The producers behind Bad Bunny\u2019s triumphant Super Bowl LX Halftime Show had a problem: The NFL wouldn\u2019t allow more than 25 carts to bring equipment on to the all-grass Levi\u2019s Stadium field in Santa Clara, Calif. To pull off Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio\u2019s and his creative team\u2019s tremendous production plans, that meant something would have to give.<\/p>\n
Luckily, a solution to one of the show\u2019s most stunning visuals \u2014 the pastizales (grass fields and other plants) that harken back to Bad Bunny\u2019s native Puerto Rican landscape \u2014 was to make it real people. Production designers Bruce and Shelly Rodgers, as well as Julio Himede recruited around 380 people to dress up as the grass, allowing for easier on-and-off staging.<\/p>\n
Popular on Variety<\/p>\n
\u201cThat solution of making the plant people, and then the plant people getting on and off in time, plus all the sets and all the performers \u2014 it was audacious in every direction,\u201d said creative director Harriet Cuddeford. \u201cThere were over 330 actual cast performers in addition to the plant people. It was just huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny and the event\u2019s producers and directors pulled off what may have been the most intricate halftime extravaganza in Super Bowl history. With superstar guests like Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, a real-life wedding and authentic business owners (including Los Angeles\u2019 own Villa\u2019s Tacos), the \u201cBenito Bowl\u201d was planned with many moving parts that could have gone wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so many variables in live TV,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cEven the weather. It was on a real grass field, and there\u2019s no roof. We had to have backup rain plans. There were so many things that could have caused an issue. But it just kind of almost flawlessly unfolded before our eyes. We were all just like, \u2018Wow, it worked!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Director Hamish Hamilton \u2014 who has produced countless Super Bowl Halftime Shows, Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and more \u2014 said, \u201cIt was the biggest team effort of a show I have ever been involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are some details Cuddeford and Hamilton shared about this year\u2019s Bad Bunny halftime show.<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny managed to pull off several stunts while singing at the same time. At one point, much to the producers\u2019 chagrin, the singer climbed a tall utility poll without any safety rigging.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe refused to wear a harness,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cHe was like, \u2018I don\u2019t need it.\u2019 There are all kinds of legal ramifications to that, which is not really my thing, but interestingly enough, when he decided he wasn\u2019t going to wear a harness, we were able to then put a camera on the pole to look down at him climbing up!\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Cuddeford: \u201cThere was all safety and rigging and all of that available, obviously, of course, but he didn\u2019t want it. He does his own stunts, that guy, and he learned it in about three minutes. Straight up that pole. At rehearsal, we were all like, \u2018Is he gonna be OK?\u2019 But he just went straight up there, and managed his vocals. Very agile. He could just, like, handle anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of stunts, Bad Bunny falling through the roof of the pink casita was one thing \u2014 but it also had to be perfectly timed to the pre-tape of him doing the same thing as seen by the family watching TV inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stunt itself, to fall through the roof, wasn\u2019t so crazy \u2014 there\u2019s a trap door,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cThey just literally open it, and pull it out underneath him. But it required so much meticulous planning, because we cut straight into the pre-tape. Inside the pre-tape was the shot on the TV of him falling through the roof of the Super Bowl \u2014 so the family in the la casita were watching the Super Bowl live, and then he fell onto their table. That\u2019s basically two different pre-tapes: The pre-tape inside the house, and then there\u2019s the pre-tape on the field of him falling through the roof during the dress rehearsal. And then comping that all together, then cutting to the transition of him falling through the roof and be able to kick the front door open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
The couple who got married during the halftime show is from Ontario, Calif., and had sent Bad Bunny a wedding invitation on a lark.<\/p>\n
According to Hamilton, the engaged couple wound up with 15 extra wedding announcements \u2014 so they sent most to local businesses with the hope of maybe getting some free wedding perks. But the last invite? \u201cThey were like, \u2018Why don\u2019t we send one to Bad Bunny? Lots of people send wedding invitations to him, so why not,\u2019\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cBad Bunny\u2019s office reached out, and they thought, \u2018Amazing, maybe we\u2019ll get a signed photo. But they were invited to a Zoom call, which they thought was kind of weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Zoom call, they learned the plan: Bad Bunny was inviting them to get married at the Super Bowl. \u201cAn overprinting of wedding invitations led to a series of events where they wound up getting married during Bad Bunny\u2019s performance at the Super Bowl!\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
The couple had planned to make Bad Bunny\u2019s \u201cBaile Inolvidable\u201d be their first dance. \u201cAnd so, they went from planning to play it at their wedding to being on the Super Bowl with him live, singing it,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cAnd with the bonus prize of Lady Gaga being the wedding singer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite rumors on social media, Bad Bunny didn\u2019t hand his recently won Grammy to Liam, the young boy from Minnesota who had been imprisoned by ICE. But that moment is meant to convey a personal connection to the performer\u2019s childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kid is somebody that we cast,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cBut the story behind that was Benito\u2019s idea. He\u2019d grown up watching his idols on TV getting awards. In his life now, he stands on stage and gets given awards by his idols. He knew the Grammys were coming up, and he was hoping to win something. And then obviously he won Best Album last weekend. And so, he really wanted to inspire the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why the boy at the Super Bowl was wearing an outfit similar to one a young Benito is seen wearing in a well-known photo of the superstar as a young child. \u201cThis is really representing a younger version of himself, with the hope of him inspiring the kids of today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Did Bad Bunny get his Grammy back?<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually don\u2019t know if he took it back,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cKnowing him, he might have just left it with the kid, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricky Martin Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny personally selected Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin as his guests; Martin, of course, is a Puerto Rican childhood idol. And the song Martin sang, \u201cLo Que Le Paso a Hawaii,\u201d not only resonates in Puerto Rico, but in Hawai\u2019i too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a very meaningful song, almost kind of a plea to not turn Puerto Rico into Hawai\u2019i,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cTo make sure that it kind of retains its culture and its identity. It was just very powerful to have a Puerto Rican icon whom he deeply loves and respects to join him and to perform that song. It was something that during his residency, he had many guest artists would come and sing that. He\u2019d never managed to align to have Ricky do it, so he was so excited to have Ricky do it at the Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those guest small business owners, vendors and workers are all real-life people, flown into the Super Bowl for the show.<\/p>\n
That includes Los Angeles\u2019 own Villa\u2019s Tacos founder Victor Villa, as well as a real piragua (Puerto Rican shave ice dessert) vendor, boxers Xander Zayas and Emiliano Vargas, a real nail technician, barber and more. Even the priest that married the Ontario couple is an actual, ordained minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe performance is celebrating normal people, and what it is to be human and love and have joy, and really appreciate one another,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cThis was to show how much he values his community, to celebrate normal people on the world\u2019s biggest stage, especially people who are of importance in in Latino culture. He\u2019s a very authentic person, Benito, and it\u2019s about just being authentic and very real and very human.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yes, that was Maria Antonia Cay, better known as To\u00f1ita, taking a shot with Bad Bunny inside a re-creation of her famed Brooklyn landmark the Caribbean Social Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe faithfully recreated this iconic, very important for the culture, Puerto Rican bar in Brooklyn,\u201d Cuddeford said. \u201cAnd then we flew To\u00f1ita out to be part of the performance. And you saw him do the shot with her at the point in the song when he sings about doing a shot with To\u00f1ita.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were few hairy moments, including one that involved a camera crane spinning out of control.<\/p>\n
That crane, which was used in the beginning sequence around the casita, lost digital connection \u2014 \u201cSo, literally, it started spinning like a hose out of control,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cBut probably a second before we needed the shot, the camera locked again in perfect position, and we were allowed to take it!\u201d<\/p>\n
And at another point, there\u2019s a bit of a wobble from one of the low angle cameras that\u2019s looking up at the casita. \u201cBasically, everybody\u2019s racing for a shot, and the handheld cameraman taking the shot gets hit by the Chapman dolly trying to make a shot after \u2014 and they collide, and that\u2019s why there was a wobble. It\u2019s split-second timing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton admitted it\u2019s \u201cterrifying\u201d watching the camera operators running around each other as they get their shots. \u201cIn the performance of \u2018NuevaYol,\u2019 there are moments when the cameras literally get to their point of shooting half a second before they\u2019re on,\u201d he said. \u201cThe crane comes out, the cameras run half the way along a football pitch and literally, then run into Benito!\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Cuddeford: \u201cThe camera work was insane and so intricate and so carefully planned and such a feat, and could have just gone so wrong at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The use of all those grass people made for a very different kind of staging \u2014 and the producers debated for some time on how to make the show visually unique for home viewers while still making it watchable for the fans in the stands at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably more than any other show, this was choreographed to the camera,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cWith the grass people, it was quite enclosed. And so there were many debates about the camera versus the people in the audience in the stadium. For the stadium, they definitely had a restricted view during certain parts of the show. But I think that we ended up with a really good balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show\u2019s cinematic look is by design, as the producers switched to cinema cameras for Super Bowl halftime a few years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many years now, we have effectively used cinema cameras in a live television domain, which is really ambitious,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cIt\u2019s very nerve-racking when you\u2019re putting effectively Ferrari-esque technology to work in circumstances more attuned to using a Land Rover. These cameras are not really made to be used and run around a football field and put up in eight minutes. But they allow you to get an image that is significantly different to the imagery available on the game cameras. Until six or seven years ago, we would use the all-purpose sports cameras, which you can throw them off a cliff, and they\u2019ll bounce back. Whereas these kind of digital cinema cameras, they have very specific lenses, and they work in a very specific way. It\u2019s a complicated, challenging workflow, but a lot of people comment on how cinematic it looks. Other people just think it looks great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Signage that reads \u201cThe Only Thing More Powerful than Hate is Love\u201d is displayed on the scoreboard Getty Images<\/p>\n
Both Hamilton and Cuddeford felt the message of the halftime show was heard, and resonated with audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of community and commitment to really delivering something that we all knew was going to be full of heart,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
Cuddeford said: \u201cPeople understood the message he wanted to convey. That Latino people felt loved, seen and celebrated, and that people felt joyful. It\u2019s just an incredible thing that he\u2019s managed to do, and that we\u2019ve all managed to support him and to help deliver that into the world at this time is, honestly, a complete honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full performance here:<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The producers behind Bad Bunny\u2019s triumphant Super Bowl LX Halftime Show had a problem: The NFL wouldn\u2019t allow more than<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}