Superstars in Norway

A day on the set with Ylvis

Ylvis have been shooting their latest masterpiece (yeah I said it) “Stories from Norway” for over a year. As the second episode “Superstar in Norway”, chronicling the notorious case of Justin Bieber’s tantrum in Oslo, has finally been broadcast, I thought I’d share my experience of being on set as an extra at the shoot of the episode.

The Ylvisåker bros’ production company Concorde had been looking for extras on and off for other episodes, but mostly something specific like old men or a 10-year-old boy. But in early June there was a call for just a lot of people, no specific requirements. I knew I was going to be taking a language course in Bergen in June anyway, so surely it would be no problem to take a weekend trip to Oslo. So I signed up.

Soon I received an email with the lyrics to a song I had to learn by heart (“Where Did He Go”) and - *gasp* - an audio file of the song. A new song! By Ylvis! Sung by Ylvis! Yes, I was excited. From the file name I gathered that the track was recorded 25 % faster than it should. Filming it at that speed and eventually slowing down the video and audio to normal speed creates that dreamlike effect you often see in music videos.

What’s more, I had indicated that I can dance (which took balls because we’re familiar with Janteloven in Finland too!), and so I also received a link to a video of choreographer Thea Bay teaching the choreography. Yes, I was really excited about that too! Thea is so cool, what an honour to be taught by her. I loved doing the choreography, it was so funky.

Other instructions were simply to wear clothes you would wear at a concert and be available for the whole duration of the shoot.

On the day of the shoot I arrived at around 10 am at Chateau Neuf, the same place where the actual Bieber incident took place in 2015. To my delight I discovered a bunch of friendly and familiar fellow fans I’ve met online and at gigs – a great fan representation. There were quite a few Norwegian fans present, but also a couple of Swedes, a German, and delightfully two other Finns beside me. 

Finland represent

I found the others sitting around a table filled with Justin Bieber posters. Except on second look I realised they were pictures of Vegard posing as Bieber! I totally cracked up. At the same time I admired Ylvis’ attention to detail. The pictures were perfectly silly.

We were each instructed to take or create a Bieber sign we would be waving, and face paint was provided to write Justin’s name on our faces. A make-up lady later went around and added face paint here and there. I chose to draw a maple leaf on my cheek, partly as a “hello there” to Canadian Ylvis fans. I was already giggling in anticipation to see their reaction to Ylvis making fun of their most ashamed export product.

 We were escorted to the actual concert room and told to find a place right next to the stage. I got lucky – I first stood on the left side of the stage, but got moved on the other side – right there to tug Bieber’s shirt as he would be trying to dry the water off the stage.

Once we were in place, Vegard came on the stage dressed as Bieber. He had clearly studied carefully the footage of Bieber in Chateau Neuf – the movements as well as the lines. He came to the edge of the stage, trying to find his path and remembering lines.

The director Ole Martin Hafsmo, known for directing all Ylvis’ music videos, gave directions to us. He told us to react to Vegard like he’s Bieber, not “plain old Vegard”. Erm, nothing “plain old” about Vegard, but whatever. He told us to try to reach for him and scream.

So we screamed. The whole day. I tried to save my voice and scream with technique, but I was still hoarse for two days afterwards. I also kept apologising to the girl in front of me. I wonder if she had any hearing left after that day. (BTW, a warning about the videos on this page – I do not recommend listening to them with earphones. You have been warned!!) 

We started by doing the whole sequence of… Bieber-Vegard? Biegard? Veber? Justinåker? performing “If I Was Your Boyfriend”, after which he started talking to the audience. He then came to the edge of the stage, spilled the water and left to get a shirt to dry up the stage. As he came back, our job was to tug the shirt and his sleeve, trying to touch him and draw him nearer. It felt really awkward and rude to be doing it – I would never do that to an artist, not even touch them without their consent. But now there was not only consent but orders, so we tugged and pulled. Then Vebieber would say “fuck this, I’m not doing the show” and storm off the stage.

Ole Martin Hafsmo gives directions and Vegard rehearses

A concentrated belieber

After rehearsing the scene a few times Bård showed up dressed up as a girl. I had seen a picture he had posted of himself on Instagram the previous day, but it was still quite startling to see him like that in person. He said hi and positioned himself right next to the stage, among us in the audience. After that he was completely in his own world. He would talk to the director and let the make-up lady groom him, but otherwise he had a distant look of concentration that signalled that he was working and should be left alone. And he was. At times he would fiddle his phone, and I think he was also shooting footage on it. I’m not sure if they ended up using any of it though.

We kept filming this scene for a few hours – in full, in pieces, from several angles, with screaming and without screaming. The last must have looked extra silly – we had to pretend to be screaming, but make no sound, so that they could record Vegard’s lines.

At one point the director asked if anybody wanted to pretend to throw up because they’re so excited to see Bieber. A girl volunteered, and they gave her some fake vomit to spit out. Too bad they apparently couldn’t fit that in the final cut!

WARNING: Loud screaming in the beginning! The rest of it is us screaming silently :D

Around one we had a lunch break with really tasty sandwiches. Before going on break the director said that as a reward, we would be allowed to ask a question from Bård and he would answer it on stage. Nobody came up with anything even remotely interesting – how could you in a situation like that? Someone asked if he was embarrassed to play a woman, and he said no. Someone else then asked what was the most embarrassing thing that had happened to him while performing. He said he had to think about it, and after the lunch break he told the story of complimenting a member of the audience for her pregnancy, when she actually wasn’t pregnant. The upshot of him being on stage was seeing that he was wearing a pair of ladies stretch jeans that fit like a glove except they sagged at the butt area. Yeah Bård, it’s impossible to find the perfect pair of jeans!

Grooming Bård with fellow Finn (who happens to be a professional hairdresser) grumbling in the background that they should be using sheen spray, not hairspray. :D :D

Some more people arrived and we started filming the section with “Where Did He Go”. They filmed us singing it by the stage, and then told everyone to climb up to the rafters where the new people were already waiting. At this point I suddenly spotted an old man who looked suspiciously like Vegard looking at the monitors on the stage. Sure enough, Vegard had had a costume change and was now ready to play the old man who wants to get laid. 

 Here you can hear how the music sounded when played back 25 % faster. 

Please excuse my terrible pitch, I was trying to sing extra loud...

A couple more hours passed with us singing the song on the rafters and by the stage, with different soloists being filmed. We had to look desolate. Some people were sprinkling water on their faces. I managed to push out a few real tears even. In the finished film though I look like I’m overdoing it by a mile. Shit!

At around four we were finished with that part of the shoot, and those who had signed up to dance were asked to go outside behind the building. Most of the others were relieved of duty.

I think at this point inside they filmed all the slow motion footage with the bottle spilling on Bård, while Vegard went to change back to his Bieber gear.

Outside we prepared to welcome Justin in a black limo by lining up around the street and going through the choreography with Thea. This turned out to be a bit tricky, because right opposite me was a line of girls who were clearly from some kind of a dance group. They were really good dancers, but they were doing the choreography slightly differently than shown on the video, and of course as a mirror image to us who were opposite them, so I must say my performance was less than perfect. But luckily our side was hardly filmed, so it was ok. Actually I think the entire choreography bit was cut. I hope it wasn’t because of my bad moves! :D

WARNING: Loud screaming!

At this point I spotted Bjarte lurking around. I got the feeling he was involved, which turns out he was and it made me really happy.

We did Bieber arriving in a black car several times. Lots of screaming again. Then we moved positions and the guys playing journalists came in. I ended up standing at the corner of the tv van. Bjarte would walk right past me to go talk to a camera, and then Bård and the other journalists would start their dance beside him.

“Superstar in Norway” was now blaring from the loudspeakers, and I got super excited about it. Such danceable funk with a bassline that was clearly related to “Another One Bites The Dust”. We the fans were told to once again scream and wave, but be careful not to dance to the music. Good thing they said it, because the song was almost too good not to dance to! Bård seemed extra happy to be dancing. He was pretty much leaping around and grinning like a little boy. He looked amazing in his slim suit, too.

Try not to dance along

The last scene we shot was Bård and Bjarte as policemen trying to keep fans in check behind the fence. You know what that means – more screaming. Poor bros, they probably went deaf. They both looked super cute in their police uniforms, rosy cheeks and all. Bård’s fish stick moustache was spot on.

WARNING: Very loud screaming! The final shot of the day.

We were finally finished with the day at around 8 pm. That’s about 10 hours of work just for us, even longer for Ylvis and especially the crew. But it was so much fun, and it was wonderful to see that the crew and the performers loved what they were doing.

For me the best thing about the day was simply seeing Ylvis work and the entire production machine work around them. I could just stand there and observe not only the performers, but also the director, producers, make-up people, cameramen, photographer, choreographer etc. I was interested to notice that it was an international crew – some Swedes, and at least the costume lady spoke English. As someone who has aspirations to become a comedy writer/director/maybe performer, it was fascinating to see it all, and at the same time I felt that I understood what was going on and I got the feeling that I could do it too. On the night train back to Bergen I felt happy and inspired.

A true belieber

The result