[MUSIC PLAYING]
[LAUGHTER]
That was great, that was great.
That looks beautiful to me.
What's up, everybody?
How you feeling?
It's Kalen here, and I'm going to give you a behind the scenes
look today at my Beyoncé Bey Day tribute video.
Now I did this because you know I'm a Beyoncé fanatic.
I talk about her every time I'm on the show.
And I knew her birthday was coming up.
And I was like, you know what?
I got a little bit more resources than I usually have,
so I think I want to do this bigger and better
than I could have ever done if I was not working at the Ellen
DeGeneres show.
So right now we are here at this huge studio, as you can see.
These lights up here, they actually change colors.
And we are going to put on the biggest Beyoncé evolution music
video that you've ever seen in your life, I promise you, baby.
We're going from Destiny's Child all the way to Beyoncé to now.
We got five different wigs, we got costume changes, and baby,
Kalen's doing complete drag.
So hold on to your wigs, honey, because I'm about to snatch it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Beyoncé helped me discover my confidence.
And I structured my work ethic off of hers.
She was a mentor to me, she just didn't know it.
You know, as an African-American woman,
Beyoncé has sustained a career for over 20 years.
You have to respect the grind and the craft.
Facts are facts.
I'm so nervous about this.
I really don't know how I pulled this together in a week,
but I really think we're going to be
able to make something that is very beautiful and very
meaningful.
And also, I'm very impressed with just how many people
were willing to come and work, especially
because it's a holiday weekend.
I think that's the beautiful thing about being a creative
and an artist is that you just like to create.
When I came up with the idea, I wanted it to embody and capture
the complete essence of Beyoncé.
As far as the costumes, we tried to pay homage
and be as accurate as possible.
For instance, at the beginning, we
start with three people for Destiny's Child.
And then by the time "Crazy in Love" starts, she stands alone.
The white tank top, shorts, and the red stilettos,
which were incredibly hard to walk in, at the beginning,
to honor the moment she went solo.
I think I'm most excited for "Crazy in Love," because I just
think that is my favorite song.
And it's like a timeless song.
Like, that song works in any time period.
When she uttered the words, you ready?
Little did we know, we would never be ready.
We would never be ready.
The Beychella sweatshirt was such an iconic moment
in Bey's history, and I actually own the sweater already.
I used the pink version, because that
was the color she wore on week two, which is the week that I
attended Coachella.
I think the most recognizable outfit though,
is the simple black leotard from "Single Ladies."
That was actually one of the first things we shot.
And at first, we had drag padding,
so that my hips would look bigger.
But after placing them on, we realized, baby,
it looked terrible.
So we decided to just go bare legged.
I'm Mr. Procrastination, and I didn't shave my legs,
so I'm doing it right here.
Don't wait till the last minute to do stuff.
This face is Bey, though, ain't it?
You can just just call me Beyoncé today.
She look good, though.
Because this is a look, honey.
And that hat with them glasses.
Baby, oh, she did that.
That's grown woman Beyoncé.
I think my favorite part of the video, though,
is the transition from "Single Ladies" to "Flawless,"
where you get to see Beyoncé as just a human.
And I think one of the most iconic things about Beyoncé was
when her hair got stuck in the fan, and she cut it.
So I was like, well then, I need to give me a little pixie wig.
That's why in that scene, it starts at the fan, then all
of a sudden, her hair is cut.
On the second day of shooting, we
have one final scene to shoot with only five minutes
to do it before they kicked us out.
And that was the Beyoncé pregnancy look.
Now that's why it look so thrown together.
But it was such a huge moment in her story,
that there was no way we couldn't include it.
Now we knew that the music cut was long,
and we had to figure out how to keep the audience's attention.
That's why we decided to show the transitions on camera.
If you notice during the transition from "Naughty Girl"
to "Deja Vu," I actually trip over the costume change,
'cause she did that mid concert during the I Am World Tour.
You know what?
Life would be so much easier if I was just a basic [BLEEP]..
I'm like, why did god have to make me so damn complicated?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When I was a kid, I used to have dreams
that I was going to do Beyon--
yeah, I was going to do Beyoncé's tribute, you know?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
When I came up with the concept video, I came up with the idea,
I want to say, what's today?
Today is Sunday.
And I feel like I came up with the idea last Monday.
It's important for creators and artists
to know that there isn't a certain amount of time
that you need to be able to pull something off, you know.
And if you have a dream and if you have an aspiration,
just go for it, you know, because you never
know what can happen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[TONE]
Oh, Beyoncé posted me!
[MUSIC PLAYING]