Britney Spears’ most mysterious video was rumored to have originally featured a scene at a funeral.
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Britney Spears has made some of the most memorable music videos of all time. From her schoolgirl days in “…Baby One More Time” to the action-packed “Toxic,” Spears’ videos have become a significant part of pop culture.
However, not all of Spears’ videos have seen the light of day. Her “Everytime” video originally featured a much darker concept before it was altered. When she filmed her 2007 video for “Gimme More,” there were many shots that didn’t make the cut.
Fans have speculated for years about the video’s original concept and which shots were left on the cutting room floor. Those scenes would eventually leak online years later.
Britney And Danja Reflected On Her ‘Blackout’ Album On The Tenth Anniversary Of Its Release
After Spears’ “In The Zone” album, she took several years away from the industry. Spears spent time getting married and divorced, as well as giving birth to two children. She was also followed and chased relentlessly by paparazzi. Her personal life had become bigger than her work and she needed to redirect focus back to the music.
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The result was the “Blackout” album, which was released in 2007. It became a much-discussed album in the years since its release. On its tenth anniversary, Spears and producer Danja spoke to The FADER about the album.
“‘Blackout’ was the first time I worked with Danja, and he gave me the opportunity and freedom to work with more urban sounds and influences,” Spears recalled. “It really inspired me! I also got the chance to sing more and stretch my voice in ways I hadn’t done before.”
“The magic of ‘Blackout’ was actually pretty simple,” she continued. “It just wasn’t so thought out. I just did what I felt and it worked. Sometimes less is more I guess.”
Danja said that when making the album, he was heavily into “dance music and EDM” which “wasn’t mainstream yet.”
“I was just going to a club in Miami a couple of times to see the atmosphere,” Danja said. “Everyone was bouncing around to Benny Benassi’s ‘Satisfaction’ and Tiesto, literally in a trance. I was like, That’s it. If my music doesn’t make you feel like that, what are we doing? I didn’t think about anything other than bringing that essence to popular culture.”
The On-Set Photographer Of The ‘Gimme More’ Video Spilled Details About The Video’s Unused Scenes
The first single from “Blackout” was the track “Gimme More.” The song opens with the now-iconic phrase, “It’s Britney, b****!”
The song was a huge hit, despite being promoted with a less-than-stellar performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. The song’s video didn’t help much either, as it merely featured Spears and a group of dancers on stripper poles.
There wasn’t much of a concept and, from the looks of it, not much choreography either. Many were disappointed in the video and wondered what happened. Especially since there were paparazzi photographs of Spears filming unused shots from the video on a public sidewalk.
In 2016, the video’s on-set photographer, Theo Hand, spoke with Bradley Stern of MuuMuse about his experience working on the clip.
“It was crazy outside,” Hand recalled. “It was like a 2 or 3 story brick building, kind of a warehouse. On the sidewalk and across the street, there was anywhere from like 15 to maybe even 50 dudes out there. It was insane.”
He continued, “There was one scene where she had to walk down the sidewalk. That was a bit chaotic. I wouldn’t say I’m anti-paparazzi, but it’s kind of the antithesis of what I feel photography is. They’re taking pictures. They’re not photographers. It’s very leech-like. It’s just not my thing.”
Fans have speculated that the clip was originally set to have more of a storyline. At one point, a rumored treatment floated around gossip forums detailing an opening scene at a funeral. However, Hand insists he has no recollection of any such scene being filmed.
“I never really knew, or was privy to, a funeral scene,” he said. “I never really talked to Jake [Sarfaty, the director] about scenes. It was kind of just whatever scene was happening, I would shoot it. As the photographer on set, you’re the only person that’s kind of in the way, so to speak. I just shot whatever. I don’t know of any funeral scene. Nobody told me about it or talked about it.”
In 2011, a different edit got leaked featuring untouched and unused scenes from the video. These included Spears walking outside and laying in bed with a cat.
Theo Said That He Believed Britney’s Inner Circle Had ‘Ulterior Motives’ At The Time She Was Filming The Video
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Hand said that Spears was “sweet” to him on set, but he had a bad feeling about her inner circle at the time.
“[Britney] was super nice and humble, but she seemed super frazzled from all the people around her,” Hand explained. “I mean, it was pretty amazing and eye-opening. Just to be real: she’s not the most overtly talented musician or singer. Or she was, but when that dies out, there’s that outside push to get ’em to do crazy s***, or have drama to keep them interesting. It’s f****** horrible. She seemed normal. Everyone else seemed kind of vindictive. Ulterior motive. Not everybody, but I kinda got that vibe.”
“She was going through some s***. She’s got a million things on her plate she doesn’t want to deal with. And it’s like overwhelming. She’s tired, she probably just wanted to be, I don’t know, chilling somewhere. I don’t think there was much to it. I don’t know her. I don’t hang out with her. That’s just the vibe I got. But she seemed cool.”
