Clips, Stills & Interview from ‘Step Up 3′ on DVD & Blu-ray Dec. 21st

On December 21st, you can get your hands on the eye-popping dance movie ‘Step Up 3′, when it comes to DVD and Blu-ray. I had a chance to go to a screening of the movie, as well as interview some of the film’s stars when it came to theaters. Check out my interview with Adam Sevani and tWitch.

In celebration of the release of the movie on DVD and Blu-ray, I bring you clips, stills and some snippets of an interview with director Jon M. Chu.

Luke’s Film (Bonus)

Gotta Dance (Bonus)

Interview with Jon M Chu:

This is your second Step Up film. What attracted to you to this franchise?
I love the spirit of dancers. We all have a dancer in us somewhere whether we’re in touch with it or not. There is a rhythm inside each of us. When I watch dance movies, it makes me happy and reminds me of being a teenager. It’s about feeling that energy. What I really loved about the first Step Up is that they are real dancers and are communicating like dancers.

What were your favorite dance movies growing up?
Definitely Footloose and the old musicals, whether it was Singing in the Rain or West Side Story or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Even music videos inspired me, like when Michael Jackson danced in the “Thriller” video.

You cast dancers as opposed to actors playing dancers. What is it like teaching dancers to act?
I think dancing is acting. When you see a ballerina do Romeo and Juliet, they are acting. They may not be dialogue people yet, but their language is dance. We look for people who speak the best dance. It’s a different process than typical casting because during the Step Up 2 experience I got to meet a lot of these characters before I even had a movie. We took these characters and said what if they all lived under one roof and that roof was in New York City and they were the underdogs and a character like Moose that we knew and loved joined them? Those video interviews throughout the movie are all real interviews, people I knew before, people who I consider friends. I wanted to make sure they captured that idea on a very intimate simple scale.

How much rehearsing goes into each one of the dance scenes?
A lot. These guys are the best of the best, so it’s not like it took hours and hours for them to learn their moves, but they worked really hard to be innovative—less with the technical elements of what they were doing, but how they should modify it knowing we were filming in 3D. For example, when the robot guy comes out, how do you bring that out in 3D. We had the camera not even moving and not even cutting, but him just moving his finger near the camera so it’s right there. Same with a guy spinning on his head.

Sources: Touchstone Pictures