The Backstreet Boys weren’t the first, and they certainly won’t be the last. As long as girls continue to hit puberty, there will be that chart-topping staple of the pop music industry: the boy band.
The process of manufacturing that magic—finding five young guys who can carry a tune, and launching them on to fame and fortune—is the premise behind 2gether, the first film from MTV’s Original TV Movies division, which premiered earlier this week (2/21) on the music network. (A similarly themed project, Making the Band, debuts on ABC in March.)
Part satire, part homage to the boy band motif, the film was helmed by music video veteran Nigel Dick, who makes his TV movie debut with the project. Dick, who is repped for commercials and music videos by Los Angeles-based A Band Apart, said he was "very happy" to be offered the opportunity to direct what could be called the Spinal Tap of boy band movies. Dick said he wanted a project with extensive dialogue that was "preferably funny."
With a budget of about $3 million, the film was shot on Super-16 by Toronto-based DP Marc Laliberte Else. "It rained almost every day," Dick said of the 19 day-shoot in Vancouver, B.C. "But we chose to get on and ignore it, which I think was important and really affected what went down on film." The director spent an additional day shooting a music video for one of the songs on the movie’s soundtrack, "U+Me=Us (Calculus)," which is now in rotation on MTV. Dick co-wrote three of the songs on the soundtrack: "2gether," "You’re My Baby Girl" and "Rub One Out."
In the film, veteran music manager Bob Buss is dumped by boy band phenomenon Whoa! As luck would have it, Bob happens upon the talented Jerry O’Keefe, who’s singing in a Boston parking lot. Soon, Bob and Jerry are on a mission: to be the opening act for a Whoa! concert if they can assemble a band and get to Florida in a week.
What follows is a southbound road trip with stops at male beauty pageants, parks and karaoke bars, until all five band members are in place. Thanks to Bob’s keen understanding of the formula for success, 2gether consists of one heartthrob, one rebel, one shy boy, one older brother type and, of course, the cutie.
Some of the film’s more pointed scenes have the boys rehearsing their act. Bob teaches them how to dance by hurling stuffed animals at their heads. Their ducking reflex achieves the desired move. Also amusing are scenes where Bob pretends he’s a teen magazine reporter and quizzes the boys on such weighty matters as their favorite color. Two of the boys fight over the color blue.
And then there’s the band’s first number, "Say It (Don’t Spray It)." Apparently, the boys want the news, not the weather. The film also features spirited cameos by MTV personalities such as Carson Daly.
While 2gether clearly pokes fun at its subject matter, Dick said the film is also a genuine story about a group of guys following their dreams. "If the story wasn’t truthful, then the jokes would be vacuous," he said. "I’m not under any illusions that I just made Howards End. But at the same time I wanted it to have some value."
A native of the U.K., Dick was trained as an architect but got his professional start as a motorcycle messenger at Stiff Records in London. He later moved over to Phonogram Records, London, where he began producing and eventually directing music videos. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-’80s to pursue directing full-time.
Dick was one of the founding members of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films in ’87; he sold his share of the company seven years later. At that point, he joined Squeak Pictures, Los Angeles, and then in early ’98 shifted his commercial work over to that shop’s newly launched spot division, Ace Entertainment. The director joined A Band Apart about a year and a half ago.
Dick will next direct a Stridex ad via Gardner, Geary, Coll & Young, San Francisco. Recent credits include a pair of Sears commercials featuring the Backstreet Boys and Pokémon, respectively, via Young & Rubicam, Chicago; and three ads for Entertainment Tonight via Air Creative Group, Los Angeles.
Dick’s recent clips include Britney Spears’ "(You Drive Me) Crazy," Ricky Martin’s "She’s All I Ever Had" and "Music of My Heart" with ‘N Sync and Gloria Estefan. The director also recently released his debut album, Flesh, Blood, Wood, Steel on his own Stuff Records label. He describes it as "rock ‘n’ roll blues kind of stuff, quite different from 2gether."
