Justin Bieber's VMA-Nominated 'U Smile': Frame By Frame

'We took a more mature approach in the video, focusing on him as an artist,' director Colin Tilley says of clip, which is up for Best Male Video.
By Jocelyn Vena


Justin Bieber
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

In the Colin Tilley-directed "U Smile" video, Justin Bieber meets some girls on the street and becomes smitten with one of them. He then takes her to hang out with him at a big concert hall, where he makes her swoon by playing the piano for her.

The sugary-sweet clip is up for Best Male Video at the 2011 Video Music Awards, and Tilley, who also worked with Bieber on "Never Let You Go," spoke to MTV News about the behind-the-scenes of making the video just days before the VMAs go live Sunday.

The video opens with Bieber meeting some fans outside a theater, and the Flip cam footage they used for audio ended up making the final cut. "During this scene, we were only outside for 15 minutes, but literally paparazzi were everywhere," Tilley recalled. "It was pretty difficult, but I'm happy with the finished product. This whole intro scene was actually done very fast, because we didn't have much time before the sun set, so we really just had to go full-throttle."

While paparazzi and nature proved to be obstacles, a third was making sure that Tilley cast the perfect leading lady. "The girl's gotta be really great ... she was really nice and she did a great job," he said. "Justin and her clicked really well."

The video is actually pretty simple, with the focus of it being on "our classic piano in this beautiful theater, lots of great lighting. This is pretty much focused on Justin's performance.

"This song, in general, when I first heard it, I kind of got the feel that it was a more mature feel for Justin," Tilley continued. "So we took a more mature approach in the video, focusing on him as an artist and as a kid growing up. ... For me, this was kind of the place he goes every night to practice, so he was willing to take this girl he saw on the street and take her into his world."

For Tilley, the standout shots are of Bieber hanging out in an alleyway, calling to mind the images in Michael Jackson videos. "This is probably my favorite setup in the video," he said. "In this alleyway, it had a whole Michael Jackson feel. It was pretty iconic for Justin at the time."

As it turns out, the video was shot right after the 2010 VMAs, when Bieber took home his first-ever Moonman. "The night before, he had won an award and he just came to set with a great attitude; he was super positive," Tilley said. "I hadn't worked with Justin for probably a year. He's so much fun to work with. He's got a really cool attitude on set."

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday, August 28, from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com.

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Do Foo Fighters Know Robert Pattinson From Robert Plant?

During band's rehearsal break for Sunday's Movie Awards, we put Foos to the test.
By Ryan J. Downey, with reporting by Jim Cantiello


The Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl
Photo: MTV News

UNIVERSAL CITY, California — Hard rock, heavy metal, hardcore and punk have long gone hand-in-hand with evil wizards, magic, vampires and werewolves. And with a collective sub-cultural pedigree that includes stints in the Germs, No Use for a Name, Sunny Day Real Estate, Scream and some band called Nirvana, you'd think the Foo Fighters — set to perform at Sunday's Movie Awards — would know their "Potter" from their Zeppelin. Certainly they can recognize a "wand" reference and pinpoint its origin?

Right? Before we put MTV News' magically crafted trivia to the band, it seemed safe to assume the Foos would accurately distinguish between the words of Harry Potter, a "Twilight" character and Led Zeppelin. But was their underground nerd cred blown to shreds? Read on — and click the video! — to see how the Foo Fighters fared when we caught up with them on the Universal Studios lot, shortly after they finished rehearsing their Movie Awards performance.

Our own Jim Cantiello played dungeon master as Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear were given a series of semi-famous lines and asked whether they originated with "Harry Potter," the "Twilight Saga" or the lyrics of hard-rock pioneers Led Zeppelin.

Here's a sampling of a few of those one-liners:

» "The elder wand, the most powerful wand ever made."

» "Why don't you let me be yours ever truly? Can I make your garden grow?"

» "You're lying, Dolores! You mustn't tell lies!"

Can you guess whether the lines above came from the "Potter" flicks, "Twilight" or Robert Plant?

Watch as the Foos try their best to do exactly that. Then tune in to the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday to catch the Foo Fighters rock the stage with their new single, "Walk."

Will wizards, vampires or dream thieves steal the 2011 MTV Movie Awards? Find out June 5, when the 20th annual show airs live at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Tune in at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT that night for the "America's Best Dance Crew" finale and Movie Awards pre-show, loaded with live action from the red carpet, exclusive movie clips and a special edition of "After Hours."

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Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, John Paul Jones Unveil Supergroup

Them Crooked Vultures make their debut with a post-Lollapalooza set.
By James Montgomery


Dave Grohl (file)
Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Officially, Lollapalooza ended Sunday night in Chicago's Grant Park, with dueling sets from the Killers and Jane's Addiction. Unofficially, it ended very early Monday morning, across town at venerable rock club the Metro, with a surprise show by Them Crooked Vultures.

To the unfamiliar, the Vultures might seem like an odd choice to close out Lolla weekend ... until you realize that they're made up of Foo Fighters frontman/ former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age mastermind Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones. And their gig at the Metro was their world premiere.

According to some reports, the Vultures actually turned down Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell's request to replace the Beastie Boys as headliners at the festival, opting to debut in front of some 1,100 super-psyched fans at the Metro, rather than 75,000 in Grant Park (tickets for the gig were announced via Foo Fighter/ QOTSA fan clubs). Meaning that, in a lot of ways, this was the most sought-after ticket in town.

Taking the stage just after midnight, the Vultures — Grohl on drums (of course), Homme on guitar and vocals, Jones on bass and keys and frequent QOTSA contributor Alain Johannes on guitar — ripped through 12 songs in 80 minutes, all taken from their upcoming debut, which may or may not be called Never Deserved the Future, and may or may not be hitting stores on October 23 (early "promo" videos touting both those facts were revealed over the weekend to be hoaxes perpetrated by QOTSA fans).

The songs, with appropriately Homme-ian titles like "Scumbag Blues," "Mind Eraser (No Chaser)," "Caligulove" and "Interlude w/Ludes," sounded pretty much how you'd expect, given the band's pedigree. They rocked, hard — Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot described them as "fresh, invigorating and just plain nasty" — delving off into psychedelic, reverb-filled excursions and exploring proggy territory, "both of the old-school Yes variety, and the more modern Tool flavor," according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Jim DeRogatis.

It's not known if Monday's Metro performance was a one-off event for the Vultures — there have been whispers of a full-blown tour, but a spokesperson for Homme had not responded to MTV News' request for comment at press time. Nor was it clear whether or not they'll have an album out in October.

Early Monday, a Crooked Vultures Twitter account, which had previously posted links to the band's official-looking Web site and the Metro's online ticketing site — posted a link to what appears to be the group's first bit of official merchandise: a Deserve the Future T-shirt. Cost: $30.

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