Jesse Collins, the Super Bowl Halftime Show producer, is a vet of entertainment’s biggest live productions from the Oscars and Grammys to the American Music Awards and BET Awards.

He steered this year’s history-making show that featured the first-ever hip hop headliners with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige (with surprise guests 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak).

The homage to Compton and Dre was part of the plans from “day one.”

 

Unique show?

This show had a real sense of history from day one. Each artist that touched that stage is a living legend and a part of hip hop royalty.

Show could only be 12 minutes?

I just stayed out of the way of three of the greatest minds in music. Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and music director Adam Blackstone.

South Los Angeles was represented well

From day one, we all wanted this performance to honor both Dr. Dre and the city of Compton. So we approached it on multiple levels. First, Es Devlin and Bruce Rodgers created a set that would allow us to incorporate locations like the MLK Memorial and Tam’s Burgers because they have real significance to Dre and the city of Compton. Then, Fatima Robinson created choreography that told the story through dance and made sure there were dances in the performance that reflected the culture. Finally, our wardrobe team, led by Lila Nikole, made sure that there were sections where the dancers’ wardrobes reflected the styles of the community.

Working with Es Devlin on set design

Amazing. Es always pushes the realms of what can be done and that allows the opportunity to truly create something epic.

biggest challenge leading up to Sunday?

Just making sure we captured everything. Our director, Hamish Hamilton, did amazing job of locking into every single second so that not a second of time was wasted and every moment was captured.