That One Day Nelly Stopped By

It’s true. Our job is pretty damn cool and we know it. We get to produce documentaries, commercials for national campaigns, music videos, corporate videos, you name it. No two days are alike and we are always busy with days that we wish were 48 hours instead of a measly 24.

But, some days are better than others and that’s a fact.

This past week we had such a day when we got a ring from Hollywood and Black Entertainment Television (BET) asked us if we’d be able to accommodate them and shoot some segments of Nelly for their hit show the Real Husband of Hollywood. We had to think about it for a while and weigh the pros and cons of it all as we made a list and pondered…uh…wait…you know we just yelled, “hell yeah!” right away into the phone because everyone wants to work with our hometown boy Nelly.

We quickly cleaned up our studio (this is Nelly, people – we didn’t want him to see our props laying around helter skelter, right?) and got our Sony FS7 all fired up and ready to go.

Nelly and his entourage headed over to White Buffalo Film Studios (we are, after all, only a mere two blocks from his own Ex’treme Institute here in Laclede’s Landing so, hey, we’re like neighbors and stuff) and the fun began. Nelly was extremely humble and down-to-earth introducing himself to our crew and just being super cool telling us that our studio was “dope” and he thought it should be a loft because the view of the Mississippi river is so amazing.

We had the production crew in L.A. on Skype in our studio and we were talking about lines, cues, and more. Nelly was joking with everyone and giving them hell in true Nelly style and had us all in stitches laughing. When the camera fired up and we called “action!” we saw exactly why Nelly is the huge star that he has become. He has star quality. Like, real star quality that is just innate. He is, well, magnanimous. As we rolled tape we were all just absolutely in awe of this guy who was a blast to watch and direct. He was an absolute pro in every sense of the word.

After we shot the needed scenes Nelly was still cracking jokes with the crew and production and just being one of the guys. Before he left we got the courage to ask if he’d sign his debut album for us and he was like, “Hell yes! Do you want photos too?” He took photo after photo with our crew and insisted to take photos with the women of our crew alone because he “knew that’s what they wanted” (um, Nelly, you KNOW IT!). We still think the girls haven’t showered yet, but that’s another story…

So, yes, the moral of the story is that some days are just better than others. And while working with celebrities can be a nice perk we’ve never worked with a celebrity quite as nice as Nelly. We were impressed and awe-struck by him and we appreciated how cool he was to work with. Not one demand, no pretense. Hell, he treated us like he’d known each of us for years.

So tomorrow we go back to servicing our awesome clients. Producing more corporate videos, more instructional videos, more television commercials. And we’ll be spinning Nelly vinyl in the studio as we take breaks editing. Because, after all, Nelly is dope.