Just speaking from my own point of view, I have to say that if you’ve gotta go, there are much worse ways do die than getting snacked on by one of the Dandies in the Sixteen Candles video. Even better is if you get to live to tell the tale, which happens to be exactly what happened to Liz.

“My part in the video is when the Dandies come in and William drops the glove,” Liz tells me. “They had me stand next to the camera and said ‘run into the group of vampires once the glove is dropped’. I thought this was silly, because I wouldn’t run INTO a group of vampires! But, seeing how adorable these vampires were, I complied.

“At that moment I looked up and Brendon was grinning at me. Basically, I knew he was going to attack me, so I went running and he ran after me and pretended to bite me. I was extremely okay with this!” Liz laughs.

“They made us run and scream for hours. One girl fell over. The dance that Brendon does with the girls was made up a second before they filmed it. It was cute watching the girls, who were professional dancers, trying to teach him how to dance. He does a great impression of James Blunt. He kept singing ‘Beautiful’ all night, and a bit of ‘Bicycle’ by Queen.

“Originally, Pete wanted Ryan (Ross, of Panic at the Disco) to play Brendon’s part but since Ryan didn’t want to do it, he offered Brendon the part. Brendon was quite pissed about this and I heard some naughty words from his mouth. I think he was mostly just jealous since Ryan is Pete’s prodigy and all.

“Brendon just doesn’t stop! He talked and jumped around and talked and talked and talked. He ate a whole bucketful of Red Vines that we found in Dr Phil’s studio, which was right next door – we were sneaking in to use the bathroom.”

Did Liz spend any time with any of the other Dandies?

“I didn’t want to run and scream anymore, so I ended up sitting on the front steps of a fake house on the street. Mike Carden came up to me and asked me if I wanted a cigarette. I said no and he proceeded to light up next to me. He was just making conversation, and at this time I didn’t know The Academy Is very well. I asked Mike if he was an actor, or if he was ‘in some band’ – to this day I am super embarrassed about that!” laughs Liz. “But he was nice, and giggled about it. I saw him a couple of weeks later and he apologized to me,saying that he was wasted the whole time on-set.”

Much as I want to ask Liz twenty thousand questions about the Dandies, such an interview would probably only be interesting to me, so I’ll start from the beginning and ask this which are a little broader:How’d Liz end up in the video?

“I’ve been an Overcast Kid since they started,” Liz answers. “One day I got an email saying I could sign up to be an extra in the video and they would choose thirty people to be put onto the list. I emailed them back, never thinking I would get chosen, but the next day I got an email saying that I was put onto the list, and giving me the times to be at the studio in LA.

“I was eighteen and I hadn’t really been out of the state much on my own, so I begged my mom to come with me for the video shoot. I was so excited that I got sick on the plane, it was terrible. I had never been to California before – this was February, and there was snow in my home town but it was nice and warm in sunny California.

“The whole thing just blew my mind. We shot at Paramount Studios from nightfall to sunup. Running and screaming for 12 hours was tiring but fun. I was there all night and doing tourist things during the day.

“I live in North Dakota, where there’s no cities for about 500 miles, just farms and junk. I’m 22 now and have always been into music, but I’m not one of those lucky few who are really great at playing anything – I played violin for 12 years but wasn’t really that great at it. In 2003 I saw Fall Out Boy in concert; they were opening a band I loved calledMest . Fall Out Boy were so good in concert, and they were super nice after the show. I was still a teenager, and this was one of my first rock concerts, so they waited with me after the show until my dad picked me up. This started my love affair,” says Liz with a laugh.

“At the video shoot Pete walked by, and I went over and introduced myself. He went ‘don’t I know you?’ and claimed he recognized me. I told him that we’d met a couple of times. Pete said he couldn’t stop to talk because he had to go to makeup, so I asked if I could come along. He led me into the makeup holding my hand the whole time, what a weirdo.

“The funniest thing I have ever seen was when Pete had to use a trampoline to jump onto the hood of the car when he attacks Beckett. It was a little dude just flying through the air. I was sitting next to Patrick at the time and he was doubled over in laughter.

“Patrick really does sing all the time. I was sitting on a curb – the set was basically a real street – and he set down next to me and was being all jazzy with his voice. I melted. He was talking to the wardrobe guy about how he really wanted to keep the jacket from his costume and how pissed he was that he didn’t get to keep the one from ‘Dance, Dance’.

“By about 3am Patrick got a little weird. He kept walking around doing a Bill Cosby impression. I was holding a From Under The Cork Tree sleeve and he grabbed it from me and went ‘do you want me to sign this?’ and I said ’sure’, so he wrote ‘Remember Cosby’. I often worry about that boy…

“Dirty will do ANYTHING if Pete asks him. Pete was handcuffed – actually, it was these strange straps that went around his waist and held his arms down. He went ‘Hey, Dirty, let me kick you in the balls’. After about ten seconds of arguing, Dirty let him.

“There is a ton of stuff for the video that got cut out. In the long version, Joe becomes a vampire as well. He had the teeth in almost all night but his parts got cut. He was rather pissed about this, and I heard some swearing from him as well as from Brendon. They also took on a giant man – seriously, this dude was taller than Beckett, even – which included Joe hitting him over the head with a trash can.

“Since that first time I saw Fall Out Boy in concert I’ve seen them in Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. Since those first couple of concerts I knew I wanted to do something with music – but not be the one in the spotlight,” says Liz. “I have always been really into art as well, so I figured concert photography would be a great way to combine both interests.

“All of my best band experiences have been with Fall Out Boy. So many times I would hang out after the show and they would come out and talk. Even now, Pete always takes time for the fans, and I really admire that. A couple of months ago they did a secret show in Pete’s Chicago bar. Through Overcast Kids, I got guest-listed, so at the last minute I drove 800 miles to see them live. Later that night Pete and Ashlee were at the bar hanging out and we got to have a whole long conversation. He’s just such a real guy – Fall Out Boy are great guys and they really deserve the good things coming their way. I have met some of my best friends at Fall Out Boy concerts and have had the best times of my life,” Liz says. “I can truly say that their music has changed my life, and I am very thankful for that.”

See Liz’s photography at http://missxanthrope-16.buzznet.com/user/photos

Here are some of Liz’s on-set photos from her Sixteen Candles adventure: