Last month’s Panic At the Disco’s MTV Artist of the Week shoot is the shoot that keeps on giving. First Panic, MTV and Atlantic released a short film called Panic At the Disco In American Valley, (watch it below) comprised of footage shot in the desert towns of Baker and Nipton, California and Jean, Nevada. And earlier this week they released an acoustic version of “Nine In the Afternoon” from the same shoot.
Given this surfeit of Panic footage, we thought we’d dig a little deeper to see what other gems the Panic shoot held. So we asked MTV staffer Brennan Stasiewicz, who wrote and directed the Panic shorts, for some behind-the-scenes secrets of the epic Panic shoot. See what he told us after the jump.
“Brendon had no problem at all driving the fully restored 1962 VW bus. The only problem was that the speedometer was broken. Fortunately the green machine couldn’t go faster than about 50 mph.”
“As the cast of Little Miss Sunshine can attest to, being inside a VW bus in the middle of the desert, with no windows open, makes for a long, hot day. Inside the van were the band and three crewmembers: a cameraman, audio man, and the director. Because of the tight space, the director had to lie down and hide in the back of the van, which unfortunately is right above the hot engine.”
“The shakers used in the video were bought at the small town store in Nipton, CA where they were performing.”
“Once the band, cast and crew were all inside the inflatable dragon, chaos ensued. It was nearly impossible to balance yourself while standing, mostly because the weight on the inside was too much for the air pump to bear. The word from outside the dragon is that it started going limp, slowly deflating away.”