Freshman accepts MTV Moonman award

Monday, September 14, 2009

When Shane Reynolds, Chatham, Ill., freshman, returns from a weekend trip to New York City, he will have a special something to display in his dorm room. Last night, he and nine high school friends accepted a Moonman, an MTV Video Music Award for “Best Performance in a Pepsi Rock Band Video.”

The five-minute music video Reynolds acted in was the award-winning entry of a contest sponsored by Pepsi and the makers of the video game Rock Band. As winners of the Moonman award, the group was invited to attend the 26th annual MTV Video Music Awards show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Other award winners included Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Eminem and others.

The award-wining video features Reynold’s group, Nerds in Disguise, performing Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy.” It also features an unusual type of party, where people from two different walks of life come together to share a good time.

Reynolds said he and his friends knew from the beginning they wanted to depict a college party in their video. Making the party look realistic, however, became a challenge within the contest rules, which stated that all video submissions had to incorporate both Pepsi and Rock Band products, could only feature music from a pre-approved list of songs and could have no more than 10 people shown.

“The problem is you can’t have a party with only 10 people, “ Reynolds said, “so we decided to double each of us up to make it look like there were actually 20 people.”

In the video, each person plays two characters: a nerd and a rock star. Reynolds said the main message was there could be unity between two cliques of different people, such as rock stars and nerds. The party-goers can be seen downing plenty of Pepsi in keg-party fashion.

In some of Reynolds’ more memorable scenes from the video, he pours soda over his head and rides a child’s bicycle into a pool.

In an interview with The Kansan before the winners were chosen, Reynolds said he hoped to bring a Moonman award back to Lawrence and keep it in his dorm room.

“I’ll polish it up and put it in a trophy case, that’s for sure,” Reynolds said.

— — Edited by Brenna M.T. Daldorph

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