This Day in Pop: Britney Spears' 3 music video premieres in 2009 (October 30)

[PokemonSpears]

On October 30, 2009, Britney Spears released the music video for 3, the lead and only single off her compilation album The Singles Collection. The video was filmed in early October in Los Angeles and it was directed by Diane Martel, who had previously worked with a lot of artists including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, RBD, The Killers, and many more. Tone & Rich were in charge of the choreography and GK Reid worked closely with Britney to design the fashion of the video.

About the music video, Diane Martel said

Quote

"I think it's her next **** video. It's a very simple video for her – I don't think you've seen her this much under a magnifying glass. Everything's really strong and playful. We collaborated on the wardrobe and had meetings about hair and makeup people, we talked a lot on the phone and met Tone and Rich — two of the best choreographers. [..] [Spears]' so sweet and funny and so normal and down to earth. It's really fun as a director to see her in front of the camera. She's so creative with this stuff. The video is very simple, it's very, very minimal. So it's her, her, her. And she's totally engaging every second. She really knows how to work with a camera and move. I was really impressed, and I have worked almost with every female artist in the business"

The music video starts with Britney putting on mascara and spraying her Circus Fantasy in front of a mirror, and then we see her dancing and singing in front of a white background. The rest of the video is basically Britney in a bunch of different costume changes (mostly leotards), some scenes she's with the male dancers, and in others we see her with the female dancers or all by herself.

Also, in the video version of the song, the word "sin" is replaced by "this"

Elements of the video, like the metal bar and the barcode-like lights, would be later incorporated in the live performance of the song at her Las Vegas residency Piece of Me in 2013.

After a countdown and a little teaser, the video was officially released through her Twitter account, and later in November it was uploaded to her newly created VEVO channel on Youtube, where it has reached 91M views. In MTV Latin America, the music video landed at #73 in the yearly Top 100 of 2009, and it would appear at #44 in 2010.

 

In December 2009, the Director's Cut leaked online, showing scenes that were a bit more provocative and in general a bit more polished edition of the video. Apparently, the official video's edition had to be rushed to made it coincide with the release of The Singles Collection.

 

Related:

 

[PokemonSpears]

 

 

[Guest]

Unpopular opinion but I love this video! I think she looks gorgeous on it, I love the outfits too. Too bad they cut the part where she wears a white leotard and red lipstick from the official release. 

[Roxxy]

Whenever I spray Circus Fantasy, I always pretend i'm doing the music video. 

[corpsetranger]

I initially misread the title as This Day in Pop: Britney Spears' 3 music videos and I thought 3 of Brit's music videos were released on the same day 

[GMFlop]

Love the song and video but that autotune can be tiring. 

[Jamie Lynn Forever]

She sounds like a vocaloid on this song

Queen of sounding like Sophia The Robot and Hatsune Miku at the same time 

[Iconic 4 U]

I love this video, it was simple but fun and she looked beautiful

[GODNEYSPEARS99]

Director's Cut was way better than the official release imo. Loved the extra outfits showcased in the Diretor's Cut and the overall the editing was much better.

[MSTAR]

I wouldn’t say it had a better editing, there are some editing errors/mistakes, the Director’s Cut seemed to me more rushed than the official.

Example of an editing mistake: at 2:32 to 2:34

Also the director’s cut hidden a few imperfections of Britney, idk if it’s due to the quality or if they edited her, but I discovered that when I remastered 3 in 4K, so I usued the Official version and added the exclusive scenes of the Director’s Cut to mix the best parts of each version.

[Seel]

Non-iconic mv. 

[joe sp]

A BOP!

Her third No. 1 single

I love this reaction

Queen of numbers!

[DollyParton]

Never understood how this song got to number #1 lol. But hey, not complaining. 

[GODNEYSPEARS99]

Assney in the director's cut was  

[PokemonSpears]

1 hour ago, MSTAR said:

I wouldn’t say it had a better editing, there are some editing errors/mistakes, the Director’s Cut seemed to me more rushed than the official.

Example of an editing mistake: at 2:32 to 2:34

Also the director’s cut hidden a few imperfections of Britney, idk if it’s due to the quality or if they edited her, but I discovered that when I remastered 3 in 4K, so I usued the Official version and added the exclusive scenes of the Director’s Cut to mix the best parts of each version.

yeah, I should've used a better phrasing. Both videos seem to be lacking in some parts, what I tried to say is that the director's cut kinda shows more stuff, as what I would suppose was the intention, and the official video seems like they just took the first footage they found and worked with it, ignoring most of the other material, not for a particular reason, but more like because they didn't want to waste more time selecting between more scenes. 

[Soysaucechicken08]

I love how simplistic this video is. Not so cluttered shows off real talent and her charisma.

Albeit It reminds me a bit of single ladies but sexier Britney version.

[MSTAR]

2 hours ago, PokemonSpears said:

yeah, I should've used a better phrasing. Both videos seem to be lacking in some parts, what I tried to say is that the director's cut kinda shows more stuff, as what I would suppose was the intention, and the official video seems like they just took the first footage they found and worked with it, ignoring most of the other material, not for a particular reason, but more like because they didn't want to waste more time selecting between more scenes. 

Yeah I see what you’re meaning. Indeed it’s true. Maybe they didn’t wanted to include those scenes because they feel a little too "additional", I mean, too out of the context of the video or they add nothing to the video even if it’s interesting to discover the unused footages.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Needleney said:

Never understood how this song got to number #1 lol. But hey, not complaining. 

The same way Womanizer, HIAM and S&M got to number one: her star power was still enourmous and her team still kinda knew what they were doing. Also 3 just came right after her circus era that was huge. Britney was still everywhere. 

[PokemonSpears]

3 hours ago, GODNEYSPEARS99 said:

Assney in the director's cut was  

that's my favorite look of the video

 

[PokemonSpears]

6 hours ago, corpsetranger said:

I initially misread the title as This Day in Pop: Britney Spears' 3 music videos and I thought 3 of Brit's music videos were released on the same day 

we wish!