will have 10 male dancers. He also told us his favorite part: "I love nudity," he teased.
"I can tell you that Britney is wearing a couple of hats in this video — not literal hats, but she's playing roles in this video. That is what I can give you," he explained. "In every role, she is dancing. She is going to be dancing throughout the whole video. Like I said: Dance is the focal point of this video."
He also teased a bit about the costumes: "She's taking fashion risks. Things we've never seen her wear before she's wearing in this video, and I think it's just very sexy and it's a little bit playful," he added. "She's going to be doing something in this video that we've never seen her do. I'm not gonna tell you what that is but she's going to be sweating and she's going to be getting bruised and battered." Source: MTV
A big thank you to Michelle for keeping my readers updated on all the latest Brit news while I'm sick. Much appreciated!
Break the Ice is a blog dedicated to the one and only, Miss Britney Spears. So original, right? I decided to create this blog because I was getting sick of going to fans sites that didn't update as frequently as I wanted. Our goal here at Break the Ice is to bring you ALL Britney news ALL the time. Tom and Cool are the administrators and Beautiful Sinner, Joel, Tekkie, Johnny, Juicy UK, Marcus and Jenna Pixie are updaters. Together, we form the Break the Ice team!
Any questions/comments/concerns? Please e-mail us at breaktheiceblog@aol.com. Enjoy!
The following italicized article is from www.mtv.com:
So, I’m told that in the video for Hold It Against Me, Britney will be shooting paint from her hands (fingers) onto video screens. The director, Jonas Åkerlund, wanted to paint Britney‘s face for the scene but she was adamantly against having paint put on her face (I’m told she suffered a minor meltdown on set as a result). A body double stand in was used for the paint scenes that Britney was not comfortable doing. Now, we won’t really know if any of this is true until the video comes out and we see (or don’t see) Britney shooting paint from her hands … but I think this bit of info is deffo worth sharing since it’s totally new information.
