Non-Stop Pop: My Friend Made The Super Bowl Halftime Show

The Super Bowl halftime show is like theater for the remaining 98% of the world who don’t follow theater. It’s pure spectacle fueled by three million dollars and zero tangible ideas. Who can forget Prince stroking his guitar, projected 1000-stories high in silhouette on a billowing sheet of silk, with lightning either hitting him or emitting from him? Or The Who’s state of general confusion? Or whatever Mick Jagger did? There are thinkers behind these things, real wizards, and my friend Adam is one of them.

Adam works for Moment Factory, the Montreal big thinkers behind those huge glowing balls Creator’s Project dropped at Coachella, and the larger-than-life projections at this year's show that brought every weird and "what the" moment together seamlessly. I called up Adam to get some behind-the-scenes stories and his excitement was still palpable, even through his general exhaustion.

Hi Adam! When did you get back?

I just got back last night around 8pm. Man, dude, so tired. We worked 39 hour days for the past 2 weeks. We got there the 24th of January and worked and slept inside of a trailer in the parking lot on beds we made out of cardboard boxes, we had a hotel but never saw it.

Which scene was the one you did?

I worked on 'Vogue'.

That was the best one!

One part I don't think the guys at Moment Factory even know though, I snuck something into the show. [My girlfriend] Shay has an amazing ear for music, she can hear something and figure the notes out on piano just by ear. There was a whole section in 'Vogue' where you see all these disjointed eyes and lips. But as I was making that video they all started to look like piano keys the way things were moving. So I asked Shay to learn the song to 'Vogue' and filmed her doing it, and literally the part that is on TV is exactly what she played for me on piano.

One-hundred and fourteen million viewer shoutout. The night of, did you have any control over it?

No, we finished the video 48 hours before, and we took the master copy and gave it to these tech guys that basically slice up the video and turn it into a playable format, but by that time you don't want to be making any last minute changes. Madonna is a tough woman.

Did you meet her?

We almost got run over by her golf cart. Right before she came out we were all waiting in those giant hallways underneath the stadium, we were just standing in the wrong area and this golf cart comes flying in, almost smashes into us, and I'm like, "Holy shit! It's Madonna!" and tried to snap a photo, the blurriest paparazzi photo I've ever taken.

Did you get to meet any of those other guys?

We collaborated a lot with the dancers, especially with 'Vogue'. We ended up hanging out with those dancers after the Super Bowl, we went to a small club and shit went off. The DJ put on 'Vogue' and there was a SERIOUS ballroom battle.

What does that even -- what else happened? You got to hold the ball I saw.

That's not a game ball man, I bought that in the pro-shop in the hallway. The next day at the Indianapolis airport there were those same footballs for half price.

I really feel like they should've given you not THE ball, but a ball, at least.

I got a Madonna tour jacket. Oh! I walked by the Patriot cheerleaders. I got the ball for my cousin, rushed back to our trailer in the parking lot where we were working, left all my stuff there, rushed back and was like man, I really need this ball in the field. So last minute, ran back, came back with the ball, but because there were so many people I couldn't catch the right elevator. I had to go through the underground section, walked by the drum line band, the people for the procession, and then finally - right by those cheerleaders.

What'd you say?

[whispers] Hey ladies. I also got a piece of the stage. Some lady was walking by and a pack of cigarettes fell out of her pocket. I picked them up and was like excuse me, you dropped your cigarettes, and she's just like, Oh! Bless you! How about a piece of the stage? Here, just take it.

Show me.

I left it in Indianapolis. It was so big dude, just a big piece of glass. The stage was these big LED panels so when they unscrewed the stage the glass was over top, this lady had 3 pieces. It was so large. I didn't know how to carry it. It weighed like 20 lbs. My bag would've been overweight. When I got back to Montreal, somebody said what I should have done was smashed it and kept the shards. And there were track marks, from somebody's heel just grinding on it, could have been Madonna’s heel. I could've hidden those shards around the world in a classic treasure hunt.

Were you just like, yeah whatever lady, and put it down?

I put it on top of our glass table in the trailer, and when we left I didn't see the glass on the glass. I forgot it okay?

Can I take a screenshot of you in the coat?

It's not that cool. I got a picture with LMFAO! But it’s on my disposable I haven’t got developed yet.

You look so legit.

Kent Clark! It was so legit, there were security checkpoints everywhere. This one says 'GAME DAY'. There were codes for which areas you could access. It was pretty locked down. When we first got there you could pretty much go anywhere you wanted, it was super relaxed. The next day, places you went before, you couldn't. Over time it kept getting weirder and weirder. The only thing that differentiated it from being a parking lot were these fences and security checkpoints, which just kept adding up.

Like a weird jock compound.

Yes! Exactly. One of the huge positive points is that the catering was NEXT. LEVEL. They went ALL. OUT. They had cheesecake, they had roast beef, they had tacos, they had caesar salad, they had grape juice, they had fruit punch, they had iced tea, they had fucking water with cucumbers floating in it. They also had a snack tent where you could have all the soda you could drink, they even had a microwave, they had microwave popcorn if you wanted to pop. They had vegetable chips, they had candies, all the candy you could eat, fruits, apples and bananas - it was nuts. I've never gotten so many snacks in my life. Non. Stop. Pop.

Follow Katie Heindl @wtevs and Adam Hummell @djarock