[announcer] Welcome to Super Bowl LV.
Downloaded from YTS.MX
As you prepare to enter the stadium,
have your mobile device open to display your game ticket.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
Enter at the gate shown on your game ticket.
This entrance is for Gate B ticketholders.
Thank you and enjoy the game.
-Thank you, sir. -[Abel] All right.
[crowd cheers]
[person] Getting in right now.
[Abel] I'm ready to party, man.
-Party? Game time. -Come on! Let's do it.
-Yeah. -[buzzer sounds]
-Is it not good? -[laughter]
[person] And who brought the car?
Yeah, it's waiting for me there.
Waiting for him.
[buzzer continues]
[person] Thank you so much.
Two-minute warning for the...
-Halftime. -...halftime?
[elevator bell dings]
[indistinct chatter]
[cheers and applause]
lively music swells
[cheers and applause continue]
[male announcer] The National Football League welcomes you
to the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
[female announcer] ...to the Pepsi Super Bowl LV
Halftime Show.
Yeah.
[male announcer] The National Football League welcomes you
to the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
[female announcer] Halftime Show.
Thank you for watching the Pepsi Super--
No. It sounds like, "Thank you for flying Delta."
[Afi] Afi Ekulona.
The National Football League welcomes you
to the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
All right. She's good.
[Jesse] The announcer is a big part of the show,
because that's the first thing you hear.
It's actually one of those details that seems small,
but you definitely don't want to be trying to figure this out
two days before the show 'cause you forgot. [chuckles]
[Afi] The National Football League
thanks you for watching
the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
[Jesse] I'm gonna book her.
Woman of color announcing the Super Bowl.
How about that?
-Hey. -[Jana] Hello.
[Jesse] This is my first year as the executive producer
of the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
I think I'm going down on Sunday.
Did you listen to that voice yet?
I really like her voice.
I started as a co-producer on BET's 20th Anniversary.
From there, it's just grown into the Grammys
and the Oscars and now something like this,
where Roc Nation and Pepsi and the NFL
just hand you the keys to one of the fanciest cars
on the live event lot.
I'm just excited to be able to drive this thing.
Oh, shit. I've got a Zoom.
It is a COVID year.
People don't know what to expect.
So we're really working hard
to make sure that everything is flawless.
You don't want to wake up the next morning
and Twitter is not pleased.
sentimental music
They say that the halftime show is the most watched
12 or 13 minutes in television, period.
Fifty-four years of tradition have come to this moment,
where the entire world watches.
[reporter] America will be blinded by the lights
when The Weeknd takes the stage
for the halftime show on February 7th.
[Jana] This is Roc Nation's second year
working with the NFL and with Pepsi
specifically on the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show.
We want to bring something that's never been seen before,
and we want to also push the culture forward.
[reporter] This is the biggest concert of the year.
[Seth] Not only is everybody watching,
but whatever happens on that field is history.
My favorite is definitely Diana Ross, 1996.
upbeat synth music
[Seth] Now we have COVID,
and there's been no live performances
on a major scale for so long.
We have a whole new team in here.
We don't know how we're gonna execute this.
There's never been a Super Bowl Halftime Show
like this one.
So the stakes feel even higher.
[bass notes playing]
[drum beats]
[guitar notes playing]
[strumming "The Hills"]
[laughter]
[person] Yeah.
Okay.
[Abel] I can't feel my face when I'm with you
But I love it, but I love it
Oh, I can't feel my face when I'm with you
But I love it, but I love it
I can't feel my face when I'm with you
But I love it, but I love it
[Dionne] Today's the first day that we've all gotten together
in a room in person.
We've been fortunate enough to be working.
But something of this magnitude just reminds me
of the old days, as in 2019,
and it is exciting to be back in the saddle.
["Starboy" playing]
[Abel] Look what you've done
I'm a starboy
[La Mar] My name's La Mar Taylor.
I'm the creative director for The Weeknd
and cofounder of XO Records.
My role involves extracting the ideas
out of Abel's head.
I want to make sure that nothing falls off the tracks
and he's happy with whatever the outcome is.
[Abel] I'm a starboy
[La Mar] Knowing the Super Bowl is
a really make-or-break situation,
we wanted to do something different,
do something that's true to us, true to our fans,
true to the legacy that we're building.
["Blinding Lights" playing]
We really wanted to tell more of a story of After Hours.
We dropped the first video, 2019,
and that whole time,
Abel committed to that character.
We wanted to present After Hours
at the Super Bowl-- Vegas, the lights.
And then we wanted to capture a fraction
of the Beijing Olympics, the scale of it,
how everything was choreographed.
Because of the "limitations,"
it actually excelled the creative in so many ways.
Building that stage
several weeks before the actual performance
versus how it was historically done,
which is 12 minutes before the performance,
changed everything.
[Charm] Hi. Good morning.
Lovely to see you all. Can't wait to be there.
Look, so this meeting's a little longer than normal.
We just want to go through the show, beat by beat.
Just want to make sure we're all on the same page.
I'm confident in the show
because it's A-list from top to bottom.
The Weeknd is an A-list artist.
Everyone on his team-- La Mar, Es...
Think it can be, you know-- yeah, celebratory and joyful.
[Jesse] Our director, Hamish Hamilton,
he's one of the greatest variety directors of all time.
I want to see a bit of joy.
I want to see a bit of humanity.
And Super Bowl Halftime is like--it's kind of--
Hopefully there's some normality to it.
[Dionne] Producing a live show, in general,
is a very high-stress endeavor.
[audio echoing]
Someone's echo's crazy right now.
Do you might muting, somebody? Okay.
[Dionne] To add on top of that COVID,
it definitely adds an entire layer of difficulty
to the process.
Okay. So somehow we get through that.
[laughter]
We're starting with a pre-tape,
where it's gonna be a seamless transition from tape to live.
exciting music
Pepsi has been very collaborative.
They're very creative over there.
And they are an essential piece
of the Super Bowl Halftime family.
[director] And places.
"Call Out My Name" playing
[Alex] The show starts with this
very fantastical built set that appears kind of like
a two-dimensional, flat photograph.
As the camera starts moving,
you're starting to realize how this has been built,
the three-dimensionality of it.
[director] Okay! Same places.
All right, let's run that through again.
[Alex] I think one of the biggest tragedies is
people not realizing what gets put into making something,
how hard a simple shot or thing might be,
in reality, for everyone on set.
All this is gonna be green screen, too, or just this?
This is the bottom of the Jumbotron.
This is all in the Jumbotron.
[Abel] It's gonna start going--
[Alex] Yeah. And we pull out of the Jumbotron screen,
floating--we pull past the floating choir guy.
Got it. Got it.
[Alex] We see you sitting on the Jumbotron, choir guy.
[Abel] That's pre-shot.
[Alex] That's all pre-recorded.
What's happening here is we are suspending a choir member.
[director] Two, one, drop.
[Alex] What the piece of continuity is gonna be
is both audio and visually, him descending into frame,
and then seeing the same person at the Super Bowl
descending into our frame as we cut to our final choir,
and it works like a magic trick,
and everyone's like, "Ta-da!"
"Wow, that felt seamless, and it felt live."
There you go!
But if it goes badly, it's 'cause it looks fake.
That was perfect, Charlie.
Buddy! That was good, Charlie.
[Alex] Fantastic. That was fantastic.
Yeah, so let me see...
[Jesse] I'll know in the next hour or so
or by tomorrow morning.
It was "Feel It Coming,"
"Earned It," and then "Save Your Tears."
He flipped "Save Your Tears" and "Earned It."
[Charm] I don't think what people understand is
when they move-- make those little,
small transitions, I have to change choreo, right?
[Jesse] You can do this. This is gonna be fine.
Don't even worry about it. We're gonna do fine.
The switching of the songs,
the sequence really fucks Charm up.
Why does it fuck up Charm? She has to redo it?
Because, first of all, she needs choreography
for "Save My Tears."
And they had it all planned out
on how that choir was gonna get to the field.
I know. I was thinking about that.
Now she can't do that.
So it's like, what, they need more bodies, or--
[Jesse] We may need more bodies.
Well, hang on, let's talk to Charm.
Let's see what Charm says.
[line trilling]
-Hey. -[Charm] Hi.
-Hey, so I'm here with La Mar. -[Charm] Yeah?
[La Mar] I'm apologizing on Abel's behalf
for the last-minute switch.
Musically, he feels it enhances
the sonic progression of the show.
I don't think there's anything we can do
to talk him out of it.
[Charm] Well, we'll figure it out.
[Jesse] When The Weeknd was looking for a choreographer
and then Charm's name came up,
we knew that Charm would be great.
We've done the Grammys together.
We've done BET Awards together.
All of her performances are the ones
that everybody talks about.
[Charm] I was home, and I got a phone call.
And I think it was La Mar.
He was like, "Hey, so, what's your process like?
'Cause we're doing the Super Bowl."
And literally, I was like-- I don't know if La Mar
could tell on the phone, I was like, "Eh, Super Bowl?"
[laughs] I had to keep my cool, you know?
I'm from Compton, California.
As a kid, I loved to choreograph.
I loved to make moves.
I didn't know it was called choreography at the time.
My mentor, Fatima Robinson,
we met when I was ten years old.
And then I was her assistant when she did her Super Bowl.
Now I'm choreographing this amazing performance
for this amazing artist.
And in COVID. [chuckles]
It's like--it's crazy.
["Can't Feel My Face" playing]
I met Abel in our first rehearsal.
I've seen his videos, of course.
I've seen his performances.
And I kind of just based the choreo off
of what I thought he would do.
And then when he got into the room, he saw it.
Then we collabed,
and it built, and it made sense.
She told me, "Don't worry"...
[Charm] Everything is an extension of him,
because he's very in there.
I love artists who are hands-on with the creative process
and knowing what he wants to feel around him.
She told me...
[Charm] To see him throw himself
in the middle of the dancers and just go for it
is fucking dope, man.
I can't feel my face when I'm with you
But I love it, but I love it
[Charm] This particular performance,
there is different sections.
Around Abel, there are 20 dancers from LA.
We have the choir,
which is, like, 75 guys who are from all over,
locals as the choir,
and then we have our field.
So you see the three pods.
["The Hills" playing]
With COVID, we can't have too many rehearsals.
Some people rehearse for three, four months
for Super Bowl.
I think I've had two rehearsals.
[chuckles]
And one rehearsal was on a four-hour Zoom.
I know this is crazy.
We'll get it done, though.
We'll get it done. We'll get it done.
Normally, dancers are in the room, and I create.
But the cast has never done it full
from the top to the bottom.
And we kind of got to use our imaginations to go,
"Okay, this could work."
[indistinct chatter]
[conductor] Okay, got it. Places, everybody.
Ready?
[choir vocalizing]
Abel kind of wanted this sound carried
through kind of the whole thing.
[engineer] Are we gonna be doing
the pads and then the hook,
or you want to do the hook first and the pads second?
-Or vice versa? -Totally up to you guys.
[engineer] I'm gonna suggest that--you know, the first part
of this is only the baritones pretty much, is that correct?
[conductor] It is the bari-basses.
Here we go.
["Earned It" playing]
[choir vocalizing]
[La Mar] Abel is one of the hardest-working people I know.
And he's put his heart and soul into this.
Whenever he's seen in front of the camera,
he wants it to be about his music.
He doesn't want it to be anything else
other than his craft.
One, two, three, and...
[choir vocalizing]
That's a good balance.
[choir continues vocalizing]
Two, three...
[choir] Touch me, feel me
I am the real me, I am the real me
[vocalizing]
Touch me, feel me
I am the real me, I am the real me
[Abel] How many is that? Two? That's two?
-[conductor] Yes. -[Abel] Nice.
[La Mar] One thing about Abel, he hasn't changed a bit.
He's still that same dude I met 14-plus years ago.
sentimental music
I met Abel first day of high school.
I remember he had, like, a baby-blue do-rag on,
and I had a Killa Kam sort of pink polo shirt.
And we were just admirers of art, cinema, fashion,
underground rap scene at the time.
That really sparked our friendship.
He started exploring songwriting and doing music.
I was gonna become a registered nurse,
until I met Abel Tesfaye
and he dragged me on his adventure.
Abel and myself both had single mothers
that were providing for everyone in the household.
So, when we moved out of our home,
we got even poorer, you know?
We've been on such a journey.
I shot the House of Balloons cover
in my mom's bathtub ten years ago.
We go from that image
to rolling out the Super Bowl performance
in that ten-year span-- just, it's beyond words.
[clears throat]
-[Lila] Mr. Collins. -Play, girl.
-[Lila] What up, baby? -[Jesse] So--
[Lila] Should I be afraid?
[Jesse] Of course you should be afraid.
No, this is just a check-in.
The choir all have the N95s, right?
[Lila] Yes, sir.
[Jesse] All right. So I talked to Seth.
They're fine with the bandages for the field cast.
They're not fine-- Oh, we just lost you.
funky music
Lila Nikole's never done this show before.
But she's done a ton of fashion shows.
We've done a ton of award shows together.
She knows how to apply the things that she's learned
over the years into this moment.
[Lila] Last year, I wanted to go to the Super Bowl,
but the ticket prices were astronomical.
Jesse knows everybody, so I was like,
"Yo, Jess, help me get some tickets."
He calls me a couple months later.
"You want to do the Super Bowl?"
So I thought he wanted to go to the Super Bowl.
He's like, "All right, so you're gonna have
to be available from October till whenever."
And I was like, "Wait, like, what do you mean?"
Like, it didn't make sense for a minute.
So I acted like it wasn't a big deal.
I get off the phone, and I'm just sitting right here,
and I was just sitting there, like,
"Did I just get the Super Bowl?"
Like, it didn't really kick in.
I put on the Beyoncé halftime show,
and I, like, snapped.
I just started crying.
I'm not an emotional, crying kind of person,
but I'm a die-hard football fan.
That's me and my father's thing.
Ever since I was a little girl,
every Sunday we would watch football.
So this job is just very special to me
because of my dad.
If you see me skipping around,
like, you know, it's just what it is.
I'm laughing, because if you look over there,
look what he's wearing.
My team, they're creative children.
[laughs]
Okay, so our show is an extension of his chaos.
So the only way for you to understand that is
to see one of his videos.
["Save Your Tears" playing]
I saw you dancing in a crowded room
You look so happy when I'm not with you
So you'll see the red jacket,
black gloves,
black tie, black suit, black pants, black shoes.
That's our wardrobe, but ours is just a multiplied version.
Gloves, tie, belt.
So we're basically gonna mimic this look.
So here is our final version.
Everybody will be wearing this red jacket.
We have to make hundreds of these
in a very small amount of time.
Dear red jacket, how I love and hate you.
I'm just kidding.
Well, his shoes are custom-made.
-[designer] Beautiful. -And we cannot get them.
So here is a dancer version for everybody.
It's just a basic black dance shoe.
Wait. Hold on.
These are not even the shoes that I ordered. Oh, shit.
[JC] Well, they look black.
Yeah, but they can't look like--
they're supposed to look like a basic black shoe.
See, they sent me the wrong shit.
Look. No, look.
That's what I ordered.
-[Lila] They're all wrong? -[designer] All the same?
Yeah, they're all wrong. Same thing.
[Lila] We're gonna have to pull all of these.
How many of those are?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
11, 12, 13.
Now we have to return them all
and try and find 30 more pairs to match.
And we need it in three days
for our fittings and for our setups.
hip-hop music
[Jesse] Listen, I was probably the most talented
bench rider at J.E.B. Stuart High School.
[Dionne] Look at you now-- at the Super Bowl.
[Jesse] Yeah. I'm gonna talk to Hamish.
[Dionne] I'm glad you caught that.
-Oh--ah! -See?
[laughter]
Because you said that.
His five-year-old is showing. [laughs]
It's surreal that we're actually here.
It is one of the biggest stages.
There's that pressure of having to create
14 minutes of perfection
in front of 120 million people.
So that's just the general stress underlying everything.
This is probably the biggest thing that I've done
and the thing my mom is most proud of.
Like, she's trying to get all the scoop.
You know, I'm like, "I can't tell you, Mom.
You'll put it on Facebook."
#ProducerMom.
And she puts that with all of her posts.
You need your helmet to go on the stage.
[person] I got my hat.
[producer] I don't know how to work this.
[Dionne] I'm confused by this.
[producer] So this is the front.
Wait, what?
[Dionne] Erin, how does this work?
What is this? Why?
[Charm] I think these are on backwards.
-I think I did it. -[laughter]
I didn't know assembly was required.
What's going on?
How are these people gonna produce the Super Bowl
when they can't even produce the hat?
[laughs]
As producers, we're working hand in hand with The Weeknd
and his team on all creative elements.
We're almost, like, the glue
bringing all of the pieces together.
-Ready? -Ready.
[laughter]
-[person] Oh! -[person 2] Oh, shit.
[Dionne] Jesse, please don't kill us.
-[person] Aah! -[person 2] Ooh!
Dun, duh-duh-dun
I want a golf cart on every show now.
[Dionne] Oh, God. Here we go.
[Jesse] Here we go. This is the fun part.
[Dionne] Oh, no! Please don't.
-[laughs] -Here we go.
[Dionne] Aah!
-Sorry. -[person laughs]
It's the park for me--oh, I thought you had it, Jesse,
-I thought you had it. -I thought I had it, too.
I tried.
-[Charm] Wow. -[Dionne] Wow.
This is pretty badass.
Wow.
Wow, this feels like a real stage.
[Charm] Right?
Wow.
[Jesse] It's still a work in progress,
but I know it's gonna be great.
[Dionne] To have everybody come together in this stadium
to see the set,
to have it all come together is really gratifying.
When you guys are done, save the packaging, okay?
Most of the stuff is already on hangers,
so when we're hanging 'em,
we're gonna design it like a store.
Basically they would walk through.
Make it really super easy.
And we're probably gonna dress about 400 people.
I got everybody some really cool jackets
that say "wardrobe team" on the back
so they can distinguish who we are.
We just got to be our best.
We have to make sure that we have fun while we're doing it
and that The Weeknd is in love with it as much as we are.
Cool? All right.
[cheers and applause]
[choreographer] Okay, here we go.
Lean to the right, in five, six, seven, eight.
And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight.
Two, two, three, four, five, six. Come back up.
One, two, three, four, five, six. Toe tap.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Run.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Lovely. Good job.
[KP] Okay, "House of Balloons,"
if you're down here, you guys can go to position.
Position one.
Let's see how many eight counts it takes you
to get to these positions, okay?
Ay, yi, yi.
["House of Balloons" playing]
[Charm] Knees up.
[Abel] Whoa
Yeah
Oh, yeah
Hey
[singer] This is fun, fun, fun, fun
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun
Make sure you walk on beat!
One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight!
Two, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!
Remember the motivation behind it, yeah?
You're an extension of Abel, extension of The Weeknd.
He's not doing back handsprings out here.
He's vibing, so everyone needs to vibe.
[hums "Blinding Lights"]
It's a vibe, yeah?
It's not y'all...
So try again. Six, seven, eight.
One, two, three, four, five.
So, aha, get that rhythm.
Down. Boom, boom, boom, boom
Cool? Yeah.
[Jesse] So that's the march out, right?
-Are they going out to the 50? -When they start this--
-He's with them. -He's with them.
And he's not doing that, right?
No, he's going... [vocalizes]
Right, he's just kind of doing his fall around.
Yeah.
["House of Balloons" playing]
Let's go!
I've never done anything on this magnitude
with volunteers.
And we're leaning on them a lot
because they are the people.
[KP] Okay, everybody.
Yeah, break there. Good.
You're gonna face midfield, to the 50.
[Charm] It's beyond choreography at this point.
I lean on KP to help facilitate everything,
'cause it's a lot.
So KP and I are like...
Can they be walking in that part, or not?
Oh, no, they can be walking.
[hums "House of Balloons"]
[KP] My name's Kristen Patterson Terry.
They call me KP.
This is my 23rd halftime show.
I was part of Super Bowl XXVI,
as part of the choreography and the field direction team.
That really got me super excited.
And it just kind of snowballed from there.
I'm responsible for the cast on the field.
Charm and I work to make sure
that all the parts integrate together.
Blue stickers, go to your--
now go to you "Blinding Lights" position,
unless you have a white sticker.
Then don't move, 'cause you have a new spot.
No one should be standing on the hashmarks.
They may not be pro dancers.
They might not even think they can dance,
but when they come into rehearsal,
we'll teach them what they don't know.
The bottom line is, do they want to create
and be a part of something that's seen by the world
at halftime of the Super Bowl?
Honestly, this spacing super helped,
just seeing what it's gonna look like
and how we can spread out to make the look
that they want to get later.
I see, like, maybe five, six guys
that just-- it's way over their head.
[producer] If we teach everyone the other choreography,
we'll know for sure.
[KP] So you're saying we have a chance.
[laughter]
Every year presents itself
with a new set of circumstances.
Once it sinks in that it's COVID
and they have to go to mandatory testing
and wear PPE,
it's just harder to find the groups of people
that are willing to go through all the extra steps
that COVID layers on to participation.
That's gonna be our biggest challenge.
[Divine] Five, six, seven, eight.
I'm--I'm late.
Yeah.
Five, six, seven, eight.
-What you doing? -Oh, my bad. I'm sorry.
-Come on! -Man, that basketball.
[dancer] Y'all about ready?
[overlapping chatter]
hip-hop music
-[Divine groans] -Yes!
[Divine] The Super Bowl,
it's the once-in-a-lifetime experience.
-We're from Nigeria. -Yeah.
Born there, raised here.
Look, represent. I forgot I had this one.
-Oh, yeah. -Yes, sir.
[Ezeugo] Dancing with my twin brother, it's, like,
something not a lot of relatives get to experience.
[Divine] You know, twins have, like, that type of--
[Ezeugo] Oh, twin telepathy.
[Divine] Yeah, twin telepathy.
Like, if he gets hurt, you know, I can feel it.
[Ezeugo] Our family is real proud of us.
I'm pretty sure they, like, never even imagined
us being on TV.
[person] Take your shot. Take your shot.
[Ezeugo] I ran track ever since middle school.
In high school, I got, like, very competitive in it.
Oh, I like the top bunk.
He already claimed the top bunk.
-[Ezeugo] Yeah. -The reason why he claimed
the top bunk because I used to be overweight.
So he said he don't want me to...
-Fall. -...fall and squish him.
[Ezeugo] These are gonna be kept.
Yeah, it's gonna be kept for a long while.
I'm 127. That's me.
I'm 142.
Tell Charm that 142 is looking for her--
-is looking for her... -Oh, my God.
...'Cause I want to take her out to Waffle House,
you know, so...
[laughter]
[Lovelin] So, one day, they came back home.
They said, "Mommy, what happen
if they choose them
to be participating in the Super Bowl?
How would you like that?"
I said, "Wow, I would be the happiest woman on Earth."
[car beeping]
-Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. -Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
-Hold up, hold up. -Hurry up! Ahh!
[Lovelin] They said, "Mommy, they're not
going to work for two weeks."
I said, "Really? They're going to pay you guys?"
They said, "No." They said--
They said, "Mommy, don't worry.
It's an opportunity.
Never know what become of, you know?"
I said, "Well, it's okay. I am impressed."
["Blinding Lights" playing]
[excited chatter]
-[Ezeugo] There you go. -And party.
Party, party, party. There you go.
[laughter]
Oh, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
-Hey, come on now. -[laughter]
[Divine] That's when you come down.
-And then when we come down... -[Ezeugo] No way.
So we come down, right?
Got to do...touch.
[grunts] Yeah.
And hold it.
Hold it.
exciting music
[Bruce] All right, let's go ahead and one, two, three.
-Going up to 30. -[Jesse] Okay, you guys set?
Yeah, I love that.
We've been worried about this fly gag
from the beginning--
where we could fly him, the winds.
You do have fans in the building.
You don't want people jumping on the wire and flying down,
like they're Captain Jack.
There's a lot of challenges,
and it's, like, one of those things
where if we couldn't get that right,
we would probably have to change the whole open.
What we're learning here is that in rehearsals,
if we need to adjust timing here and there,
then it's about a five-minute adjustment.
[person] Okay.
[Jesse] Our production designer, Bruce Rodgers,
he's been doing this show for many years.
He's seen it all,
so I know this is gonna go off great.
The highest that our person can be, right at that X brace.
[Jesse] Okay.
[Bruce] This is my 15th Super Bowl.
My first one was with Prince.
The last time we were in Tampa,
we were with Bruce Springsteen here,
so it brings back a lot of memories.
[cheers and applause]
I grew up in Odessa, Texas,
where "Friday Night Lights" was written.
All my life, football was king.
To be able to be the halftime show designer
for this many years means a lot, not only to me
but my family and friends back home in Texas.
[producer] Bruce, I don't know if you want to speak
to what exactly the media's planning
on doing around that area.
Because of COVID, there were already rules
that were told to us by the NFL.
Some of the restrictions included
not being out on the field.
Every other halftime show takes an army.
You're building the set in front of the live audience.
And they were like, "You got to do a halftime show
that doesn't do that."
The Weeknd's creative team
had the Vegas look that they were playing in.
Es drew this beautiful rendering of this choir setup.
She's a wonderful opera designer.
[Es] I had always thought that we could start to,
you know, reveal the lights in a quite abstracted way,
just the window lights, so we get some energy.
It's really just the abstraction
of the lights and the windows.
[Bruce] The concept was to take us out of a Super Bowl world
and put us in an Abel world.
So we pivoted
to build a different kind of halftime show,
one that doesn't get loaded in in seven minutes
but gets loaded in in three weeks,
like a massive outdoor opera.
light music
We're on the north concourse of the stadium.
So this gives you a pretty good sense of scale
of what we're trying to do.
That's an LED screen.
We'll feed in content that almost looks like
an infinite run of the different tiers of scenery.
It'll change with the mood of the song
and create just that final layer of surfacing.
[indistinct chatter]
That set piece alone weighs 100,000 pounds.
It'll be populated
with about 75 choir members.
Your minds are gonna be blown,
but the set splits right here, right down the middle.
So it's designed to move smoothly and quickly.
Underneath that is the infinity room.
So this is 50 percent complete right now,
but when it's all said and done,
there's probably about 7,000 light bulbs that'll be active,
with sign work and all that sort of thing.
This infinity room is gonna be super cool
because people in TV land are gonna be like,
"Wait, where did we go?"
There's so much at stake
to pull off as perfect of a show as possible,
That's the biggest challenge.
dramatic music
Yes, sir.
Doing great.
Let's take a look. What's your waist?
-Oh, 32. -[JC] 32? Okay.
Let's take a look at... maybe this one.
So are you excited about Super Bowl?
[Divine] Oh, most definitely.
It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance--like, come on.
[JC] Yeah, you guys gonna be out there on the field.
-[Divine] Exactly. -[JC] It's gonna be good times.
[Divine] I'ma tell my kids' kids about this.
-[laughter] -[Divine] They don't even know.
[JC] All right, so I'm gonna go ahead and give you these.
-[Divine] Yes, sir. -[JC] The opening's here.
So hang your clothes over on that side.
[Lila] You're good. So you're done.
-You feel comfortable in this? -Yes, ma'am.
Hands down.
[Lila] Can I see a little choreo, just for fun?
-A little choreo? -Let's see what you got.
-[Lila] Ooh! Hey. -[laughs]
Chris, what nationality are you?
-[Chris] I'm Puerto Rican. -I'm Puerto Rican!
[Chris] Are you really? Hey!
[laughs]
[Lila] Today we have all of our dancers.
We're fitting them super quick,
making sure that they are tailored and precise
and getting them out for rehearsals.
I'm gonna pin it in the back for you.
It's really, really challenging
to do what we do,
to do it quickly, efficiently, and safely.
-JC. -Hey, what you got here?
I think I got something special in these boxes.
What's in the box?
Bless your soul! They made it.
-[Lila] The right shoes! -Yes, the right shoes!
[Lila] The shoes, they were delivered,
and we can move on to something more exciting.
Jaji.
Okay, so we have another snafu.
The Weeknd wants to add black jackets into the look now,
so we need to get 130 jackets by tomorrow.
He just wants this blingy, you know, classic tuxedo look.
-[designer] Right. -We can do it.
It's gonna be a lot easier
to find them opposed to making them,
because making them is gonna take a while.
[Lila] I mean, I have a uniform place
that can get us the black jackets tomorrow.
Or we can source as many as we can...
-And then do the rest. -[Lila] ...and let's say
we only have 20 left or something like that.
That works. Yeah.
[Lila] It could be different vendors.
They could be really similar.
But what he's looking for is kind of like a solid here
and the sequins in front in black.
[Jaji] Jacket that we're gonna get is gonna be plain black.
So all you got to do is come,
spray the adhesive on there--bum.
And then we sew it through, and we close it.
All right. Got it.
So it's, like, the embroidery blazer
with, like, satin on it.
[automated voice] To better assist you,
please select from one of the following option menus.
Para español, oprima nueve.
What time do you close today?
Is there some way that we can get, like, a wholesale rate?
[line trilling]
Hi. How are you?
[representative] Good. How can we help you today?
[Lila] I need--it's 120 jackets
sent overnight, if possible.
Can I give you the SKU number to see if you have it in stock?
[line trilling]
We were thinking of, like, 50 medium, 50 large,
and 20 extra-large.
[line trilling]
How do we get a wholesale price
if you guys already have it marked at 135?
That's real multitasking. Did you see that?
[Jesse] So they start in the robes,
and then they all go to the jackets?
They start in the robes.
They have the black jacket underneath.
They have to take the black jacket off
and then end up in the red jacket.
So they have three changes now.
-Ugh. -That's kind of where we are.
The place that sold you the first 14
-can't make it happen? -Nope.
-Impossible. -[Jesse] How's it impossible?
They don't have, like, a closet full of sequins.
People don't wear those things like that.
I mean, we're just gonna see what we can find
and try and make it work, you know?
[Jesse] May the Force be with you.
-[laughs] -You can make it happen.
Oh, and KP asked me to help with the casting.
You're talking about volunteers.
[Lila] Volunteers, they don't even have close
-to the numbers they need. -[Jesse] All right.
Let's hit KP and see where she's at with it.
[Lila] Our goal was to do 300-plus Abels
for a grand finale.
Like, an army of him.
But with COVID, we've lost people.
They're just not showing up.
And then some people dropped out
because they actually want to see the game.
-How's it going? -Great. How are you?
-Good. Nice to meet you. -Hey.
So casting-- Lila thinks we're in trouble.
[laughs]
[KP] As quick as we get people in, people would drop out...
-Okay. -...because it all was, like,
in the same time zone of,
"Oh, well, wait a minute, I don't get to watch the game
-if I'm in the halftime show?" -Got it.
So you don't see any of the game.
-It's a hard sell. -Yeah.
[KP] And then we had a couple people come through testing
and test positive, so they're out, too.
So we're gonna have this as a cycle now till the end.
[Jesse] If somebody tests positive--
-[KP] They're just out. -They're just out? Okay.
[Lila] I'm with it. I'm good with that.
[KP] Yeah. All right. Let's keep on keeping on.
[choreographer] Same place, now at the top.
But the top is 12, and we only need 11,
so this guy, we'll leave.
[Charm] Back row is the choir.
[choreographer] Well, these two are the COVID replacements.
I don't have their photos there.
Oh, right, right.
The last backups that just came in.
People we can't move are the violins.
-[choreographer] Right. -We can't move the choir boy.
All the dancers just got in.
They've never been together.
And before everyone gets on the flight,
everyone has to take a test.
Two of my guys tested positive,
so they couldn't get on their flight,
so then we had to replace with--
So now this is another structure change
that we're doing, and these people don't know
the choreography at all.
-Yay. -Yay.
-[laughter] -Guys, it's starting to hit me
that it's a lot of shit that needs to get done.
Let me see if I have this, a violin rehearsal.
[violins playing]
[choreographer] They're dancers, so it's like,
how do you teacher dancers not to look like dancers
and actually look like musicians, so...
[Charm] We brought two instructors in
to help the guys properly play.
We're doing what we got to do.
You know, we're doing what we have to do.
Here they go.
We have to have rehearsal with the choir.
I have to have rehearsal with my infinity room crew.
I have to have rehearsal in general.
We're gonna get it done, damn it!
Damn it.
[vocalizing]
[Abel] You make it look like it's magic
'Cause I see nobody
Nobody but you, you, you
I'm never confused
Here we go. Bounce. Bounce.
[Abel] I'm so used to being used
So I love when you call unexpected
My baby
'Cause I hate when...
[Charm] One, two, three. One, two, three.
[Abel] You, you, you, you
So let's put the violin there.
Up. Up.
Nice, guys. Up. Up.
[Jesse] Here we go.
[Jesse] There's anxiety about our first walkthrough
with La Mar and Alex and the whole creative team.
Yes, they've seen iPhone video.
They've seen renderings, drawings,
but what is their reaction when they walk on the stage?
'Cause they're basically Abel's eyes.
[Bruce] How are you?
dramatic music
We're basically 50 feet above Planet Earth.
[Alex] The floor.
Man.
[Jesse] This is definitely gonna feel
-like rock star moment. -[Alex] Yeah.
In the building-- I mean, in the stadium,
but on TV as well.
[La Mar] It's crazy.
I'm just astounded by the scale.
It's way more massive than I imagined.
Feels really, really good.
hopeful music
[Jesse] La Mar's here, and he likes the set.
So there you go.
Is Abel landing tonight at 10:30, or is it earlier?
Hey, Bruce.
What's the best way into the infinity room?
When The Weeknd walks in here, I need him to feel comfortable
that this is what we've been talking about
and working on for so many months.
What up, bro?
Come on, Abel. We'll check it out.
That's the break.
That's the center line of the set.
-So this-- -Gonna open up here?
This whole thing goes, and that goes.
[Jesse] So we did talk about-- there's, like, a step.
I think it's between the T and the Empire State Building.
On "Earned It," maybe you do it there.
During that string section,
it's enough time for you to sneak down.
So, basically, you would have to walk three times.
And it just gives us three different positions
and three different good angles and backgrounds.
[Abel] I don't want to be, like, singing,
-like, while I'm moving... -[Hamish] Right.
...especially on a song like that.
Like, I feel like I'm covered for most of it anyway.
[Hamish] Yeah, I get it. I get it.
[Jesse] Yeah, like, I think you try it Monday,
and if it feels weird,
then we'll just pick a stationary spot.
[Abel] Can I see "Save Your Tears,"
like, from here?
-[Charm] Mm-hmm. -["Save Your Tears" playing]
[Hamish] The rest of it feels good, though, right?
-[Abel] Yeah. -[Charm] Here?
[Jesse] Charm, go back up to the very top.
Yeah. And look at that position that we were saying.
Since September, it's been kind of
a clinical, scientific way of getting this done,
and now it's, like, you feel the chemistry.
You hear the music.
Everybody's spitballing ideas,
and this is when it goes from good to great.
[Abel] Save your tears for another day
[Jesse] So you could do it right there.
[Abel] Okay.
[Jesse] I woke up at seven.
And so I've been going ever since.
Wow, that's--that's a strong 12 hours.
I know.
At my age, you know, usually I would have had,
you know, dinner and-- dinner with Jell-O at four.
[laughing] I got nothing.
soft music
[Jesse] Being executive producer tends to be the one
kind of responsible for everything.
To me, it's like not being afraid.
You have to be that person that's willing
to dig into the weeds.
My leadership philosophy
is something I've developed over time.
I think the core of it is,
I'm willing to work as hard or harder than anybody else.
Sometimes it's motivation.
Sometimes it's pushing people.
You know, every day there's always a different problem.
I think just be able to think quickly
and always remain calm.
[Abel] I'm running out of time
'Cause I can see the sun light up the sky
So I hit the road in overdrive
Baby, oh
The city's cold and empty
No one's around to judge me
I can't see clearly when you're gone
And I said, ooh
I'm blinded by the lights
[Joshua] I got a photographic memory.
I have high-functioning autism.
I can remember all the moves from rehearsal
without looking at the video.
This is the video that got me to participate
in the Super Bowl.
One or two weeks later, that's when they said
I was part of the show.
As you can see, I love sneakers.
I have so many sneakers, I just lose count.
My most favorite would have to be my Air Force Ones.
There's still some sneakers behind there
that you haven't seen.
And he has the whole continuum here,
from the time he was three to the time he graduated,
all the track teams, the little girlfriends, the whole nine.
[Joshua] They're actually not my girlfriends.
These are my friends.
But I did have some girlfriends back in the day.
So, as my mom mentioned, this is me when I was three.
[Mary Ann] He was first determined
to have a disability at age two.
I jumped on it right out of the gate.
It was a long journey.
But by the time he got in 11th or 12th grade,
he was mastering all of his tests.
If anybody is a mother and you got a child with a disability,
when you see them thrive,
it's like moving mountains.
Every time he reaches a milestone or climbs a mountain
or move a mountain, you know, it brings tears to my eyes.
inspiring music
He showed me his dance routine.
I already know he's a good dancer,
but I didn't know he could dance like that!
I'm so proud of him.
I always look forward to him doing great things.
[Joshua] Just wanted to see what I can do.
I'm ready to show out.
I'm doing it for my city...
the Tampa Bay 813 all the way.
Just making my mama proud.
She's been, like, my biggest cheerleader since birth,
and I'm still happy that she's still by my side.
I guess you could say I can sometimes be a mama's boy, too.
Yeah. That's mama's baby.
He will always be my baby.
Yeah. Yeah.
[Charm] Five, six, seven, eight!
["Blinding Lights" playing]
[Abel] I've been tryin' to call
I've been on my own for long enough
Maybe you can show me how to love, maybe
I'm going through withdrawals
[KP] You have to be in one, single line.
One, single line. There you go.
[Abel] You can turn me on with just a touch
Baby
[Jesse] This is all Super Bowl history.
Every year, all these people come to volunteer.
[Abel] And I said, ooh
I'm blinded by the lights
No, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
[Charm] Center. Keep going.
[Abel] I said, ooh
I'm blinded by the lights
No, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
[KP] Stay close together. Stay close together.
Yes!
[Charm] Whoo! Good job, guys!
It's almost in there. It's okay.
[Jesse] We just want to thank you guys
for volunteering for the show.
We know it's tough, but you guys are killing it.
It's gonna look amazing.
Next Sunday we're gonna make history,
and it's because of you all.
And I just want to thank you again
for all your time and effort.
And we will see you at the next rehearsal.
All right. Appreciate you.
[applause]
dramatic music
[Jesse] It is what it is.
We got to get him to that second row.
Can he be a little more vertical until the last second?
The wind factors are pretty important here.
One minute, it's ten miles an hour.
Yesterday they were almost 20.
Twenty-five miles an hour or better, we can't fly him.
We'll see what happens in rehearsal tonight.
[Lila] I think this is gonna look really good.
Essentially, this is what they're gonna have, like that.
It's all integrated in the lighting of the show.
[Lila] Do we win for having the coolest concept?
Yes. [laughs]
-Yeah? [laughs] -[person] I would think that.
[Seth] We are the Monday of Super Bowl week.
Tonight we are gonna be doing our first walkthrough
in the stadium.
Typically, the bulk of the stress
and just about all the eyeballs from the NFL side
is on how minimally can you impact the grass?
We want as few people on the field as possible.
Hey, Aaron. Good news.
The field crew was able to get us one pass on the grass.
-[Aaron] Great. -[Seth] I know it's not ideal.
-But at least we'll have one. -[Aaron] I think we do
-two passes with the tarps on. -[Seth] Mm-hmm.
[Aaron] And then we do our third pass
as our dress rehearsal.
[Jesse] There's a science
behind the condition of the field at game time,
and it revolves around player safety.
The more you run on that field,
dance on the field, you do damage to it.
That's why there's no rehearsal after Thursday.
So, at the end of the night, all of these scientists go out,
and they look at the damage to the field,
and then they send out a report.
If they feel like it was too much damage, then they'll say,
"Okay, now you only get four runs.
Two. One."
And if it rains, it's really a problem.
When they explained that to me, I was like, "What do you mean?
We can just run up and down the field all night."
They're like, "No."
That scares the shit out of me,
'cause we are running out of time
the minute we start rehearsals.
apprehensive music
[person] We can walk Abel down on to the field.
We're just getting the stairs in now.
Okay.
Abel, the first thing,
let's try to see how this feels for you to go down.
Go down and walk all the way to 50.
[Abel] How long is the space
between when I finish the last note
to when I have to sing, to "House of Balloons"?
To "House of Balloons," for you to get there,
it's, like, 35 seconds.
And then I start singing from there, right?
-When I'm walking over? -Exactly.
But you have all those ad libs. The "ooh, yay."
Are you doing that as you walk down?
-No, I want to get here. -Ooh, okay. Okay.
[person] So, Abel, they're very sensitive about the grass,
-just so you know. -Okay.
And, basically, if we're in good graces tonight...
Yeah.
...they're gonna be great for us for the rest of the week.
It'll just be me on there.
-[Charm] Yeah. -Just keep it me.
[person] KP, do we have headphones?
Fo sho.
The dancers will be on E-one or E-two
without my voice or guidance.
-[person] Thank you so much. -[KP] Yeah.
[Jesse] It's all theory right now.
But you know the truth once you're in rehearsal.
It's a lot of pieces
that could cause huge problems.
It's a big Lego set we're putting together.
[Charm] If you have a pass, go ahead. Get it.
The cast has never done it full
from the top to the bottom.
Dance, crew, wardrobe.
Abel has to walk his track.
Abel has never walked the track.
Every moving part has to be put together in seven days.
Seven days.
And we start now.
Go! Go!
Abel, I want to do all the blocking with you,
without them, so that you know your path.
[person] Okay, here we go.
[choir vocalizing]
[Jesse] He's got to at least come
to the downstage edge of it.
You're gonna get such a scream when they actually see him.
-Yeah. -Think about it.
It's like, you waited 45 seconds for the video.
-Yeah. -Then we open.
And nobody saw him, and we're just stuck in this box.
Okay.
Jesse wants to kind of see you,
and then you can kind of back into it.
Jesse wants to see me and then back into it.
-Yes. -Got it.
So, let's try that one.
[vocalizing tune]
Do you want to do it like that? Yeah.
lively music
[La Mar] It's so beautiful, man.
You know about the elephant finale?
[La Mar] I mean, it's believable.
I could see it.
Wait will you see the fucking elephant, dude.
[laughter]
-Very Scarface. -Yeah, exactly.
Very Scarface.
[indistinct chatter]
[person] And then really secure it.
[person 2] Yeah. Do we need to put--
-This just the base for mine. -[person] Perfect.
-Does that feel tight? -[dancer] Yes.
Do you feel like it's tight enough?
Um...
Pull it a little bit. Yeah.
Y'all got this perfected.
[person] Like a nice little massage.
No, no, I feel like I'm at the spa right now.
-[person] Yeah, right? -[laughs]
[dancer] Gearing up for this, I already knew.
I was like, it's gonna be a whole thing
where we just have to wear the mask the whole time.
You get used to it, though.
You adjust, like everybody else.
[chuckles]
[all shouting indistinctly]
Thank you so much. Appreciate y'all.
Wow. It looks good.
[Charm] So, guys, please keep the infinity room
-like we did it yesterday. -[all] Yeah. Yes.
Do whatever you have to do. Just please take charge of it.
Yeah? So I don't have to drop no more F-bombs.
-[laughter] -Yeah?
-Good luck. -[Charm] Bye, guys!
[all] Bye.
[dancer] We on point for Charm.
[dancer] We on point. We on point.
We doing it. We doing this for Charm.
[laughter]
[Lila] Our jackets are here.
[JC] They look perfect. Exactly how the picture was.
Yeah, they look good. Problem solved!
-Did you get your LED? -[dancer] I did.
[Lila] Okay, thanks.
Hi, honey. How are you?
Hang this on the hook, and then take the bottom
and put it in the bag so it doesn't get messed up.
-Treat it kindly, please. -[dancer] Okay. Thank you.
-[Lila] Hi. -[dancer] Hi.
-[Lila] How are you? -[dancer] Good, thank you.
[Lila] Guys, this part is gonna go underneath your chin.
You got it?
And then also, this piece, just bend it,
so it fits on to your nose.
-Hello, Joshua. -Hi, there.
[Lila] I heard you needed me.
Yeah. I think this is too small for me.
All right, so, you got to take your mask off, my dear.
So the easiest way when you're putting it on
is to put this on before you put on your mask.
Come with me, Joshua.
Taking you to the place where magic happens.
[indistinct chatter]
[Lila] Yes?
-Oh, much better. -Much better?
I'm saying, you're getting the VIP treatment, for real.
jazz music
[KP] Choreo, can you just get them into the end zone
and line them up, okay?
Go and line up in the end zone, 200s.
South side, you got to stop. They went too far.
The thing that's not solid is...
-[person] I know. -...the south entrance.
They just don't know when to do it yet.
They're holding down the back line, like, super well.
You know how it is out there-- when the grate floor covering
is on it, you can't see anything.
[KP] Oh, yeah.
[person] Hey, KP.
Looks like we're just missing some people there.
[KP] Finding this very specialized cast is difficult.
Once we finally got the ball rolling,
I started to relax a little bit.
I do believe somehow it always works out.
It might be by the skin of our teeth,
but it really worked out this time.
Can you go next to Charm and let her know
we can try this once with the track,
but we're gonna have to do it right now,
but we're not clean yet.
["House Balloons" playing]
[singer vocalizing]
This is a happy house
We're happy here
In a happy house, oh, this is...
[La Mar] Field cast, which is about representation,
having people that look like us on the field.
All of the boys up there were people of color.
[Abel vocalizing]
Super Bowl
Let's go!
[La Mar] There was something
about just seeing them all dance on the field
as free as they were.
It was like, "Yeah, we're here now. This is us."
[Abel] Get up! Get up! Get up!
["Blinding Lights" playing]
This is it!
I said, ooh
I'm blinded by the lights
No, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
[cheers and applause]
[Hamish] I think they're tight as ever.
I think that's as tight as you've got.
Okay. And then come wide then, please.
[Jesse] This is Hamish now
just rolling through his shots,
looking to see what is available to him.
There's a massive truck farm out in the parking lot.
Hamish is out there.
Producers, we're in the pirate ship.
And that's how we make it work.
[Hamish] So Hamish to Jesse, can you hear me?
[Jesse] Yeah. Can you hear me, Hamish?
-[Hamish] Yeah. Hello, mate. -Hey.
[Hamish] So, yeah, that pre-shaved line above it.
-Yep, I'm looking at it. -[Hamish] Yeah.
This is our transition?
[Hamish] Well, I mean, it's an option.
[stammers] Okay, so I think wide.
And then come wide there, please.
-[Jesse] Here's a question. -[Hamish] Yeah.
[Jesse] What is in the screen
as he's coming down at that moment?
[Hamish] This is what I've been bagging on about forever.
[Dionne] Hamish, as the director,
is responsible for what the world sees.
He has 18 cameras.
He's calling all of those shots in the moment.
[Hamish] So, 15, will you give me the choir boy first, please,
as he comes down?
And, James, can we just make sure we've got all these isos?
'Cause I think there might be some good stuff here.
[Dionne] He's got to keep in mind the set.
There's certain moments of choreography.
[Hamish] The moon is coming out.
Take four instead. Four.
Oh, no.
[Dionne] He's got to be thinking
about all of those things,
and it's a delicate dance.
Strings, please, 15.
Oh, they showed 13. That's nice. 13's good.
Okay, down on the field now, everybody.
Down to the field, 13. Down to the field, four.
dramatic music
[Dionne] He's done some of the biggest things on television.
He's done this show multiple times.
[cheers and applause]
He's been at every single rehearsal with his cell phone,
coming up with his shots.
He is phenomenal at helping showcase
what everyone else has brought to the table
so that the world can see it.
[Jesse] It looked terrific. That pass was great.
-The last one. -Yeah.
There's definitely a few messy moments
that we need to really get in and amongst,
but I think, overall, there's some new angles.
They're definitely gonna help. We're a long way off.
But I know that we've got--
we've got the shots that we need.
It's just they're not in the right order.
You'll see. Let's watch it back.
[Jesse] Want to sit in the middle?
-[person] Tighter. Tighter. -[Hamish] Tighter.
[Dionne] Now is really that time to fine-tune.
We're a team of OCD people,
so everyone is looking at every single detail,
every single pass, and it gets better every time.
-[Abel] Pause it for a second. -[Jesse] Yeah.
Can we have, every time--
every time it hits those stabs, can we have, like,
a different--like, a "dun," kind of like "dun,"
or, like, have it feel more dramatic in energy?
[La Mar] Okay, so different camera angles on those hits?
Yeah, maybe--yeah.
Alex had that idea, too. It was good.
-That's what I'm talking about. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
["Earned It" playing]
You make it look like it's magic
[Dionne] We run it all through,
and then we're down for about 20 minutes,
and we give notes.
[La Mar] One thing that Abel's super adamant about
was featuring more of the stadium.
He wants to feel that fandemonium,
with, like, the lights and the seats.
[Jesse] So it was a mess.
A couple cameras didn't make it down there.
They were behind you. They didn't get there in time.
So don't quit.
[laughter]
[Alex] I think we're cutting to too many ultra-wides, you know?
[Abel] But aren't you gonna need ultra-wides
to get that, like, Chinese Olympics feel, though?
[Alex] Definitely for moments, but I'm just saying, like,
when you enter the field for "House of Balloons,"
and then, like, we're seeing them for the first time.
[Abel] I think there should be something
between that set and this set.
Some pyro maybe? Like, seeing the stadium?
What do you mean, like, a wide shot and then come in?
[Dionne] One of my roles is noticing
those really minute visual details
that the viewer may not notice on the surface,
but it makes a huge difference in the overall scope of it.
When he turns around, you see the backs of the world.
-[Jesse] Oh! -[Dionne] Do you understand--
And the building should be double-sided or not at all?
All right, so let's give Bruce that note.
[Dionne] Yeah.
Everybody will go home,
and then it's on you to get your mind right,
visualize it over and over and over
until the last rehearsal.
-That was the best one. -[La Mar] Oh, my God.
-That was incredible, bro. -That was incredible.
I think too much smoke at the beginning.
Yeah. Still too much smoke.
And since I got the glasses on, too, I can't see shit.
Okay.
[both] O'er the land of the
Free
[singer] And the home
- Home of the - Of the
[both] Brave
-[person] Whoo! -[applause]
Wait a minute. So where do you want the jets to fly?
So the jets are gonna fly at the very end.
So, like, there. Right at the--like--
-[Dionne] After the pyro. -After the pyro.
I think the pyro's a beat late.
Now pyro.
Bam!
Jets.
-Jets? -And jets.
-And then you want jets. -[Cheryl] And jets. Yeah.
-After the second hit. Okay. -Yeah.
[Jesse] Just as long as there's just, like,
not finish and then the jets.
[Cheryl] No. No way.
[person] We know when CBS goes away
at 6:15, 6:20,
those jets are gonna fly over
11 minutes and 13 seconds later.
There's all sorts of things that can happen
in live broadcasts, so I'm just wondering,
like, if there's a contingency, or how that works.
They're going almost 300 miles an hour.
[Cheryl] Right.
And it's only 14.8 miles from the point to here.
To here. Understood.
[pilot] So, once they leave the hold,
we can probably gain or lose about three seconds.
[Cheryl] Okay. That's perfect.
So we have a three-second window.
[person] And the pyro's going off before the flyover?
Mm-hmm.
We will still have smoke,
but compared to traditional pyrotechnics
you'd see in a national anthem,
would be about 70 percent less smoke.
[person] Cool.
[Bob] Silverlace Comet with tail
coming off the north scoreboard.
Jason, counting you in.
In three, two, one. Fire.
Fire.
-Mark. Fire. -[Bob] Fire.
electronic music
We've already got most of the stadium cabled
and our control location set up.
So now it's really getting the product up to the roof
and working through rehearsals
to make any last-minute adjustments to the cues
and the timing of the cues.
[Bruce] Traditionally, the Thursday night rehearsal
is the final rehearsal.
We're always looking for any kind of a chance
to improve before the actual live show.
Hey!
Es, come this way.
Very excited. I'm very emotional.
-Very overwhelmed. -It's so great to see you.
-La Mar. -How you doing, man?
[smooth music playing]
That still got to come down.
[Bruce] Maybe.
[Es] All I can say is, I feel just so happy
to be here doing a big old show.
-[Bruce] Yes. -[Es] You know?
'Cause I've done a few,
but I haven't done a rock and roll show for a year.
-Yeah. -And it's a very special
feeling to just be walking around,
seeing those faces, you know?
It's something-- it's magical.
[Bruce] It means, I guess, you got to put on...
[indistinct chatter]
dramatic music
[Seth] Our last rehearsal,
it's got to be flawless.
We are literally counting on people
to have it ingrained in their head so much
that they can just come back Sunday with no run-through
and just hit it.
So that's where the anxiety
and the stress really kicks in.
I know a lot of the NFL people will be looking
at the on-off time,
the final--like, the final "reset look."
[Bruce] We're at six minutes
to get this thing ready for halftime show.
[Jesse] All right, and what about on the backside?
[Bruce] A little longer. [chuckles]
Do we want to say the number in front of Seth?
-[Bruce] No, not yet. -Not yet?
I think it was at ten, so...
[Jesse] You need us to be at six, right?
That's what I want you guys to hit,
but if we're still pulling out some things off-camera at six,
you know, we can live with that.
[Jesse] It'll be the first time the NFL sees it.
It'll be the first time Pepsi sees it.
[Hamish] Here we go, everyone. Stand by.
When you think about it, it's like, okay,
all these things could cause huge problems.
You just don't want anything to go wrong.
Super Bowl
Hey
["Starboy" playing]
Look what you've got
Oh, baby [vocalizing]
I'm a starboy
[vocalizing]
Look what you've got, look what you've got
Look what you've got
I'm a starboy
ambient music
[Dionne] One of the things about this Super Bowl
that is the most exciting to me
and also the most important is
the opportunities that it's created.
It's the opportunity behind the camera
but also the example that it's setting
for people who are watching of what can be achieved.
It's been an amazing feeling
to look around and see people being able
to showcase their talent on this world stage.
[cheers and applause]
[scattered cheers]
-[La Mar] Good pass. -[Jesse] Couple things.
Couple things. But we're gonna get there.
That's, like, the most finished first pass
I think I've ever seen.
[Jesse] It was nice. Okay, good, good.
[Alex] People don't realize that the soul behind the show
is really all of these people who are making it a reality.
They put blood, sweat, and tears
into every little detail.
We're solid.
All right, have fun--
That last pass, I was actually having fun.
-[Alex] That looks like it. -Yeah.
[Alex] And the pass before that, too.
It looks like you're, like, just so in it. You're not--
Do I look tired in any of it?
-[Alex] No. Not at all. -Okay, good.
[Abel] Playing sports must be way more nerve-racking.
-[laughs] Than singing? -[Abel] Yeah, dude.
'Cause singing, everybody wants to see you sing
and wants to hear you,
but sports, it's like, you cannot lose, bro.
[Alex] Yeah. Have you realized you're doing it yet?
-[laughs] Has it felt-- -No.
It still doesn't feel like it?
Super Bowl, man.
[Alex] Dude, it's so crazy, man.
Yo, let me get you.
-[Divine] Hey, yo, Danny. -Brother.
-[both] Hey, dude! -Bro.
Showtime, man.
[Divine] Showtime, showtime, bruh.
We got to discuss the plans for what time we all gonna arrive.
Did y'all want to go to church?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we got time for that.
[Danny] Yeah, we got time for that.
We'll all ride together from there.
This is really happening.
For reals, bro. This is surreal, man.
sentimental music
-[Mary Ann] You ready, Josh? -[Joshua] Yeah.
-Bye, Mama. -All right.
-Show 'em what you got. -[Joshua] For sure.
[child] How are you doing?
-Mommy's nervous. -[child] I can tell.
How can you tell?
[child] The way you're speaking.
Don't act like you know me.
[child] I do. You're my mom.
Okay, so maybe you do know me.
I love you, baby. I'll talk to you later, okay?
-[child] Bye. -Bye.
[Charm] I see the field.
[Jesse] Hello.
You're good to go. They'll show you where to park.
-[both] Thank you. -[Charm] Happy game day!
[Bruce] Okay. Should be able to set it down on the ground.
-Thank you, guys. -[person] You're welcome.
[Dionne] This is it!
-Hey. How you doing, buddy? -Hi. How are you?
O, say can you see
By the dawn's
Early light?
[Es] How are you guys doing? All right?
[Dionne] I feel really good.
[Hamish] How's La Mar and Abel
and all that camp, are they all good?
I hear he's very relaxed. I talked to Matt earlier.
He said he's just completely zoned in,
and, you know, ready to go.
[Hamish] Good job.
[indistinct chatter]
[person] Hi, everybody.
They will take your temperature as you enter the doors.
[Divine] Kind of nervous.
[person] See that sticker. So you're good to go.
There's a new section, row, and seat number for you.
Thank you.
[Lila] Hi, guys. How are you?
See your name tags.
We got Joshua Felder. All right.
[Ezeugo] Yeah, this is it right here.
As soon as we put this on, that's how we know it's real.
And--oh, that's perfect right there, right?
-Yeah. -All right, bet, bet, bet.
The collar. Don't forget the collar.
Oh, yeah, my bad. My bad, my bad.
[indistinct chatter]
Can you hold like this so I don't hurt you?
-Oh, yeah, yeah. -Thank you..
[dancer] Got to get the shoes. Y'all got to get the shoes.
You got to get the shoes.
-[hums] -[dancer] This is gonna
-be epic. -And we ready.
[cheering]
exciting music
-We failed so hard! -Why do my eyes look like that?
-[laughter] -Let me see.
You guys, in the field pass or riser pass,
please get on the buses!
Come on in, guys!
[indistinct chatter]
-Y'all ready? -I'm nervous.
[dancers vocalizing]
[singer] O, say
Can you see
By the dawn's
Early light?
O'er the land
[both] Of the free
[singer] And the home
[singer 2] Home of the
[singer] Of the
[Jesse] Here we go, here we go.
Go, go, go, go!
[both] Brave
[engines roaring]
[Jesse] Yeah!
[cheers and applause]
[announcer] After all the talk, it's time for football.
And here we go. Super Bowl LV is under way.
[cheers and applause]
[Jesse] Part of the excitement is the nervousness.
Is what you planned, what you hoped,
what you dreamed of-- is it gonna happen?
This show will not be successful because of me.
It'll be successful because of the close to 1,000 people
that touched this process in some way, shape, or form,
starting with The Weeknd on down.
It does take the entire village.
[person] All right.
Here we go, brother.
-Here we go. -Let's fucking go!
Hamish, we're clear to start.
-Thank you. -Copy that.
suspenseful music
[indistinct announcer chatter]
Oh!
[all cheering]
Have they brought Abel up yet?
[Abel] Whoo!
Let's go!
Whoo! Hold on to something.
[vocalizing]
[Charm] Sin City's cold and empty
No one's around to judge me
Cannot wait to just soak in that moment.
Whoo-hoo!
Let's do it!
[person] Thank you and enjoy the game.
Whoo!
Whoa!
Okay. Can we find our spacing?
Stand by, everyone.
[Jesse] Here we go. We cleared everything.
[cheers and applause]
Oh, good. Nice and calm.
-Stand by. -Have a great show, everybody.
-[person] Ten, nine... -Really good.
[person] Eight, seven...
six, five, four...
three, two...
[Afi] The National Football League
welcomes you
to the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
[cheers and applause]
[Jesse] Here we are.
["Call Out My Name" playing]
[cheers and applause]
[choir vocalizing]
[cheers and applause]
[La Mar] It was terrifying before the show started.
Being at the pinnacle of success,
the Super Bowl, biggest stage in the world...
[cheers and applause]
...it was just straight anxiety.
You know, when he hit the stage,
there was silence.
[no audio]
The only thing I could hear was just him singing,
for, like, 13 minutes straight,
going through those hits.
ambient music
Very, very, very surreal moment.
Just looking back at how Abel and I met...
where we came from, how we got to that point.
Coming from where we're from, we're not supposed to be here.
We're not supposed to be given that opportunity.
A lot of my peers didn't make it out.
It's just crazy to think that we did all of this
in under ten years.
I'm just forever grateful
to be a part of the process and be here.
[cheers and applause]
["Can't Feel My Face" playing]
Good luck, all.
She told me, "Don't worry about it"
She told me, "Don't worry no more"
We both know we can't go without it
She told me, "You'll never be in love"
Ooh, I can't feel my face when I'm with you
But I love it, yeah, but I love it
I can't feel my face
when I'm with you
But I love it, hey, but I love it
I can't feel my face
when I'm with you
But I love it, but I love it
Hey
[person] Pull. Stand by, nine.
Wait for him to come up the top.
["Blinding Lights" playing]
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
[person] Two, two, three, four, from three.
Two and three, please.
I said, ooh
I'm drowning in the night
Oh, when I'm like this
You're the one I trust
I just got to let you, let you know
I could never say it on the phone
Will never let you go
This time
I said, ooh
I'm blinded by the lights
No, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
Super Bowl
Oh
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
No, no, never leave
You know
Oh, yeah
Ooh, yeah
I said, ooh
I'm blinded by the lights
No, I can't sleep until I feel your touch
[cheers and applause]
[Afi] The National Football League
thanks you for watching
the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show.
-Well done, everyone! -[cheers and applause]
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Thank you, everybody. That was amazing. Perfect.
Congratulations to everybody. Thank you again.
-Hi, baby! -[Lila] Told you it'd be good.
Killed it. You killed it.
-Thank you. -The wardrobe was flawless.
-[person] Congratulations. -Whoo!
[person 2] Congratulations to you. Thank you.
[person] Oh, my God. Congratulations.
It was crazy. I feel so emotional right now.
[Charm] Oh, good, you earned it.
-Your dancers did incredible! -I know!
I feel like I can finally fucking breathe.
Holy shit. Where's Abel at?
[cheers and applause]
It went by so fucking fast!
You like that?
[cheers and applause continue]
dramatic hip-hop music