B'Day Anthology Video Album

B'Day Anthology Video Album is a video album, released by the American R&B singer-songwriter Beyoncé, it was released alongside B'Day: Deluxe Edition on April 3, 2007.

The B'Day Anthology Video Album was a Wal-Mart exclusive product in the United States but is now sold in other stores. This DVD contains the music videos already shot to promote the singles released from the album ("Déjà Vu", "Ring the Alarm", "Irreplaceable", and "Listen"). In addition to those videos, Beyoncé also went on to record music videos to many of the rest of the tracks. Although claiming to record a video for every song on the entire "B'Day" album, there was no music video for "Resentment" on the DVD.

Minor clips of all these videos were shown on MTV's TRL on the day Beyoncé went there to premiere "Beautiful Liar". These small clips were also shown on BET's 106 & Park while the singer was there to premiere "Upgrade U". The compilation DVD was also promoted by a BET and a MTV Hits special which premiered the videos with Beyoncé's commentary about the filming process and/or the lyrics. The album has been certified two-time platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[1]

In late March, the music videos which were previously unseen by the public leaked on the internet. On April 2, the full-length videos for "Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix)", "Kitty Kat/Green Light", and "Suga Mama" premiered on BET to promote the B'Day Anthology Video Album which was released on the following day. The videos have garnished thousands of views on YouTube and other video sharing sites even though this clearly violates the terms of use of those sites.

A copyright infringement is that this video album contains the track "Still in Love (Kissing You)", a cover of the song "Kissing You", originally performed by Des'ree. Des'ree filed a lawsuit against Beyoncé on April 18, 2007, alleging Knowles never obtained proper clearance to use the song. Des'ree claims the terms her team submitted to Knowles for use of the song were not satisfactory, despite that Knowles ignored copyright submitted the track to her label for her album. Des'ree is seeking $150,000 in damages. ^[2]

Track listing

#	Title	Director	Length
1.	"Beautiful Liar" (duet with Shakira)	Jake Nava & Beyoncé	3:34
2.	"Irreplaceable"	Anthony Mandler	4:17
3.	"Kitty Kat"	Melina Matsoukas & Beyoncé	1:03
4.	"Green Light"	Melina Matsoukas	3:31
5.	"Upgrade U" (featuring Jay-Z)	Melina Matsoukas & Beyoncé	4:38
6.	"Flaws and All"	Cliff Watts^[3]	4:14
7.	"Get Me Bodied" (Extended Mix)	Anthony Mandler & Beyoncé	6:42
8.	"Freakum Dress"	Ray Kay & Beyoncé	3:21
9.	"Suga Mama"	Melina Matsoukas & Beyoncé	3:37
10.	"Déjà Vu" (featuring Jay-Z)	Sophie Muller	4:06
11.	"Ring the Alarm"	Sophie Muller	3:33
12.	"Listen" (director's cut)	Diane Martel	3:49
13.	"Still In Love (Kissing You)" (later removed)	Cliff Watts & Beyoncé	4:41
14.	Credits	N/A	0:51
15.	Anthology Behind the Scenes	Ed Burke	17:39

Note: The length of each of these music videos includes the 5 second bumble bee intro except for "Green Light" which is continuous with "Kitty Kat" so "Green Light" has no intro.

Shooting 9 new videos

	First it was just "Green Light" and "Upgrade U". Let's sneak in "Kitty Kat". We might as well put in "Suga Mama". We gotta do "Get Me Bodied", that's the dance record. Gotta do something for "Beautiful Liar", that's the song with Shakira, of course we know we gotta do a video for that... If I had another week I probably would have shot three more videos.
—Beyoncé Knowles, Anthology Behind The Scenes

Kitty Kat: "Kitty Kat" was shot in half a day. The theme of "Kitty Kat" is Knowles walking an over-sized cat. Knowles wanted the video to be very sexy and sassy. She imitated cat movements and crawled for most of the video while wearing cheetah print clothes, shoes and earrings. The video was shot on green screen to give the appearance of Knowles riding the cat. They used a plastic cow with black fur on for the model cat.

Upgrade U: In between "Kitty Kat" and "Green Light", "Upgrade U" was shot in a day and a half. The theme of "Upgrade U" is of silver and gold metallics. There are several shots of diamonds, rings, and car keys. Things that are "fabulous" and "upgrade your life." Jay-Z shot his part first. Beyoncé then studied his scene for her impersonation. The choregraphy has a street edge using only male dancers.

Green Light: "Green Light" was an intense three-day shoot. The video was inspired by Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video with the sexy, chic women with blank expressions in a simple almost black and white theme. The "patent-leather, ballet-Pointe heels" she wears in the clip, blistered her feet and gave her legs muscle spasms.

Get Me Bodied: "Get Me Bodied" was a two-day shoot. The video had 50 extras. Tina Knowles made 60 dresses for all of them. It was mainly inspired by "The Rich man's Frug". The video also featured cameos by former Destiny's Child member's Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Alongside them was Beyoncé's younger sister Solange Knowles-Smith. The heels worn by Beyoncé, Kelly, Michelle, and Solange wore 6-inch platforms that made dancing in gravel difficult for the scene when the girls are about to enter the club. Because of scheduling conflicts the extended dances at the end of the video could only be shot once each so all dancers had to get the steps right the first time.

Suga Mama: Beyoncé opens up the video acting like a masculine women while smoking a cigar. She then removes her hat and coat and begins pole dancing. Knowles is also seen dancing on a "sugar cube". Beyoncé had never ridden a mechanical bull before until they started shooting. The man who came with the bull was playing a game. Every time they called 'Action!' he made it go faster and because Beyoncé tried to do tricks too complicated for a novice she kept falling off. So they shot those scenes at 12 frames a second, with her singing twice as fast, so that she wouldn't have to be on the bull for as long.

Freakum Dress: 30 dresses were made for this 18-hour shoot in New York by Tina Knowles (eight dresses for Beyoncé). Sometimes Tina would have to make dresses on the spot. The dresses Beyoncé and her dancers wear constantly change in the video to the beat of the song. Beyoncé borrowed the glasses she wears at the podium from her makeup artist, Francesca. The director for the video was Ray Kay who also shot "Soldier" for Destiny's Child. The video for "Freakum Dress" premiered on BET's 106 & Park before the release of the video anthology. It features Ebony Haith from America's Next Top Model, Cycle 1.

Beautiful Liar: Beyoncé and Shakira made up choreography in 40 minutes for this two-day shoot, so Shakira taught her a bit of belly-dancing. In the video Beyoncé & Shakira are seen as opposites (Beyoncé having sunrise in the first verse while Shakira has sunset). In the breakdown at the end of the video the women do an Arabic style belly dance like mirror reflections of each other.

Flaws and All: Beyoncé did her own hair and makeup for this clip shot in inexpensive Super 8 film, in which she emulates Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Barbra Streisand. The video features a black and white theme and a grainy film texture. Knowles does not actually mime the lyrics but acts out parts of the song and poses. The camera shots are all still placing Beyoncé in the middle of each shot taking focus away from the background. Several of the scenes used in the video had been shot in 2006 for a B'Day promotional ad by Wal-Mart.

Still in Love (Kissing You): Beyoncé recorded the song last minute and was not intended for the album. Director Cliff Watts (who shot Beyoncé's Sports Illustrated cover) went on a trip to Miami and, after shopping for a black bathing suits, they shot it on Super 8, with Beyoncé doing her own hair and makeup. This video was removed from later additions of the DVD because of the lawsuit involved with the songs use by Beyoncé.

References

[1] Platinum Certificate

[2] Beyonce Sued For Copyright Infringement

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